ANALYSIS OF MORPHOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTIC ERRORS IN THE WRITINGS OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF MALAKAND

Abstract

The objectives of the current study were to identify and examine the errors in the writings of the undergraduate students of the Departments of English. The current study was quantitative in nature, a sample of thirty eight papers of one subject of the 8th semester were selected for examination through the purposive sampling technique. Corder’s (1974) analytical framework was used to analyze data. After analysis of the data, the researcher identified five types of errors in the writings of the undergraduate students. The five kinds were: errors in punctuation, spelling, articles, tenses, and prepositions. The findings illustrated that majority of students made errors in comma, capitalization, indefinite article, present indefinite tense and wrong substitution of preposition. It is obvious that the students are weak in the use of mechanics of writing. The results also depicted that the overall performance of female students was very good, and they made fewer errors in their writings as compared to male students. It is also obvious that existing curriculum in the department does not help the students to overcome their errors. It is suggested that students should read more and identify the areas where they are weak to overcome such errors.