This article is based on a qualitative oriented methodology to examine the written performance of six MA students majoring in English as Foreign Language (EFL) in the MA Program at one of the recently established universities in Saudi Arabia. Students’ final exam sheets were thoroughly looked at for the description of the syntactic structures in the students’ writing performance. The sampling process was selective and purposeful in the sense that it comprises three outstanding and the three poor performances out of a total of fourteen students’ exam sheets. Deviated structures together with the correct ones were analyzed and described with the aim of mapping common issues in writing performance in targeted university and assumingly which might help the targeted university and other similar contexts inside Saudi Arabia and other neighboring countries, two major sources of the unacceptable performance is lack of knowledge of the target language together with mother tongue influence. Additionally; diagnosing a remedy for the deviated forms was proposed. More reinforcement and support for those who were successful were too recommended.
Keywords: EFL, Higher Education, Performance, writing
