Differentiating Beginning ESL Undergraduate and Graduate Students' Writing Needs

Abstract

In order to facilitate improvement of an effective academic writing curriculum, this study analyzes the separate and/or overlapping writing needs of beginning undergraduate students and graduate students in an intermediate academic writing course. Data sources included surveys, student and faculty interviews, course syllabi, guidelines on writing assignments, and student writing samples. Analysis of the data indicated that most of the writing the graduate students do is discipline-specific and complex, whereas undergraduate students write for assignments for general courses. It seems that graduate students encounter greater expectations as an active participant in their respective fields and are expected to make contributions to the fields. The implications of the findings for developing EAP writing curriculum are discussed.