Writing Self-Efficacy and Performance Among Students in an Online Doctoral Program

Literature Review

Writing grammatically correct, clear, correctly punctuated, and well-structured text is a valuable skill. However, employers reportedly have a difficult time finding qualified candidates who can write clearly, which is an essential skill for graduates in the 21^st Century (Holland, 2013; Schartel et al., 2019). Interestingly, “academic writing…is gaining recognition as an area that all students need support in, regardless of linguistic or educational background” (Wilmot, 2018, p. 258). In 2006, the Chronicle of Higher Education published a study indicating that college professors felt students were unprepared for college-level writing. If students entering college have limited writing skills, students’ likelihood of success in academic writing activities is low (Sanoff, 2006). Poor writing skills have implications for students in terms of their professional careers. Schartel, Dunn, and Lane (2019) found, in their research, that supervisors felt recent graduates were ill prepared in terms of writing skills, grammar, and proofreading skills. In this same study, supervisors rated proofreading and correct grammar at a higher importance than interns (Schartel et al., 2019).

Some researchers have related the lack of writing skills to the proliferation of social technologies and casual communication formats such as texting and instant messaging. In particular, grammatical mistakes in formal writing have been significantly related to the use of social technologies (Purcell et al., 2013; Shafi et al., 2010; Turner, 2009). As students tend to use these same casual communication formats in writing assignments, providing students with feedback on their writing is necessary for improvement. The form of this feedback can vary, including writing improvement strategies and online grammar checkers. With this said, understanding the extent of poor writing among doctoral students, perceived writing self-efficacy, writing improvement strategies, and online grammar checkers can offer an option to students as a means of assessing the accuracy of their written work.