Writing is seldom explicitly taught, most specifically, in academic and scholarly writing. Therefore, this mixed methods correlational phenomenology research study explored the correlation between self-efficacy perception and course room preparation for the comprehensive examination, APA standards in the course room, APA standards evaluation for comprehensive examination, course room scholarly writing preparations, and scholarly writing application for the comprehensive examination for online doctoral research students. A total of 87 online doctoral research students and graduates provided data for the quantitative component of the study by completing the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire and 13 (15%) of them participating in the qualitative component through a telephone interview. The quantitative component of the study included descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze the data collected. The quantitative study results found a significant correlation between perceived self-efficacy and scholarly writing skills, APA standards preparation in the course room, APA standards evaluation of the comprehensive examination, and course room scholarly writing preparation and comprehensive examination scholarly writing application. Adult learning, self-directed learning, self-efficacy, and constructivism theories provided the theoretical framework for the study. The qualitative findings revealed themes from the four qualitative questions. Along with the online research doctoral students' own efforts, these findings indicated a need for a combination of the school/institution, professors/student interaction, course room tools, empirical structure, outside efforts, and helpful professors to succeed as scholarly writers from the course room to comprehensive examination.
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