The Role of Developing Undergraduate EFL Students Academic Writing Techniques and Strategies in Writing a Dissertation

Abstract

Within the framework of EGAP (English for General Academic Purposes), academic writing is considered as one of the most challenging skills in language learning that has become an international requirement. It is an umbrella for all formal writing that is used in any educational field such as schools, universities, etc. Thus, academic writing has become indispensable particularly for undergraduate students, who are seeking through presenting different writing assignments to achieve specific academic needs such as writing a dissertation, which is one of the substantial issues in the teaching of academic writing. Writing a dissertation plays a crucial role for undergraduate students, as a mean of achieving students’ academic studies as well as improving their academic writing. Moreover, writing a dissertation is perceived as a difficult task for EFL students to produce, especially for those who do not know how to construct its main methodological features “IMRAD” (Introduction, Methodology, Results, and Discussion) or to use its fundamental techniques and strategies of documenting or reporting findings from other sources. This paper aims at presenting the different difficulties that undergraduate students may face when writing a dissertation. Additionally, it aims to discuss the different academic characteristics “IMRAD” and the most important techniques of documenting and reporting findings from other sources when writing a dissertation.