Organisational Skills in Academic Writing: A Study on Coherence and Cohesion in Pakistani Research Abstracts

Ahmad, Muhammad; Mahmood, Muhammad Asim; Siddique, Ali Raza

doi:10.3390/languages4040092

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Under these assumptions, grammatical competence may be expected to show relationships with coherence as it may help to organise the text. The present as well as past studies such as Ahmad et al (2019), Garing (2014) and Saeed (2020) found that the organisation of the text bears a high correlation with coherence. Schleppegrell's (2004) work may help to explain why grammatical knowledge correlates with coherence at a lower level than morphological awareness.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Cognitive Predictors of Coherence in Adult ESL Learners’ Writing

Saeed

Everatt

Sadeghi³

et al. 2022

JLE

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Background. Coherence is considered one of the most important qualities of written discourse. Despite its fundamental importance, it is still considered a fuzzy and abstract concept in most English Second Language (ESL) contexts. Consequently, many ESL learners struggle to produce a coherent text. Morphological, phonological, orthographic awareness, vocabulary knowledge, and grammatical competence have been identified as predictors of writing quality in novice writers. There is, however, a lack of data to assess whether such linguistic skills also predict coherence in adult ESL learners’ writing. Purpose. The purpose of the study was to find out the relationships among a set of linguistic skills measures which included morphological, phonological, orthographic awareness, vocabulary knowledge and grammatical competence and coherence in adult ESL learners’ writing. Methods. To testify to the potential predictors of coherence in ESL writing, adult university students (126) were assessed by the measures of the linguistic skills mentioned above in addition to four measures of coherence: two relatively reader-based measures (ILETS and the Holistic Coherence Scale) and two relatively text-based measures (Topical Structure Analysis and Topic Based Analysis). All measures of the study were proved valid and reliable. Results. The findings revealed that vocabulary knowledge, morphological awareness, and grammatical competence were related to the coherence measures, particularly the reader-based measures. In contrast, measures of phonological and orthographic awareness generally did not correlate with the coherence measures. Implication. Reasons for the associations among the variables of the study were discussed and areas for future research were offered.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Cognitive Predictors of Coherence in Adult ESL Learners’ Writing

Saeed

Everatt

Sadeghi³

et al. 2022

JLE

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“…This sequence of incidents helps the reader to connect the ideas and infer the intended meaning of the writer. Well-organized and connected ideas are deemed to be the quality of essay writing and are given a higher score than ill-organized essays (Ahmad et al, 2019). Different theme-rheme progressions, as mentioned in the literature review section above, assist the writer to widen, broaden, and reiterate the topic which makes the organization of the essay free from any divergence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pakistani ESL/EFL learners and writing According to the benchmarks set by the Pakistani Education Policy 2006, graduate students should be expected to produce coherent and error-free pieces of written text as they are taught all these skills in their previous education. However, the situation is not very encouraging as most of the students are unable to write grammar-free and well-organized essays (Ahmad et al, 2019). Saeed (2020) also found that most of the essays written by adult ESL learners lacked organization and had frequent coherence breaks.…”

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of theme-rheme progression method on improving textual coherence and cohesion in L2 writing: A study of L2 learners of English

Saeed

Karim

Mughal

2021

Pak. J. Humanit. Soc. Sci

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Coherence and cohesion are considered two main elements of essay writing. Despite their importance in writing, they are still regarded as difficult to teach and learn as compared to grammar and spelling. Theme-rheme development is suggested to be a tool to teach coherence and cohesion in writing. This experimental study was carried out to verify whether the teaching of theme-rheme approach helps the learners to improve their textual coherence. Forty graduate-level students (20 males and 20 females), aging between 19 and 23, participated in the study. The participants were equally divided into two groups. The experimental group was taught coherence and cohesion by using the thematic progression method, whereas the controlled group was taught by using the ordinary method. Pre- and post-tests were conducted to compare the effects of the thematic progression method. The findings show that the teaching of coherence and cohesion through the thematic progression method helped the learners to improve their essay writing quality. The experimental group outweighed the controlled group as it got twice higher marks in the post-test than the pre-test. In contrast, the controlled group showed a negligible improvement.

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“…When one's own voice takes on the persona of an authority figure, the expected personal viewpoints in secondary school are traded for the ability to include authoritative others in a multi-perspective.Students must provide critical analyses of other academics' works when absorbing their ideas, both independently and in relation to other relevant materials.As beginners, many students are unaware that they are expected to assert authority in their papers; hence, they regard their assignment as a collection of objective and impersonal opinions from others. It is not without good reason that the term "academic writing" is not used to describe the writing that students perform in secondary schools but rather is limited to defining the writing performed at universities and beyond [7][8][9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Feedback and Strategy Training on Undergraduate Students’ Writing Ability

Martínez

Gómez

2023

Acta Pedagogia Asia

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A combination of writing skill training and revision feedback was evaluated to increase text quality in higher education. The goal of this study was to review the feedback and provide strategy training for enhancing academic writing. The methodology includes the interaction of cognitive and metacognitive support that is crucial for mastering difficult tasks such as academic writing, particularly in higher education. Writing ability and text quality were assessed using items and ratings. First, text structure knowledge application strategy improved academic writing skills; second, feedback related to writing experience improved text quality; undergraduates benefited from informative tutoring feedback, while postgraduates benefited from try-again feedback; and third, the combination of writing strategy and feedback did not improve text quality significantly. To improve writing performance, the demands on working memory must be decreased so that executive attention can be directed to controlling their interactions. In theory, this can be accomplished through focused practise that assists authors in developing executive control through regular writing opportunities and timely, appropriate feedback. Automated essay scoring software may be able to relieve instructors of their time-consuming grading duties, significantly boosting the amount of writing practise pupils receive.

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Organisational Skills in Academic Writing: A Study on Coherence and Cohesion in Pakistani Research Abstracts

Cited by 10 publications

References 30 publications

Cognitive Predictors of Coherence in Adult ESL Learners’ Writing

Cognitive Predictors of Coherence in Adult ESL Learners’ Writing

The impact of theme-rheme progression method on improving textual coherence and cohesion in L2 writing: A study of L2 learners of English

Effect of Feedback and Strategy Training on Undergraduate Students’ Writing Ability

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