Students' Perception on Writing Thesis

Abstract

The research work entitled “Students’ Perception on Writing Thesis” aimed at exploring the perceptionon researchreport writing of university students of the Department of English Education at Tribhuvan University,investigating their academic writing problems and to provide solutions to these problems.For this purpose, three research questions were posed and the answers to these questions were discussed. The data for the study were collected through questionnaire.The informants were postgraduate students from Tribhuvan University (i.e. thesis writing students and thesis completed students).Out of thirty participants, fifteen participants from thesis writing group were selected using quota sampling and other fifteen were selected using purposive sampling procedure. The data obtained from the informants have been analyzed and interpreted through using simple statistical tools.The participants, in total, have provided various opinions towards research report writing.Most of the participants have experienced problems with the various aspects of academic writing. The findings revealed that most of the University students faced problems in relation to the selection of the problem, structuring or organizing the requirements of thesis, referencing, reviewing and citing the relevant information, supervisory relationships etc. Although they have problems with the various aspects of academic writing, they negotiated with the supervisors, read extensively in their discipline areas, accessed internet and visited student learning centers to overcome the challenges they faced in the process. This thesis comprises five chapters. Chapter one deals with general introduction,background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions, and significance of the study and operational definitions of the key terms.Chapter two deals with the review of the related theoretical literature, review of empirical literature, implications of the review for the study and theoretical/conceptual framework.Chapter three includes methods and procedures adopted to carry out the research. It contains information on design and method of the study, population sample and sampling strategies, study areas/ field, data collection tools and techniques, data collection procedures and data analysis and interpretation procedure. Similarly, chapter four dealswith the analysis and interpretationof results and summary of the findings. Chapter five contains the conclusions and recommendationsof the study. Finally, chapter five is followed by the references and appendices.