English for Academic Purposes in an Online Writing System

Abstract

Novice and non-native postgraduate students always face a number of difficulties in the complexity in academic English writing. However, they are seldom taught the effective strategies to regulate their writing processes. This research intends to develop an academic writing course incorporating an online writing system for postgraduate students to develop their metacognitive genre awareness. In the four metacognitive stages, the postgraduate students are assigned different kinds of writing tasks. All of their writing products, such as drafts of thesis proposal, final version of thesis proposal, self-reflections, are recorded and observed in the online writing system.