To uncover graduate students’ lived experiences related with academic writing a reflective interpretation of the text is needed Moustakas, 1994. It is not
merely about students’ understanding and beliefs about academic writing but also students’ feelings, intention and actions. Feelings refer to the students
expressions. Intention is related with the thinking result and action is taken with intention Patton, 2002; Willis, 2001; and Wilson, 2007.
Hence, in this study, lived experience is viewed as a phenomenon which is reflected in the past experience. In other words, lived experience refers on how
people response a particular phenomenon. It includes understanding, belief, feeling, intention and action.
1 Understanding
According to Dufrene 1973, understanding is about knowing something in individual version. In relation with this study, students’ understanding on
writing academic papers means what students know about writing academic papers. The word “know” in here refers to all information that the students have
about writing academic papers. In addition, as stated by Alvesson and Skoldberg 2000, understanding refers to comprehending the past experience in individual
empathically. In line with those two previous ideas, Munhal 2008 states that
understanding is knowing what something is about or something is like. Therefore, in this study, students’ understanding of writing academic papers refers
to what students know of writing academic papers is about or like. In other word, students’ understanding of writing academic papers is interpreted through what
students know and have related with writing academic papers. It includes all the information that the students have had about writing academic papers. In addition,
Cronbach 1963 argues that understanding influences belief which will be discussed in the following section.
2 Belief
Pintrich 1990, states that belief is a certain attitude toward something and difficult to change. In relation with writing academic papers, I interpret the
students’ belief as students’ attitude on writing academic papers. Their attitudes may affect their feeling. According to Lonergan 1958, there are five stages of
the process of true belief. Firs stage is preliminary judgments. It includes judgments on the value of belief in general, on the reliability of the source for this
belief, and also on the accuracy of the communication from the source. Second stage is a reflective act of understanding the value of deciding to believe some
particular proposition. Third stage is the consequent judgment of value. Next is consequent decision of the will. The last is the assent that is the act of believing.
In contrast with understanding that can change easily time to time, beliefs are relatively static and difficult to change Tumijo, 2008. According to
Nutriatmo 2009, beliefs are an instrument in defining task which concerns with values and feeling. In other word, belief plays important role in defining behavior
and organizing information. In this study, beliefs refer to the belief toward writing academic papers. Students’ beliefs in writing academic papers can be identified
through their judgments of writing academic papers which influenced by their understanding.
3 Feeling
As defined by Patton 2002, feeling refers to the expression of a particular object. Pyle 2010 adds that feelings are related to the instincts and habits. He
explains that situations in life bring very complex feelings which also known as emotions. In addition, Pettinelli 2010 supports that feelings are closely related
with emotions. In this study the object is writing academic papers. In other
words, students’ feeling on writing academic papers is their expression towards writing academic paper.
Lived experience is about how people experience a particular phenomenon Patton, 2002. In other word, it focuses on the feeling related to the experience
they have. Therefore, students’ feelings toward writing academic papers are identified from what the students feel in writing academic papers. Thus, feeling
could not be separated from lived experience.
4 Intention
The next elements to uncover the graduate students’ lived experience is intention which simply defined by Warshaw and Davis 1985. They propose that
intention refers to what people intend to achieve. Relating the theory proposed by Warshaw and Davis in this study, students’ intention toward writing academic
papers is what the students intend to achieve in writing academic papers. As supported by Willis 2001, intention is what people expect about something and
related with the result of thinking. In line with the definition, the students in this context may have different
expectation on writing academic papers. Thus, it can be identified from personal PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
target that the students want to meet. In other word, students’ intentions in this context refer to the students’ plans to do in order to achieve their target. Wilson
2007 adds that intention has a strong relationship with action which will be discussed in the next section.
5 Action
Action is a part of experience. It involves the five senses; seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling which requires body movements Lonergan,
1958. In line with Lonergan, Mannen 1990 attempts to say that lived experience included in the hermeneutic phenomenology focuses on how people
behave or act toward the reflection. Furthermore, Davidson in Wilson 2007 proposes the basic definition of
action. Action is something a person does. In other words, we can say that action is what someone can do with intention. Thus, students’ action related with writing
academic papers through actions that they do in achieving the goal. It means that every single person has their own actions towards their experience.
b. Students
As graduate students, the pressure to write, publish and the need to fit in encourage academic writers to use the technical vocabulary prevalent in literary
studies today. Cornell University 2012 tries to define the characteristic of graduate students. According to them, a graduate student should have a lot of self-
motivation. It drives him or her curiosity to understand how nature works. He or she should have a good critical mind. Therefore, personal responsibility for
learning is another important point that a good graduate student should have. This phenomenon shows the needs of a deep understanding of meaning in writing
academic paper. In order to discover meanings students’ understandings, beliefs, feelings, intentions, and actions are needed as guidance Pintrich 1990; Dufrene
1997; Willis 2000; Patton 2002; Wilson 2007. This guidance will explore the students’ experience in writing academic papers.
2. Academic Writing
The construct of academic writing is divided into two main discussions: academic discourse and writing. Those constructs are defined and explained
according to the literature.
a. Academic
The use of term academic may be used as underlying most of the discourse types used in the academia. In contrast, investigation on the meaning of academic
has not been very much conducted. Therefore, there are several definitions proposed in this section. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 1987
defines academic as concerning education, especially in a college or university. It may refer to a certain community of teachers, lecturers, students, researchers at
colleges and university level. Flowerdew 2005 proposes a clearer definition for the term academic. He views academic as a unified register in applied linguistic
literature, to be specific in language teaching and learning, where courses for English for Academic Purposes EAP have become established as a standard
response to fulfilling the English communication needs of tertiary-level students in the academy. In other words, academic discourse tends to be used within a
limited range of community and audience such as lecturers, students and PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
researchers. Therefore, the term academic is commonly related to academic arguments, discussions, presentation, assignments, especially in writing.
b. Writing
Hyland 2002 defines writing as a social act in which the writer will use the regularities and convention in written discourse. It can be inferred that writing
is a way of sharing ideas through written symbols that should follow certain rules, and conveys certain meaning in order to be understood by readers. Therefore, it
requires a series of acts, such as write and rewrite, in order to build cohesive and comprehensive texts. In other words, writing is a written communication to
transfer ideas, thoughts, and meaning involving many aspects to consider, containing many skills to acquire, needing a long process and great efforts to
complete. It has certain convention and regularities that all writers should understand for their writing to be well accepted by the discourse community.
Academic writing plays an important role in this research. Therefore, in this part, the concept of academic writing referring to literature reviews would be
discussed. In order to make a clear distinction about what is meant by academic writing, Oshima and Hogue 1991 define academic writing as a kind of writing
needed at university level, which is different characteristics from other writings in that academic writing such as audience, tone and purposes. Typically, academic
writing aims to be objective, concise and formal. Therefore, it has its own tone which refers to the choice of words and phrasing. In addition, the tone of
academic writing may vary significantly depending on the subject-area and the academic discipline. In this point, students should understand the audience’s
expectation and the purpose of writing. Not only that, those understanding should PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
be followed by the prior knowledge and the regular pattern of organization in order to write an academic paper successfully. Therefore, students would be able
to communicate the message conveyed appropriately and the audience could understand it well.
Brown 2004 mentions several examples which refer to academic writing. According to him, papers, general subject reports, essays, compositions,
academically focused journals, short-answer test responses, technical reportslab reports, theses and dissertations are some examples of academic writing. Thus,
academic writing shares certain features such as the use of a formal style and a structured of argument and the call for research Davis McKay, 1996.
1 Purpose
In general, academic writing aims to present information that provide a clear understanding of a subject Jones, 2005. Moreover, the specific purpose of
an academic writing may variy according to the assignment, namely argumentation, persuasion, description, narration, and exposition. Bailey 2011
provides several common reasons for writing, such as to report, answer a given question, discuss a subject or synthesise research done by others.
2 Structures, Organization and Styles
In academic writing, some kind of structure is required, such as introduction, main body and conclusion. This simple structure is typical of an essay format, as
well as other assignment writing tasks Bailey, 2011. A further explanation provided by Oshima and Hogue 1998. The introduction informs the reader about
the context of the subject. Then, the writer discusses issues related to the subject in the main body. Therefore, the body is the longest part of the essay. Lastly, the
conclusion is like the concluding sentence in a paragraph. In other words, conclusion is a summary of the major points discussed in the main body.
However, Gocsik 2005 argues that the structure and organization in academic writing will be determined by the content itself. Thus, the content of
academic writing must have a declared and arguable thesis. Moreover, an academic paper is considered failed to meet the expectation of the reader if it fails
to argue or inform. It is necessary to rely on several strategies in creating arguments in academic writing Goscik, 2004.
An appropriate style and conventions play an importan role in composing academic writing. In other words, the style and convention of academic writing is
obviously different, compare to other kinds of writing. In university context, academic writing tends to be structured, formal, objective, impersonal, complex
and contain technical language. In addition, that avoiding certain types of conventional language would be very beneficial in achieving the formal and
impersonal nature of academic papers. According to the book APA Manual 6
th
Edition 2010, a clear communication is needed. This can be achieved by
presenting ideas in orderly manner, smoothly and precisely. In other words, the continuity of ideas presentation is important. Transtitional words, such as
pronoun, time-links then, next, etc, cause-effect-links therefore, as a result, would be beneficial in maintaining the flow of thought. It is also suggested that
the writer should provide interesting and compelling tone which reflects their involvement related to the subject. Furthermore, the book APA 6
th
Edition 2010
