COMMON MISTAKES IN THE STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC WRITING: RETHINKING FOR CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

This study is an attempt to provide an overview of the common mistakes found in the students’ academic writing, particularly in their theses as a compulsory subject for them to accomplish before getting their undergraduate degree at Universitas Cokroaminoto Palopo (UNCP). In the first section, the concept and criteria of a good academic writing as well as the guidelines for theses writing are described. The next section is data presentation collected from the students’ theses at UNCP which were written from 2014 – 2017 followed by discussion of the results. The result revels that the students’ mistakes in academic writing are classified into two broad categories, namely mechanical inaccuracies and content mistakes. Mechanical inaccuracies to include: lay out, capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and font size. Content mistakes cover grammatical mistakes, word choice, argumentation, and discussion. Grammatical mistakes include subject-verb agreement, plural – singulars, double verbs, missing verbs, missing nouns, pronouns, and articles usage. The results of the research can be used as a basis for developing curriculum at the English Language Education Study Program in higher education in general and at UNCP in particular.