Coordination and Apposition in Energy Reports in Selected Nigerian Online Newspapers

Abstract

This study investigated the syntactic uses of coordination and apposition in energy reports in 
selected Nigerian newspapers published online. Fifteen energy reports were purposively 
selected from three Nigerian online newspapers – The Guardian, The Punch and Vanguard. The 
data analysis was guided by Hengeveld and Mackenzie’s Functional Discourse Grammar. The 
results showed that coordination was a crucial process in combining grammatical structures as 
applied to virtually every element of the sentences. The results also showed that coordination 
helped to give comprehensive details that were difficult to capture with a single lexical item 
and enhanced the level of details in syntactic situations in groups involvement. Where the 
coordination and was dominant, it was mainly used for the semantic purpose of addition. 
Furthermore, the findings showed that apposition was a useful grammatical element which 
catered for details such as names, positions and designated departments of officials and 
agencies mentioned in energy reports. It is therefore concluded that coordination and 
apposition are useful grammatical elements which can aid not just the cohesion of scientific 
reports but also improve their comprehensiveness and comprehensibility.