Punctuation and syntactic issues in the expository essay of Form Five students of some selected schools in Yaounde

Abstract

This study examines punctuation and syntactic issues in the expository essay of Form Five students in some selected schools in Yaounde. Data were collected through a production test in which respondents were given two topics to write an essay on one. Findings reveal that out of the fourteen punctuation marks ear-marked, the students made use of seven of them in their essays: the full stop, the semi-colon, the colon, the comma, the apostrophe, the inverted commas and the hyphen. With regard to the use of these punctuation marks, the following issues were identified in their essays: arbitrary use of punctuation marks as well as their omission where they were expected to feature in order to make the sentences express a complete and comprehensible thought. In the same vein, with regard to syntactic components, issues such as: spelling, concord, diction, tense, comma splice, faulty parallelism, as well as fused sentences, are feasible. This raises serious pedagogical questions as far as the writing component of the English language is concerned. The study suggests that punctuation and grammar should be taught overtly and thoroughly at the basic level of secondary education.