Review of Discipline-Specific Phrases in selected Theses in Geography

Abstract

This paper aimed to show the extent to which the state of academic writing as represented by some selected, useful phrases has been frequent in geography research at the University of Khartoum. It applied the statistical analytical, and the descriptive approaches to fifteen Ph.D. and master degrees written during the period 2000-2016. Major findings are depicted: the quality of the theses in the academic writing domain varies i.e. some are categorized as poor, some are excellent and others are in between. The paper recommends that research councils should develop good databases in academic writing along with capacity building initiatives to enhance both instructional practices and writing competence among supervisors and research students respectively.