An Error Analysis of Research Project Abstracts Written by Thai Undergraduate Students

Oct 15, 2026

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Errors in writing are inevitable for students developing English writing skills, and identifying those errors helps teachers understand learners’ difficulties and respond with targeted instruction. This study pinpoints writing errors in English research project abstracts by Thai undergraduate students. Forty abstracts were collected and analyzed at sentence, word, and mechanics levels, revealing the most frequent error types and their teaching implications for academic writing courses.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Background and challenges in EFL writing

Factors influencing writing errors

Prior research and contrastive explanations

Advances in Language and Literary Studies ISSN: 2203-4714 [www.alls.aiac.org.au](www.alls.aiac.org.au) | An Error Analysis of Research Project Abstracts Written by Thai Undergraduate Students
Wirada Amnuai*
Humanities Department, Faculty of Sciences and Liberal Arts, Rajamangala University of Technology Isan, Thailand Corresponding Author: Wirada Amnuai, [E-mail: wamnuai@gmail.com](E-mail: wamnuai@gmail.com)
This research project is supported by Rajamangala University of Technology Isan, Contract No. NKR 2562INC042 . | | | --- | --- | | ARTICLE INFO | ABSTRACT
Errors in writing are unavoidable while students are trying to develop their writing skills. There have been several studies on identifying writing problems or errors in students’ writing. It is believed that identifying students’ written tasks is an effective tool to explore the difficulties involved in learning language. This helps teachers’ awareness of the serious problems which occur in students’ writing and allows them to pay closer attention to their errors. The aim of the present research study is to pinpoint writing errors in English abstracts written by Thai undergraduate students. Forty abstracts of research projects were collected and analysed. The error analysis was conducted at the sentence level, word level, and mechanics aspect. The five most frequent error types ranking from the most frequent to least frequent were word choice, preposition, sentence construction, singular or plural forms and quotation marks. The findings of the present study have shed light on the students’writing ability and give an insight into what the problems students face when writing their abstracts. Also, the errors found in the abstracts in the present study have pedagogical implications concerning English language learning, particularly with writing courses. The findings will be helpful for teachers to develop teaching materials to assist their students from committing errors when writing English abstracts and to improve academic writing skills. | | Article history
Received: May 19, 2020
Accepted: July 04, 2020
Published: August 31, 2020
Volume: 11 Issue: 4
Advance access: August 2020 | | | Conflicts of interest: None
Funding: None | | | Key words:
Error Analysis,
Abstract,
English Language Writing, Research Project,
Academic Writing | | INTRODUCTION In has been observed that developing English writing skills is challenging for non-native English speakers and teaching such skills are difficult on part of the teachers (Heaton, 1990; Richards & Renandya, 2002) . As a result, teachers have to pay careful attention to students’writing. This requires more time, energy, experience, and expertise in order to help students to gradually develop their writing skills. Teaching writing is demanding because there are many different factors involved, including organization, grammatical structures, vocabulary and also appropriate methods of assessing students’ progress. Specifically, the teaching of writing in English is a serious problem in teaching and learning in an EFL context. In L2 contexts, students’ language knowledge is generally insufficient for developing students’ English writing ability (Altinmakas & Bayyurt, 2019; Watcharapunyawong & Usaha, 2013) . Similarly, some research studies have confirmed that writing in English isone of the major problems for non-native speakers. Even L2 students at a high standard of proficiency in English face difficulties in academic writing. Jogthong (2001) asserted that in countries where English is not the mother tongue, most learners struggle when writing academic texts even if they can communicate well. These problems with writing are caused by the complex nature of the writing skill which needs considerable time and effort to solve. In fact, there are several factors affecting ESL/EFL students in writing such as attitudes, writing strategies, educational background, prior experiences, an

FAQs

What is the main aim of the study?

The study aims to identify and pinpoint writing errors in English abstracts written by Thai undergraduate students.

How were the abstracts collected and analyzed?

Forty research project abstracts were collected and analyzed at sentence level, word level, and mechanics aspect.

What are the five most frequent error types reported?

From most to least frequent, the errors are word choice, preposition, sentence construction, singular/plural forms, and quotation marks.

Oct 15, 2026

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