Use of Discourse Devices in Writing

Abstract

The present research entitled 'Use of Discourse Devices in Writing' was aimed tofind out, analyze and compare discourse devices used by secondary level (Grade 9and 10) students. In this research non-random sampling procedure was used toselect seventy-two students from both public and private schools of Sindhulidistrict. A questionnaire was used as the tool for data elicitation to analyzediscourse devices used by secondary level students. The major findings of thisresearch are that the students from private schools used more discourse devices.And they used them more appropriately.And, students from both private andpublic schools used more discourse connectives compared to other three devicesviz. markers, adverbials and tag, considered in this study. This thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter one includes general background (i.e.communication, language and language skills) followed by introduction todiscourse, discourse analysis and discourse devices. It also includes importance ofdiscourse devices in writing. Chapter two deals with methodology applied incarrying out the present research work. It consists of sources of data, samplingprocedures, tools for data collection, process of data collection and limitations ofthe study. Chapter three presents the analysis and interpretation of the datacollected from the respondents. Chapter four presents the findings andrecommendations and pedagogical implications of this study. The references andappendices are also given.