Postgraduate Students’ Anxiety and Other Emotional Experiences in Thesis Writing

Abstract

Writing a thesis as a requirement for earning a degree is one of the most difficult duties for postgraduate students. An increasing number of postgraduate students are struggling with the difficulty of producing a thesis. The purpose of this study was to identify the types of writing anxiety experienced by postgraduate English as an Additional Language (EAL) students; to describe the other emotional experiences of postgraduate EAL students during the writing of their thesis; and to explain why the postgraduate students experience writing anxiety as they do. This research used a qualitative research design with a case study methodology by generating the data that was reported and analyzed in order to comprehend the findings' broader significance. The subject of this study was Postgraduate students in one of State University in North Sumatera who were working on their thesis. Photovoice, a questionnaire, and interviews were used to collect data in accordance with the concept of Academic Emotions by Pekrun and Anxiety in Writing by Cheng. The findings revealed that postgraduate students encountered Avoidance Anxiety and Cognitive Anxiety from the three kinds of thesis writing anxiety. Avoidance Anxiety was the prevalent sort of thesis writing anxiety among six Postgraduate English Department students in one of State University in North Sumatera. Beside of the anxiety, postgraduate students experienced a variety of feelings during the thesis writing process; stress or depression which is a negative emotions and happiness which is a positive emotion were experienced by the postgraduate students. There were three causes of anxiety found in this research, Unfamiliar with the rhetorical pattern, Numerous additional responsibilities and Pressure for Perfection in Writing were the causes of anxiety in the postgraduate students' thesis writing.