Every year, thousands of university students complete research projects as part of their degree. But doing good research is only half the challenge. Researchers must also convince readers that their work is important. A study by Dr. Risa Rumentha Simanjuntak explores how Indonesian university students do exactly that and what their writing reveals about learning academic communication.

The study examined 1,178 undergraduate thesis abstracts written by students in Indonesia. Each thesis included an abstract in both Indonesian and English, creating a large collection of more than 161,000 words for analysis. Using a corpus linguistics approach—a method that studies patterns across large collections of texts—the researcher analysed how students presented their research and argued for its significance. The analysis was carried out using the software AntConc, which identifies recurring words, phrases, and language patterns.

One key finding was that students followed a clear and consistent structure in their abstracts. Most introduced the purpose of the study, explained the research method, presented the results, and ended with a conclusion. Interestingly, words related to methods appeared much more frequently than words describing results, suggesting that students placed considerable emphasis on explaining how they conducted their research. The frequent use of passive verbs such as “used” and “conducted” also reflected the formal style expected in academic writing.

The research also explored two important writing strategies known as hedges and boosters. Hedges are words such as may, possible, or suggest, which allow writers to present ideas cautiously. Boosters, on the other hand, include words such as clearly, must, or demonstrate, which express greater confidence. Surprisingly, students used a wider variety of hedges than boosters. This suggests they preferred to make careful, measured claims rather than overly confident ones. While this approach reflects academic caution, it may also indicate that students lack confidence or have limited exposure to the wider range of language used by experienced researchers.

Another interesting discovery was the influence of students’ first language on their English writing. Certain Indonesian sentence structures and word choices appeared to shape how students organised ideas in English abstracts. Rather than viewing these patterns as mistakes, the study argues that they demonstrate how learners draw on familiar language resources while developing academic writing skills in a second language.

The findings carry important lessons for universities. Instead of teaching academic writing only through rules and templates, the study recommends exposing students to authentic examples from their own disciplines. Reading collections of real research papers can help students understand not only what to write but also how experienced researchers communicate ideas, present evidence, and persuade readers. The author also encourages universities to provide more opportunities for students to participate in real research projects and to strengthen English for Specific Purposes courses that focus on the language of particular fields rather than general English.

Ultimately, this research reminds us that academic writing is more than correct grammar or vocabulary. It is about learning to communicate ideas with clarity, confidence, and credibility. By understanding how students naturally write and by supporting them with authentic language resources, universities can help the next generation of researchers share knowledge more effectively with the world.

Read the full book chapter here: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-97-2336-2_9#Sec9

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