Research Instrument
An achievement test was designed to assess the students’ competency in writing subskills. Different items related to writing skills namely word completion, sentence making/syntax, comprehension, tenses/grammar and handwriting were included in the test. Nanda and Khatoi (2005) specified such type of items for such type of research. The material for achievement test was taken from the textbook for grade 10 students recommended by the Punjab Text Book Board. The students were directed to complete the achievement test. Writing test consisting of 05 sections was for thirty (30) marks. Allowed time was twenty-five (25) minutes for the achievement test.
The validity of the instrument was tested by language experts’ opinions, followed by a pilot study on a small scale. The items of the instrument were improved in the light of language experts’ opinions. The reliability of the instrument was found at 0.917 Cronbach’s Alpha which was acceptable to launch the study at large scale (Gay, 2000).