Exploring the diction used on the written compositions of Grade 7 learners: Basis for an action plan

This study explored the diction used in the written composition of the grade 7 learners to determine which action plan is suited to enhance the learners’ proficiency in writing. A mix-method approach was used to collect data from the students of grade 7 learners. The result showed that the range of vocabulary Type-Token Ratio indicated a relatively low lexical diversity, suggesting that the learners relied heavily on repetitive vocabulary. While as A Type-Token ratio (TTR) of indicated a high lexical indicated varying levels of lexical diversity among the learners in their written compositions. In extent of variety of specific word types used, it was found out that nouns, pronouns, and verbs were the most frequently used parts of speech in the written compositions of Grade 7 learners. Adjectives and adverbs were used less frequently. The results revealed that raw scores indicated a significant variation in readability of the written compositions. The corresponding grade levels suggested that some learners’ writing is below grade level, while others are writing at or above grade level. Some learners are using more complex vocabulary than others. On types of common diction errors, the highest frequency is mechanical errors (punctuation and capitalization), followed by lexical (word choice and spelling errors), syntactical (wordiness), grammatical (tense and verb agreement), and semantic errors (ambiguity).