This study examines grammatical cohesion in teacher trainees’ argument essay. Twenty scripts of teacher trainees’ argument essay were purposely selected from a total of hundred essays which were assessed by two inter-raters and used as data for the study. The study basically applied a qualitative method of analysis to the data. The theoretical framework that underpins the study is Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) influential theory of cohesion in English. Three major findings were made. First, teacher trainees frequently use reference and conjunctions to achieve coherence in their argument essay. Second, a good quality essay cannot be judged on the number of cohesive markers present, linguistic features such as grammatical rules of concord and …show more content…
Which grammatical cohesive markers are employed in teacher trainees’ argument essay? 2. Can the frequent use of grammatical cohesive markers determine a high quality essay and vice versa? 3. What are the least grammatical cohesive markers used in teacher trainees’ argument …show more content…
Some of the studies show interest in expository writing of students (Johnson, 1992; Zhang, 2000), others also express interest in comparing cohesive markers identified in good quality essays and poor quality ones. (Meisuo, 2000; Choic, 2005). There are quite a number of studies that have been undertaken on cohesion in undergraduate’ essays but before some of these are reviewed there are certain concepts that need to be explained. These concepts are text, cohesion, coherence and cohesive ties. A text is defined by Halliday and Hasan (1976:1) as “any passage, spoken or written of whatever length, that does form a unified whole. A text can also be a unit of language in use. It is not a grammatical unit like a clause or a sentence and it is not defined by its size… A text is best regarded as a semantic unit: a unit not of form but of meaning.” A text is not a grammatical unit like a phrase or a clause or even a sentence. It is a supersentence. A text can even be less than one sentence in the grammatical structure. Such structures may be warnings, titles and inscriptions and advertising slogans yet they constitute a
“They’ll turn us into writing robots”, a student contends against the use templates influencing the structure of their essays. (10) In the book “They Say/ I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein insist that the use of their relevant templates provide tools that will enhance the readers writing skills. These templates provide an exemplary format that one can use when writing an essay. Graff and Birkenstein suggests that, “Instead of focusing solely on abstract principles of writing, then, this book offers model templates that help you put those principles directly into practice.”
They are simply statements formulated as questions which are added to writing pieces
In her text, “Cognition, Convention and Certainty,” Patricia Bizzell describes the writing process through both inner-directed and outer-directed theories in order to illustrate that the writing process is infirmed by both student’s natural thought processes and their discourse community She uses her text to explain both theories, and to argue for the implementation of a new pedagogy focused on discourse analysis. First, Bizzell introduces the inner –directed theory, which seeks to discover the writing processes through the universal and fundamental structure of language. Conversely, she explains that the outer-directed theory instead argues that the individual’s discourse community does not teach a generalized form of language but rather the
2. I would say that the first sentence in the Declaration is a periodic sentence. It gives an explanation of what is to come in the sentences that follow, and it has many phrases and clauses to lead into the main part of the passage. 3.
General word choice; simple or repetitive sentence structure. Misused words; general / simple word choice; Weak sentence structure. Word choice and/ or sentence structure creates confusion. Organization Consistent use of a variety of transitional strategies which lead readers through the piece.
It is concise, direct, and meaningful to the audience. Long drawn out sentences can leave the audience in confusion, but being simple in one’s writing can leave the audience knowing exactly what the writer wanted to state.
As I began to read in week one Unteaching the Five Paragraph Essay by Marie Foley, I was reminded of the importance of how writing lends to reading, which in turn infers absorbing the content. Writing is essential to not only education but in connecting through this form of communication as well. Appropriately, this was addressed again by John Dewy in Democracy and Education in 1916. I found it interesting that this subject matter written about so long ago is still prevalent today. I can relate to Foley description of writing in structure as being “alien” as I have found my words always flowed without structure.
As a former AP Lang student, I feel that this class has been very beneficial for me in that it has allowed me to apply the techniques and strategies I learned last year toward more relevant subjects. Having the freedom of choosing topics to write about for our various essays made this class more enjoyable than the other English classes that I have taken. AP Lang focused heavily on the techniques of writing solid essays, but instead of writing about useful topics, we analyzed the short stories provided on the exams. Writing a personal narrative essay was very helpful in my college application process and allowed me to employ the same kind of strategies that I learned in class into my college essays.
This sentence style shows the author’s thinking process at the moment, rather than tells a story. Besides fragmented sentences, sections are also unchronological and seem irrelative to each other, attracting readers to read
Sentence structure is not overly complicated, and the use of
Article Analysis: The Importance of Writing Badly Bruce Ballenger’s article titled “The Importance of Writing Badly” takes a rather peculiar approach to addressing the issue of effective writing. The author eccentrically argues for the importance of ‘bad writing’ by describing different reasons to support his arguments. He argues that it is normal to apportion blames without understanding the root causes of poor writing skills. The author quotes different people who have expressed concerns about poor writing among students including his doctor. He proceeds by explaining why he would encourage his students not to concentrate on their poor writing experiences.
Tawney Nodland – As I look back over the past semester of English Composition, I realize that I have grown as a writer. Not onlyhas my understanding of the writing process changed, my whole attitude towards composition has too. This composition course has made a significant impact on my learning experience and has given me tools to take forward into my future educational and professional goals. Throughout this course, I have discovered things about myself as a writer and know some of my strengths and weaknesses. I now feel more prepared for future writing assignments, whether for work or for school.
500 English Sentences Case Study 1. Discuss the differences types of frame used by Scott and Mr. Honda in the conflict situation. In this case, Scott is an American who is a qualified person in the teaching of English and being asked by Mr. Honda to do some editing of the textbook for republication. He was willing to help Mr. Honda to improve the manuscript because he thinks that there are many errors in the textbooks
An example of this would be: “It is a great stride. It is a sign-is it not?” (Emerson, Pg. 393). Emerson influences the syntax of the first sentence in order to have its grasp his audience’s attention. It also provides sentence variety and compared to its long and wordy predecessors, such as the first sentence of that specific paragraph.
We had many class discussions that brought on a few arguments, however I was so interested to hear everyone’s ideas on grammar. My Pedagogical Grammar class helped me to see my views on grammar and how I wanted to teach my students. While the traditional method of teaching grammar is important,