The Letter Writing Ability of Grade 10 Students

Abstract

The research entitled" The Letter Writing Ability ofGrade 10 Students" is an attempt to identify the errors thatthe learners make in letter writing and determine their letterwriting ability. In order to find out the letter writing ability,the researcher studied different course books, work booksand test books related to class 9 and 10 to collect the dataand then prepared 5 different test tasks. The errors in letterwriting refer to the errors in lay out, spelling grammar andpunctuation marks. No research as yet has been done inthis area to see what problems or difficulties the studentsface in writing different letters. For the study, four (higher)secondary schools of Kathmandu district were selected. Thetotal population was 100. 25 students from each schoolwere randomly selected. The data was tabulated, analyzedand interpreted descriptively using simple statistical tools.After analyzing the data, the research found that thestudents were weaker in formal letter writing. They alsocommitted many errors in grammar, i.e. sub-verb agreementand preposition. In the same manner, boys were morecompetent then the girls of each selected school. The study contains altogether four chapters. The firstchapter deals with the introduction. It consists of generalbackground, introduction of writing, assessing students'letter writing ability, stages of development of writing,essential characteristics of good writing, cohesion,organization, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, overviewof writing, correction of students' written scripts, review ofthe related literature, objectives of the study andsignificance ofthe study. Chapter two introduces the methodology adopted forthe study. It encompasses sources of data, samplingprocedure, tools and processes of data collection andlimitations of the study. Chapter three consists of analysis and interpretation ofthedata. This chapter deals with the proficiency in terms ofitem, sex and school. In this chapter the proficiency of thestudents were tabulated. Actually, the total proficiency ineach item, total proficiency of each school and totalproficiency of boys andgirls were calculated using simplestatistical tools. Chapter four presents the summary of findings andrecommendations. Findings are derived from the analysisand interpretation of data carried out in chapter three andrecommendations and suggestions are made on the basis offindings. The findings of the study are made in terms ofitem, gender and school.