Writing competence in English: a genre-based analysis of university students’ written texts, 2000-2015

Abstract

This study uses a qualitative approach to analyse the writing competence in English of Makerere University students in the natural science enrolled between 2000 and 2015. The data for the study came from textual analysis. Informed by the Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) genre theory, the analysis focuses on the structural and linguistic features expressed in the chemistry students’ explanation genres, and examining what their main strengths and weaknesses in writing were. The findings per every five years were compared across the times, and studied to establish the students’ writing trends expressed over time. The study found that, students’ writing across the years had challenges that interfered with their writing competence. However, students differed in their use of the structural and linguistic features, giving rise to various patterns of their writing. Regarding the text structure, the results indicate that, most students across the years were unable to construct the typical structure of the explanation genre, which characterised their writing competence as generally weak. With respect to the selected linguistic features namely: the use of scientific terms, nominalization, present tense and appropriate conjunctions, the findings indicate that, most of the students’ explanation genres throughout the years reflected their use. The study concluded that, in fulfilling the communication text purpose, the students’ writing competence over the 15 years was fluctuated, with indicators of a generally weak performance. In their use of the linguistic features, while the majority of students made use of the selected linguistic features, they expressed a decline as years progressed. Nevertheless, students demonstrated better performance of the linguistic features since they were marked present in the majority of their explanation genres throughout the years, unlike the structural features. The study therefore, recommends that more attention needs to be paid to the teaching of structural features. Notably, the general statement which was identified as the most problematic area for students to acquire.