How BA Students Perceive Graduation Thesis Writing Process: A Qualitative Inquiry
Abstract
Education practices in a wide variety of contexts around the world show that senior students are required to write a thesis in English to have a Bachelors of Art degree in their field. The existing literature presents a number of studies focusing on challenges that doctoral and Master of Arts students have in due of thesis writing in English as a foreign language. However, seldom attention has been devoted to the perceptions of Bachelor of Arts students about the graduation thesis writing process, and key to the forward is an investigation of these possible challenges on which suggestions for improvements could be based and which could help readers see the existing camp in full colour. With the aim of filling this void, the current qualitative survey study with semi-structured in-depth interviews was designed to investigate the twelve BA candidates’ perspective in a north-eastern state university of Turkey. The findings obtained by an in-depth content analysis show that the perspective graduates are confronted with difficulties related to language, writing and style, research methodology, the research topic as well as personal matters. The study is intended to contribute to universities for better education practices and to respond to the emerging need in the body of the literature that necessitates far-reaching discussions regarding BA practices.
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