The present study seeks to investigate the main difficulties undergraduate students face in academic writing. The participants in the study are 52 randomly selected first year students from the School of Information Technology, Skyline University, Sharjah, UAE. Through assessing samples of the students’ assignments, the researcher will identify the main errors so that he can give constructive feedback and plan revision and remedial activities to help learners overcome those difficulties. In addition to using students’ assignments as an instrument for collecting data, questionnaire will be administered to students to explore types of problems they face in the English composition course, their view on the way English writing class is delivered, and to what extent they find classroom writing tasks relevant to their academic, personal, and professional life. By identifying the common issues UAE students face in writing, the aim is to enhance students ‘s writing skills and design a course book which can be a reference in teaching academic writing course in the UAE high education setting.
Keywords: Assessment, ESL Learners, English writing skills, writing errors
