Dealing with writing deficiencies at tertiary level

• Main Authors: Shabbir Ahmed, Naheeda Ahasan
• Format: Article
• Language: English; English
• Published: Elsevier 2015
• Subjects: P Philology. Linguistics
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/14815/1/Dealing_with_writing_deficiencies_at_tertiary_level.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/14815/7/Dealing%20with%20writing%20deficiencies%20at%20tertiary%20level.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/14815/; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.11.180
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Sabah

Errors in students’ written scripts at the tertiary level may lower grades as well as posing challenges to language teachers for checking scripts and offering corrective feedback. At the worst, students fail to develop essential skills, remaining inefficient in writing. 108 students took part in the study. This paper looks into the grammatical errors of selected genres of written tests, while acknowledging the successful language aspects. A qualitative analysis was used to comment on the quantitative data. Results show that errors made were twofold: at the word level and at the sentence level. Discussions based on the findings in the data highlight their pedagogical implications. An action plan is suggested to improve overall learning and teaching outcomes for tertiary students.