Abstract

ZARATE FABIAN, Mario Clemente. Academic writing: Difficulties and needs in higher education. Edu Sup Rev Cient CEPIES [online]. 2017, vol.2, n.1, pp. 46-54. ISSN 2518-8283.

Abstract On this paper presents the diagnosis of the difficulties and the training needs in academicwriting. The purpose of the research is to propose a methodological didactic strategy based on tasks for the strengthening of the academicwriting in students of third semester ofthe careerof Education Sciences atthe Universidad Mayor de San Andres. This is a correlational study that seeks to determine the relationship between the teaching strate-gies and academicwriting. Theoretically, is supported in Camps and Castello (2013), Hernandez (2009), Morales and Cassany (2008) Sabaj (2009), and other authors who studied this topic. The design of investigation that sustains is the quasi-experimental study in which participated 43 students of whom 81 per cent are women and 19 per cent are men. The instrument used for obtaining information was: the Questionnaire on academic writing of Gutierrez and Florez (2011). The results obtained indicate that 96% of university students state that they have difficulties in the production of written texts howto be in writing, spelling and organization of ideas. Of the analyzed data, it is concluded that the majority of students recognize the difficulties of writing that they have in the university level and that the causes are attributed to the teaching received at the primary and secondary of their schooling process and they emphasize the importance ofthe academic literacy at the university level.

Keywords : Academicwriting; written communicative competence; scientific article; writing process; university education; teaching strategy.