Sentence Relations in the Writing of EFL Students at University Level

overgeneralization and simplification on the part of the learners,
incorrect application of rules, ignoring the use of mechanics of
writing, carelessness in writing composition and poor practice
were found to account for the majority of learners’ errors.
7. The inefficiency of the students’ writing shows that these
students have not applied the techniques of writing of the good
paragraph in their writing. This might reveal that these students
regard the composition courses-The Guided Composition Course,
the Free Composition Course and the Essay Writing Course-as
mere courses which they have to pass in one way or another, and
not as courses that will enable them to acquire the skill of proper
writing which they will have to use and develop in the various
writing activities that they do.
8. Most students’ writings lack a clear structure and they often
lack a sense of cohesion. At sentence level there are often
coherence and accuracy problems, they still have various language
weaknesses by committing some elementary errors when writing
the sentence and this can be easily seen in their paragraphs. There
are various grammatical, spelling, vocabulary and punctuation
errors that the fourth-year students of English are supposed not to
commit at this advanced stage of learning. In other words, since
the students have not mastered the structure of the English
sentence, they will naturally find it difficult to control the structure
of the English paragraph. As a result of failing to observe accepted
writing conventions they produce writing which is unsatisfactory
and ineffective.
9. Pedagogical Implications
The study of students’ errors could provide teachers invaluable
information on the errors that require remedial work. Such
information would be the starting point for the teachers to focus their
attention on those areas that actually need further reinforcement. As
such, time and effort will not be wasted on teaching areas which pose
minor problems to the students. For instance, it is clear in this study,
that the errors in the use of reference require more attention than the
others. Teachers should then be more aware of these problems and
provide the necessary follow up work to check the problem areas as
discussed earlier. Based on the results of the study, the following
recommendations are made in order to reduce the number of errors
made by the students in their written English:
1. Students need to be aware of the problems of using linkers in their
writing and therefore, they need more rigorous training which would
oblige the students to think through their argument first and then
decide how they might reinforce it with linkers. Despite the
importance of cohesion in the creation of textuality, teachers must
not forget to help their students keep a balanced perspective in the
use of cohesive devices in general and in the use of conjunctions or
connectives in particular. It must be made explicit to students that
cohesion does not result from simply scattering large number of
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