CONCEPTIONS AND PROBLEMS RELATED TO THE ACADEMIC WRITING OF THE UNDERGRADUATE THESIS IN DENTAL STUDENTS OF A PERUVIAN UNIVERSITY

Objetive: To identify the conceptions and problems related to academic writing presented by a group of dental students during the preparation of their undergraduate thesis Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out with 72 students of stomatology at the Universidad Científica del Sur (Lima, Peru). The technique used was the survey and the instrument was a questionnaire (Writing Process Questionnaire) that evaluated the dimensions of blocking, procrastination, perfectionism, innate ability, knowledge and transformation, and productivity. The scale data were analyzed through relative frequencies for each question, also analyzed through average scores. Results: 68 students were surveyed (response rate = 94.4 %) and the frequency of responses per question showed that in the dimension “blocking” 35.3 % (n=24) agreed that they “hate writing” and 48.5 % (n=33) strongly agreed that they “find it easier to express themselves in other ways than writing”. Correlations were found between the dimensions blocking-perfectionism (r=0.712), blocking-procrastination (r=0.645) and productivity-procrastination (r=0.708). Conclusion: Undergraduate students perceive some difficulties during their thesis writing. These are more frequent in the dimensions of blocking, perfectionism, procrastination and productivity. Scores are lower in students who present previous extracurricular writing experiences and present high academic performance.