This study aims to examine the fundamental challenges encountered during the postgraduate thesis writing process and the support needs of students through a holistic approach, incorporating the perspectives of students who discontinued their theses, those who completed them, and advisors. Designed as a phenomenology study, one of the qualitative research designs, the data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 17 participants in the field of Turkish education and analyzed using inductive content analysis. The findings indicate chronic problems in structuring the introduction section, relating the research problem to the literature, academic language competence, and the analytical interpretation of findings. Specifically, while a lack of mastery over the literature and motivation stood out among those who discontinued their theses, it was determined that those who completed the process required high-level academic writing support. The research offers a unique value to the literature by demonstrating that thesis writing, beyond being an individual effort, is a pedagogical development area that should be structured with systematic guidance and institutional support mechanisms within the framework of Vygotsky’s “scaffolding” theory.

Thesis writing, postgraduate education, academic writing, writing problems, student-advisor experiences