Perceptions of academic writing by some Saudi graduate students studying in American universities

Abstract

The increasing number of the Saudi students who want to study in American universities has generated a need to explore their perceptions of academic writing for writing researchers and instructors to help them to be successful academically. The study reported in this dissertation explored some Saudi graduate students' perceptions of academic writing and of the issue of plagiarism. The results, collected from interviewing 12 Saudi graduate students enrolling in various programs in different American universities, show that the participants might have a limited understanding of the meanings and of the purpose of academic writing. One of the causes for such a limited understanding might be that most of the participants, for example, did not practice academic writing skills beyond their academic assignments. The second possible cause for the limited understanding of academic writing by the participants could be that they were receiving more feedback at the micro level in comparison with the macro level feedback. The findings also show that non-nativeness in English is perceived as a liability and as having a negative impact on academic writing. Additionally, the findings indicate that the academic writing difficulties might not be at the sentence level as some of the participants claim. The findings also show that some students sometimes misunderstand the connection between academic writing and the requirements of various fields of study. The possible sources for the participants' perceptions are: the perceived effects of the participants' professors, the perceived effects of their fields of study/occupations, the perceived effects of their peers, and the perceived effects of the Saudi culture/educational culture. The effects of educational culture can be seen on the participants' perceptions of plagiarism, on the role of professor, an on the role of the writing center. The research study has various implications. These include increasing students' awareness about the importance of academic writing even after receiving their graduate degrees, educating students about the importance of a new understanding of the writing center, and informing professors about how to influence their students' academic writing skills positively.