Proceedings of the 7th World Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities
Year: 2024
DOI:
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College Students’ Research Writing: Problems and Solutions
Yasmine Salah El-Din
ABSTRACT:
Freshman students often face challenges when writing their first research paper. These challenges can range from simple skills like time management to major aspects like lack of research skills, including properly conveying ideas in the literature and using in-text citations correctly. Organizing thoughts is yet another issue that many college students struggle with. However, these challenges are not difficult to address. While there is a lot that the students themselves can work on, with proper teacher guidance and support, these challenges can be avoided or overcome. The purpose of this problem-solution analysis paper, therefore, is two-fold: a) to analyze the challenges that EFL freshman students face when writing research; and b) to give recommendations for students and teachers to address these challenges. Challenges include, among many aspects, grasping the requirements of the research writing task assigned, proper understanding of the genre expectations and style of English academic writing, having adequate research skills, synthesizing information, and integrating it into their writing. This is other than the struggle to structure the research in a logical and coherent manner, even when the students have written an outline prior to embarking on the research itself. The presenter will begin by stating the importance of the research topic, reviewing the literature on the students’ challenges. It will then share solutions that have been attempted in different contexts and found successful. Finally, it will provide suggestions that would help freshmen students embarking on research. Implications of the research and recommendations for effective research guidance will be discussed with the audience.
keywords: Freshmen, problems, research, solutions, writing