Exploring the use of Strategies in Academic Writing: A Case Study of English as A Second Language (ESL) Writers

Writing skills are crucial in producing excellent and notable compositions. Most writers usually focus on employing various strategies and this is applicable to English as a Second Language (ESL) writers too. The strategies hold huge influence in the ability of writing academic pieces since academic writing is a complex and structured composition compared to non-academic writing. This study aims to identify learners’ perception on the use of strategies in academic writing especially the ESL writers. The instruments used for this quantitative survey were adapted from Raoofi, Miri, Gharibi & Malaki (2017) framework on the use of strategies in writing. The questionnaire comprised six sections including the five strategies sections: metacognitive, effort regulation, cognitive, social and affective. The 94 respondents involved were undergraduates from Universiti Teknologi MARA who have completed academic writing courses. Generally, the findings discovered the majority of the respondents employed all five strategies in academic writing moderately. The results derived from the data may benefit studies in language and education in understanding the perception of ESL writers towards the use of writing strategies specifically for academic writing.