Identifying Grammatical Errors in Job Applications: A Comprehensive Analysis of Potential Employees' English Writing Skills

Abstract

This study investigates grammatical errors through an analysis of potential employees’ written job applications. The researchers have collected a total of 25 written compositions as a target sample from 5 different schools of Multan. The researchers identified lexical, syntactic and punctuation errors in each application and then compared the frequency of occurrence in the selected writing samples. Results show that syntactic errors have the highest frequency of occurrence (42%) followed by punctuation and lexical errors (29%) which have the same percentage. The study concludes that these errors arise due to learners’; insufficient inter-lingual competency, the effect of the applicant’s first language, lack of grammatical knowledge and underdeveloped writing skills. The present research recommends investigating spoken errors during job interviews and also investigating the errors committed by potential employees who have completed 18 years of education.