Graduate students` lived experience in writing academic papers.

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xiii ABSTRACT

Ardiyarso Kurniawan. 2016.Graduate students’ lived experience in writing academic papers. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.

The transition from undergraduate to graduate studies is still believed to be more challenging compared to the transition that the students experienced when moving from high school to university level. It requires students to have more reading and more writing. Thus, having a higher level of ideas, discussions, and questions are challenges that the students faced. Writing academic papers is one of the important aspects at the university level, especially for graduate students. Each semester, they have to deal with writing journals, articles, mini research, etc., which are categorized as academic papers. It imposes students to be able to write in English contextually. Students may face difficulties and challenges in writing academic papers, in the context of English as a foreign language, due to their language competency level. This study describes and interprets the lived experience in writing academic papers of the graduate students of English Language Study at Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta. It investigates how they give meaning to academic writing.

This study discovers the essential meaning of lived experience in writing academic papers of three graduate students of English Language Studies of Sanata Dharma University in writing academic papers. Referring back to their experience in writing academic papers unveils the participants’ understanding, belief, feeling, action, and intention. In order to reveal the lived experience, the researcher collected texts from the participants who have experienced writing academic papers. This study employed in-depth interviews to obtain the texts. Thus, better understanding and interpretation of the lived experience could be found.

The three illuminating participants are from different majors, namely; education, linguistics and literature. A recorded data from in-depth interviews with three participants were analyzed qualitatively using a phenomenological method of analysis. The data were analyzed by transcribing, listing and preliminary grouping, reduction and elimination, thematizing the invariant constituent, final identification of the invariant constituent, constructs an individual textural description, construct an individual structural description, and incorporating textual and structural description. Interpretation was the following process.

The finding of this study is the description and interpretation of three participants’ lived experience in writing academic papers. There are two meanings based on the interpretation of the participants’ lived experiences, namely pre-figured themes and emergent themes. Pre-pre-figured themes were determined based on the logical theories. On the other hand, emergent themes were found during the research process. In the pre-figured themes, there are three main types of assigned meaning: language competence, critical thinking and writing expectation. There are four emergent meanings assigned in this study: motivation, struggle, satisfaction, and learner autonomy.

It is argued that the findings provide implications of academic writing for the research participants (students in particular), graduate students (in general), and also for lecturer. As the participants, they got involved in this research, so they could share their experiences. By experiencing process and product of

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writing, they would have a self-actualization which enables them to gain better academic writing skills. It can further be used by the lecturers, in EFL context in contributing insights into the aspect of writing that students need support. In addition, the findings would be beneficial for the institution in sharpening the guidelines on academic writing.

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xv ABSTRAK

Ardiyarso Kurniawan. 2016.Graduate students’ lived experience in writing academic papers. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.

Masa transisi dari Strata 1 (S1) menuju Strata 2 (S2) masih diyakini menjadi masa yang lebih menantang dan mengejutkan dibandingkan dengan masa transisi yang siswa alami ketika dari Sekolah Menengah Atas (SMA) menuju ke aras Universitas. Siswa dituntut untuk lebih banyak membaca dan menulis, terutama dalam hal akademis. Lebih dari itu, tingginya tingkatan ide, diskusi, dan pertanyaan merupakan hal-hal menantang yang dialami oleh para siswa. Menulis makalah akademis merupakan salah satu aspek penting ditingkat universitas, terutama bagi mahasiswa pascasarjana. Di tiap semester, mereka dituntut menulis jurmal, artikel, penelitian, dan lain sebagainya, yang mana merupakan bagian dari makalah akademis. Mahasiswa mungkin merasa sulit untuk menulis makalah akademis dalam konteks Bahasa Inggris sebagai Bahasa Asing yang dikarenakan oleh tingkat penguasaan bahasa mereka. Hal inilah yang memaksa mahasiswa untuk dapat menulis dalam Bahasa Inggris secara kontekstual. Penelitian ini mendeskripsikan pengalaman mahasiswa pascasarjana Fakultas Bahasa Inggris dalam penulisan makalah akademis di Universitas Sanata Dharma, Yogyakarta. Penelitian ini meneliti tentang bagaimana mahasiswa memaknai penulisan makalah akademis.

Penelitian ini mencari makna dari pengalaman langsung yang dihadapi oleh tiga orang mahasiswa pascasarjana Fakultas Bahasa Inggris di Universitas Sanata Dharma dalam menulis makalah akademis. Bersumber dari pengalaman mereka, pemahaman, keyakinan, perasaan, tindakan dan tujuan siswa dalam menulis makalah akademis dapat terungkap. Guna mengungkap pengalaman hidup mereka, peneliti mengumpulkan teks-teks dari partisipan yang notabene telah memiliki pengalaman dalam menulis makalah akademis. Penelitian ini menggunakan in-depth interview guna mengumpulkan teks-teks yang dimaksud. Dengan demikian, pemahaman dan intepretasi dari pengalaman hidup dapat ditemukan.

Ketiga orang partisipan dalam penelitian ini berasal dari program studi yang berbeda, yakni; pendidikan, linguistik, dan sastra. Rekam data dari hasil wawancara dengan ketiga partisipan tersebut kemudian dianalisa secara kualitatif dengan menggunakan metode analisis phenomenology. Pengolahan data dilakukan dengan membuat transkrip, menyalin dan pengelompokan awal, reduksi dan eliminasi, tematisasi komponen invarian, identifikasi akhir komponen invarian, menyusun deskripsi tekstual perorangan, menyusun deskripsi struktural perorangan, dan menggabungkan deskripsi tekstual serta struktural. Proses selanjutnya yakni interpretasi.

Hasil dari penelitian ini merupakan deskripsi dan interpretasi dari pengalaman langsung ketiga partisipan dalam menulis makalah akademis. Berdasarkan interpretasi dari pengalaman ketiga partisipan tersebut ditemukan dua tema, yakni tema yang diduga dan tema yang muncul. Tema yang diduga ditentukan berdasarkan kebenaran secara logis, yaitu: kompetensi bahasa, pemikiran kritis, dan ekspektasi penulisan. Sementara, tema yang muncul

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xvi

merupakan tema bentukan berdasarkan data yang ditemukan selama proses penelitian berlangsung yang mana dibagi menjadi empat, yakni: sikap, motivasi, kemandirian pembelajaran, dan pengelolaan penulisan.

Dapat dikatakan bahwa hasil dari penelitian ini memberikan implikasi tentang penulisan makalah akademis bagi partisipan (siswa khususnya), mahasiswa pascasarjana (secara umum), dan juga bagi tenaga pendidik atau dosen. Sebagai partisipan yang mana telah terlibat didalam penelitian ini, maka mereka dapat berbagi pengalaman-pengalaman mereka. Dengan merasakan langsung proses juga hasil dari menulis, mereka akan memperoleh keterampilan menulis yang lebih baik. Penelitian ini kemudian secara lebih lanjut juga dapat digunakan oleh tenaga pendidik khususnya didalam perkuliahan dengan konteks Bahasa Inggris sebagai Bahasa Asing, sebagai bentuk kontribusi wawasan dalam aspek menulis bahwa siswa memerlukan dukungan. Selain itu, temuan dari penelitian ini bukan hanya bermanfaat bagi tenaga pendidik atau dosen saja, namun juga bermanfaat untuk mempertajam pedoman dalam penulisan akademis. Kata kunci: Pengalaman hidup, penulisan akademis, EFL konteks

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GRADUATE

STUDENTS’ LIVED EXPERIENCE

IN WRITING ACADEMIC PAPERS

A THESIS

Presented to the Graduate Program in English Language Studies In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of

Magister Humaniora (M.Hum.) in English Language Studies

Ardiyarso Kurniawan 146332011

The Graduate Program in English Language Studies Sanata Dharma University

Yogyakarta 2016

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GRADUATE

STUDENTS’ LIVED EXPERIENCE

IN WRITING ACADEMIC PAPERS

A THESIS

Presented to the Graduate Program in English Language Studies In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of

Magister Humaniora (M.Hum.) in English Language Studies

Ardiyarso Kurniawan 146332011

The Graduate Program in English Language Studies Sanata Dharma University

Yogyakarta 2016

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GRADUATE

STUDENTS'

LI\TED

EXPE,RIENCE

IN WRITING ACADEMIC

PAPERS

fudiyarso Kurniawan

Student Number: 146332011

,L{

Df.

f.

Eismofo

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Chairperson Secretary Memfiers

A

THESIS

GRADUATB

STUDENTS'

LIVED EXPERIENCE

IN

WRITING ACADEMIC

PAPERS

Presented by Ardiyarso Kurniawan

A6332otl

Defended before the Thesis Committee and declared acceptable.

.fHESIS COMMITTEE

: F.X. Mukarto, Ph.D.

: Dr. J. Bismoko

: L. Dr. E. Sunarto. M.Hum.

2.Dr. B.B. Dw,ijatrnoko, M.A.

Yogyakarta, 15 Agustus 2016

Graduate Program Director

Dharma University

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STATBMENT

OF

ORIGINALITY

This is to certify that allthe ideas, phrases, and sentences, unless otherwise

stated, are mine. I understand the ful1 consequences including degree cancellation

if I took somebody else's, phrases, or sentences without proper reference.

Yogyakarta, 3 Agustus 2016

Kurniawan

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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN

PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARYA

ILMIAH

UNTUK KEPENTINGAN

AKADEMIS

Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata dharma:

Nama :

NIM

Ardiyarso Kurniawan t4633207t

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan

Universitas Sanata Dharma, karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

GRADUATE STUDENTS' LIVED EXPERIENCE IN WRITING ACADEMIC PAPERS

beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian, saya memberikan

kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan

data, mendistribusikannya di Intemet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap

mencantumkan saya sebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.

Dibuat di Yogyakarta

Pada tanggal: 30 Agustus 2016

Yang

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks are due to those who were helpful in finishing this thesis. The most gracious, my Lord for His amazing grace to me.

First of all, I would like to thank my Supervisor, Dr. J. Bismoko, for his much-appreciated assistance and encouragement during my study and the writing of this thesis. Second, I am also grateful to all Thesis Reviewers and Examiners, F.X. Mukarto, Ph.D., Dr. B.B. Dwijatmoko, M.A., Dr. E. Sunarto, M.Hum., and other Master Program lecturers at Sanata Dharma University for the guidance throughout my study in ELS Sanata Dharma University.

My sincere thanks also go to my parents and my beloved one for giving supports, being patience and praying for my success. May God’s love always be with you.

A particular thank to all of my research participants for their willingness and very much appreciated help without which this thesis would never be completed.Last but not least, I thank my friends in ELS ‘2014 for the friendship, supports and all the moment we shared together.

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vii

TITLE PAGE ... i

APPROVAL PAGE ... ii

DEFENSE APPROVAL PAGE ... iii

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY... iv

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI...v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS... vii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES...x

LIST OF ABBREVIATION ... xi

LIST OF APPENDICES... xii

ABSTRACT... xiii

ABSTRAK...xv

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION...1

A. Background...1

B. Problem Identification ...3

C. Problem Limitations ...5

D. Research Question ...6

E. Research Goal and Objective ...6

F. Research Benefits ...7

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW...9

A. Theoretical Review...9

1. Students’ Lived Experience...9

a. Lived Experience...9

1) Understanding ...13

2) Belief ...14

3) Feeling ...15

4) Intention ...15

5) Action ...16

b. Students ...16

2. Academic Writing...17

a. Academic...17

b. Writing ...18

1) Purpose ...19

2) Structures, Organization and Styles ...19

3) Accuracy in Writing ...21

3. Academic Writing in EFL context ...23

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viii

C. Characteristics of Source of Texts...29

D. Framework of Pre-Understanding ...30

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...36

A. Research Goal and Method ...36

B. Research Design ...38

1. Specified Goal ...38

2. Context...39

3. Procedures ...39

4. Components ...42

C. Instrument...43

D. Text Gathering...44

E. Text Processing ...45

F. Trustworthiness ...47

CHAPTER IV DESCRIPTION AND INTEPRETATION...49

A. Description of the Participants’ Lived Experiences...49

1.Asti’s Story...49

2.Cahyo’s Story...53

3.Jaya’s Story ...56

B. Interpretation of the Participants’ Lived Experiences...60

1. Pre-Figured Themes ...61

a. Language Competence ...61

b. Critical Thinking ...64

c. Writing Expectation ...67

2. Emergent Themes ...70

a. Motivation ...70

b. Struggle ...72

c. Satisfaction ...74

d. Learner Autonomy ...77

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS...80

A. Conclusion...80

B. Implications ...83

C. Recommendations ...84

BIBLIOGRAPHY...85

APPENDICES...91

APPENDIX 1...91

APPENDIX 2...92

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APPENDIX 4...94

APPENDIX 5...97

APPENDIX 6...123

APPENDIX 7...127

APPENDIX 8...158

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

TABLES

TABLE 3.1. RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS………42

FIGURES FIGURE 2.1. LEVEL IN PRODUCT OF WRITING………...24

FIGURE 2.2. STAGES IN PROCESS OF WRITING………..25

FIGURE 2.3. FRAMEWORK OF PRE-UNDERSTANDING OF GRADUATE STUDENTS’ LIVED EXPERIENCE IN WRITING ACADEMIC PAPERS………...33

FIGURE 3.1. RESEARCH DESIGN……….38

FIGURE 3.2. PROCEDURE……….……….40

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LIST OF ABBREVIATION

AUD : Audience AI : Asti CO : Cahyo

DIKTI : Direktorat Jendral Pendidikan Tinggi DRA : Drafting

EAP : English for Academic Purposes EDI : Editing

EFL : English as a Foreign Language ELS : English Language Studies ESL : English as a Second Language FDB : Feedback

JA : Jaya

L2 : Second Language PLN : Planning

PUR : Purpose REV : Revising SBJ : Subject

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xii

LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1 Informed Consent Form 1 (Asti) ………...85

APPENDIX 2Informed Consent Form 2 (Cahyo) ………...86

APPENDIX 3Informed Consent Form 3 (Jaya) ………..87

APPENDIX 4 In-Depth Interview 1 (Asti) ………..88

APPENDIX 5 In-Depth Interview 2 (Asti) ………..91

APPENDIX 6 In-Depth Interview 1 (Cahyo) ……….117

APPENDIX 7 In-Depth Interview 2 (Cahyo)……….121

APPENDIX 8 In-Depth Interview 1 (Jaya)………152

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xiii ABSTRACT

Ardiyarso Kurniawan. 2016.Graduate students’ lived experience in writing academic papers. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.

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xiv

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xv ABSTRAK

Ardiyarso Kurniawan. 2016.Graduate students’ lived experience in writing academic papers. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.

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1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This study intends to investigate graduate students’ lived experience in writing academic paper at the graduate program. It attempts to reveal the meaning of writing academic paper in EFL context. Therefore, this chapter presents the relevance and feasibility of the project which covers background of the study, problem identification, problem limitation, the research question, and the research goals and benefits as well.

A. Background

Language learning has two important elements in determining how and how well the learners learn language. Those elements are styles and strategies. In brief, learning styles refer to patterns which give directions to learning behavior. On the other side, learning strategies refer to specific actions to overcome a difficult language task. It is used by learners to enhance their own learning. Griffiths and Parr (2001) noted that a number of methods and approaches have been developed to the teaching and learning of language. However, a given strategy or styles are neither good nor bad. It means that it is essentially neutral as long as the context of its use is considered. In other words, no single strategies and styles fit all students.

Researchers have found numbers of variables such as age, gender, individual difference, motivation, cultural background, etc., which affect the use of language learning styles and strategies. However, current literature points out

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that learners’ individual and collective styles andstrategies preferences are strongly advised instructors engaging in language classroom (Bull & Ma, 2001; Fan, 2003; Oxford, 2003b; Yamamorio et al., 2003).

In relation with this study, English language has been used as medium of communication in academia, both written and spoken. Allen (in Swales, 1998), also regards language as an important communication aspect of study subjects. In a university level, writing an academic paper is one of the partial requirements. Assignment, journals, articles, mini research project, and even thesis are the examples of the partial requirements which play important roles, as supported by Zhu (2004). Furthermore, writing academic paper helps students in expressing and communicating ideas and arguments.

In EFL (English as a Foreign Language) context, graduate students are expected to be able to write good EFL academic papers. In contrast, several studies reveal that EFL graduate students still face difficulties in writing their academic papers such as, grammar, organizing ideas, paraphrasing, and rhetoric. Thus, a major challenge for EFL students of graduate school in Indonesia is academic writing. As a graduate student, I realize the pressure to write, publish and even present the papers in particular seminar or journals.

Several studies indicate that student writing poses specific challenges for English Foreign Language (ESL) and English Foreign Language (EFL) teaching and learning contexts across the globe; in this context, in higher education institutions (Lillis and Scott 2007; Ivanic and Lea 2006; Lea 2004; Munro 2003). Lea and Street (1998:157) report that literacy standards in higher education institutions are very low. As a result, students cannot write properly. It could not

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be denied that lecturers often complain about the ability of their students in writing. Munro (2003:327) confirms this view and argues that dealing effectively with the difficulties of the students’literacy and poor academic writing skills, is a challenge that universities have to contend with.

There are several research related to academic writing in EFL context (Hung & Young, 2015; Chokwe, 2011; Hasan & Akhand, 2010). Mostly, they investigate problem in writing academic paper in EFL context. Thus, factors and problems are the common topic in academic writing. In addition, most of the participants in those studies are non-English undergraduate students.

This study focuses on how the graduate students’ lived experiences in writing academic papers. The researcher tries to discover their lived experiences that relate to writing academic papers.

B. Problem Identification

Studies on academic writing in university level may include various issues of investigations. The wide range of issues could become topics with different perspective of studies such as writing as a product, process and so on. In writing academic papers,the students’ experience may vary one another. The experience itself covers understanding, intention, feelings, belief, and action of the students (Bradley, 2005). Hence, students experience in writing academic papers reveals those five fields.

As EFL students, they may have experienced some difficulties in writing academic papers. Mostly, grammar and vocabulary, implementation of writing skills, and integrating knowledge are the barriers faced by EFL students in writing

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academic papers. Another factors that associated with writing problems in foreign language are different cultural background (Imtiaz, 2003), textual patterns, process and product of writing and personal characteristics of the students (Angelova, 1999).

In similar, university students in Indonesia have difficulties in expressing their ideas in their academic writing. Sadik (2009) conducted a study on academic writing of Indonesian university students. Her study indicates that those students have problems with limited knowledge of writing strategies, grammatical structure, and low interest in writing. Another study from Mistar et al. (2014) shows that the students are lack of knowledge in writing. It can be inferred that the lack of knowledge in writing are associated limited knowledge of writing, and not given enough time to practice writing.

The Directorate of Higher Education (also known as DIKTI) makes a comparison to other Asian countries, such as Thailand, Japan, and China. The results shows that a relatively low number of Indonesian students publishing in international journals.

In this study, investigating the lived experiences of writers, both through process of writing and the texts they produced are the focus in this study. Furthermore, understanding on the meaningful experiences of academic writing in English Foreign Language context is challenging. To achieve with the goals of this study, it uses different methodology compare to the other studies. This study will stand on the phenomenology in which interpretive is used to answer the research question through the narratives of the research participants on academic writing.

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C. Problem Limitations

A number of studies attempt several approaches in academic writing at university level. Those studies tend to consider aspects of students’ need in writing. One of the considerations is by facilitating the students with technology supports while writing academic papers. Therefore, this study focuses on how the students give meaning on writing academic papers.

This study was conducted in English Language Study of Sanata Dharma University. The participants of this study were three graduate students in English Language Study who have written academic papers. In addition those students could give rich descriptions of their lived experience in writing academic papers. The aim of this study was to tell a shared experience of writing academic papers in EFL context. Meaning that, it mainly discussed the graduate students’ lived-experience in writing academic papers in ESL context.

Furthermore, this study elaborated several aspects related to the participants’ experiences in writing academic papers. First, it covered how the participants experience academic writing. Second, how the participants gave meaning of academic writing. Next, the participants felt of the academic writing. In order to describe and interpret the meaning of lived-experience in the attempt to determine the essential meaning of writing academic papers, this study employed hermeneutic phenomenology proposed by Van Manen (1990). After all, the way they experience difficulties, failures and success also covered in this study.

The findings and results of this study might be different from the similar studies conducted in different place. In other words, similar research topics

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conducted in different context situation will have different result of suggestion and implication.

D. Research Question

Academic writing may involve the process and product of writing. In order to get a meaningful description of the phenomenon of student’ lived experience in writing academic papers, this study particularly aims at finding the answer of the following question: What is the meaning of writing academic paper to ELS students?

Therefore, this generated question is expected to obtain the meaningful description and interpretation of graduate students’ lived-experience in writing academic papers. Moreover, it leads into the structure in constructing the interpretation of the participants’ lived-experience for obtaining a meaningful text.

E. Research Goal and Objective

The immediate goal of this study was attempted to describe and interpret the graduate students’ lived-experience in writing academic papers in EFL context. Therefore, the description and interpretation of graduate students’ lived experience in academic writing was the result of this study. Having the description and interpretation, essential meaning of writing academic papers could be revealed.

This study also proposes the intermediate goal, both for the participants and the audience. The participants could become more reflective and assign meaning from their experiences in writing academic paper. On the other hand, the

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audience was expected to have more empathic understanding, being able to perceive others’ internal frame of reference and to sense the hurt or the pleasure of other people as he or she senses it (Brodley, 1996). Thus, not only for the participants but improving audience’s emphatic understanding towards students’ understanding, belief, feeling, action and intention in writing academic paper was also the expectation of this research.

As the ultimate goal of this research, it was expected to help the researcher and the audience to be more self-actualized. Having more emphatic understanding enables the audience for having a better equity in life which leads to autonomy and empowerement. As a result, empowerement will lead to self-actualization.

F. Research Benefits

This research is expected to provide significant contributions for educational area, to be specific, focusing in writing academic paper. The findings of this study, description and interpretation, will give information about the meaning of giving experiences in writing academic paper to graduate students in a form of text.

This study benefits the researcher to build an empathic understanding of writing academic papers as experienced by the participants. As expected in this study that being empowered and self-actualized can improve the researcher’s academic writing skill as a graduate student.

The participants get involved in this research and reflect in writing academic papers. It means that they can share their experiences and have a self-actualization which is very beneficial in forming a habit in doing reflection.

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During the process of this research, the participants reflect their lived experience in writing academic papers from the beginning until the end, especially what they intend to do. It enables them in reflecting on what they have done in writing academic papers. Moreover, they can improve their performance in writing academic paper based on their reflection in writing academic papers by sharpening their goals which leads into self-actualization.

This study gives the interpretation in writing academic papers which supports the policy makers of English language teaching in Indonesia. It contributes in proposing insight to teachers, lecturers and tutors in into the aspects of writing in which students require support. Furthermore, results may be used to harness or sharpen the practices of both EFL practitioners and other stakeholders with some guidelines on teaching academic writing. Meaning that, not only the lecturers but the results also give beneficial for the policy makers in the institution.

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9 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, there are two sections will be discussed, theoretical review to clarify the concepts used in this study and framework of pre understanding to help constructing the framework of thinking. In the following sections, a number of related literature and previous studies on similar topics will be discussed.

A. Theoretical Review

Theoretical review is divided into four parts. Firstly, as the major parts, Students’ lived experience discusses the concept of lived experience. Secondly, academic writing discusses the concept in writing academic papers. The third is EFL context. It discusses the concept in English as a Foreign Language. The last part is academic writing in EFL context. This part discusses academic writing in EFL context in detail.

1. Students’ Lived Experience

In this section there are two topics which become the construct of this study. They are lived experience, and students. Those will be discussed below.

a. Lived Experience

According to Mannen (1990), lived experience is the breathing of meaning. In this context, it leads the students to think back about something they have done (in the past), and try to find the essence from that experience. The most important point of lived experience, as stated by Dithley (1980), is self-awareness of life.

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According to Husserl (1963), phenomenology studies the structure of eight types of experience. Those structures are perception, thought, memory, imagination, emotion, desire, and volition to bodily awareness including action, and social activity, embodied linguistic activity. The structure of these forms of experience involves intentionality.

Intentionality is a founding aspect of phenomenology. It is also an important structure of human experience and the mind as the central focus. As identified by Koch (1995) Husserl views the intentionality as key in understanding of this phenomenology. He adds that Husserl saw intentionality as a process where the mind is directed toward objects of study. The experience of each person is set in a place which expands back and forth, up and down and extends to past memories and expects or anticipates the future. McIntyre & Smith (1989) explains that intentionality is a characteristic feature of our mental states and experiences, especially evident in what we commonly call being conscious or aware.

Awareness refers to an ability to identify, clarify, and self-examine certain situations. They add that a person is also conscious of physical objects and events which include his or her own self and other persons, and anything else that she or he brings before his or her mind. Consciousness is not separate from the world (Heidegger, 1962) but is a formation of historically lived experience. He believed that understanding is a basic form of human existence in that understanding is not a way we know the world, but rather the way we are (Polkinghorne, 1983). Husserl (1963) gives a further explanation on indication of a conscious experience. According to his experience, as the example, seeing and touching of

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the white paper in the dim light. It lies in front of him, appearing to him from a particular angle. The individual’s awareness yields a self-identity. Furthermore, intentionality which embodied consciousness or awareness of someone shapes and causes his or her understanding, belief, feeling, action, and intention towards things in the world (McIntyre & Smith, 1989).

In addition, Ricoeur (1970) argues that in hermeneutics the critique of ideology should be incorporated into understanding. Ricoeur was particularly concerned with interpretation, primarily with interpreting text. He argues that human action should be understood as text which could provide better understanding and interpretation. Searching for hidden meanings through the interpretation is the demand in hermeneutics (Ricoeur, 1980). Thus, he believes that people always occupy an ideological position even if they are unaware of it. As supported by Landridge (2008), interpretation could be assumed as opening new possibilities. However, Ricoeur (1970) reminds that it can be seen from the position of the researcher and influenced by ideologies.

Investigating the process of person’s awareness related to a particular phenomenon means to investigate event and incidents which part of the person’s historicity. For Husserl (1963), this subject of the historicity of life, should be placed in parentheses, in order to address primarily the essence of the life of consciousness. Wachterhauser (1986) argues that language and history are conditions and limitation of understanding. As he writes:

“Hermeneutical theories of understanding argue that all human understanding is never 'without words' and never 'outside of time'. On the contrary, what is distinctive about human understanding is that it is always in terms of some evolving linguistic framework that has been worked out over

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time in terms of some historically conditioned set of concerns and practices" (p.6).

It can be inferred that Wachterhauser‘s statement emphasizes on the historicity. In line with the previous idea, Gadamer (1996) views an awareness of historically informed prejudices as a basic condition of understanding:

"A person who believes he is free of prejudices, relying on the objectivity of his procedures and denying that he himself is conditioned by historical circumstances, experiences the power of the prejudices that unconsciously dominate him … A person who does not admit that he is dominated by prejudices will fail to see what manifests itself by their light" (p.360).

Smith (2013) states that phenomenology studies different forms of experience “justaswe experience them”, from the perspective of the subject living through or performing them. Lived experience is simply experience-as-we-live-through-it in our actions, relations and situations. Thus, experiences can be characterized by seeing, hearing, imagining, thinking, feeling (i.e., emotion), wishing, desiring, willing, and also acting, are ways to experience something. Therefore, knowledge manifests itself in practical actions. It enables people to discover what and how in the things of our world (Mannen, 2007).

Hence, it will feature the ways in which people would experience that form of conscious activity. Moreover the leading property of types of experience is their intentionality. How people see or conceptualize or understand the object they are dealing with defines the meaning of that object in their current experience (Smith, 2013). In other words, phenomenology features a study of meaning that includes more than what is expressed in language.

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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 meaningsstudents’ 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

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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

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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 reports/lab 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

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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 6th 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 6th Edition (2010)

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provides several points in maintaining precision and clarity in academic writing. Those are word choice, colloquial expression, jargon, pronouns, comparisons, and attribution (third person). After all, those issues discussed above lead into a greater accuracy and clearer communication.

3) Accuracy in Writing

In academic writing the writer should follow certain rules especially in punctuation and grammar. Punctuation as well as grammar is universally known systems (within English speaking cultures). It maintains clarity and avoids ambiguity in expression. Thus, Bailey (2011) provides several important points in maintaining accuracy in writing. The first is abbreviation which widely used for convinence and space savings. The writer should be familiar with both, general and academic abbreviations. In order to write academic paper effectively, it is necessary to understand rather formal vocabulary used in the academic context, to be specific related to adjectives, noun and verb.

Bailey (2011) argues that students often find difficulties in using articles (a, an, and the). Thus, article is another important point in maintaining accuracy in writing. The next importan point is caution. The use of caution is necessary in many areas of academic writing (Bailey, 2011) in order to avoid contradictory or absolute statements. It can be used in discussing the result of study which might be not conclusive, outlining hypothesis, and making predictions. Modal verb, adverb, and verb or phrase are the tools in avoiding contradictory statement. Another important point is conjunctions. According to Bailey (2011), conjuntions are words or phrase which link one sentence to another in similar with cohesion.

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Cohesion means joining a text together with reference words (e.g. he, theirs, the former). Thus, the whole text is clear and readable. Another problem faced by students when writing academic papers is nouns and adjcectives. In order to understand the meaning of a word, prefixes and suffixes would be very beneficial, particularly for new vocabulary. Then, preposition is another point which needs to be considered. In general, Bailey (2011) states that preposition is commonly short word that linked to noun, verb and adjective.

Accurate punctuation and use of capitals help the reader to understand exactly what the writer meant. It is argued that some aspects of punctuation, such as the use of commas in areas such as quotation and the use of capital are important. Thus, punctuation is the next important point in maintaining accuracy in writing, as well as singular and plural form for countable and uncountable noun. In order to avoid repetition in writing academic paper, synonym could be used as an effective way. In addition, Bailey (2011) states that synonym can be used to avoid plagiarism.

Furthermore, there are another three points in maintaining accuracy in writing. Those are time words and verbs, including verb passives, references and tenses. Time words, such as during and since, are often used in introductions or general statement (Bailey, 2011). The passive form is another feature of academic writing. As discussed previously, it is important to make the writing more impersonal and formal. Verb of references is used for introducing quotations or of other writers’ ideas. The word “claims” and “states” are the example of verb of reference which commonly used. In addition, these verbs indicate the position of the writer whose ideas are being summarized (Bailey, 2011). As the last, it is

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important to be clear about which time phrases control the tenses of verbs when writing paragraphs. Afterall, those important points proposed by Bailey (2011) summarized aspects in academic writing that the writer should follow and pay attention in maintaining writing accuracy.

3. Academic Writing in EFL context

Academic writing is often developed in students through formal instructional settings which may be influenced by overall proficiency in L2 (second language) for EFL (English as a foreign language) students (Giridharan, 2011). No doubts that students need to advance their own ideas and engage the reader in academic discourse in writing academic contexts. A Research studies conducted by Kelley (2008) reveals that successful academic writing plays important role for students entering tertiary levels of post-secondary. In other words, academic writing is the language of scholarship and demonstrates eligibility of higher education.

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is generally used to refer to situations in which English is neither generally used for communication, nor used as the medium of instruction. Moag (1982) presents three characteristics of EFL; a low degree of official recognition, a low rate of use-related features, and indifferent prestige in learner society. In line with Moag’s characteristics, Richards, Platt, and Weber (1985) try to define EFL as the role of English in countries where it has unclear status and function even it is taught as a school subject. In addition, Judd (1987) supports that in an EFL situation English serves less communicative function and has no special status or use over any other foreign language.

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There are several related issues concerning academic writing, namely process of writing and product of writing as offered by Jordan (1997) and Nunan (1999). They argue that over the last 20 years product and process approaches have dominated much of the teaching of writing in EFL classrooms. According to Gabrielatos (2002) product approach refers to a traditional approach in which students are expected to follow the standard given and construct a new piece of writing. Steele (2004) divides four stages in product writing as shown in the figure 2.1 below.

Figure 2.1. Level in Product of Writing (adopted from Steele, 2004)

First, by having model texts, students focus on where and how the writer employs features and techniques used in it. Second, students are asked to practice using features and techniques. The third stage focuses more on where the ideas are organized. In other words, organization of ideas is important as well as the language control. As the last stage, students tend to use the skills, structures, and vocabulary they have been taught in producing the product. In brief, imitating and transforming model of writing are the activities on the product of writing.

ModelText

Controlled Practice

Ideas Organization

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In contrast, it is necessary to define the process of writing. As defined by Jordan (1997) process refers to how a product is produced. Kroll (2001) adds that process of writing focus more on the promoting the language use development, such as brainstorming and rewriting. Seow (2002) divides writing process into four stages: planning, drafting, revising and editing, as presented in the figure 2.2 below.

Figure 2.2. Stages in Process of Writing (adopted from Seow, 2002)

As the first stage, planning is the stage where the students collect related information with the topic they have. It could be done through brainstorming. Harmer (2004) adds that the students have to consider three main issues while planning their writing. Firstly, they have to consider the purpose of their writing which affects the language used, and the information included. Secondly, considering the audience is also necessary. The language choice is the example. The last issue is content structure. Harmer (2004) explains that it refers to how best to sequence the facts, ideas or arguments which they have decided to include.

Process

Activation

Planning

Drafting

Revising

Editing

Process

Termination

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The second stage in process of writing is drafting. In this stage, students put ideas and information all together. The next stage, revising, is related with feedbacks, either from teacher or peers. Seow (2002) mentions that in this stage the students could measure how effective they shared their ideas to the audience. Editing is the last stage in process of writing. It allows the students to check their grammar, punctuation and word choices. Seow (2002) adds that process of writing also includes process activation prior to planning and process termination after editing. Brown (2004) simplifies the stages of writing process into three; pre-writing, drafting and revising. He adds that basically the various writing stages are all root from similar ground.

After all, the distinction between process and product of writing can be summarized. The process writing represents a change in teaching writing from the product of writing activities (the model text) to ways in which text can be developed.

This study use those two perspective academic writing, both as a product and process. The process of writing will focus on the students’ steps in writing their academic papers. Meanwhile the product of writing tends to understand how students deal with all the difficulties, failures and success in writing the academic papers.

In Indonesia as the setting of this study, most people have a very low need to speak English on a daily activity, so English is instructed as a foreign language (EFL). English language is still being taught as a classroom subject, with students rarely interacting with anyone except their teachers and classmates.

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In Indonesia, although many EFL students at university have a general understanding of grammar rules, it does not mean that they are able to write academically at levels expected. They are required to deal with variety of writing tasks depending on their chosen degrees. Each task has its own characteristic which varies from one to another. On the other hand, each assignment type of writing has a clear structure as the guideline. Thus, as stated by Horner & Min-Zhan, (1999); Rose, (1989) criticism has been directed against students’ inability to write at acceptable levels particularly among EFL students. Those compound the academic writing difficulties experienced by EFL students at tertiary levels. Literature confirms the inadequacies experienced by university EFL students in their academic writing in English.

B. Related Research Reports

In this section, some related research reports on academic writing will be reviewed in order to show the links of the research problems, their possible emergent complexities and also discover the place of this study. A number of researches on academic writing have been conducted in investigating deeper problems encountered by university or college students. Thus, recognizing important issues in writing academic paper is necessary.

Hung & Young, 2015 conduct a study on adopting E-Readers to facilitate EFL students’ process based academic writing in the graduate level class entitled in a northern Taiwan university. This study explored the effectiveness using the e-readers to facilitate EFL students' process-based academic writing. E-e-readers are portable electronic devices designed for reading digital books and electronic documents, such as the Amazon Kindle, the Sony Book Reader and the B&N

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NOOK. Those devices have been introduced into the market with the increasing growth of sales. The result of this study shows that the process of reading, annotation and information retrieval, was affected by readers. Not only that, e-reader can be a tool for reciprocal peer review in assisting academic writing for EFL students. Compared to the conventional paper-based materials, e-readers are significantly beneficial for students’ academic writing progress. In addition, E-readers could create a better writing environment in the process-based writing approach.

Chokwe (2011) write a report on first year ESL students’ conceptions of writing and how these conceptions influence their academic writing in South Africa. This study also includes the expectation, respond and understandings of the tutors on the student writing. The study has been done by a qualitative research methodology and case study approach as research design. The result of the study shows that students were underprepared for engaging in the academic writing activities required at university level. Moreover, students had a different perspective categorized their writing skills as average, tutors. On the tutor perspective, the findings reveal that students still struggle with aspects of writing such as, grammar, spelling, the structuring of essays which includes coherence and cohesion in paragraphs. Despite the fact that students valued feedback highly, in some instances tutors did not provide adequate, understandable and useful feedback (Chokwe, 2011).

Hasan & Akhand (2010) discuss the approaches to writing in EFL/ESL context: balancing product and process in writing class in United International University of Bangladesh. The result of the study indicates that the combination

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of product and process is superior to the presentation of the learners. This study provides valid evidence in supporting the view that the combination of both approaches tends to facilitate the learners to undertake a writing task to be developed. Moreover, the advantages of using a product-process approach in evaluating the effects of writing tasks are appraised.

Maharsi (2007) write a thesis on academic writing experience of undergraduate students of Industrial Technology. This study discusses the academic writing experiences of the undergraduate International Program (IP) students of Industrial Technology at Islamic University of Indonesia which focuses on the students’ perception of academic writing. Moreover, it explores how they give meaning and actualize themselves through academic writing. This study shows that the students have limited knowledge of writing skills, exposures of reading materials of their discipline, and inadequate feedbacks while experiencing the stages of writing process. Despite the fact that students are aware of this importance of academic writing, not all students could take necessary efforts in improving their academic writing.

C. Characteristics of Source of Texts

Academic writing is a kind of writing that is commonly produced by academicians such as lecturers, students, and researchers. Hence, it possesses particular characteristics of particular subject, purposes, audience, and the language discourse used in their writing. According to Hinkel (2004), academic writing is developed in students through formal instructional settings. Myles (2002) adds that it involves composing, developing and analyzing ideas, implying

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the ability to rephrase information in the form of narratives, or transforming information into new texts as in argumentative writing. In addition, the proficiency in academic writing may be influenced by cognitive development, educational experiences and overall proficiency in L2 (second language) for ESL (English as a second language) students (Giridharan, 2011).

Newby et al. (2000) states that in today’s world, demands on the students have increased significantly. The students are required to use high-order reasoning skills in solving complex problem. According to Zhu (2004), in a university level, writing an academic paper is one of the partial requirements such as: assignment, journals, articles, mini research project, and even thesis are the examples of the partial requirements which play important roles. Writing academic paper helps students in expressing and communicating ideas and arguments. Therefore, Newby et al. (2000) argues that the increasing demand on education enable learner acquire higher-level skills. In other words the students will be ready to solve complex problem in the real world.

In summary, the participants in this study are graduate students who experienced writing academic papers such as respond papers, journals, articles, mini-research project and even thesis. Having experienced in writing academic papers such as: assignment, journals, articles, mini research project, play important roles, made the students prepared themselves to face today’s world demands: using high-order reasoning skills in solving complex problem.

D. Framework of Pre-Understanding

This section provides the connection of the related theory which leads to the pre-understanding of the graduate students’ lived experience in writing

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writing and we have the opportunity to write in English. On the other side of the questions, I was wondering how the other ELS program in other universities. But again there’s always a constraint. There should be more attention to academic writing. There should be more feedback from the lecturers. It is even better if they can arrange a mutual feedback from the classmates before they present something to the lecturers.

R13 So how did you overcome the problem? Because you didn’t know the strengths and weaknesses of your writing itself.

JA13 Well I think I just did the best I could and then try to work it by myself. Of course I had my own feedback from myself. But it could be unreliable because you need feedback from others as well. Friends, lecturers. Let me tell you the very very truth. I didn’t have time to re-edit them. Then I just did it because of the deadline. For example, ignoring with the idea that a paragraph should consist of 3 sentences like that, so with this thesis writing hopefully I have more time to pay more attention to accuracy something like that. Again, as far as I’m concerned, I have a problem with writing the content. What pak Bis called as a logical truth, empirical truth, scientific truth and how to connect the logical with the empirical truth and how to juggle around with the scientific truth, something like that. There’s so many different books with different authors and then sometimes can be confusing. I just did the best I can. Tried to be close to the expectation.

AUT SE

ATT, OBL, MOT

WEK

R14 And how about the 2ndsemester pak?

JA14 2ndsemester I coped better. But still, not knowing exactly what I had to do in chapter 1,2,3. And again, I type of a person that needs to study something step by step. If there something missing then it’s kind of cover me to really come up with really good reliable written work. So, we had had a chance to review like from sentence, paraphrase, and then paragraph and finally essay writing, critical review, short research report. Actually, if we sit back and come to think about it, we never taught actually how to, I don’t know, maybe we need to be taught logic as well. Logic in academic writing. Surely there’s some kind of lecturers can share experiences how to connect ideas. Not only about the mechanics but content is also important. The logic in English

EXP WEK SD PCS

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academic writing.

R15 And in the 2nd semester, you had to conduct a mini research. How did you feel pak?

JA15 Again, I think I have survived in the 2ndsemester. I did my best and did whatever I could. Still no feedback from anybody about my writing. Probably there’s no such a thing as guidelines. I know it is not easy but surely, there’s should be something as the guidelines. For example for doing mini research, you have to do this and that. If somebody is good in organizing ideas but probably you are not that interested in the content. Somehow it would be good for having guidelines in order to make a proper mini research. For example, when I was an undergraduate student, the lecturers came up with list minimum requirements in English grammar. Surely it can be something in academic writing, the guidelines. So for example, we were asked to do a critical review. We never were given the guidelines or the requirements. So just looked at other people work. In English teaching, I do, you watch. I do, you help. You do, I help. You do, I watch.

ATT AUT Lack of FDB EPN

EXP

IMI

R16 Did the lecturers give an example?

JA16 Not at all. I would say, it is still good even though at master level, without guidelines, we were virtue then, there is no standard. So if I say, two paragraph of critical review. Hey guidelines, tell us what to do. Without giving any standards, and just give us feedback, mostly negative, you are not building people up. You are putting people down. So again, I do, you watch. I do, you help. You do, I help. You do, I watch. Meaning that, including giving us the guidelines. What the standards that you want, without just taking for granted just knowing what to do. Hey give us the standards you expect.

EXP

ATT

EPN

R17 So could you tell me the process in making the critical review itself?

JA17 Okay, it was easy for me to comment on the literary works and criticize.Because of no guidelines, I didn’t know anything about the side of literature, then I just had a look what can I criticize about. I could see from the linguistics point of view and tried to manipulate the linguist side of it. And then I linked it with the real life, and religion. For example. Again, because I didn’t

FLG AUT IDA

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know the standards. Well it could be an advantage because we could see the low pulse and how to manipulate the written assignments so that we have something to submit.

ATT -OBL

R18 And then how was the score?

JA18 It was okay. Because I got B for it. I was happy for that as well. Because in the 1stsemester I was under stress. So I just did what I could. I’m so rightfulfor getting the B. if I got C then it should be okay as well.

FLG ATT -OBL R19 How about the process of making the mini research project

itself, Pak? Regarding that the topic was your interest and you are expert in that topic about teaching vocabulary.

JA19 Well, the process, I would say, again was not challenging. It was not difficult to me. I was familiar with the subject and got a lot of ideas in using games in teaching vocabulary. So, I just had to follow with the format of the research report, chapter 1, 2,3,4,5. And I tried to just write what I had to write for each chapter and adjusting and re-writing and re-editing whatever I needed. And compare and contrast and then also tried to point out the… well I was actually kind of wondering why they just used games in teaching vocabulary. If I looked at the collection of my game, I think in one setting I could come up with more than 20 games and what they used was only one or three games which were very basic. So that’s what I could say about the process. Again, I was familiar with the topic

ATT

SO REV and EDI

R20 So, did you face any problem when you make the mini research project?

JA20 Since it was a mini research project, so I think I had constraints as well because I could use a lot more respondent but I could not because of the time constraints. So, I should be honest to say that the mini research was still very superficial. Could have been much better perhaps had more respondent, more time to look at the issue, and I don’t think I used a lot of references. Didn’t have time to read and so on. So, mostly based on my personal experience which is not very academic. You know I mean. Because you need academic back up on references

EPN

R21 Now, how about the 3rd semester? You had to finish your GRP (proposal) in relation with your thesis. Can you tell me about it?

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JA21 Well, I think it was probably they expect from the 2nd semester when we had to come up with the research that you want to do. Actually I was thinking of doing a research while we.. Fellow students can work together and people could, let say, cooperate with and could help each other. I think with master degree program we should be different from the undergraduate degree. And then, at that time I decided to do the academic writing, Eli wanted to do the literacy course in the first semester. We both felt that no having any feedback, things like that. But then we couldn’t do it because there was so much research on that. Then we had to change. Somehow, we had to end it up. Eli did the research on general English at college level of non-English department program and I worked on the ESP. We were good because we could co-operate on that. After I dag deeper into ESP, it was like an ocean there. No standard. and even Sanata Dharma doesn’t have its own standard. Every department has their own rights to do the ESP program. They can contact certain lecturers to design their program. But again it didn’t make sense that each department has its own thing on ESP. and the research report that people had to come up with, especially in Indonesia, is so huge in that. EAP (academic purposes) including academic writing as well. Most of the literature works on EAP for citizens who call for the States, U.K, to English Speaking Country, where they need academic more. But here in Indonesia, for those who go to universities it was like an ocean that you need to decide what to do with the program. Blending model just for one semester is really challenging. Pak Bis also asked us to come up with an academic program that can be used for all non-english department program which is another challenge. It is easy to be more specific example finding a learning model. You know I mean. Well I’m still working and I’m still struggling with that and I asked Pak Bis whether it is still possible to change the research. However it is too late now.

BRN

EPN

R22 And then how did you make the proposal? I mean chapter 1, 2, and 3.

JA22 Well, mine was just no specific exploration of each chapter. Still very supervision. And I had a chance to look at Eli’s as well so I studied and learnt from her as well. I had not come up with a really solid ground for it and presenting it as well. I had to re read again and write. Pak Bis said that I need to read, write and

(5)

show that. So, actually I’m still struggle with it.

R23 But at least in that event you had a chance for having feedback. Hadn’t you?

JA23 Ya, the feedback from the lecture who was in charge of my research

FDB

R24 So was there any difference pak between your previous writing and your writing in that occasion Pak? Compare to the previous semester.

JA24 Well, I think only in the 3rdsemester I had the feedback. Mostly, feedback on the content. It was more bearable because Pak Bis did give us the feedback especially in the content. Also guidelines and he helped us to try to see the certain point from other perspective with his questions.

R25 So what did you feel pak? Finally you had a feedback.

JA25 Good. It was good. But still it was, again, the feedback was there. But connecting the empirical truth and logical truth, and how to come up with the scientific truth, linking back and forth with deep ocean in terms of the ESP. we had to come up with one semester program. It wasn’t that easy. What you had to teach and model and syllabus. That should be useful and applicable.

FLG

R26 So, during the 1st until the 3rd semester, do you have any interesting or unforgettable moment in writing academic paper Pak?

JA26 It was in 2nd semester in SLA. It was about Pak Mukarto’s final paper if I’m not mistaken. I expected a data from the office but I was given only a half of it. So I had suddenly changed the topic. I mean narrow down the topic and then time was so pressing that I had no time to do the proper chapter for the literature review. So I just dig up doing error analysis because I did not have time for doing the references so I did duplication or what do we call it for doing something that have been done before. And I used that literature review. So I could manage it with different data. It was really interesting. Because it was quick and I met the deadline. Otherwise I would not be able to meet the deadline with the limited time.

PLN

IMI

(6)

R27 So pak Mukarto noticed that your research just has been done previously?

JA27 Yes, because it was part of the subject requirement R28 And then, how was the result pak?

JA28 It was good. I got an A for that.

R 29 Oh great. So any lessons that you learned from your experience in writing academic paper?

JA29 Well, I would say again, when you write and you have to take something for a consideration it should be more precise. Especially the logic that you have to come up with, and then how to write simply directly to the point. And to mean what you say and to say exactly as you supposed to say. Not only yourself but also others could understand it. So I give more serious to it. And, that’s it.

INT

ACT

R 30 Were there any differences after you pass the previous semester Pak?

JA30 I think I have to re edit what I have written. Taking what I want to convey what I want to say and make sure that I wanna say is expressed there. And make sure people understand the message. And I would get the message of course. I just tend to be more careful.

REV

R31 Well, thank you for sharing your experience in writing academic papers

Graduate students` lived experience in writing academic papers.

GRADUATE

STUDENTS’ LIVED EXPERIENCE

IN WRITING ACADEMIC PAPERS

A THESIS

GRADUATE

STUDENTS’ LIVED EXPERIENCE

IN WRITING ACADEMIC PAPERS

A THESIS

GRADUATE

STUDENTS'

LI\TED

EXPE,RIENCE

IN WRITING ACADEMIC

,L{

f.

A

THESIS

GRADUATB

STUDENTS'

LIVED EXPERIENCE

IN

WRITING ACADEMIC

STATBMENT

OF

ORIGINALITY

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN

PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARYA

ILMIAH

UNTUK KEPENTINGAN

AKADEMIS

NIM

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Process

Activation

Planning

Drafting

Revising

Editing

Process

Termination

Parts

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