Syntactic Ability in Relation to Expository Writing Skills of Senior High School Students

Ninaricci Villamor Tupino; Maria Angeles Dano Hinosolango

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i02.72813

Syntactic Ability in Relation to Expository Writing Skills of Senior High School Students

Author(s)	Ms. Ninaricci Villamor Tupino, Dr. Maria Angeles Dano Hinosolango
Country	Philippines
Abstract	The ability to write well is a key academic skill, more so in the case of expository writing where writers are expected to have a clear line of thought, both at content and sentence levels. However, writing poses challenges to many Senior High School students, which can be attribute to lack of syntactic competence. This research examined the relationship between students' syntactic skills and their capabilities in expository writing. More specifically, the study investigated syntactic skill in terms of sentence complexity, grammatical accuracy, and cohesion at sentence level, in relation to expository writing skills in terms of coherence and mechanical accuracy. This study employed a quantitative correlational research design. The participants were the Senior High School (Grade 12) students taking English for Academic and Professional Purposes subject in a public senior high school. Information was gathered via a writing task designed by the researcher and completed by the students entitled: “What is Unique About Your Family?” The written products were rated by using a rubric which had been prepared. Descriptive statistics were computed to determine the syntactic ability and writing performance. Then Spearman’s rho rank correlation coefficient was applied to determine the relation between the two areas. The findings showed that students overall had a good command of syntax. Sentence complexity was considered proficient; grammatical and sentence cohesion were considered good. In addition, the students' expository writing (in particular coherence and mechanical accuracy) was also evaluated as satisfactory. The analysis also revealed a significant positive correlation between syntactic and expository writing (ρ = .978, p < .05). Hence, these results implied that syntactic competence has a significant influence in students' writing. This study demonstrates that enhancing instruction of sentence structure could facilitate gains in students' writing of expository essays.
Keywords	Syntactic Ability, Expository Writing Skills, Sentence Complexity, Grammatical Accuracy, Sentence Cohesion, Coherence, Mechanics, Senior High School Writing
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 2, March-April 2026
Published On	2026-03-29
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i02.72813

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Syntactic Ability in Relation to Expository Writing Skills of Senior High School Students

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