Analyzing Formal Links in MA English Theses' Abstracts

Abstract

Abstract

The purpose of this

study

is to check whether students are familiar with the use of

different

cohesive

devices in

writing abstracts

for

theses

at the

master level of

English.

It also aims at finding the

common

cohesive

devices used by Sudanese

EFL

students.

T

he sample was 25

theses

abstracts written

by

Sudanese MA students from AL

-

N

eelain

University,

specializing in

English language

and literature

.

The

quantitative

research design

(SPSS program

) has

been used to

determine the frequencies of

the

formal

links that

have

been used in the

abstracts.

T

he findings reveal

ed

that Sudanese MA students

are

aware

with

particular

cohesive devices

such

as conjunctions,

reference,

repetition and

verb form

.

The

study also

revealed that MA students

lack

awareness

with the use of parallelism, substitution, ellipsis, collocation,

synonym and

antonym.

The research concludes with findings which are proved that the cohesive devices

in the abstracts

written by MA students are used in a great amount and similar

types. The researcher sets

the recommendations for the English language departmen

ts in the different universities to concern more

in teaching the cohesive devices. The students also should focus more on how to use different types of

formal links.