Understanding Academic Writing Difficulties in Higher Education: A PRISMA-Guided Systematic Review across Linguistic, Psychological, Pedagogical, and Contextual Dimensions

Abstract

Academic writing is a core competency in higher education, yet students across disciplines and educational contexts continue to experience persistent difficulties that affect academic performance and progression. These difficulties are widely acknowledged as multidimensional, extending beyond surface-level language problems to include psychological, pedagogical, and contextual influences. Despite a growing body of research, existing studies remain fragmented, often addressing these dimensions in isolation rather than through an integrated perspective. To address this gap, this systematic literature review aimed to synthesize empirical evidence on academic writing difficulties in higher education by examining linguistic, psychological, pedagogical, and contextual dimensions in a unified framework. Guided by the PRISMA protocol, a systematic search was conducted using two major academic databases, Scopus and Web of Science. Advanced keyword combinations—academic writing, higher education, strategies, and difficulties—were applied to ensure comprehensive coverage. The initial search yielded 861 records, comprising 618 from Scopus and 243 from Web of Science. Following duplicate removal, screening, eligibility assessment, and quality appraisal, 24 primary studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the qualitative synthesis. The findings reveal consistent patterns across contexts: linguistically, students struggle with academic vocabulary, grammatical accuracy, text organization, and genre conventions; psychologically, low self-efficacy, writing anxiety, and fragile academic identity significantly influence engagement with writing tasks; pedagogically, fragmented instruction and limited feedback constrain writing development, while process-oriented and scaffolded approaches show positive outcomes; contextually, disciplinary norms, assessment regimes, linguistic backgrounds, and emerging technological environments shape both expectations and challenges. Overall, the systematic literature review (SLR) demonstrates that academic writing difficulties in higher education are complex and interdependent rather than isolated skill deficits. By integrating evidence across four dimensions, this review contributes a comprehensive understanding that can inform curriculum design, instructional practices, and institutional support systems, while also providing a robust foundation for future research on academic writing development in diverse higher education contexts.