Sentence Structure and Orthography Issues in Primary Students’ Writing

Writing proficiency is foundational to academic success, yet sentence structure and orthographic errors in Palestinian primary students’ writing remain inadequately addressed. This cross-sectional study investigates these errors in Grades 5–10 using Error Analysis (EA) methodology and the Corder Model. A descriptive-analytical approach was employed, with sit-in exams administered to 150 students from Palestinian public schools. Students completed forty-five-minute writing tasks on grade-appropriate topics; data were analyzed using SPSS, with strong inter-rater reliability (κ = 0.84). Findings revealed that sentence structure errors dominated; run-on sentences affected 77% of students, comma splices affected 53%, and fragments affected 51%. In contrast, orthographic errors were less frequent; omission affected 35% of students, substitution affected 21%, insertion affected 13%, and transposition affected 2%. Critically, error frequencies varied significantly: Grade 9 students had the highest incidence of run-on sentences (96%), and Grade 8 students had the lowest (48%). Root causes included poor understanding of punctuation rules, rushed writing, incomplete knowledge of sentence structure, and interference from Arabic. The proposed framework recommends (1) annual diagnostic writing assessments to identify grade-specific patterns; (2) targeted, grade-differentiated lesson plans; (3) explicit comparison of Arabic-English structures; (4) regular writing practice with feedback; (5) structured peer review; and (6) ongoing teacher professional development. Implementation follows a twelve-month timeline with assessment, intervention, and evaluation phases. Future research should experimentally test whether this framework improves writing proficiency outcomes.