Abstract:
This study aimed at exploring problems of paragraph writing encountered
by Sudanese secondary students. It intended to get responses to the
questions manifesting that students are very weak in the knowledge of
paragraph writing and in using grammatical rules, cohesive devices, and
punctuation. However, the study intended to exploit specific episodes of
literary texts (Sudanese Short Stories) as a technique of paragraph
writing. The descriptive analytic method was used for analyzing the
collected data from the students’ tests and teachers' questionnaire through
SPSS programme. The samples of the study consisted of second class
students from Bait Almal Secondary school for Boys in Omdurman
Locality, the teachers’ questionnaire concerning secondary school
teachers from Khartoum and an interview with some English secondary
stage directors from Khartoum and White Nile State .The study
hypothesized that the students are in much need of grasping the concept
of basic sub-skills of writing and knowing the techniques of paragraph
writing, but it was found that students have no idea about methods,
procedures of using literature in paragraph writing regardless, the use of
basic sub-skills. So the study suggested doing a lot of practice on
grammatical aspects. Accordingly, a course on exploiting short stories is
useful for improving and promoting students' level in methods of
paragraph writing and in grammatical aspects and mechanics.
