Vol.8(8), pp.

102-114, October 2017

DOI: 10.5897/IJEL2015.0777
Article Number: 0A6CC6E66500
ISSN 2141-2626 International Journal of English and Literature
Copyright © 2017
Author(s) retain the copyright of this article
http://www.academicjournals.org/IJEL

Full Length Research Paper

Assessment of the qualities of academic writing in

senior essays of English graduates: The case of Dire
Dawa University
Yelay Birhan
Department of English Language and Literature, Wollo University, Dessie, Ethiopia.
Received 30 March, 2015; Accepted 1 June 2015

The main objective of this study was to assess the qualities of academic writing in senior essays of
English graduates, the case of Dire Dawa University. In this study, qualitative method was employed to
conduct the research. The participants of the study were all English Language instructors (advisors)
who were involved in advising English graduates. The reason for taking merely advisors is that the
researcher thought that they are most probably familiar to the students’ writing problems than other
instructors who were not involved in advising. Three data collecting instruments were used to carry out
this study. Namely, document analysis, focus group discussion and semi-structured interview, and the
results were interpreted and analyzed comparatively in order to answer the basic research questions.
To do these, 50% (twenty one) senior essay documents out of forty two were interpreted and analyzed.
Focus group discussion was performed with eight English advisors as well as to triangulate or to
validate, semi-structured interview was employed with eleven instructors together with the participant
instructors in the focus group discussion; and results were comparatively discussed and analyzed. As
the results showed that almost all of the students’ senior essays have problems when they have been
seen in terms of academic writing. Based on the findings, it was suggested that students should learn
the basic courses such as advanced and academic writings. Besides, they should take research
courses at the university. It was also recommended that instructors should help them for giving
feedback and valuable comments.

Key words: Academic writing, qualities, assessment and senior essay.

INTRODUCTION

The ability to write academic papers is widely regarded clearly write senior essays. However, as Hirayanagi
as one hallmark of higher education graduates. It is (1998) and Takagi (2001) note, English as second
essential that university students should be able to write language students often find it difficult to produce
clearly on topics related to their research fields, and academic papers of good quality that can satisfy

E-mail: ngangwo@yahoo.fr.

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License 4.0 International License
 Birhan 103

universities‟ demand. Language difficulties are not the academic writing skills in senior essays of English
only part of the problems; often students are also graduates at Dire Dawa University.
unfamiliar with the convention of English academic
papers.
Therefore, English as second language (ESL) writing Specific objectives
programs should seek to elucidate/explain the
macroscopic features of academic writing as well as the The specific objectives of this study are listed as follows:
paragraph level and sentence level aspects of expressing
ideas in a foreign language to handle such type of 1. To examine students‟ academic writing performance in
problems, especially at higher education levels. terms of maintaining the main features of academic
There are increasing numbers of international students‟ writing in their senior essays.
studying at universities, where they are required to do 2. To identify which factors impede students‟ academic
academic writing in English (Dudley, 1999; Dong, 1998). writing performance.
However, academic writing is not easy for most students, 3. To identify and analyze the key problem areas of
especially for non-native speakers. It is more difficult for students‟ academic writing.
students who have different cultural, educational, and
linguistic backgrounds (Casanave and Hubbard, 1992).
Thus, although students have to struggle with resolving Research questions
the difficulties both on an academic level and on conflicts
due to cultural, educational and linguistic differences to To achieve the aforementioned objectives, this study tried
meet academic writing requirements (Thesen, 1997), to answer the following questions:
they cannot do it successfully. Due to these, failure of
using quality academic writing in their senior essays 1. How successful are the graduating candidates on
occur and this may lead students to emotional stress, maintaining the main features of academic writing?
tension and slow academic development. 2. What are the impeding factors in writing final senior
Furthermore, academic writing expects short, simple essays?
sentences, and conveying reasons. Fox (1994) confirms 3. What are the key problem areas of students‟ writings in
this statement with her own conversations of what most their academic papers?
academic writers expect academic writing to look like: In
its simplest form, an academic writing is just a clear,
distinct thesis followed by the conveying reasons that LITERATURE REVIEW
support it, with either explicit or implicit attention paid to
possible objections. Definitions of academic writing
In addition to these, in its natural structure, the
argument should sound assertive and confident, that it One needs to understand that writing in universities in
should be short, logical, and to the point, without general and senior essay writing in particular require a
irrelevant digressions, and that its tone should be polite part of writing, called “academic writing”.
and responsible rather than strident and badgering. Although, academic writing might be defined in many
However, it is mostly difficult for ESL students to ways, but there are some concepts that we need to
conduct academic writing which require critical thinking understand about academic writing before we write our
and analytical skills because the students‟ previous first academic papers.
educations almost never require such thinking. Academic writing is writing done by scholars for other
Thus, although academic writing requires critical and scholars. It is an essential part of thinking and learning in
analytical thinking especially at university level, in the school contexts, particularly in the light of 21st century
Ethiopian context, a considerable number of students did demands (Johannessen, 2001), and writing tasks are
not apply this quality in the expected manner; and this is “critical tools for intellectual and social development”
the gap the researcher has studied. (Bruning and Horn, 2000, p.30). Therefore, now that
Accordingly, the researcher selected the problem students are in university they are the part of a
“assessment of the qualities of academic writing in senior community of scholars. Thus, as university students, they
essays of English graduates” to identify the influencing will be engaged in activities that scholars have been
factors, to indicate the qualities of academic writing as engaged in: they will read about, think about, argue
well as to show how to use these academic writing about, and write about great ideas because being
qualities in their academic senior essays papers. scholars requires that we read, think, argue, and write in
a certain way or in a certain manner.
Furthermore, academic writing is a way for students in
Objectives of the study general objective all content areas to make meaning for themselves
(Bereiter and Scardamaria, 1987) as well as to learn how
The main focus of this study is to assess the qualities of to think and communicate in their particular domains. For
104 Int. J. English Lit.

example, writing is an important means through which Therefore, the researcher understands, that writing is
students begin to think more like teachers, trainers and a production of prose that will be acceptable in
scientists. academic context by academicians, and learning to
As academic writing should present the reader with an write is a part of becoming socialized to the context of
informed argument, there are many things that must be academic community- finding out what is expected
expected from the students while they are writing their and trying to approximate it (Silva, 1990b). The writers,
academic senior essays to make it argumentative. They thus, should be aware and well oriented primarily
are also to think more like teachers, trainers, and towards fulfilling the standards and the requirements to
scientists because if their paper fails to inform, or if it fails succeed in academics; especially for graduating class
to argue, then it will fail to meet the expectations of an students.
academic reader. As can be understood from the discussion earlier
As a whole, “academic writing aims at being „objective‟ mentioned, academic writing allows students to become
in its expression of ideas, and thus tries to avoid competent writers in their specific fields. However, the
specific reference to personal opinions. Thus, your reality is that such types of activities may not be
academic writing should imitate this style by eliminating practicing thoroughly for some university students,
first person pronouns … as far as possible (Arnaudet and especially for students of universities while they are
Barrett, 1984; Hyland, 2002). writing their academic senior essays. Thus, as the case
Therefore, it implies that using specific personal is true for many students in the university, students of
pronouns and first person pronouns in academic writing Dire Dawa University English graduating class m ight be
is not advisable. faced with the problems of writing while they are
writing.

The general purposes of academic writing

Features of academic writing
The basic qualities/features of academic writing have
many purposes to write academic papers. It is essential Academic writing in English is linear, accurate, clear and
to make knowledge conscious, to help remember facts, understandable, which means it has one central point or
to analyze concepts, and to construct new knowledge; theme with every part contributing to the main line of
especially, students used writing to translate concepts argument, without vagueness or repetitions. It must be
into their own language, more from gathering facts to distinguished from other formal styles of writing such as
the analysis of them, and adjust themselves to the task official and business letters (Jordan, 1986).
demands of specific courses and fields” (Alister and However, many students are still confused about how
Cumming, 2006). to write good academic papers of various kinds in
Academic writing may also be assigned for a variety English. As a result, the researcher wants to inform the
of educational goals: assessing knowledge, promoting features of good academic writing for students who are
critical thinking, stimulating creativity, encouraging academic writers. Academic writing is to some extent:
discourse as part of a professional community, and complex, formal, cohesive, coherent, objective, explicit,
supporting cognitions (Bandura, 1993; Johannessen, 2001). hedged, and responsible. It also uses language precisely
However, a successful university paper will and accurately.
demonstrate that its writers can use the knowledge and Complexity is one of the features of academic writing.
methods of the discipline in which it has been assigned to Written language is relatively more complex than spoken
reveal something that is true. Furthermore, scholars in all language. Written language has longer words, it is
papers use credible evidence to support the truth they lexically denser and it has a more varied vocabulary. It
found. Accordingly, academics suggest that we present uses more noun-based phrases than verb-based
our references, assertions, and arguments in neutral, phrases. Written texts are shorter and the language has
serious and non- motional language. more grammatical complexity, including more
Furthermore, academic writing involves a primary focus subordinate clauses.
on academic discourse genres and the nature of According to different linguists, one of the most
academic writing tasks, to help socialize into the interesting and important aspects of language acquisition
academic context. Thus, according to Horowitz (1996), is the students‟ development of an ability to produce and
academic writing “insures that students‟ writing falls understand complex sentences of various kinds. Lees
within the perceptions and acceptability of writing (1960) puts his assumptions towards the most important
behaviors dictated by the academic community.” issue, one distinguishing human language from many
Similarly, Silva (1990a) argues t h a t academic other symbolic systems.
writing aims to create the conditions under which According to this author, the complex sentence
actual university tasks are done, and involves the close consists of an independent clause and at least one
examinations and the analysis of academic discourse dependent clause. Dependent clauses are linked to
formats and writing task specifications. independent clauses with subordinating conjunctions;
 Birhan 105

and subordinating conjunctions which indicate the However, it does not mean that in academic writing, we
nature of the relationship between the independent and are not expected to express our arguments and opinions;
dependent clauses. Thus, as senior essay is one of the but it means that our arguments and opinions should
major parts of academic writing, it is complex enough. incorporate the objective and impersonal style.
However; some students are missing the concept of Explicitness, in academic writing really needs to focus
complexity in their senior essay writings. on a clear introduction, body and conclusion in our
In academic writing context, formality is a must to raise academic paper. The progression of ideas and
the standards and qualities of academic writing because paragraphing must be clear. We also have to present a
it is the other element among the qualities. Jordan reasonable number of substitute points of view, and
(1999) states that “academic writing” must be written in a to achieve a sense of argumentation.
proper formal style. Hamp-Lyons and Poole (2006) also Anderson and Poole (2001) recommend that when we
define “academic writing” in terms of formality. They write our academic paper, we should have an
said that academic writing is a formal piece of paper introduction, body and conclusion. They believe that the
for which credit has to be given to the writer and that introduction has to start with an obvious statement of the
the work will contain specific grammatical patterns, problem, and wage the readers with all essential data
organization and an argument. This means that in that is to follow.
academic writing, the writers should avoid colloquial Anderson and Poole (2001) also argue that the body
words and personal expressions. “should be an attempt at a progressive solution to the
Academic writing needs good flow of ideas, or it is problem said in the introduction”. They believe that the
necessary to have good use of linking words to join the conclusion should present the results of the
ideas within and between sentences and paragraphs, investigation and wage a solution to the problem that has
and an excellent usage of „signposting words‟ to show the been set. Furthermore, the conclusion can be used to
development of our argument. recommend further areas of investigation.
Accordingly, Carter (1999) states that “a text is As such, Anderson and Poole (2001) generally
perceived as coherent when it makes consistent sense, emphasize the significance of clear organization in the
with or without the help of devices of cohesion”. He academic text; the researcher also feels that academic
defines cohesion as “the demonstrable pattern of the writing is created to have an argument that must be clear
text„s integrity, the marks of its „hanging together”. and be developed throughout the conclusions.
According to Carter (1999), coherence implies that the Academic writing uses vocabulary accurately. In
text must make sense and cohesion means that it accuracy, we have to have high standards of grammar,
must be appropriately structured and interlinked by word choice, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation. Brown
suitable signposts and linking words. From the afore- and Hood (1998) believe that spelling and punctuation
mentioned explanations it can be understood that are writing sub-skills. They wage many examples,
cohesion implies the interconnection of words, exercises and strategies to refrain f r o m having
phrases, clauses and sentences as well as paragraphs mistakes that generally cause confusion.
through markers of additions whereas coherence In addition, Jordan (1986) also provides many
implies the presence of consistent sense and flow of examples and exercises that reveal the importance of
ideas among paragraphs. grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation in
Moreover, in composition writing in colleges and academic writing. The misuse of tenses changes the
universities, students are always expected to present meaning and spelling mistakes causes confusion. They
their views objectively, approach a topic from a balanced also distinguish the differences between some verbs
perspective, and support their views with appropriate t h a t leads to confusion; for example, „lend‟ and
information to make this view credible. „borrow‟, „rise‟, „arise‟, „raise‟ and „increase‟, „make‟ and
Students are usually instructed that the reader needs „do‟ and „say‟ and „tell‟ as a part of taking care of word
to be convinced of the validity of the writer‟s positions and choice and the use of words.
that of the onus of persuading the reader is on the Therefore, as can be seen from the aforementioned
writer (Leki, 1995). Furthermore, Arnaudet and Barrelt explanations, to write an academic paper accurately,
(1984) specifically address the issue of author‟s using appropriate punctuations, tenses, spellings,
objectivity in s e c o n d l a n g u a g e ( L2) academic vocabulary, as well as especial words is essential.
writing. In their text, they also present and discuss Hedging is the expression of tentativeness and
syntactic structure that serve to promote the authors‟ possibility in language use, and it is crucial to
objective and balanced position in argumentation, that is, scientific writing where statements are rarely made
the use of passive construction, citation of relevant without subjective assessments of truth.
sources, hedging devices, and concessive clauses. In this regard, Hyland (1994) claimed that ''hedges
Swales and Feak (1994), who also assert that allow academics to take a rhetorical stance, to
writers need to maintain objectivity in their writing, downplay their statements and anticipate audience
focus on appropriate use of pronouns, impersonal responses by the degree of certainty'' (Hyland, 1994:
passives, and hedged claims. 478). Hedging has been a subject of interest to
106 Int. J. English Lit.

linguists, and has been used to refer to devices which document analysis, it is necessary to use qualitative design only.
qualify the writer's expression (Skelton, 1988). For instance, Denzin and Lincoln (2000) stated that the qualitative
data which are collected through document analysis, focus group
Essentially, it represents an absence of certainty and discussion, and interviews enable refining and explain the given
is used here to describe any linguistic item or strategy data clearly.
employed to indicate either a lack of commitment to the In other words, the reason the researcher used merely qualitative
truth value of an accompanying proposition or a desire design is that the study is necessarily focused on document
not to express that commitment categorically. analysis and focus group discussion; as well as semi-structured
The term does not therefore include other attitudinal interview as a supportive course; and these allow merely qualitative
design. Besides, as the nature of the research is principally
markers or devices which convey the writer's conviction; qualitative, figures or numbers are not necessary, so both
items are only hedges in their philosophical knowledge or quantitative and mixed methods were not used for this study.
epistemic sense and only then when they mark
uncertainty. Some writers have suggested that hedges
are a means of signaling distance between a speaker Participants of the study
and what is said or to convey purposive vagueness in
writing (Myers, 1989; Channell, 1994). To perform this study, the researcher purposively used eleven
English instructors who were involved in advising English language
Despite this interest however, there has been little graduating class students for both focus group discussions and
work into how hedges work in academic genres based interviews in order to get tangible evidence for the study. The
on analyses of adequate sense and we know virtually reason for taking all of the advisors only is that the researcher
nothing about the expression and function of hedges in thought they are most probably familiar to the problems identified
scientific writing. than other English instructors who were not involved in advising
In academic writing, writers must be responsible for students. Therefore, the views, beliefs and experiences of
instructors obtained from both focus group discussions and
and must be able to provide evidence and justification for, interviews about students‟ academic writing problems towards
and any claims they make. They are also responsible senior essay writings were identified, interpreted and analyzed from
for demonstrating an understanding of any source texts field notes.
they use. However, most students engage in very
little discussion of what they have read, how to write, or
how to interpret, analyze, or otherwise respond to Sampling size and technique
texts, that is, they simply emphasis on recall of factual
Dire Dawa University was selected to be the setting of the study.
information than analytic reading or independent The reasons are:
writing while they are writing their senior essays
(Wade and Moje, 2000; Connors, 1997; Cuban, 1989). 1 . The researcher has information about the presence of the
Therefore, as can be understood from the available documents there.
aforementioned explanations, it is a must to provide 2.. As the setting is closer to the residence of the researcher and
evidence and justifications during writing. It is advisable researcher‟s advisors, the researcher has the opportunity to get
valuable comments from them easily and to ask necessary
for university students to be responsible during writing information about a given problem.
academically; and it is essential to put their arguments
and counter-arguments with their claims as well as with There were a total of 42 graduating class students whose senior
their supportive evidence in their original papers. essay papers were used as the subjects of the study. Among these,
To make it productive, instructors should help the researcher selected 21 that is, 50% of them through
systematic random sampling technique as a sample representative
students memorize the content to be tested, at the of the study for document analysis. Besides, all of the eleven
expense of time they might otherwise spend giving instructors (advisors) who were involved in advising were called for
students opportunities to read and write like scientists, focus group discussion using comprehensive sampling technique,
historians, mathematicians, and other kinds of but only eight of them participated and shared their experiences.
scholars (Hillocks, 2003). In order to triangulate the results gathered through document
analysis and focus group discussion, the researcher used all of the
eleven advisors who participated in the focus group discussion for
METHODOLOGY semi-structured interview using comprehensive sampling
technique, too. As a result, all of them participated in semi
One of the main steps in conducting a research is to collect data structured interview.
that enable the researcher to reach suggested solutions for the
problems identified. This chapter presents the research design,
participants of the study; sample size and sampling techniques, Data gathering instruments
data gathering instruments and methods of data analysis.
As researching and examining a tangible evidence requires
intensive involvement of the researcher and researched (Valerie
Research design and Magdalena, 2008), this study employed document analysis and
focus group discussion as a major data gathering tools and
The selected research problem allows the researcher solely to use instructors‟ interviews as supporting tools to get a direct insight into
the qualitative data collecting method because as different scholars real practices concerning the assessment of the qualities of
stated, if the nature of the research is basically about academic writing in senior essays of English graduates. Thus,
 Birhan 107

according to their relevance to this study, the three major principal detailed problems gained from senior essay documents were
tools such as document analysis, focus group discussion and identified and analyzed separately for the study. Next, the views of
interviews were used as follows. respondents gained through focus group discussion were collected
and interpreted; then, the results gained from instructors interviews
were collected, assessed and interpreted with evidence. Finally, the
Document analysis results gained from all data sources were triangulated
comparatively.
The first major data collecting method used in this study is
document analysis. As Stemler and Bebell (1998) stated, document
analysis is a technique which can generate both valid and reliable Methods of data analysis
data from documents; and according to them, it is a technique for
understanding and analyzing the mission statements of people‟s To analyze the collected data, a thematic crossover analysis was
selected documents. used since it is essential to present the data from the interviews,
As a result, it is important to examine the English language focus group discussion and document analysis. Onwuegbuzie et al.
graduating class students‟ senior essays to assess the qualities of (2010) crossover analysis enables researchers go back and forth
academic writing in which students used in their senior essays as many times and present an analysis of data gathered through
well as to assess the challenges which affected students while different tools thematically. Therefore, the researcher used the
they were writing their academic papers. Thus, the researcher following procedures to analyze the collected data. First; the results
analyzed twenty one selected senior essay documents which obtained from sample senior essay documents were interpreted
were done by Dire Dawa University English graduates to conduct and analyzed in terms of the qualities of academic writing and
this study. based on the criteria given in Appendix A t o D with evidence;
The researcher used systematic random sampling technique to second, the results gained from focus group discussions were
select and to analyze students‟ senior essay documents because interpreted and analyzed from field notes with supportive
different scholars stated that it is easy and helpful to do activities in evidence. Then, the results obtained from English instructors‟
ratio. Accordingly, students‟ writing problems in their senior essays interviews were discussed and analyzed. Finally, results obtained
were identified, discussed, interpreted and analyzed from the field through the aforementioned data sources were triangulated
notes and data collection instruments based on the qualities of comparatively to validate the study. Here, odd ideas which were
academic writing through the given criteria (see the criteria and gained from some instructors have been written separately with
instruments from appendix –A). evidence.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Focus group discussion
This section presents data collected through document
Focus group discussion is a qualitative data collection method in
which a researcher and some participants meet as a group to analysis, focus group discussion, and semi-structured
discuss on a given research problem. According to Bloor et al. interviews on the major findings comparatively. Data
(2002) focus group discussion is an effective data collection tool for gathered through these instruments are characterized in
assessing a broad range of views on a specific topic. The some categories.
effectiveness of this tool emerges from group interaction among The analysis of the main problems of students‟ senior
participants. Thus, from this point of view, a focus group discussion
was carried out for one hour and half between the researcher
essays in terms of the qualities of academic writing
and instructors who were involved in advising English graduates obtained from students‟ texts and the ideas participant
senior essays to conduct the study efficiently. Then, all of the instructors in both focus group discussion and semi-
necessary issues and experiences which were raised in that structured interview were developed. Here, as most of
discussion about the given research problem were interpreted from results found from three of the instruments indicated
the written field notes using the instrument indicated in the appendix- that almost of all papers did not fulfill the qualities of
B.
academic writing.
Although the styles of the analysis were different, in all
the three major instruments, the main features of
Semi-structured interview
academic writing, whatever language errors, the factors
Formally, interview was not planned as a major data collecting tool
affecting students‟ academic writing performance, the
for this study because the researcher thought that the necessary major weaknesses of students‟ writings and the major
information can get through document analysis and focus group sources of the problems were analyzed with tangible
discussion. However, as a supportive tool, the researcher needs to evidence. Generally, the results showed that some
validate instructors‟ responses through interview. Therefore, all emphasis is given for the qualities of senior essays in
instructors who participated in focus group discussions were also undergraduate level by both students and advisors.
interviewed for the study using the data collection instrument
indicated in the appendix-C.
For both focus group discussion as well as semi-
structured interview, all the advisors who were involved in
the previous work were called to participate in the
Data collection procedures
discussion, but by their own reasons, only eight of them
attended in the focus group discussion. However, all the
The data of this research study were collected based on the eleven advisors had participated in the semi structured
following phases. Firstly, the titles and contents of students‟ senior interview. The results the researcher found among
essays were collected; and the problems were identified. Then, the document analysis, focus group discussions and semi
108 Int. J. English Lit.

structure interviews are almost similar. As a result, the features of academic writing in their senior essays. Here,
researcher analyzed the results found comparatively. instructor A strongly indicated that it is very difficult to
order them to write scholarly academic papers. He said:

The evaluation of senior essays in terms of features It is very difficult to expect a scholarly academic writing
used in academic writing from these students who were beginners; but this is
simply to help them know the structures and the
In academic writing, writers have to be very good in contents of 8 senior essay writings (Instructors‟
capturing the attention of the readers so that their texts responses on interview, October, 2014).
should be academic to the scholars and should reach the
final target. To do so, maintaining the main features of As can be seen comparatively, in both focus group
academic writing is very important. discussion and semi-structured interview, instructors
However, as the researcher observed most of the gave almost similar responses on their students‟ whether
students‟ senior essays were not written based on the they maintained the main features of academic writing or
main features of academic writing. Besides, as all of not. According to their responses thus, their students did
the participants in the focus group discussion indicated, not maintain the main features of academic writing in
their students did not use or maintain the main features their senior essays. Additionally, their instructors did not
of academic writing in their senior essays appropriately. also enforce them to write scholarly academic papers
They said that the only features they tried to include in since they consider that they were beginners.
their writings are cohesion, coherence, and objectivity To check the degree of instructors‟ involvement in
even if they were not that much satisfactory. the students‟ works, the researcher asked them about
Similarly, in the semi structured interview also their criteria of evaluation. Among the instructors who
majority (six out of eleven) of the instructors remarked participated in the discussion, five of them such as A, B,
that students were not maintaining the qualities of D, F and G have similar ideas with regard to their criteria
academic writing in their academic papers. For of evaluation; but the remaining three instructors have
example, among the aforementioned instructors, different criteria. Five of them said that they do not have
instructor B stated his feelings as follows. their own criteria of evaluation. They simply evaluated
based on the manual of the university without considering
Truly speaking, it is hardly possible to say that our the criteria of academic writing. In the first point of
students used/ maintained the main features of academic discussion, instructor F indicated as follows by
writing appropriately in their senior essay papers. The representing others:
main reason here is that students themselves did not pay
attention about their papers and they did not want to write We evaluated roughly in terms of the criteria of the
any formal writings. The other reason is that the time university’s manual. They said that we saw the papers
given to do their scholarly work did not allow them to simply to check whether they can fulfill the criteria of the
obey the ethics of academic writing and they did not get university’s manual or not rather we evaluated to check
enough materials to read in the campus. Finally, students the features of academic writing. In other words, we
have lacked in vocabulary power and the science of simply evaluated them to check how much the papers
research and they did not want to engage themselves in fulfill the contents of senior essays. As a result, Students
the complexity of academic writing. (Instructors‟ did not fulfill the criteria of academic writing. However,
responses on semi structured interview, October 2014) they wrote plagiarized papers which were cheated from
the previous works. Thus, while they were writing, they
On the other hand, instructor D argued in such a way simply copy all of the contents regardless of checking
that: whether the points are necessary or not. The reasons
may be: one, they did not know what an academic writing
In general, majority of our students maintained a few is; two, they might not know the elements of academic
features of academic writing although some problems writing; three, they had not taken enough courses with
such as syntax errors, tenses problems, coherence regard to it; and finally, they have not gotten any
problems, lack of using appropriate hedging and clear awareness about how to write academic papers
citations are the difficulties. Furthermore, the qualities of (Instructors‟ responses on focus group discussion,
our students’ senior essays writings were also affected by October, 2014).
lack of provision of relevance and appropriate rationality.
This begins from the onset of topic and setting selection. On the contrary, the remaining three participants argued
(Instructors‟ responses on semi structured interview, that they have their own criteria of evaluations. For this,
October, 2014) instructor G declared his experiences as follows. He said:

However, the remaining instructors indicated that their We have additional criteria of evaluation although they
students were not successful on maintaining the main may not fulfill the full criteria of academic writing. Among
 Birhan 109

the criteria we used, checking whether our students have Additionally, among the eleven participant instructors,
included scholarly written works or not, whether their nine of them claimed that the majority of their students
works are objective or personal, and do their works have were expressing their ideas personally. As they said, I
findings or not are the majors think, in my opinion, I want to say that and others are
(Instructors‟ responses on focus group discussion, common in their academic expressions. Therefore, it can
October, 2014). be argued that students have problems of using personal
expressions while they were writing their academic senior
Thus, as can be seen from the aforementioned views of essays. Thus, according to their advisors and other
the instructors in the discussion, majority of the scholars‟ views, to avoid such types of difficulties,
instructors have evaluated their students‟ senior essays students should avoid the personal language in their
roughly without considering the criteria of academic writings, and use passive rather than active
writing. constructions, and use impersonal phrases like, “ it is
As a result, students have written their senior essays believed that”, “ it has been asserted that”, and other
merely for the purpose of graduating as well as to related impersonal expressions.
fulfill the requirements of the university. Due to these
reasons, the qualities of academic writing such as
complexity, objectivity, formality, cohesion and Failure to use hedging expressions
coherence, hedging expressions, explicitness,
attribution and citations were not correctly applied in the While writing academic texts, it is necessary to make
students‟ writing. decision about your stance on a particular subject or the
Furthermore, as the researcher checked from their strength of the claims you are making because it is so
papers and as the results obtained from the important to decrease the degree of certainty. However,
participants indicated that undergraduate students are most of these students were not using the hedging
not doing the academic papers well, and the advisors expressions in their academic senior essays.
are not evaluating them well, too. Students normally face difficulties of using hedging
words, phrases, and clauses while they write their
academic papers. As a result, instead of using the
Lack of objectivity in academic texts hedging expressions such as it may be said that, it could
be the case that, it might be suggested that, there is very
The language of academic written texts should be hope that, certainly, definitely and others, they said that I
independent from the writers and the readers. An think, I can say that, I can conclude that and others in
objective tone can be achieved through using impersonal their academic senior essays. However, as Skelton
language because the main emphasis here is on the (1988), it is a must to use hedging expression as it is
information that you want to give and the arguments you crucial in scientific writings where statements are rarely
want to make rather than you (Buchanan, 2008). made without subjective assessments of truth and has
Besides, it also added that in academic writing, been used to refer to devices which qualify the writer's
writers are expected to express the arguments and expression.
opinion, but our arguments and opinions should
incorporate the objective and impersonal style that is
t h e significant feature of academic writing. The Problems related to citations and attributions
arguments and opinions should imply impartial and
sound judgment through the use of rational, impersonal It is obvious that in academic texts, the writers have the
and unemotional language. responsibility of paraphrasing and summarizing the ideas
what they read, and should acknowledge the sources of
As can be observed here, however, students‟ writings the information or the system of citation. The reasons
were full of personal expressions because they explained are: one, using the ideas of others/ other people is a
ideas through using personal pronouns. The words they basic issue for academic writing; two, as academic
used are also emotional. For instance, student C said: writing is based on sources, using the academic works
built by others are very important for academic writers.
“As I indicated in the above table, majority of the students
agreed that their teachers provide them with pre reading According to Spack (1988), the most important skill a
activities” (Senior essay document/paper 23, p. 8). student can engage in is “the complex activity to write
from other texts”, which is a major part of their academic
Here, the aforementioned evidence clearly showed that experience. As a result, any academic text we read or
students have not used the impersonal tone in their writer should contain the ideas of the other writers as well
academic texts while writing. Instead, they used as your own. In these students‟ senior essays, however,
dependent expressions such as I, we, I think, I believe ideas were not properly cited. Student O indicated his/her
and others. citation as follows:
110 Int. J. English Lit.

“-----in male dominated educational settings, male understood that students were poor in referring to
dominance is significant problems for females. It is scholars‟ ideas from different sources while writing
significance because it has impacts on girls’ verbal academic papers; and as to their advisors, to solve the
participation in all forms of academic interaction, ---------- problems; it is required to give them full and practical
sex, and groups despite their verbal superiority” (Senior exercise in daily classrooms.
essay paper 29, p. 2-3).

As the above quotation gave evidence that the student Factors affecting students’ academic writing
researcher quoted the complex ideas from others. He/she performance
had quoted the sources, and he/she also has tried to
indent the ideas, but he/ she indented incorrectly The researcher assessed that there are many factors
because it is impossible to use both the quotation and impeding students while they write their academic senior
indentation at the same time-double quotation. It is totally essays. In his understanding from their evaluated texts
impossible in academic writing. Thus, in the academic and as all of the instructors participated in the discussion
writing context, the possibility is either to quote the ideas indicated, the main factors are: lack of common
if they are below three lines or indent them if the ideas understanding about the issue of academic writing and
are beyond three lines. Furthermore, students also used research skills, lack of practical skills of using sources,
many citations indicated from different sources absence of word power and lack of language skills, time
inappropriately. For example, student T cited the source constraints, and lack of funds and resources for research
as follows: purposes (Instructors‟ responses on focus group
discussion, October 2014).
According to Leonard, E. and Huesmann stated that” According to the respondent instructors A, B, G, and H,
television and movies aspects youngster of all ages of these might be occurring because of the following
both gender at socio economic levels of intelligence and reasons. One, lack of giving the priority by the university,
evaluation (Senior essay paper 3, p.1). two, giving less recognition for senior essays, and three,
the presence of negative attitude towards senior essays
This evidence shows that the writer did not use the by considering that it does not bring something new to
specific year and country. Besides, the idea is incomplete teaching and learning process.
and also is not explicit. The other student also remarked On the contrary, instructors C and E claimed that the
in such a way that: main sources of the problems are; the students‟ poor
background knowledge about academic writing, their
The information collected from electronic sources defines poor attainment of university writing courses, and
the term realism saying that “realism is alarm that absence of academic writing courses.
describes only manifestation of philosophical realism; the On the other hand, the rest two instructors, D and F
belief that realism exists in independently observer contradicted that the sources of the problems depend on
weather in philosophy itself or in the applied arts and the location or exposure of students and the knowledge
sciences” (http://en.wikipidea.org/wiki/realism) (Senior of their teachers including today‟s instructors. As they
essay document 15, p.1-2.). thought that the environment and the basic knowledge as
well as the characteristics of the teachers are/ were the
It can be argued that it is not a real form of citation basic sources of students‟ knowledge.
because citing only the websites in academic writing is Therefore, the researcher can conclude that all of the
not enough; additionally, the ideas are vague. Moreover, factors which were mentioned by instructors are the real
the participant instructors argued with regard to their sources of the problems.
students‟ poor capacity of citing sources. Especially, in Similar responses were also stated on the semi-
the focus group discussion, among six instructors, structured interview. Here, instructor G strongly indicated
instructor H strongly argued as follows: that:

This is a series problem which is facing our students The main factors that reduced our students’ academic
while writing their academic papers. Even it is very writing performance are lack of knowledge about the
challenging to give a full awareness for them how to use issue of academic writing, time constraints, lack of
because as we instructors observed that although they especial training concerning the ethics of academic
have been learned, they cannot use practically. As a writing, and research ethics are the majors (Instructors‟
result, while they are writing, they could not refer responses on semi-structured interview, October, 2012).
scholars’ ideas properly. Additionally, they could not
paraphrase others ideas in a proper manner (Instructors According to the ideas mentioned earlier by the
responses on focus group discussion, October, 2014). experienced advisors, therefore, the major factors
affecting students‟ writings were; lack of writing
Thus, from the aforementioned responses, it can be experience, lack of the knowledge of the issue of
 Birhan 111

academic writing, lack of knowledge of scientific research that the sources of the problems are; the students‟ poor
writing, time and financial constraints, and lack of general background knowledge about academic writing, their
language skills. poor attainment of university writing courses, and
All in all, as can be seen from the aforementioned in- absence of academic writing sources.
depth analysis through three of the instruments, almost 6. Finally, the results clearly indicated that giving
all of t h e students‟ senior essays did not fulfill the them special training on formal academic writing and
qualities of academic writing, and instructor/advisors do helping them to practice through providing them a good
not evaluate their papers based on the criteria of feedback are solutions which make the students
academic writing; although their methods of evaluation productive writers.
are different in nature.
Furthermore, as shown from the results, too little is
done to bridge the gap in terms of helping students
Conclusion
develop their academic skills and general knowledge of
basic research.
According to the findings of this study, then, there are Thus, it appears that more should be done in this
different types of problems students face in producing area since success in university studies is closely linked
academic senior essays. In this regard, the major with academic writing ability.
problems are lack of the necessary writing skills and
using good command of target language in carrying out
academic papers adequately. It appears then that there is RECOMMENDATIONS
a gap between what is required of in the academic senior
essays and what students actually can do in order to Based on the findings in this study, the following
meet those requirements. What is more, as the recommendations are made.
instructors stated, the students have missed the “features
of academic writing” in particular and English language in 1. From the results of the findings, it can be
general because of their past poor background understood that two or three writing courses in university
knowledge and poor training. Moreover, the detailed are unlikely to prepare these students for their
major findings obtained through the aforementioned academic paper writing. This may imply that it is vital to
techniques are reported below. offer more writing courses both at the preparatory and
university level which have specific relevance to
1. According to the findings, students were generally academic writing requirements.
found less successful in maintaining the main features of 2. The researcher again wants to recommend that
academic writing and fulfilling the writing requirements students should learn courses such as developing
and expectations of the instructors while they were academic writing and reading, seminar presentation, and
writing their academic senior essays. They also appeared should gain special training about how to develop/
unable to demonstrate or implement those features of improve formal academic writing. Moreover, they should
good academic papers while writing. gain a good feedback from their instructors while they are
2. Furthermore, the results showed that students learning in the classroom.
faced the following difficulties such as; lack of available 3. Additionally, some works on academic writing at high
material/ resources, shortage of time, lack of fund for school and preparatory school should be done by English
research purposes, lack of research skills, lack of teachers because they should know the basic features of
awareness about the qualities of academic writing, academic writing. Next, research courses should be
absence of word power, and lack of language skills while clearly given at the university independently, that is
they were writing their senior essays. without other courses.
3. Similarly, as results indicated, most of the papers 4. Finally, it can be recommended that students
were not grammatically correct; but full of redundancies; should gain resources and budget to do their academic
most of the documents were plagiarized; sources were papers. Additionally, the given time to do their academic
not properly cited; and the sources cited were not papers also should be considered.
written in the reference section; and results were not
written based on objectives and research methodology.
4. Moreover, as the results tended to indicate, the CONFLICT OF INTERESTS
instructors, even though they may not appreciate the
students‟ failure to use good English, come to accept that The author has not declared any conflict of interests.
language errors are unavoidable and as a result, they
tolerate errors as long as the errors do not affect
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APPENDIXES originality of ideas? Lack of clear linkage b/n paragraphs?

Lack of using scientific words and phrases? Lack of
Appendix A: Document Analysis accuracy and fluency? Or others? Please mention
clearly?
Guiding questions
Appendix C: Questions for Instructors’ Semi-
1. Do the students senior essays: structured Interview
 Have good originality of ideas and thoughts?
 Show adequate understanding and use of Dear Instructors:
information from assigned sources?
 Use effective and appropriate words and phrases? The purpose of this interview is to gather information for
 Maintain varied sentence types? research purpose about your students‟ senior essays
 Have clear linkage between each section of the writing qualities and problems in terms of academic
paragraphs? writing. Therefore, please answer these questions
2. The main features of academic writing: according to your criteria of evaluation.
 Did students use/maintain the main features of
academic writing (complexity, objectivity, formality, 1. How successful are your students on maintaining the
explicit, cohesion, coherence, hedging expressions, main features of academic writing (i.e., complexity,
and clear citations) in their senior essays in a proper objectivity, explicitness, hedging, responsible, cohesion,
manner? coherence, and others) in their senior essay papers? Are
3. Impeding factors: they using appropriately?
 Do students have problems of language power, 2. To what extent do you tolerate language errors in your
practical skills, and research skills in their writing? students‟ senior essay writings? Why?
 Do students have problems of money, time and 3. What are the factors that impede your students‟
resources in writing their senior essays? academic writing performance? How do you handle
4. The key problem areas of students‟ senior essays: them?
 Did students use accurate language in their papers? 4. What are the major weaknesses or limitations of senior
 Did they use grammatically correct sentences? essays produced by students in line with your criteria of
 Did they cite scholars‟ ideas correctly? evaluations and expectations?
 Did they use hedging expressions and impersonal 5. What do you think are the sources of the problems?
language? 6. What do you suggest should students do to improve
their academic writing skills?

Appendix B: Focus group discussion

Guiding questions

Date: __________________ time:

___________________________
Venue: ________________ no of participants:
________________
Time started: __________ time ended:
______________________

1. How do you see (view) your students academic senior

essays? Can fulfill the qualities of academic writing? If
yes, how? If no, what lacks?
2. How do your students use and maintain the main
features of academic writing in their academic papers?
3. In what way do you evaluate your students‟ senior
essays? Do you have your own criteria? If yes, please
mention?
4. What are the major factors that impede your students
while they are writing their academic papers? How do
you handle them with your students?
5. What are the major problem areas of your students‟
senior essays? Citation? Grammar? Plagiarism? Lack of
114 Int. J. English Lit.

Appendix D-The Selected Senior Essay Documents

S/N Senior essay titles Pages

The performance of English first year students on the course sophomore English at Dire Dawa
1 29
university(1)
2 The impact of violence films on the young children increase of Hussein Gire and wilwal school(3) 31
3 Assessing the factors affecting students listening comprehension(5) 37
4 Women participation in education in Somali regional state(7) 32
5 The thematic analysis on Chinua Achebe‟s Novella: Arrow of God (9) 23
6 Analysis of writings written on the walls of classrooms(11) 34
7 Analysis of social realities references on the Novel „Things fall apart by Achebe(13) 36
8 Analysis of contracts as a literary technique in A Achebe‟s A man of the people(15) 33
9 The factors affecting students reading skills in Sabian secondary school(17) 28
10 Major character analysis/Hamer vs non Hamer(19) 28
11 The use of language in advertising with special reference to mega advertising enterprise(21) 21
An assessment on needs of pre reading activities in teaching reading comprehension with particular
12 32
reference to Sabian secondary school, grade (23)
13 Factors that influence students reading comprehension in grade nine Sabian Secondary school(25) 32
14 Challenges of intercultural communication in selected dormitories in Dire Dawa (27) 40
The involvement of female students in the classroom interaction in the case of Dire Dawa
15 64
university(29)
Factors affecting students speaking skills in English classes: the case of sabian secondary school,
16 39
grade 9(31)
The role of communication in female genital mutilation prevention : the case of Dire Dawa
17 29
administration council(33)
18 Using student centered teaching method in Dire Dawa secondary school(35) 28
19 Reviewing journalistic aspects of Afar‟s cultural communication “ Afar Dagu” (Qafar taaqu)(37) 32
20 The thematic analysis on “Buchi Emecheta‟s” Novel(39) 56
nd
The impact of writing skills on the students‟ academic performance with particular reference to 2
21 42
year English department, Dire Dawa university(41)