Abstract:

Long-term observations of developmental tendencies referring to university students' output quality indicate the deteriorating quality of a formal, clear and precise academic writing style. The academic writing course at the tertiary level of education focuses on the development of the ability to produce high-quality academic texts. The study focuses on the analysis of English language and literature students' academic writing skills. The research involved the non-native English language and literature students preparing for the role of teachers of English as a foreign language at the lower and upper secondary levels of education. The improvement of teaching at the tertiary level of education requires the analysis of students' skills. The qualitative analysis of students' research papers will be used to identify the most frequent formal problematic segments in university students' academic outputs. All findings will serve as a tool for developing a framework designed to eliminate the most frequent drawbacks related to the formal structure of an academic text.

Keywords:

English language and literature, academic writing, academic writing skills, non-native English language and literature students.