An Action Research

ANALYSIS OF THE REASONS FOR THE WRITING DIFFICULTIES OF

2nd YEAR BSMT STUDENTS OF MPCF - LC IN RESEARCH
N. Baldon| I. Daet|C.L. Torres|E. Arana

Introduction
Research is one of the four thrusts of an institution. It is stipulated in CMO
13.s.2013 Section 25 that every maritime school shall encourage its faculty
members and students to undertake research for the enhancement of maritime
education programs and training. Furthermore, CHED requires that all HEIs should
generate a research output from its faculty, staff, and students. In connection with
this, the maritime program of MPCF-LC which includes research is seen as one of the
areas that needs to be strengthened. Therefore, faculty members, as well as,
students involvement is significant in research productivity to Maritime Education.
Based from the curriculum of the 2nd year BSMT program, research is
integrated in English 4 with the course description of Technical Writing with Oral
Communication. Students are taught and guided by the English 4 instructors to
write a research paper related to the field of maritime. In the writing activities and
examinations conducted by instructors in their classes, it is observed that most of
the students find difficulty in expressing their thoughts into writing, basically
because they lack vocabulary and knowledge on how to express ideas in correct
sentences.
Having observed the writing difficulties of the 2 nd year BSMT Students of
MPCF - LC in writing a research, we are proposing this action research entitled,
Analysis of the Reasons for the Writing Difficulties of 2 nd year BSMT Students of
MPCF-LC in research. Its purposes are to identify and validate the observed
difficulties encountered by the students in research writing, as well as, to propose
solutions to the identified difficulties.
Through the confirmed difficulties encountered by students in research
writing, instructors will be guided on what to discuss and teach the students to
solve or minimize errors in sentence construction, organization of ideas and
research writing. Moreover, the instructors will come up with a workbook where
exercises and activities are provided for the students to practice what have been
taught. The said exercises and activities will be included in the Instructors Guide
(IGs) .
Methods
1. Survey questionnaires
2. Through essay writing within the classroom spelling, grammatical
construction, organization of ideas [checklist like format, vocabulary,
appropriate used of words, usage]

3. Exercises / Workbooks
4. Focused Group Discussion [FGD] oral spoken language [faculty and
students], attitude of students
5. Validate assumptions

Results and Discussion

References

Relevance:
Contribution
How will it help the school?
Why is it a problem
Observation
How will it improve you and the school ?

The problems encountered by students in

1. What is the profile of the 2nd year Maritime students, in terms of:
a. Age
b. Sex
c. Family income
d. Educational Attainment of the parents
e. Parents occupation
f. Number of siblings?
2. What are the problems encountered by the maritime students in technical
research, in terms of
a. Writing skills
b. Reading skills
c. Availability of resources
d. Study habits
e. Time Management?

3. What are the possible solutions that may be proposed to solve the problems
encountered by the Maritime students in writing a technical research?