Investigating structural challenges in paragraphing in essays of student-teachers: A case of Mount Mary College of Education, Ghana
Keywords:
cohesive devices, introductory paragraph, paragraphing, supporting sentences, student-teacherAbstract
Paragraphing has posed challenges to several writers. Some of these challenges include failure to state the topic sentence, poor development of the topic sentence and wrong use of cohesive devices. The study focussed on unearthing the paragraphing challenges in the essays of the student-teachers with Mount Mary College of Education as the case study. The study employed quantitative approach to collect data from student-teachers and tutors. This comprised of 757 students in level 100 and 200. Written texts and interviews were used as research instruments. The Essay Analytical Framework (EAF) of Owusu (2012) was used for the analyses. The findings showed that most of the student-teachers encountered myriads of challenges in paragraphing the introductory, the body and the concluding paragraphs. Constructing the topic sentences and elucidating them with supporting sentences posed challenges to some of the students. Furthermore, the study found out that most of the student-teachers had problems with achieving unity, coherence and completeness in their paragraphs.
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