ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS SENTENCE ERROR IN ESSAY WRITING AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Abstract
This study investigates sentence errors among senior secondary students in English language essay writing. The study employed the use of achievement tests.The population comprised of some students in schools within Education District V. Thirty students were selected from each school making a total of one hundred and fifty hundred respondents. The data were analyzed using mean and simple percentage. The results revealed that findings shows that there is a significant relationship in the common types of errors made by senior secondary school students in English essay writing, there is a significant relationship between frequency and patterns of these errors across different categories of essay writing (e.g., narrative, descriptive, expository, argumentative), there is a significant relationship between influence of students’ linguistic background and instructional methods on their writing errors and there is a significant relationship between impact of writing errors on the overall quality and effectiveness of students’ essays. Based on the findings and implications, it was recommended that1. Schools and teachers should implement explicit teaching of grammar and sentence structure in writing lessons. Regular and practical exercises on subject-verb agreement, punctuation, sentence fragments, run-ons, and parallelism can help students internalize correct sentence construction. Students should be encouraged to read a variety of well-written materials (novels, newspapers, essays) to improve their language competence and exposure to correct sentence patterns. A reading-rich environment has been proven to enhance writing skills. Writing should be a continuous process with ample opportunities for practice. Teachers should provide timely, constructive feedback focusing on both content and sentence-level errors. Peer review sessions can also help students recognize and learn from each other’s mistakes.
Key words:
Sentence errors
Essay writing
Senior secondary students
Linguistic background
Instructional methods
Grammar teaching
Writing skills
Words count: 232
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