Universities should make it a priority to equip graduate students with academic writing skills or they run the risk of greater numbers failing to complete master¡¯s courses and PhDs, according to the author of new research.

In her co-authored paper ¡°Graduate students as academic writers: writing anxiety, self-efficacy and emotional intelligence¡±, Margarita Huerta, assistant professor of educational and clinical studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), found that lack of ¡°self-efficacy¡± (belief in one¡¯s capability to write in a given situation) was a significant reason for writing anxiety among students studying for a master¡¯s or doctoral degree.

The researchers conclude that it is in universities¡¯ ¡°best interest¡± that students are given tools to allow them to ¡°successfully communicate ideas and innovation in writing¡±.?Professor Huerta told Times Higher Education that degree completion rates could fall if these issues were not addressed.

¡°Most graduate?student?writers come into academia without the knowledge and skills of how to handle large, complex academic writing projects; therefore, lowering their self-efficacy,¡± she said. ¡°The consequences are potentially slower graduation?rates, larger numbers of incomplete degrees and non-published theses/dissertations.¡±

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The growing expectation for students to have ¡°journal article publications prior to graduation¡± was increasing the pressure on graduate writers, she added.

The research, published in the Higher Education Research & Development journal, looked at 174 students participating in Promoting Outstanding Writing for Excellence in Research (POWER) programmes, originally created by?Texas A&M University in 2007, to provide emotional and instrumental support for graduate students who wish to improve their academic writing.

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While the researchers noted that the study was not ¡°generalizable to all graduate students in higher education¡±, the findings ¡°contribute to the limited research on graduate students and academic writing and can inform present practitioners and future researchers in varied settings¡±.

The paper also found that ¡°females exhibited higher writing anxiety¡±, which Professor Huerta suggested could be linked to wider gender inequality in higher education. She added that it was "concerning that even in the presence of self-efficacy, writing anxiety was still present for female graduate students".

Elsewhere, the study found that students for whom English was not their first language had ¡°statistically significant higher writing anxiety and lower self-efficacy compared to native English speakers¡±.

¡°International students also showed statistically significant lower self-efficacy than students who reported not to be international,¡± it states.

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Professor Huerta said universities believe that they are supporting international students by providing ¡°editing services¡± or English language courses, but warned that there was ¡°a lot more¡± to mastering academic writing than a command of English.

¡°Writing 'correct' English is merely one piece of the bigger puzzle of supporting graduate students¡¯ academic writing,¡± she said. ¡°Schools/HE sectors should not assume all non-native English speakers¡¯ writing skills are necessarily lower than native speakers¡¯ writing skills.

¡°While some may struggle with writing skills, many may have very strong writing skills. Non-native English speakers may just have more writing anxiety because of lack of initial confidence and other external/cultural factors.¡±

Universities should therefore look to improve self-efficacy among all their graduate students by teaching ¡°self-management skills related to?piecing together academic writing projects¡±.

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¡°This is why?peer-led?writing?support?services hold tremendous potential if implemented well within university structures,¡± she said.

john.elmes@tesglobal.com