Cohesion and Errors in Essay Writing by Libyan EFL Students: A Study in the English Department, Omar Al-Mukhtar University

Abstract

This study examines the misuse of the cohesion features in persuasive essays written by second-year students in the Department of English Language at Omar Al-Mukhtar University for the academic year 2022-2023. The study is guided by Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) cohesion theory. It utilized a qualitative descriptive method to study the cohesion and errors in essay writing by Libyan EFL students. The data is obtained from the participants by writing a persuasive essay that discusses one of the two topics provided. The findings of this study are three types of errors in the use of cohesion features, namely: reference features, lexical cohesion and conjunctions. The analysis also found several errors related to the structure and content of the essay, namely: the absence of thesis statement, the use of inappropriate punctuation marks, the absence of appropriate transition signals, the inconsistency of ideas, errors using parts of speech and diction that are inappropriate.