Exploring the Academic Writing Problems Faced by Pakistani PhD Students

Abstract

Academic writing is an advanced and specialized form of communication used in academia to communicate the outcomes of scientific research. Academic writing is, hence, governed by the rules, conventions, and values of the scientific community. It is even more significant in today's knowledge based economies. Knowledge-based economies rely on continuous research and development for progress rather than the natural resources. The human capital forms the backbone of a knowledge-based economy. Hence, in such an economy, researchers and scholars enjoy great importance and academic writing skills become crucial along with research skills due to the need to share the outcomes of scientific research with the target readers. Academic writing is now viewed as a part of the research process. As per the National Education Policy (2009) of Pakistan, the nation aspires to become a knowledge-based economy. Therefore, the policy directs the universities to train scholars in disciplinary research skills as well as communication skills. However, many Pakistani studies have reported that the faculty and the students in Pakistani higher education possess inadequate command on English and writing skills. Hence, this study explored the difficulties encountered by Pakistani PhD students in academic writing and it also sought to bring to light the strategies used by the students to overcome these problems. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 15 students working on their PhD thesis/synopsis. Students' writing samples were also analyzed. As per the findings, the students possessed insufficient command on academic English and research writing skills. The study explains the students' writing problems in detail and recommends that academic writing courses be taught as a mandatory part of the Master's and PhD curriculum to address this problem.