Perceptions of postgraduate students on academic writing skills: A metaphor analysis study

Abstract

In this research, it was aimed to determine the perceptions of postgraduate students towards academic writing skills through metaphors. In this context, the study group is composed of postgraduate (master and doctorate) students studying at Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of Education in the 2017-2018 academic year. In this context, 100 graduate students were interviewed by appropriate sampling method; an academic writing form was applied to these postgraduate students. In the research, descriptive approach has been adopted. Participants were asked to complete the sentences of "academic writing is like............; because............". The metaphors obtained from the research classified according to their similarities and differences with the descriptive analysis technique and then tabulated according to the frequency values separated by the categories. Then, the findings were interpreted. Accordingly, the metaphors associated with academic writing vary. The metaphorical perceptions are collected under 9 categories / themes. The categories include "a long / challenging/difficult process", "a process of producing / discovering new things", "an action that requires composition / analysis-synthesis / interpretation skill", "an action that requires expert support", "a multi-threaded action", "an action requires care in language and expression", "an unpleasant action", an action that gives joy" and "other" titles. Findings suggest upper academic level students with academic writing experience refer mostly positive attitude towards academic writing.