International Postgraduates’ Perception on Academic Writing: A Lesson on Criticality

Abstract

Academic writing has always been synonymous in higher education. However, academic writing could be more problematic for international students than native speakers of English (Mumin, 2020). They endure different struggles that ranged from language proficiency to effect on contextual academic transition. This study is part of a longitudinal narrative study involving five international postgraduate students in a UK university. The findings demonstrated unique views of each participant with a concurrence that proficiency does not promise writing competency. This study also unveiled the participants’ views on being a Non-Native English Speaker (NNES) in an anglophone country where ‘criticality’ seemed to be a crucial notion needed to be grasped in order to write according to the university’s assessment writing conventions. Additionally, views on international students’ writing support were also documented.