Published Article

ABSTRACT This study set out to examine essay writing in contemporary Nigeria. The aims were to discover the nature and standard of essays our university students write, their grasp of English language vocabulary and their style of presentation of facts and issues in four genres of essay. The theoretical framework adopted for the study is error analysis theory. Four topics representing narrative, descriptive, argumentative and expository essays were given for students to voluntarily choose one. A total of 153 students from the departments of political science, public administration and religious and cultural studies participated in the exercise. The test was conducted under strict supervision. They were asked to write the essay in 400 words within 50 minutes. Fifty essays were selected through stratified random sampling for analysis. Students’ essays were scored on expression/mechanical accuracy, content/focus, paragraphing/organization and introduction/conclusion. Each of the four variables carried 25 marks. Other linguistic issues were grouped under subject-verb agreement, lexis, number, structure and tense. Simple percentages and standard deviation were used to calculate the scores. It was found out that most of our subjects lack basic English vocabulary to present facts. Some have imperfect knowledge of the language, some cannot write expository essay in appropriate style while others engage in transliteration among other infelicities. Extension of the Use of English programme in Nigerian universities from one year to two years has been recommended. KEYWORDS: Essay, narrative, descriptive, argumentative and expository writing, composition, paragraphing, subject, verb, agreement, lucid, prose, tense, lexis, syntax, structure, percentages, mode, mean, median, variance, logic, reasoning.