Concept processing and generating approach as for written discourse

As is the case everywhere else across the world, writing is one of the main subjects dealt with at tertiary level in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, especially in the curriculum of both the English department and the School of Translation and Interpretation at Univeristé Pédagogique Nationale (UPN) as well as in other Universities and Teachers Training Colleges. As Sullivan (2OO4) observed, ¿written assignments constitute the core of work at graduate level¿ and the Congolese education system is no exception. Theoretically, it accounts for a total of 12O hours which extend over the five years of training. But, in reality the hours allotted to writing are not easy to calculate when considering student¿s probation reports and term papers.However, despite the considerable hours allotted to this subject, there is common agreement among the teachers at tertiary level, mainly those teaching at the UPN English department and School of translation and interpretation as well as the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique/Gombe, that the great majority of students trained to be skilled in academic English writing fail to produce cohesive and coherent pieces of argumentative written discourse.