COHESIVE DEVICES IN EFL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' FUNCTIONAL WRITING

This article examines the use of cohesive devices in the functional writing of university students learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Cohesion is an essential feature of effective written communication because it enables writers to connect ideas, maintain textual continuity, and make their messages clear and understandable to readers. The study focuses on the major types of cohesive devices, including reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical cohesion, and analyzes their significance in functional genres such as formal emails, reports, applications, requests, instructions, summaries, and professional correspondence. Particular attention is given to common difficulties experienced by EFL university students, including the overuse of simple conjunctions, inappropriate transition markers, ambiguous pronoun references, excessive lexical repetition, and limited use of substitution and ellipsis. The study argues that effective use of cohesive devices depends not only on grammatical knowledge but also on discourse competence, genre awareness, communicative purpose, and understanding of the intended audience. The article emphasizes the importance of explicit and contextualized instruction, authentic functional texts, corpus-based activities, peer review, process writing, and systematic revision in developing students’ cohesive competence. The study concludes that improving students’ ability to use cohesive devices appropriately can enhance the clarity, readability, organization, and communicative effectiveness of their functional writing and contribute significantly to their academic and professional English proficiency.