TYPOLOGY OF LANGUAGE ERRORS IN APPLICANT MOTIVATION LETTERS

Abstract

Thе article presents an analysis of typical linguistic errors found in the motivation letters of applicants to Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University during the 2023–2024 academic years. The author focuses on a significant corpus of texts submitted for popular specialties 029 «Information, Library, and Archival Affairs», 017 «Physical Culture and Sports», 014 «Secondary Education (Physical Culture)» and 035 «Philology». To comprehensively analyze and interpret the collected and classified linguistic material, the study employed methods of linguistic observation, distributional and contextual analysis, and the descriptive method, which facilitated the systematization and typologization of the identified errors.The conducted research revealed imprecisions in word usage, confusion of paronyms, overuse of bureaucratic jargon and calques (particularly from Russian), instances of pleonasm and tautology, indicating a limited lexical repertoire and difficulties for applicants in expressing thoughts precisely, often leading to the use of words in inappropriate meanings. Typical spelling errors were identified, some of which could have been avoided through self-correction before submission. A substantial number of letters contained missing or superfluous punctuation marks, which complicated and distorted text comprehension. The study also investigated morphological and syntactic deviations, such as incorrect preposition usage, violations of traditional logical word order, illogical sentence construction, and grammatical discord in forms and homogeneous sentence elements. Attention was also drawn to the non-observance of Ukrainian phonetic norms.The low quality of linguistic presentation in such a specific genre as a motivation letter points to gaps in the development of official-business and academic writing skills during previous stages of school language and literature education. School curricula often do not dedicate sufficient attention to preparing students practically for writing official-business documents, including motivation letters. The prospects for further research lie in identifying, systematizing, and providing expert linguistic commentary on typical errors based on a broader corpus of texts.Developing educational and methodological recommendations is considered an effective and crucial step to help future applicants improve their academic writing skills and enhance the quality of their motivation letters.