CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY 3.1. Introduction Writing plays a vital role in people’s everyday communication. For university students, writing an English composition constitutes a difficult task, in which the use of cohesive devices is one of the major problems. The reason why researchers focus on the role of cohesion in writing so much is the fact that cohesion is assumed to contribute to the coherence of any piece of writing. It is argued that it has a facilitative effect on text understanding and is regarded to be related to essay coherence. The aim of this study is to investigate the cohesive devices in each one of the subjects’ compositions. 3.2. Research Type and Methodology The present study employed a combination of descriptive-analytical (survey) research techniques, and a quasi-experimental research design with one intact group. This was mainly because it was almost impossible to randomly select from population to sample. Also, in this study, a triangulated methodology was adopted as a result of the current scholarly interest in the triangulation research methodology as well as the nature of the present study. Therefore, the two major research paradigms, quantitative and qualitative, were synthesized in the use of multiple data-collection and analysis procedures. Quantitative methodology was adopted when the researcher intended to collect the participants ' writing samples throughout the course. Qualitative methodology was adopted when open-end attitudinal questions