Sentence Relations in the Writing of EFL Students at University Level

Therefore, reference signals 'the same member' unless marked as different
by the use of comparison; while substitution signals 'another member of the
same class' unless marked as identical by same. (Halliday 1985: 302).
McCarthy (1991:46) makes another difference between substitution and
reference, stating that substitutes can be modified ( ‘ a red one’, ‘ the one
in the corner’), while pronouns cannot be modified in this way (*a red it,
*the it in the corner).
5.2.2.3 Ellipsis
Closely related to substitution is the cohesive device of ellipsis,
where there is omission of a second mention of items which can be
understood as implicit. This grammatical process avoids unnecessary
repetition and is more economical. Ellipsis has a cohesive effect because it
is only used when a word or phrase is completely predictable that the
speakers/writers assume what is missing from the context and the missing
information is automatically filled in:
2. Haworth is best in winter. Hawes in summer. (Jeffries 2006:186)
The second sentence here is linked to the first by the fact that we know
that the verb and complement “is best” is missing, such ellipsis as a
cohesive mechanism across sentence boundaries is most frequent in
informal and spoken language styles.
5.2.2.4Conjunction
The fourth and final type of grammatical cohesion is conjunction.
Conjunctive elements are not" devices for reaching out into the
preceding or following text "like reference, ellipsis or substitution.
Rather they are cohesive" by virtue of their specific meaning”
(Halliday and Hasan 1976: 226).
Thus, conjunction creates cohesion by relating sentences and
paragraphs to each other by using words from the class of conjunction.
This can be additive, adversative, causal, temporal or continuative.
5.2.2.5 Lexical Cohesion
In lexical cohesion the relationship of cohesion is realized by
vocabulary, i.e. by word. The discussion of lexical cohesion deals with two
varieties: reiteration and collocation. The difference between the two is
that while the former preserves reference between two related items, the
latter does not, the former is classified into four types: same word
(repetition), synonym (or near synonym), super ordinate and general
word. (Halliday and Hasan 1976:274)
Consider the illustration of each of these in turn
6. Data Collection
6.1 The Sample
The sample of the study is one hundred fourth year students:
fifty from the College of Languages and fifty from the College of Education
for Human Sciences in the University of Salahaddin for the academic year
(2006-2007).
The students are chosen randomly from one hundred and thirty eight
students of both colleges .The reason for choosing the fourth year students
for this test is that the fourth year students are supposed to have sufficiently
mastered the writing process after taking courses in Guided Composition,
Free Composition, and Essay Writing in the college.
6.2 The Tool
6.2 .1 The Test
A test of (5) topics was designed and the students were asked
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