Abstract

OCHOA SIERRA, Ligia  and  CUEVA LOBELLE, Alberto. Writer’s block in the completion of a Master’s degree thesis: Distress and unease experienced by graduate students. Leng. [online]. 2017, vol.45, n.1, pp.61-87. ISSN 0120-3479.

This article reports the results of a study on the perceptions that graduate students and Master’s graduates have of writer’s blocks that they experienced. A descriptive survey design methodology was used. An online survey was administered to students who had recently completed -or were about to complete- their dissertations from graduate programs of a Faculty of Humanities. The survey focused on the following aspects: moments in which the survey respondent experienced the block, their attributed causes, whether or not they overcome the block, and, if so, how. It also inquired about the role of the thesis advisor and about the general perception of the survey respondents regarding academic writing. Results show that writer’s blocks in Master’s programs have academic and institutional causes along with a number of consequences that require institutional attention and that he student is not the only responsible for this situation.

Keywords : writer’s block; academic writing; master’s thesis; thesis’s supervisor; master’s thesis students.

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