General weaknesses
The weaknesses observed include:
- poor paragraphing;
- poor expression as a result of wrong concord, poor punctuation marks, wrong use of tenses, poor use of prepositions and articles, translation of vernacular into English ;
- failure to grasp the requirements and demands of some questions attempted;
- inability to construct simple and correct sentences;
- wrong use of the first person pronoun āIā;
- writing below the required number of words on the essay topics;
- poor knowledge of functions of clauses;
- illegible handwriting;
- spelling errors;
- poor knowledge of the basic rules of English grammar;
- indiscriminate lifting of answers from the passage.
SUGGESTED REMEDIES
Candidates should:
- endeavour to improve on their vocabulary and grammar in English Language through extensive reading;
- learn the basic grammatical structures of English Language;
- take time to understand the exact demands of questions before attempting to answer them;
- draw up an outline to organise their thoughts before writing their essays;
- read through their work to correct spelling and grammatical errors before submitting their scripts;
- practise essay writing constantly;
- converse frequently in simple and correct English expressions.