STRENGTHENING TERTIARY STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS THROUGH T.R.E.N.D. MODEL - An Alternative to Traditional Process Approach

Oct 15, 2026

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Writing is a challenging task for tertiary students learning English, especially in early semesters when they struggle to generate, organize, and express ideas with correct grammar and fluent sentence construction. A study involving 200 undergraduates in a MUET workshop examined writing ability through the Transferring, Restructuring, Engaging, Negotiating and Documenting (T.R.E.N.D.) model. Results showed significant improvement in coherence and idea development after the workshop, with benefits in language proficiency and learners’ confidence.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Article History

Keywords

Introduction

Background of writing challenges

Process approach and limitations

Asian Journal of Contemporary Education ISSN(e):2617-1252 DOI: 10.18488/journal.137.2019.31.65.71 Vol. 3, No. 1, 65-71 © 2019 AESS Publications. All Rights Reserved. [URL:](URL: www.aessweb.com)[ ](URL: www.aessweb.com)[www.aessweb.com](URL: www.aessweb.com) STRENGTHENING TERTIARY STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS THROUGH T.R.E.N.D. MODEL Lim Seong Pek 1+ Rita Wong Mee Mee2 Soo Ruey Shing3 Daeshela Theesmas4 Na-Thinamalar Magiswary Nadarajan5 1,2,3,4,5Faculty of Education and Social Sciences, Universiti Selangor, Malaysia. (+ Corresponding author) ABSTRACT Article History Received: 6 November 2018 Revised: 13 December 2018 Accepted: 22 January 2019 Published: 4 April 2019 Keywords Writing skills Writing approaches Perception Literacy Coherent Expression. Writing has always been subjected as a difficult task for students taking English language subjects during their first two semesters studying in tertiary education. For these students, writing a composition has been a task they would prefer to avoid doing. One of many reasons is the inability to first generate and organize their ideas for writing tasks. Besides, they faced difficulty in expressing themselves fluently or being able to write sentences that are grammatically correct in the target language. Realizing the importance of writing skills among undergraduates in the tertiary education, a study was carried out on 200 undergraduates who attended a day Malaysian University English Test (MUET) workshop to examine students‟ writing ability through a proposed model of Transferring, Restructuring, Engaging, Negotiating and Documenting (T.R.E.N.D.) . The findings had shown significant improvement in learners‟ writing in term of coherency and the development of ideas after the workshop. As a whole, the use of T.R.E.N.D. Model had helped to improve students‟ writing ability in terms of not only language proficiency, but also their level of confidence. Contribution/ Originality: This study has conducted a model for writing in tertiary education. The introductory of T.R.E.N.D. model acts as an alternative to traditional Process approach to writing in where the involvement of peer-readers in the third stage of the model is highly anticipated to help writers to express ideas. 1. INTRODUCTION Writing has never been easy for students studying in this institution of higher learning. A good piece of writing is a valuable tool for communicating one‟s thoughts to others. Most of these writers find it difficult to organize their thoughts, edit or remove information during writing. In addition, it is noticeable that students tend to repeat basic mistakes such as misspelling and lacking in the elaboration of points which disrupted the flow of writing and automatically make it bad writing as a whole. In contrary, the focus of most writing tasks assigned in English classroom had placed heavily on the final product rather than the process of writing the essays. In fact, most students are not able to write in English for many reasons. Hence, many English language lecturers have then placed heavy emphasis on writing drills in hoping to help student writers in mastering writing skills as it is one of the four basic language skills that is given unique importance (Salem, 2013) . One of the factors is the lack of knowledge in developing and arranging content and ideas. Students might not be exposed to the writing process correctly or at all in some cases. Therefore, the students do not know how to express their ideas in writing. The situation had dampened students‟ writing as they could come up with brilliant thoughts, but unfortunately, were unable to incorporate those thoughts into writing. Hence, most students will end up abandoning those ideas which made the writing dull and uninteresting for readers. In returns, due to poor writing skills, the students‟ motivation and confidence were then hampered. This has then caused many to struggle in putting

FAQs

What problem does the study address about tertiary students’ writing?

The study addresses students’ difficulty generating, organizing, and expressing ideas in English writing, including challenges with grammar accuracy and fluent sentence construction.

How does the T.R.E.N.D. model support writing improvement?

The T.R.E.N.D. model guides writers through stages that transfer, restructure, engage, negotiate, and document ideas, helping improve coherence and idea development.

What were the main outcomes after the MUET workshop using the T.R.E.N.D. model?

Findings indicated significant improvement in learners’ writing coherence and development of ideas, along with increased confidence and improved language proficiency.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Dipper