Abstract
This exploratory study investigated the variables that predict academic writing difficulties (AWDs) among first-year doctoral students, international and domestic, at a large, publicly funded research university in Southeastern United States. Data were collected through an online survey. The final sample size contained 111 first - year students, domestic and international from various doctoral programs. The first analysis examined factors predicting first-year doctoral students' self-assessed writing difficulties, using Multiple Linear Regression. Five factors were statistically significant predictors of AWDs: Asian race, Colleges of Business, Engineering, and Science, and the age between fifty-five to sixty-four. The remaining factors associated with age, Race, or College were not statistically significant. The second analysis examined differences between domestic and international students using Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). The MANOVA results indicated statistically significant differences in the AWD and GRE writing scores between domestic and international students, but no statistically significant difference was found between the two groups for Motivation. However, when GRE writing scores were used as a covariate, the MANCOVA revealed statistically significant differences for both Motivation and AWD between international and domestic doctoral students. The findings of this study have important pedagogical implications for doctoral students, graduate faculty, curriculum designers, university's administrators, and universities writing support programs.
Notes
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Graduation Date
2020
Semester
Spring
Advisor
Boote, David
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
College
College of Community Innovation and Education
Department
School of Teacher Education
Degree Program
Education; Teaching English to Speakers of Languages Track
Format
application/pdf
Identifier
CFE0007981; DP0023122
URL
https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0023122
Language
English
Release Date
May 2020
Length of Campus-only Access
None
Access Status
Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)
STARS Citation
Khudhair, Iman Ibrahim, "An Investigation of Factors Predicting Academic Writing Difficulties Among First-Year Doctoral Students" (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-. 75.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd2020/75