THE USE OF REPORTING VERBS IN L2 WRITING BY IRAQI POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS AT TIKRIT UNIVERSITY

Abstract

The current study describes the use of RVs in essays written by Iraqi MA students at Tikrit University (in Tikrit province, Iraq). The main aim of the present study is to discover how participants use RVs in essay writing to provide a detailed analysis that will assist them in improving their writing. 15 Iraqi MA students participated in this study. The participants wrote 30 essays; each participant wrote two essays on a different topic that was chosen. The theories from Biber, et al. (2002) equipped by Quirk (1985) are applied to analyze RVs. RVs used by the participants were classified into three categories: communication, activity, and mental verbs. The results of the current study show that the participants used Activity Verbs (55%) followed by Communication Verbs (27%) and Mental Verbs (18%). It was concluded that the students had overused the Activity Verbs, such as ‘point’, ‘show’, ‘find’, ‘give’, and ‘focus’. The present study also concluded that students’ ability in using RVs must be developed to reach the proper academic level in their writing.

Keywords

• Reporting Verbs
• Essay writing
• Qualitative

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