The study is an attempt to
assess the methods of development in the compositions of students who are
reading various business-oriented courses in private universities in Ghana.
This area has received little attention from researchers in Ghana. Two private
universities—Christian Service and Ghana Baptist
University College—were the two
selected cases. Prior investigations exposed students’ writing flaws in the
form of wrong usage of the features of a particular method of development when
writing essays. Therefore, the literature reviewed was mostly based on these
gaps indicated. The primary data collected from the field were from texts
(classroom-based and take-home-based texts). Basically, probability sampling
techniques were employed to sample the population of the cases selected. All
the data gathered were descriptively analysed. The findings showed that students
have problems composing descriptive and comparison and contrast paragraphs or
essays. But, the study brought to light that students handled narrative,
argumentative, and cause and effect essays knowledgeably. It was recommended
that enough attention should be given to the teaching and learning of
descriptive and comparison and contrast essays. It is our expectation that the
findings and recommendations of the work would influence the decisions of
policy makers in the field of English language.
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