Ali Akbar Zeinali - Lecturer, Chiang Rai Rajabhat University
Prasobkan Boonjanawiroj - Instructor, Chiang Rai Rajabhat University

This study provides a comparative analysis of the syntactic characteristics used in writing English by university students in the English language. The sample of the study involves a selection of senior students studying in English-related majors in a university in Thailand. The collected data, subjected to evaluation followed by a comparative analysis, includes the test papers written by the population of ۱۰۰ English-related major students. The analysis indicates generally high level of typical syntactic errors in writing skill across the data sample. For the sample chosen in this study, this research can be highlighted by some error rates found in the composition papers written by the students with respect to the writing skill characteristics. Comparing the papers, “sentence fragment mistakes” is with the high frequency in this study. Moreover, the most observable findings in this study are syntax, prepositions, verbs, subject omissions and nouns with the greatest repeated number of errors across the employed sample. In conclusion, the findings of this study indicates that there is a problem with English writing ability of the chosen students which would be definitely due to either problem with the native language compatibility or problem with the previous teachers’ knowledge in English.

English Writing Skill, Syntactic, Syntax, Sentence Fragment