Abstract:
Purpose: This paper assesses second-year students' use of transitional devices in their essays at
St. Ambrose and Berekum Colleges of Education, Ghana. The objective of the study was to
examine how college students use transitional devices to achieve coherence in their essays.
Design/Methods/Approach: The study employed the descriptive survey method, using Halliday
and Hasan’s Theory of Cohesion and Coherence as the theoretical framework and Oshima and
Hogue’s categorisation of transitional devices as the analytical framework. A sample size of 214
essays was randomly selected from about 520 essays written by first-year students from Berekum
College of Education and St. Ambrose College of Education, both in the Bono Region of Ghana.
The data were analysed using content analysis.
Findings: The study’s results showed that students used transitional devices at the inter-sentential
and inter-paragraph levels to convey addition, contrast, comparison, time sequence, cause and
effect, and conclusion, thereby achieving cohesion and coherence in their essays.
Research Limitation: The paper is limited to only two colleges of education in Ghana: Berekum
and St. Ambrose Colleges of Education. Hence, the results cannot be generalised as the true
reflection of the performance of all students of colleges of education in Ghana.
Practical Implication: The study will aid students, particularly those in the colleges of education,
in overcoming their difficulties with using transitional devices and, ultimately, improving their
writing skills.
Social Implications: The study will help inform policy-making in colleges of education regarding
how teachers can address students’ writing flaws in cohesion and coherence.
Originality/Value: The study is based on the authors’ efforts to identify how students used
transitional devices in context in their essays to achieve coherence and cohesion.
