Abstract:
The misuse of cohesive devices has been identified as a common problem faced by
students of tertiary institutions. Students find it difficult to have a coherent discourse; this may be
as result of lack of knowledge of cohesive devices. This study focused on the use of cohesive
devices in the writings of students of Adamu Augie College of Education, Argungu. The study
also focused on some research objectives: finding out the type of cohesive devices used in
students writing of narrative, expository and argumentative. The research also seeks to answer
some research questions: what type of cohesive devices do students used in the writings of
argumentative, expository and narrative essays and the problems they encounter in the use of
cohesive devices in their writing? Hypotheses were drawn to include there is no significant
difference in the use of cohesive devices across the departments and in the three types of writing.
Identification test was used as instrument for data collection. The statistical tools employed for
this research were frequency count and percentages to analyse the data collected in relation to
research questions while Chi-square was used to test the hypotheses. The study shows significant differences in the use of cohesive devices in the three types of writing and across the
departments. The findings show that there is significant difference in the use of cohesive devices
in the three types of writing. It is recommended that students should be given writing skills to
allow them write qualitatively.
