ERROR ANALYSIS ON STUDENTS’ WRITING;

(A Case Study of the Eleventh Year Students of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”)

A ”Skripsi”

Presented to the Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers Training in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of S.Pd. in English Language Education

By

Elis Fadliyah

NIM: 103014026945

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHERS’ TRAINING

STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY ”SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH”

JAKARTA

2008

ERROR ANALYSIS ON STUDENTS’ WRITING;

A Case Study of the Eleventh Year Students of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”

A ”Skripsi”

Presented to the Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers Training

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of S.Pd in English Language Education

Approved by the Advisor

Drs. Arifin Toy, M.Sc.

NIP. 150 031 215

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHERS’ TRAINING

STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY “SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH“

JAKARTA

2008

ENDORSEMENT SHEET

The examination committee of the faculty of Tarbiya and Teachers

Training certifies that the “skripsi” (scientific paper) entitled “Error Analysis on Students’ Writing (A Case Study of the Eleventh Year Students of “MAN 2 Kota

Bogor”)”, written by Elis Fadliyah, student’s registration number is 103014026945, and was examined by the committee on 2nd June 2008, and was

declared to have passed and, therefore fulfilled one of the requirements for the academic title of “S.Pd” (Bachelor of Education) in English Language Education

at Department of English Education.

Jakarta, 2nd

June 2008

Examination committee

Chairman : Drs. Syauki, M.Pd. ( )

NIP. 150 246 289

Secretary : Neneng Sunengsih, S.Pd. ( )

NIP. 150 293 236

Examiners : 1. Drs. Nasrun Mahmud, M.Pd. ( ) NIP. 150 041 070

2. Drs. H. Munir Sonhadji, M.Ed. ( )

NIP. 150 050 682

Acknowledged by:

Dean of Tarbiya and Teachers’ Training Faculty

Prof. Dr. Dede Rosyada, MA. NIP. 150 231 356

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.

All praises be to Allah, The Lord of Worlds, by His helps, guidance, and

blessing finally the writer is able to finish this “skripsi”. Peace and blessing be

upon Muhammad SAW., his descendants, his companions, and his followers.

In this opportunity, the writer would like to express her greatest honor to

her beloved family; his parents H. Abd. Rosyid and Hj. Khoiriyah, her brothers

and sisters who always give their support and moral encouragement in finishing

her study.

The writer would love to address her thanks and great gratitude to her

advisor Drs. Arifin Toy, M.Sc., for his time, guidance, and valuable helps and

corrections during completing this “skripsi”.

The writer realized that she would have never finished in writing her

“skripsi” without the help of some people around her. Therefore, she would like to

give her gratitude and best appreciation to:

1. All lecturers in English Department who always give their motivation and

valuable knowledge during her study at State Islamic University of Syarif

Hidayatullah Jakarta.

2. Drs. Nasrun Mahmud, M.Pd., the previous Head of English Department.

3. Drs. Syauki, M.Pd., the Head of English Department and Neneng Sunengsih,

S.Pd., the Secretary of English Education Department.

4. Prof. Dr. Dede Rosyada, MA., the Dean of Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers’

Training of State Islamic University of Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta.

5. Drs. Kosasih Ismatullah, M.Pd., the head of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor” and Drs.

Ruyani, the English teacher of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor” who had sincerely spent

their spare time and offered much help in collecting the data that the writer

needed.

6. All of her classmates in class A and friends in class B and C who had shared

the time and experience together.

7. The eleventh year students of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”, especially class XI IPA

5 who had given their best attention and participation during gaining the data.

The words are not enough to say much appreciation for their help and

contribution in finishing this “skripsi”. May Allah SWT guides and gives you the

happiness throughout your life. May Allah, The Almighty, bless them all.

Jakarta, June 2008

The writer

TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPROVAL SHEET

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ......................................................................... i

TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................... iii

LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................... v

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of Study ................................... 1

B. The Focus of Study .............................................. 3

C. The Research Questions ....................................... 3

D. The Significance of Study .................................... 3

E. The Organization of Writing ................................ 4

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Error .................................................................... 5

1. The Definition of Error .................................. 5

2. The Error Analysis ......................................... 7

3. The Types of Error ......................................... 9

4. The Sources of Error ...................................... 10

5. Some Errors on Students’ Paragraph Writing .. 11

B. Writing ................................................................ 27

1. The Definition of Writing .............................. 27

2. The Writing Sentence .................................... 29

3. The Types of Sentence ................................... 29

CHAPTER III PROFILE OF “MAN (MADRASAH ALIYAH

NEGERI) 2 KOTA BOGOR”

A. The Curriculum ................................................... 32

B. The English Teaching Method ............................. 33

C. The English Textbook ......................................... 34

D. The Profile of English Teacher ............................ 35

E. The English Activities, Condition, and Environment .. 35

CHAPTER IV RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND FINDING

A. Research Methodology ........................................ 37

1. The Objective of Research ............................. 37

2. The Method of Research ................................ 37

3. The Instrument of Research ........................... 37

4. The Technique of Sample Taking .................. 38

5. The Technique of Data Collecting .................. 38

a. Observation .............................................. 38

b. Written Test ............................................. 38

c. Interview .................................................. 39

6. The Place and Time of Research .................... 39

7. The Technique of Data Analysis .................... 39

a. Data from the Observations ...................... 39

b. Data from the Written Test ....................... 40

c. Data from the Interview ........................... 41

B. Research Finding ................................................. 41

1. The Description of Data ................................. 41

2. The Analysis of Data ..................................... 42

3. Data Interpretation.......................................... 49

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion .......................................................... 50

B. Suggestion ........................................................... 50

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................... 52

APPENDIXES

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 : Common Homonyms ................................................................ 17

Table 2 : Homonym Problems ................................................................. 17

Table 3 : The Personal Details of the Teachers ........................................ 35

Table 4 : Error in Article ......................................................................... 42

Table 5 : Error in Capitalization .............................................................. 43

Table 6 : Error in Diction ........................................................................ 43

Table 7 : Error in Omissions .................................................................... 44

Table 8 : Error in Preposition .................................................................. 44

Table 9 : Error in Pronoun........................................................................ 45

Table 10 : Error in Punctuation .................................................................. 45

Table 11 : Error in Singular/Plural ............................................................. 46

Table 12 : Error in Spelling ....................................................................... 46

Table 13 : Error in Verb Tense .................................................................. 47

Table 14 : Error in Word Form .................................................................. 47

Table 15 : Error in Word Order ................................................................. 48

Table 16 : Error in Wordiness ................................................................... 48

Table 17 : Error in Wordiness ................................................................... 49

Table 18 : Error in Wordiness ................................................................... 49

APPENDIXES

Appendix 1: Class Observation

Appendix 2: The Recapitulation of Students Error

Appendix 3: Interview

Appendix 4: Test Instrument

Appendix 5: Students’ Writing

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of Study

In Indonesia, English is considered as the first foreign language

because it is necessary to be learned in order to support the people needs in

gaining a lot of information and knowledge in various fields, for example in

education, science and technology, economy, and others. To achieve its goal,

thus English is introduced in every level of learners. Even, it is delivered to

the earlier learners; it is for the kindergarten students. Moreover, English may

be obtained not only in formal education; in schools, but also in informal

education. Therefore, it will be easier for learners to master English.

English is one of compulsory subject which is given from the

beginning of Elementary School up to the Senior High School. It is shown in

curriculum by all its components; they are standard competence, based

competence, indicators, and so on. The curriculum, namely the School-Level

Curriculum, contains four English language skills; they are Listening,

Speaking, Reading, and Writing, and its language components are Grammar,

Vocabulary, and Pronunciation.

Among the skills, writing is viewed as the most difficult skill to be

learnt because it needs more knowledge in producing words, sentences, and

paragraphs, and arranging them into a good sequence whether in its structure,

logical thinking, and others. Furthermore, writing is complicated because it is

done not in one easy step but in series of steps. People begin to select the

topics, purposes, and audiences. Then they decide the organization and

presentation of ideas, topic sentences, and details. They decide the language

structures and vocabulary and to modify and to revise the paragraph.

According to Robbert M. Gorrel and Charltun Laird, “Writing requires

thinking, and thinking is always complicated and hard. Writing is complicated

also because the writer needs to do everything at once. A writer needs to do

everything at once, and the students of writing needs to study everything at

once. A writer produces words, sentences, paragraph, and extended

composition all at the same time. Words must be spelled, sentences

punctuated, and paragraph unified1. Therefore, the students have to have

extensive knowledge when they want to write anything. The extensive

knowledge will support their writing in order to be nice and interested in

reading.

In a sense, all writing starts from simple up to the complex writing.

The simple writing is the writing process which is begun by producing words

and sentences. Moreover, in producing words, the writers should pay attention

for their spelling, diction, word form, and others. And, in producing

sentences, the writer should regard the words order, sentence pattern,

punctuation, and so on. In addition, the sentence is categorized into four; they

are simple sentence, compound sentence, complex sentence, and compound-

complex sentence.

Then, the complex writing is the writing process that involves

producing paragraph and composition. According to Canavan, “Paragraph

consists of sentences (usually more than one), each with its own structural

pattern, in a series that develop one single idea”.2 In writing a paragraph, it is

necessary to be regarded its parts of paragraph, they are topic sentence,

supporting details and conclusion, and its requirements, such as unity,

completeness, order, and coherence. Furthermore, in constructing paragraph,

the writers should recognize the general rules of transitional words and

phrases, repetition and key terms, synonym and other substitutes, pronoun,

and parallelism, and others. Those are the items that usually appear when the

writers construct the paragraph.

Here, the writer tries to observe the students’ errors in writing by

regarding the previous general rules of writing process. When the students

1 Robert M. Gorrel and Charlton Laired, Modern English Handbook, (New Jersey:

Englewood Cliffs NJ, 1962), p. 1.

2 Joseph P. Canavan, Paragraph and the Short Theme, (New York: D. C. Heat and

Company, 1969), p. 29.

write, there are some errors appear, they are, for instance, the error in tenses.

The error is shown as follows:

“Last week Young Red Cross win as a favorite champion in SDB

(Sasih Darma Bakti)”

It should be:

“Last week Young Red Cross won as a favorite champion in SDB

(Sasih Darma Bakti)”.

Observing the students’ errors is the way for the writer to achieve her

research which is done at “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”. The research aims to know

the types and the most errors happened at the XI year students of “MAN 2

Kota Bogor”. This research is summarized on the “skripsi” titled “The Error

Analysis on Students’ Writing”.

B. The Focus of Study

This study focuses on XI year student of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor” in first

semester 2007-2008 academic years. To make the description of this study

deeper, the problem will be limited in error analysis which is made by the

students in paragraph writing.

C. The Research Questions

Based on the background and focus of the study, the writer plans to do

an error analysis on students’ descriptive writing. The questions can be stated

as follows:

1. What types of errors do the students make in writing?

2. What is the most dominated error on students’ writing?

D. The Significance of Study

This finding (result) of this study are expected to provide useful

information on students’ errors which in turn helps teachers to correct

students’ errors and also improve the effectiveness of their teaching.

By analyzing the student’s errors in writing, the writer wishes the

result of the research would be advantageous for the readers who like writing

in order they can anticipate errors in their writing and as motivation for the

students to make good writing and to know the importance of writing in

language learning process, and used as inputs for the writer to identify what

part of the language programs are found difficult by the students.

E. The Organization of Writing

This paper is divided into five chapters, namely the first chapter is the

presentation of introduction, including the background of study, the focus of

study, the research question, the significance of study, and the organization of

writing.

The second chapter is theoretical framework. It will be divided into

three division chapters. The first is error; it includes discussing about the error

definition, error analysis, types of error, source of error, and some error in

students’ paragraph writing. The second describes writing. It involves the

definition of writing, the writing sentence, and the types of sentence. The third

chapter is the profile of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”, it includes discussing about the

history, the geographical position, the vision and mission, the curriculum and

method of English teaching learning, the condition, and the activities.

The forth chapter is about the research methodology and findings. It

consists of the purpose of the research, the place and time of research, the

technique of sample taking, the technique of data collecting, the technique of

data analysis. In research finding, it includes data description, data analysis,

and data interpretation.

The last chapter contains the conclusion of the study and some

suggestion.

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Error

When the students write in English, they can make a lot of errors. It

seems impossible if the learners or students have never been made some errors

in their language learning process, because do some errors is human and

natural.

1. The Definition of Error

There are many definitions of errors. According to Geographical

Webster, Revised Home and Office Dictionary of the English Language,

“Error is a mistake made in writing or other wise, a wondering or

deviation from the truth,3 it means that error can be found in the writing

covering a phoneme, a word, a phrase, a clause, a sentence, a paragraph, a

discourse. While in Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Eleventh

Edition, “Error is an act involving an unintentional deviation from truth or

accuracy”.4

Dullay stated, “Errors are the flawed side of learner speech or

writing.”5 It means that there is something wrong in norms of language

performance. As the writer said before, that making errors are unavoidable

in learning process. Besides making errors are parts of learning and no one

can learn language without his/her first making errors.

3 Geographical Webster Revised Home and Office Dictionary of the English Language

(Chicago), p. 384. 4 Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Eleventh Edition (Springfield, Massachusetts:

Merriam-Webster, Inc, 2003), p. 425.

5 Heidi Dullay, et. al., Language Two (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), p.138.

Littlewood stated, “Errors are signs of learning failure and, as such,

not to be willingly tolerated.6 Error cannot always be easily identified.

First of all, the notion of ‘error’ presupposes a norm, and norms, in their

turn, are dependent on, amongst other things, the medium (spoken or

written language), the social context (formal or informal), and the relation

between speaker and hearer (symmetrical or asymmetrical). Furthermore,

it is quite possible for something which seems an error in isolation to be

perfectly acceptable in context, and vice versa.7

Error and mistakes are not the same. But most of the people still

misunderstand about definition of both. To be more clarified between error

and mistakes, Hubbard et.al., said “Errors caused by lack of knowledge

about the target language (English) or by incorrect hypothesis about it; and

unfortunate mistakes caused by temporary lapses of memory, confusion,

slips of the tongue and so on”.8

A mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random

guess or a “slip,” in that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly.

It is the result of some sort of breakdown or imperfection in the process of

producing speech. These hesitations, slips of the tongue, random

ungrammaticalities, and other performance lapses in native-speaker

production also occur in second language speech, and when attention is

called to it, mistake can be self corrected.9 Such mistakes must be

carefully distinguished from errors of a second language learner,

idiosyncrasies in the interlanguage of the learner that are direct

manifestations of a system within which a learner is operating at the time.

6 William T. Littlewood, Foreign and Second language Learning, (Cambridge:

Cambridge Univrsity Press, 1988), p. 22.

7 Theo van Els, et. al., Applied Linguistic and the Learning and Teaching of Foreign

Languages (London: Edward Arnold, 1991), p. 47. 8 Peter Hubbard et. al., A Training Course for TEFL, (New York: Oxford University

Press, 1983), p. 134.

9 H. Douglas Brown, Principle of Learning and Teaching, (New York: Prentice Hall

Regents ), p. 205.

An error is a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native

speaker, reflecting the interlanguage competence of the learner.10

Julian Edge, in Harmer (2001), suggested that mistake can be

divided into two broad categories: ‘slip’ and ‘attempts’. Slips are mistakes

which students can correct themselves once the mistake has been pointed

out to them, while attempts are mistakes committed when a student tries to

say something but does not yet know the correct way of saying it.11

For this paper the writer adopt the definition of genuine errors that

caused by lack of knowledge about English or by lack of incorrect

hypothesis about English. So, if the student can not correct himself when

he was challenged, it means he made an error, but he made mistake if he

can correct himself when he was challenged because a mistake is caused

by temporary lapses of memory, confusion, slips of the tongue and so on.

2. The Error Analysis

It is impossible that learners never make some errors in language

learning process. According to Peter Hubbard et.al., “The behaviorists

regarded language learning as the acquisition of skills, comparable to the

process of learning to do something practical, like driving a car. The

complex skill was broken down into a series of habits, which ere drilled

until they became automatic and unthinking. The habits were taught is a

series of small steps, so as to avoid errors.” In other words, to achieve the

English acquisition, the students must get through some errors first, and

then automatically they can learn from their own errors.

The teacher will also need to know which part of the subject matter

that most students do some errors and most students do not. Finding out

the learners’ errors then analyzing it is called Error Analysis.

10

Muhammad Farkhan, An Introduction to Linguistics, (Jakarta: UIN Jakarta Press,

2006), p. 149.

11

Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching 3rd

Edition, (London:

Longman, 2001), p. 99.

There are many definition of error analysis. Oxford Concise

Dictionary defined Error analysis is “The analysis for practical but also

potentially for scientific ends, of errors made by students learning another

language”.12

Longman Dictionary of language teaching and Applied Linguistics

defines error analysis as the study and analysis of the error made by the

second language learners.13

The fact that learners do make errors and that these errors can be

observed, analyzed, and classified to reveal something of the system

operating within the learner, led to a surge of study of learners’ errors,

called error analysis. Error analysis become distinguished from contrastive

analysis by its examination of errors attributable to all possible sources,

not just those which result from negative transfer of the native language.

Error analysis easily superseded contrastive analysis, as we discovered that

only some of the errors a learner makes are attributed to the mother

tongue, that learners do not actually make all the errors that contrastive

analysis predicted they should, and that learners from disparate language

backgrounds tend to make similar errors in learning one target language.14

Corder stated, “Error analysis confirms or disproves the predictions

of the theory lying behind bilingual comparison.15

In this sense error

analysis is an experimental technique for validating the theory of transfer.

But error analysis goes beyond this; it aims at telling us something, about

the psycholinguistic processes of language learning. We hope to be able to

draw certain conclusion about the strategies adopted by the learner in the

12

Mathews, P. H, Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistic, (New York: Oxford

University Press, 1997), p. 117.

13

JC Richard, John Platt, and Heidi Platt, Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistic, (London: Longman, 1992), p. 127.

14

Farkhan, An Introduction..., p. 149.

15

S. P. Corder, Error Analysis and Interlanguage, (Oxford: Oxford University Press,

1981), p. 35.

process of learning. In this sense, error analysis is part of the methodology

of the psycholinguistic investigation of language learning.

According to definition above the writer conclude that error

analysis is an effort to get in information about the students’ difficulty in

learning a language especially to write it.

3. The Types of Error

Theo van Els, et. al., distinguish the type of students’ error as

errors of performance and errors of competence.

Error of competence are the result of the application

of rules by the L2 learner which do not (yet) correspond to

the L2 norm; Error of performance are the result of mistakes

in language use and manifest themselves as repeats, false

starts, corrections or slips of the tongue. Error of performance occurs frequently in the speech

of both native speakers and L2 learners. They are especially likely to occur when the speaker suffers from stress,

indecision or fatigue. Corder has suggested the following operational criterion for differentiating between these two

types of error: L2 learners can recognize and correct errors of performance, but not errors of competence.

However, identification of errors of competence will

only be possible if we can establish a difference between

actual and intended L2 utterances.16

Noam Chomsky made a distinction between competence and

performance. Competence is knowing what is grammatically correct;

performance is what actually occurs in practice. He regarded performance

as a faulty representation of competence, caused by psychological

restrictions, such as memory lapses and limitations, distractions, changes

of direction half-way through a sentence, hesitation and so on.17

16

Els, et. al., Applied Linguistic..., p. 52.

17

Hubbard et. al., A Training..., p. 133.

4. The Sources of Error

The final step in the analysis of erroneous learner production is that

of determining the sources of error. By trying to identify sources we can

begin to arrive at an understanding how the learner’s cognitive and

affective self relates to the linguistic system and to formulate an integrated

understanding of the process of second language acquisition.18

Errors-overt manifestation of learner’s system-arise from several

possible general sources: inter-lingual errors of interference from the

native language, inter-lingual errors within the target language, the

sociolinguistic context of communication, psycholinguistic or cognitive

strategies, and countless affective variables.19

Pit Corder (Hubbard, 1993) claims that there are three major causes

of error, which he labels ‘transfer errors’, ‘analogical errors’, and

‘teaching-induced errors’. While Hubbard proposed a slightly different

names;

a. Mother-tongue interference

Although young children appear to be able to learn a foreign language quite easily and to reproduce

new sound very effectively, older learners experience

considerable difficulty. The sound system (phonology)

and the grammar of the first language impose themselves

on the new language and this lead to a “foreign”

pronunciation, faulty grammatical patterns and,

occasionally, to the wrong choice of vocabulary.

b. Overgeneralization

The mentalist theory claims that errors are

inevitable because they reflect various stages in the

language development of the learner. It claims that the

learner processes new language data in his mind and

produces rules for its production, based on the evidence.

Where the data are inadequate, or the evidence only partial, such rules may produce incorrect pattern.

c. Context of learning A third major source of error, through is overlaps

both types of transfer, is the context of learning.

18

Brown, Principle of..., p. 213.

19 Brown, Principle of…, p. 218.

“Context” refers to the classroom with the teacher and the

material in the case of school learning or the social

situation. In a classroom context, the teacher or the

textbook can lead the learner to make faulty hypothesis about the language what Richards called “False concept”

and what Stenson termed “Induced errors.” Students often make errors because of a misleading explanation

from the teacher, faulty presentation of a structure or word in the textbook, or even because of a pattern, that

was rote memorized in a drill but not properly contextualized.20

William T. Littlewood claims that there are four major causes of

errors.

a. Overgeneralization

b. Transfer

Transfer and overgeneralization are not distinct

processes. Indeed, they represent aspects of the same

underlying learning strategy. Both result from the fact

that the learner uses what he already knows about

language, in order to make sense of new experience. In

the case of overgeneralization, it s his previous

knowledge of the second language that the learner uses. In the case of transfer, the learner uses his previous

mother-tongue experience as a means of organizing the second language data. It is significant that Barry Taylor

found transfer errors to be more frequent with beginners than with intermediate students. The beginner has less

previous second language to draw on in making hypotheses about rules, and might therefore be expected

to make correspondingly more use of his first language

knowledge.

c. Ambiguous source of many errors

d. Simplification by omission.21

5. Some Errors on Students’ Paragraph Writing

Every learner has a different type of making errors. Furthermore,

the most common errors that occur in writing are:

20

Hubbard et. al., A Training…, p. 140-143.

21 Littlewood, Foreign and..., p. 23-28.

a. Article

The occurrence of the article varies depending upon the type of

noun. The definite and indefinite article is customary to recognize a

zero article. The two article are the and a. They may be used with a

singular or a plural noun. Each of articles undergoes a change before a

word beginning with a vowel sound – the changes in pronunciation, a

changes in both pronunciation and spelling.22

The spelling of a is

changed to an before a word that begins with a vowel sound (a, e, i, o,

u). an essay, an heir (silent h). Use a before a word that begins with a

consonant sound (all the other sounds except the vowels). a pencil, a

hotel, a university (here the u sound is really a consonant sound like yu

instead of like the vowel sound of u in understanding above).23

In

Indonesian writing, no need to use article. It influences the students in

their writing. Some students did not use articles in their composition.

e.g. “I have cute little brother” it should be “I have a cute little

brother.”

The chief semantic function of articles is to mark nouns as

definite or indefinite. The signals a particular person or thing that has

been singled out from others – the students sitting next to you. A

signals unspecified one of others – a students sitting in front of row.24

22 Douglas Bibe, Stig Johanson, et. al., Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written

English, (England: Personal Education Limited, 1999), p. 260.

23

Teresa Ferster Glazier, The Least You Should Know About English Basic Writing Skills,

(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977), p. 6.

24

Marcella Frank, Modern English a Practical Reference Guide, (New Jersey: Prentice-

Hall, 1972), p. 125.

b. Capitalization

There are many uses of capitalization, some clearly understood

by most writers and some not so clearly understood. According to

Eugene Ehrlich, there are many rules that are presented:25

1) Sentences

The first word of every grammatical unit punctuated as a sentence is capitalized.

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.

2) Poetry

The first word of every line of conventional poetry is

capitalized. The great majority of poets start each line with a

capitalize word.

One impulse from a vernal wood

May teach you more of man,

Of moral evil and of good,

Than all the sagas can.

-- William Wordsworth

3) Quotations

The first word of a quotation is capitalized, unless the

quotation is less than a sentence long. Quotations sometimes

do not consist of complete sentences. When they do not, the opening word of the quotation is not capitalized unless there

is some other reason for capitalization. When the quotation is a complete sentence, the first word is capitalized.

Dave’s father said, “You must learn to fend for yourself.”

Hobbes’s famous phrase “a kind of sudden glory” describes the feeling of the onlooker when he sees

misfortune befall another.

Sometimes a quotation of a complete sentence is

broken into two parts in the sentence quoting it. The second

part is not capitalized if it is not treated as a sentence.

“You will,” he went on, “do exactly as I say.”

4) The Words I and O

The pronoun I and the interjection O are capitalized.

Except for I, pronouns are not capitalized unless they are the

first word of a sentence or a line of poetry.

He and I are going into business together. (He is

capitalized because it is the first word of a sentence, I

because it is I.)

25

Eugene Ehrlich, Punctuation, Capitalization, and Spelling, (New York: McGraw-Hill,

1992), p. 105-117.

The interjection O, which is seen mainly in literature

and prayer but is rarely used today, is always capitalized,

even though the interjection oh is not.

Hear me, O Israel! 5) Names

Proper Nouns and Adjectives

Proper nouns and adjectives are capitalized. A proper

noun is the name of a particular person, place, or thing. A proper adjective is an adjective derived from a proper noun.

Frank met Lucy for dinner. (Frank and Lucy are proper nouns.)

The White House is the center of political activity in

the United States. (White House and United States are

proper nouns.)

Eleanor Holm was expert in the Australian crawl.

(Australian is a proper adjective.)

6) Particles

American family names beginning with the particles

Van, Von, De, Di, or Da are capitalized. Do not capitalize

foreign family names beginning with the particles van and

von. Do not capitalize foreign names beginning with the

particles de, du, di, or da unless they appear without first

names or titles.

One of the best engineers I know in Connecticut is Paul Von Hardenburg. (An American name.)

Wernher von Braun started his career as a racketeer at Dortmund, Germany. (A German name.)

7) Geographical Names Since geographical names are proper nouns, they are

capitalized. There are several conventions that are followed with geographical names.

The words such as river, ocean, mountain, and gorge

are geographical terms that are used both alone and as a part

of the names of geographical features: Mississippi River,

Atlantic Ocean, Deo Mountain. When river and the others

occur as a part of a geographical name, they are capitalized.

When they do not occur with a geographical name, they are

not capitalized.

I have seen mountains in my time, but none to rival

the Rocky Mountains.

Of all the rivers in the United States, there is none to

rival the Mississippi River.

8) Compass Directions

Compass directions are capitalized when they are part of the names of specific regions. Do not capitalize east, west,

north, and so on when they merely indicate directions: Travel

east on this road. Do not capitalize directions when they

serve as part of the name of a place or region.

An old song referred to the region just a little bit

south of South Caroline. 9) Regional Names and Nicknames

The names and nicknames of geographic regions and political units are capitalized. As in compass directions used

in regional names, all terms commonly used to name geographic regions and political units are capitalized. Not

only are the proper names of countries and regions capitalized, but so are the nicknames used by the press,

historians, and political commentators to designate such

units.

Columbus set forth from the Old World to find what

turned out to be the New World.

10) Streets, Buildings, Parks, and Companies

The names of all formally designated streets, buildings,

parks, public places, companies, and other organizations are

capitalized.

All the world has heard of New York City’s Fifth

Avenue.

The Flatiron Building was once considered a New

York landmark.

11) Organizations and Other Groups The proper names of all organizations, religions, races,

nationalities, and so on are capitalized. this rule is another specific expansion of the rule governing the capitalization of

proper names: Columbia University, Seventh-Day Adventists,

Asians, Poles, Department of Commerce.

When anything but the proper name of such a group is used, no capitals are required: college departments,

fundamentalists, bureaucrats, government officials, charities.

When a phrase is used that could serve as the name of an

organization but does not, the phare is not capitalized. only

official namea are capitalized.

We ought to organize a cheerleaders’ group.

The Tenafly Cheerleaders’ Club is a popular group.

12) Deity and Sacred Writing

Nouns and pronouns referring to God and writing held to be

sacred are capitalized.

The Koran is the holy book of the Nation of Islam.

God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost were

celebrated in a special Mass.

13) Events, Eras, Prizes, Documents The proper names of all wars, battles, historic events, treaties,

documents, prizes, and important historical periods are

capitalized. this rule is still another extension of the general

rule governing capitalization of proper names. Proper names

of wars, battles, and so on merit capitalization just as much as

the names of people or companies. The end of the Spanish Civil War saw the death of

democracy in that country. A civil war is the saddest of wars.

The Noble Prize for Literature was won by Saul Bellow in 1976.

14) Titles Civil and Military Titles

Military and civil titles are capitalized when they precede a

name, indicate high rank, or are used as substitutes for the

names of individuals.

Did you know that Consul Burton was in danger of

losing his position at that point in his career? (Title

preceding a name).

The Secretary of State is generally the most important

person in the administration of the country’s foreign

affairs. (Title of High rank. Notice that unimportant

words that are part of a title are not capitalized.

Unimportant words are generally considered to be

articles and prepositions and conjunctions of fewer

than five letters.) Academic Degrees

Capitalize all academic degrees and their abbreviations Many lawyers who hold the degree of Bachelor of Laws

(LL.B) would prefer to receive the degree Doctor of Law (J.D), which is now common in most American law schools

as the initial law degree. Books, Plays, and Periodicals

Capitalize the first word and all important words in the title

of a book, play, story, article, poem, musical work, journal,

magazine, and newspaper. The only problem in this rule is

definition of all important words. Important words are

anything but short articles, prepositions, and conjunctions.

Prepositions and conjunctions of five letters or more are

considered important.

The House of Seven Gables (The is the first word; of

has fewer than five letters.)

Much Ado About Nothing (About has five letters.)

c. Diction

Diction or word choice is choosing the right word in a

sentence. Sometimes one word has the same meaning but has

difference usage in the sentence. For example, pal – pai. That is

same when learning about homonyms, as stated by Katherine

Ploeger in her book, “Homonyms are words that sound the same or

almost the same but have different meanings. Some are possessives,

other constructions, other something else.26

Some students made mistake in diction because of their lack

of knowledge about this problem. They also generalized the meaning

of words. For example, the using of where instead when in the

sentence “When we member of scout”. They over generalized the

meaning of word “where” and used it in wrong place. The students

can know the right usage of diction only from learning by reading an

exercise in writing.

To make it clear, see these 2 tables below (common

homonyms and homonym problem).

Table 1: Common Homonyms

Possessive Pronoun

(Shows ownership)

Contraction Other

Its

Our

Their Theirs

Whose Your

It’s (It is)

They are There is

Who’s (who is) You’re (you are)

Hour (time) Are (to be verb)

There (location)

Other problem words that sound the same or almost the same

but have different meanings are listed in this table below.

Table 2: Homonym Problems

Accept (to agree)

Allowed(accepted)

Here (at this location)

Knew (past tense of

know: had knowledge)

Know (to know

Except (not allow)

Aloud (loudly)

Sight (the ability to

see)

New (never see

before)

Site (location)

26

Katherine Ploeger, Simplified Paragraph Skills, (Chicago: NTC Publishing Group,

2000), p. 21.

knowledge)

Quiet (not noisy)

Whether (if)

No (negative)

Quite (very mess)

Weather (clouds,

sunshine)

Quit (to stop)

d. Omission

Omission errors are characterized by the absence of an

item that must appear in a well-formed utterance. Although any

morpheme or word in a sentence is a potential candidate for

omission, some types of morphemes are omitted more than

others. Content morphemes carry the bulk of the referential

meaning of a sentence: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs.27

For

example, in the sentence:

“Mary president new company”.

It should be:

“Mary is the president of the new company”.

e. Preposition

A preposition shows the relation of its object to another word

in the sentence.28

A preposition is a connecting word that typically indicates

time, place, or movement. A preposition connects its object (a noun,

pronoun, or noun substitute) with some other word in a sentence.

Together the preposition, its object, and any words modifying the

object form a preposition phrase-for example, on a sunny morning.29

The use of preposition:

1) To talk about the place where someone or something is.

Prepositions are followed by a noun group. Which is called

the object of the preposition, such as, above, among, at,

behind, below, beneath, beside between, in, inside, near,

27

Dulay, Language Two …, p. 154.

28

Barry, Business English ..., p. 213.

29 Kramer, Rigg, Workbook for..., P. 15.

on, opposite, outside, over, round, through, under,

underneath.

2) To talk about the direction that someone or something is

moving in, or the place that someone or something is moving towards. The preposition are across, along, back to,

down, into, onto, out of, past, round, through, to, towards, up.

3) Many prepositions can be used both for place and direction. They are across, over.

4) We can use adverbs and adverb phrase for place and direction. They are abroad, away, downstairs, downwards,

here, indoors, outdoors, there, underground, upstairs,

anywhere, everywhere, nowhere, somewhere.

5) Many words can be used as prepositions and as adverbs,

with no difference in meaning. Remember that prepositions

have noun groups as object, but adverbs do not, such as

down the stairs, underneath the bed.

6) Use ‘at’ when you are thinking of a place as a point in

space.(at the bus stop).

7) Use ‘at’ with words such as ‘back’, ‘botton’, ‘end’, ‘front’,

and ‘top’, to talk about the different parts of place.

8) Use ‘in’ when you are talking about a place as an area. Use

‘in’ with: a country or geographical region, a city, town, or

village, a building when you are talking about people or things inside it.

9) Use ‘on’ when you are talking about place as a surface. You can also use ‘on top of’.

10) Use ‘by’ to talk about the type of vehicle or transport you use to travel somewhere.

f. Pronoun

Pronouns make up a small class of words of very high

frequency. Pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. The

pronouns that are actual substitutes may refer not only to a preceding

noun-its antecedent-but to a large part of a discourse that precedes.30

In addition, many pronouns have the ability to serve either of

two functions—they may stand alone in noun function, or they may act

as adjectives (determiners) that precede descriptive adjectives.

30

Frank, Modern English…, p. 20.

According to Marcella Frank, there are seven types of pronouns

they are:

1) Personal Pronouns Personal pronouns refer to:

a) The speaker, called the first person

Singular – I (spelled with a capital letter)

Plural- we (includes the speaker and one or more others) b) The speaker, called the first person

The person spoken to, called the second person –you (singular and plural)

c) The speaker, called the first person

The person or thing bring spoken of, called the third

person

Singular –he (for males), she (for females), it (for things;

also for live beings whose sex is unknown or unimportant

to the speaker)

Plural-they (for all live beings and for all things)

2) Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative pronouns introduce direct or indirect questions.

There are three interrogative pronouns-who (for person),

what (for things), and which (for a choice involving either

persons or things). The three interrogative pronouns have

generalizing forms: whoever, whatever, and whichever.

3) Relative Pronoun

Relative pronouns refer to noun antecedents which immediately precede them. They introduce adjective clauses

in which they serve as subjects or objects- The man who

answered the phone was rude. (Who is the subject of the

verb answered in the adjective clause who answer the

phone). The most common relative pronouns are who (for

persons), that (for persons or things), which (for things). As

sometimes also serves as a relative pronoun-She likes the

same things as (= that) her husband does. 4) Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns point out someone or something.

The most common demonstrative pronouns are this (plural

these) and that (plural those). This generally refer to what is

near at hand, that to what is farther away. This distinction in

space is related to the distinction between the adverbs here

and there-This table (over here) is prettier than that one

(over there). Demonstrative pronouns may also point to something that

has just been said-He told his wife he had just received an

increase in salary. This pleased her very much.

Occasionally a demonstrative pronoun points to a part of a

discourse that follows-I must tell you this. I can no longer

afford to go out to expensive restaurants for dinner. That or those may be more emphatic alternatives for the.

5) Reflective pronoun The reflexive pronoun is a combination of –self with one of

the personal pronouns or with the impersonal pronoun one. The reflexive pronoun generally refer to an animate being,

usually a person. The most common use of the reflexive pronoun is an object that “reflects back” to the subject; in

other words, it has the same identity as the subject. Thus, in

the sentence The child hurt himself, child and himself are

identical.

6) Reciprocal Pronoun

Reciprocal pronoun has the same identity as the subject. The

reciprocal pronoun indicates that the individual members of a

plural subject mutually react one on the other. The reciprocal

pronouns are each other and one another.

7) Indefinite Pronoun

Such pronouns refer to indefinite (usually unknown) persons

or things, or to indefinite quantities.

Indefinite person or things are all singular in form and are

used without noun antecedents. For example: somebody, someone, and something.

Indefinite quantities, such as all, another, any, both, each, either, few, least, lest, little, a lot, etc.

g. Punctuation

Punctuation is the practice or system of inserting various marks

in written test in order to aids interpretation.31

Punctuation is mainly confined to the four following general

uses:

1) Punctuation marks the ends of main sentence patterns-of

sentences or of independent clauses in sentences. The

period, question mark, and exclamation mark, with different meanings, indicate the ends of complete

sentences. The semicolon, and sometimes the colon or dash or comma, indicates secondary breaks, breaks

between independent clauses within the sentence.

31

Sylvia Chalker, Edmund Weiner, The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar, (New

York: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 234.

2) Punctuation tends to preserve the flow from subject to

verb to complement by setting apart any elements which

interrupt the thought of the pattern-non-restrictive

modifiers, parenthetical expressions, and the like. Usually the comma is used for such purposes, although

semicolon, dashes, and parentheses sometimes mark sharper separations.

3) Punctuation separates co-ordinate elements not sufficiently separated by punctuation words. Usually

commas are sufficient for such separation, but sometimes a semicolon is used.

4) Punctuation has a number of conventional uses-to clarify

statistical material, to mark bibliographical materials, to

identify quotations, and so on. Most of these uses have

been established by custom and are mechanical habits or

traditions to be learned.

Marks of punctuation

. The period marks the ends of sentences not to be

distinguished as questions or exclamations. It has also a few conventional uses, mainly to mark abbreviations.

? The question mark (interrogation point) is used at the end of a direct question-not an indirect one.

! The exclamation mark is used at the end of a

complete or incomplete sentence to indicate strong emotion

or feeling.

: The colon has mainly conventional uses, especially to

introduce formal lists; it sometimes separates independent

clauses.

; The semicolon mainly separates independent clauses,

although it sometimes separates items in series.

, The comma is the most common punctuation mark in

English, with a wide variety of uses.

- The dash, made with two hyphens on the typewriter,

sometimes marks sharp breaks between clauses and

sometimes sets off parenthetical material more sharply than a

comma would.

“ “ Quotation marks enclose direct quotations, words

reproduced as spoken or written.

( ) Parentheses have mainly conventional uses, but they

also sometimes mark material to be sharply set apart within

the sentence.

[ ] Brackets mainly have conventional uses to set off

inserted materials. Since standard typewriters usually do not

have brackets, brackets should be inserted by hand in typed

material or made with the diagonal and underlining bars.

… The ellipsis, three periods, marks an omission, usually

from quoted matter.32

Most of the students misused the punctuation, e.g., “When I

saw you for the first time. I was very surprised” he/she used a period

instead of comma. In this punctuation case, the students made errors

because they do not pay attention to the punctuation in writing,

whereas punctuation is important to make the meaning clear. They did

not realize that written English is different from spoken language.

Gestures, tones, and stressing can make the meaning clear in spoken

language but only punctuation can make the meaning clear in written

English.

This error is sometimes the result from immediate

communication strategy when the learner tried to express a meaning,

which their competence contained no appropriate items or rules at all.

Overgeneralization and transfer may also become the result of an

immediate communication strategy. Indonesian word order and

English word order is different. For example,” Smart you are” it

should be “You are smart”.

h. Singular and Plural

According to Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar,

“Singular is a word or form that denotes or refers to a single person or

thing. Singular contrasts mainly with plural in the description of nouns,

pronouns, and verb form.

Uncount nouns are sometimes described as singular because

they take singular verbs. But this is misleading, since singular count

nouns and uncount nouns do not share all the same determiners (e.g.

a/one roll but some/much bread). Invariable nouns of plural meaning

32

Robert M. Gorrel, Charlton Laird, Modern English Handbook 3rd

Edition, (New Jersey:

Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1964), p. 467-468.

lacking an –s but taking a plural verb (e.g. police) are sometimes

described as singular nouns. The term ‘singular noun’ is also

sometimes applied to a noun which, in a particular meaning, can be

used with a/an (e.g. What a pity!).33

While plural is a word or form denoting more than one.

Contrasted with singular. In English, plural applies to certain nouns,

pronouns, and determiners, and to verbs. In general, count nouns have

distinct plural forms, which in regular nouns end in –s or –es. Nouns

with irregular plurals include some of Old English origin (feet,

children, etc., and zero plurals such as sheep, deer) and some foreign

plurals (crises, errata, etc.).

A few nouns are plural only. Many end in –s (e.g. premises).

But some plural-only words are unmarked (e.g. cattle, people). 34

The plurals of most English nouns, however, conform to a

standard pattern; that is, most of them form their plurals by the

addition of s or es. If you keep the following principles in mind and

consult your dictionary whenever doubt arises, you will have no

difficulty in controlling plural forms. If the dictionary entry for a noun

shows no plural, it is formed simply by the addition of s or es.

1) English nouns that end in s, x, z, ch, or sh are made plural by

the addition of es.

business businesses

bush bushes

tax taxes

watch watches

quiz quizzes

All other proper nouns (those not ending in s, x, z, ch, or sh) are

made plural by the addition of s.

Martin The martins Sperry the Sperrys

Ford the Fords 2) Most common nouns are made plural by the addition of s.

automobile automobiles

33

Chalker, Weiner, The Oxford..., p. 363.

34 Chalker, Weiner, The Oxford..., p. 300.

employee employees

3) Common nouns that end in y fall into two classifications: if a

noun ends in y preceded by a vowel, the plural is formed by

the addition of s. if it ends in y preceded by a consonant, the plural is formed by changing the y to i and adding es. Plurals

of nouns ending in quy are formed in this same manner. 4) The plurals of personal names accompanied by titles may be

correctly expressed in more that one ay. The modern tendency in business writing is to avoid the use of plural

titles, such as Messrs, because they are very formal in nature. 5) Most nouns that end in f, fe, or ff are made plural by the

addition of s. in some nouns, however, the f or fe is changed

to v and es is added.

6) The principle that governs nouns ending in o is divided into

four parts: if a noun ends with o preceded by a vowel, the

plural is formed by the addition of s. If a musical term ends

in o, the plural is formed by the addition of s. if a noun ends

in o preceded by a consonant, the addition of es may be

required. The modern tendency, however, is to form the

plurals of such nouns by adding just the s. check a good

dictionary when you are in doubt. Some nouns ending in o

have two plural forms.

7) Some nouns are made plural by a vowel change (man men).

8) A few nouns take en as a plural ending. (child children). 9) Some nouns are the same in the singular and the plural.

(sheep sheep) 10) A few nouns that end in s are singular in meaning and require

singular 11) verbs when used as subjects of sentence. (news mathematics)

12) Plural nouns such as scissors, thanks, goods, etc. may be either singular or plural in meaning, but they are used only

with plural verbs. They have no corresponding singular

forms.

13) Compound nouns consist of a combination of two or more

words that are written in one of these ways: in solid forms as

one word, as a hyphenated word, or as separate words.

14) The plural of a letter, a numeral, a symbol, or a word referred

to as a word is formed by the addition of an apostropedhe and

s.

15) The plural of an abbreviation is generally formed by the

addition of s to the singular form.

16) Some abbreviations have the same form for both the singular

and the plural.

17) The plural of an abbreviation made up of separate letters is formed by the addition of an apostrophe and s.

18) The plural of a contraction is formed by the addition of s.

19) Many nouns that are foreign in origin are commonly used in

formal, scientific, and technical matter. Some of these nouns

have only their foreign plurals; other have been given an

additional (English) plural. 35

i. Spelling

Spelling ability is not necessary an index to intelligence or

education, but certainly the person who spells inaccurately works

under a handicap. He is likely to be considered uneducated by anyone

who catches him in errors, and he is likely to be limited in his writing,

as he relies on simple but sometimes colorless words in order to be

safe in his spelling. Some people are sufficiently eye-minded that they

learn to spell unconsciously. By the time they have seen a word spelled

correctly several times, they know it. Others have to work on spelling,

not because they are slow or stupid but because their minds happen not

to work in the way that records spelling automatically. But fortunately

almost any intelligent person can learn to spell reasonably well if he

will work at it. A “bad” speller is usually only a person who does not

spell without learning, who has never been properly taught, or who has

never tried hard enough to learn.

In spelling, as in almost every else, there is no substitute for a

good background. The more a student reads, and the better writing he

reads, the better he is likely to spell. Any diagnosis is likely to turn up

problems like the following.

1) Habitual misspelling: the student is misspelling the

same few words over and over.

2) Carelessness: hesitating during composition to spell

every word correctly may impede writing, but there is

no excuse for leaving misspelling uncorrected after

the writing is done. An uncertain speller should

scrutinize every word before he lets any written work

out of his hands.36

35

Barry, Business English..., p. 63-67.

36

Gorrel, Laird, Modern English..., p. 510-512.

While Willis states that spelling is how to write a word

correctly, spelling error can because by lack of knowledge and the

influence of their native language. For instance; hight, wildt, forbitten,

coupel, etc. some students made many errors in this case. It caused by

the students’ lack of knowledge and the influence of their native

language. Spelling problems can be over come only through practice

and if the students need more practice, they should arrange practice

session with a friend.37

j. Verb Tense

Tense is a firm taken by a verb to indicate the time at which the

action or state is viewed as occurring.38

They made mistakes because

they did not understand well the grammar; it is also caused by intra-

lingual transfer overgeneralization.

k. Word Form

Word form is any variant of a lexeme. Used as a way of

avoiding ambiguity of word. e. g. see, sees, seeing, etc.39

Overgeneralization and transfer can be the cause of error in

word form. Indonesian word form is different from English word form.

They often over-generalize the form of words. For example, “to

responded” it should be “to respond”; “I were cooking fried rice” it

should be “I was cooking fried rice.”

37

Hullon Willis, Structure, Style, and Usage and Guide to Expository Writing, (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964), p. 257.

38

Chalker, Weiner, The Oxford..., p. 395.

39

Chaker, Weiner, The Oxford..., p. 427.

l. Word Order

According to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary “Word

order is arrangement of words in a phrase, clause, or sentence. 40

This error is sometimes the result from immediate

communication strategy when the learner tried to express a meaning,

which their competence contained no appropriate items o rules at all.

Overgeneralization and transfer may also become the result of an

immediate communication strategy. Indonesian word order and

English word order is different. For example, ‘Smart you are” it should

be “You are smart.”

m. Wordiness

According to Buscemi et.al., “Wordiness comes from using

more words than you need to get your message across. Sometimes

students become wordy simply to provide the number of words

required by the assignment”.41 In line with Langan, he states that

“Using more words than necessary to express a meaning”.42

For example:

Not : She is the best swimmer of the three Rumanians swimmers.

But : She is the best of the three Rumanians swimmers.

B. Writing

1. The Definition of Writing

Sometimes people write something. They convey their ideas

through writing. Learning to write does not come naturally in the same

way as learning to speak. It involves many complex skills, knowledge and

40

Merriam-Webster’s…, p. 1442. 41

Santi V. Buschemi, et.al., The Basic a Rhetoric and Handbook, (Boston: McGraw-Hill

Companies, 2000), third edition, p. 373.

42

John Langan, Sentence Skills A Workbook for Writers 7th

Edition, (Boston: McGraw-

Hill, 2003), p. 384.

concepts. Before learning to write a writer must understand the definition

of writing.

In this part the writer quotes some definitions of writing.

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, writing is to make

letters or other symbols (ideograph) on a surface.43 It means that writing is

an activity to arrange a group of letters or symbols, which have a meaning

on a medium.

Writing is an integral part of human life. Someone almost writes

something everyday. He/she maybe writes a lesson, a letter or story, etc,

learning to write does not come naturally in the same way as learning to

speak. It involves many complex skills, knowledge and concepts. One of

important aspects of learning to write is growing an awareness of self to

practice writing. Meanwhile understanding the definition of writing is a

must.

In other word, Ann Brown gave the definition of writing from

sociological view; it is a medium of interaction among people to make

relationship and to exchange information among each other in any

distances. She said, “Writing is important in our lives and as a

communicative act that transmit information and link people together”.44

The various definition of writing according to experts above can be

identified by the key words of each definition and it can be concluded in a

sentence. So the writing is a process of the mental physical act in

expressing thoughts and feeling of thinking in forming letters and words

into sentences correctly to shape experiences, to communicate and to link

people together on a surface.

43

A. S. Hornby, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, (Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 996.

44

Ann Brown, Helping Children’s Write, (New York: Paul Chapman Publishing Ltd,

1993), p.2

2. The Writing Sentence

The word sentence in a number of handbooks will probably find a

different definition in each one. According to the Oxford Dictionary of

English Grammar, sentence is the largest unit of language structure treated

in traditional grammar; usually having a subject and predicate, and (when

written) beginning with a capital letter and ending with full stop.45

While Donald Hall and Sven Birkerts in their book Writing Well

state that sentence is a group of words with a period, an exclamation point,

or a question mark at the end. A sentence is also a verbal structure that

reflects something about the world. It puts words in relation in order to

map our understanding of the sensible structure of things.46

In addition Enno Klammer explains that sentence is an independent

unit of expression. Moreover she explains that sentence is a group of

words containing a subject and a predicate and expressing a complete

thought.47

3. The Types of Sentence

According to Bob Brannan, there are four types of sentences they

are simple sentence, compound sentence, complex sentence, and

compound-complex sentence. 48

a. Simple Sentence

A simple sentence contains one main clause with no

subordinate clauses. It may be short and truly ‘simple’, as in

uncomplicated, or it may have several phrases that lengthen it

and add complexity. Here are several examples:

Aaron likes ice cream.

45

Chalker, Weiner, The Oxford..., p. 358.

46 Donald Hall, Sven Birkerts, Writing Well. 9th Ed, (Washington D. C: Addison Wesley

Longman, 1998), p. 126.

47

Enno Klammer, Paragraph Sense: A Basic Rhetoric, (New York: Harcourt Brace

Jovanovich, Inc, 1978), p. 2.

48

Bob Brannan, A Writer’s Workshop Crafting Paragraph, Building Essays, (New York:

McGraw–Hill, 2003), p. 502-503.

Aaron and his younger sister like ice cream.

b. Compound Sentence

A compound sentence merely adds one or more main clause

to a simple sentence. A sentence has two sets (or more) of subjects and verbs that are usually divided with a

coordinating conjunction like and or but and a comma-or a semicolon if the conjunction is omitted. Compound sentence

may be uncomplicated or may contain a great deal of information, but it may not contain a subordinate clause.

Here are several examples: Aaron likes ice cream, so he eats a lot of it.

Aaron and his younger sister like ice cream, so they eat a lot

of it.

c. Complex Sentence

Complex sentence is not necessarily any more “complex,” as

in complicated, than simple or compound sentences, but it

does certain another kind of clause-the subordinate or

dependent clause. A complex sentence, then consist of one

main clause and one or more subordinate clauses along with

whatever other phrases the sentence accumulates. Here are

several examples:

Aaron likes ice cream because it tastes sweet.

Aaron and his younger sister like ice cream because it tastes

sweet. d. Compound-Complex Sentence

The compound-complex sentence is just a combination of the two preceding sentence types. It consists of two or more main

clauses with one or more subordinate clauses along with accompanying phrases. Here are several examples:

Aaron likes ice cream because it tastes sweet, so he eats a lot of it.

Aaron likes ice cream that is full of chocolate chips, so he

eats a lot of it.

While John Langan in his book Sentence Skill also divides the

sentence into four types as simple, compound, complex, and compound-

complex.49

Each is explained below.

a. Simple Sentence A simple sentence has a single subject-verb combination. A

simple sentence may have more than one subject or more than one verb. For example:

The game ended early. Lola and Tony drove home.

The children smiled and waved at us.

49 Langan, Sentence Skills …, p. 139-146.

b. Compound Sentence

A compound sentence, or “double,” sentence is made up of

two (or more) simple sentences. The two complete statements

in a compound sentence are usually connected by a comma plus a joining word (and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet). For

example: The rain increased, so the officials canceled the game.

Martha wanted to go shopping, but Fred refused to drive her.

c. Complex Sentence A complex sentence is made up of a simple sentence (a

complete statement) and a statement that begins with a

dependent words such as, after, as, because, etc. For

example:

Because I forgot the time, I missed the final exam.

d. Compound-Complex Sentence

A compound-complex sentence s made up of two (or more)

simple sentences and one (or more) dependent statements.

For example:

When the power line snapped, Jack was listening to the

stereo, and Linda was reading in bed.

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

C. Error

When the students write in English, they can make a lot of errors. It

seems impossible if the learners or students have never been made some errors

in their language learning process, because do some errors is human and

natural.

4. The Definition of Error

There are many definitions of errors. According to Geographical

Webster, Revised Home and Office Dictionary of the English Language,

“Error is a mistake made in writing or other wise, a wondering or

deviation from the truth,50

it means that error can be found in the writing

covering a phoneme, a word, a phrase, a clause, a sentence, a paragraph, a

discourse. While in Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Eleventh

Edition, “Error is an act involving an unintentional deviation from truth or

accuracy”.51

Dullay stated, “Errors are the flawed side of learner speech or

writing.”52

It means that there is something wrong in norms of language

performance. As the writer said before, that making errors are unavoidable

in learning process. Besides making errors are parts of learning and no one

can learn language without his/her first making errors.

50 Geographical Webster Revised Home and Office Dictionary of the English Language

(Chicago), p. 384.

51

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Eleventh Edition (Springfield,

Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Inc, 2003), p. 425.

52

Heidi Dullay, et. al., Language Two (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982),

p.138.

Littlewood stated, “Errors are signs of learning failure and, as such,

not to be willingly tolerated.53

Error cannot always be easily identified.

First of all, the notion of ‘error’ presupposes a norm, and norms, in their

turn, are dependent on, amongst other things, the medium (spoken or

written language), the social context (formal or informal), and the relation

between speaker and hearer (symmetrical or asymmetrical). Furthermore,

it is quite possible for something which seems an error in isolation to be

perfectly acceptable in context, and vice versa.54

Error and mistakes are not the same. But most of the people still

misunderstand about definition of both. To be more clarified between error

and mistakes, Hubbard et.al., said “Errors caused by lack of knowledge

about the target language (English) or by incorrect hypothesis about it; and

unfortunate mistakes caused by temporary lapses of memory, confusion,

slips of the tongue and so on”.55

A mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random

guess or a “slip,” in that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly.

It is the result of some sort of breakdown or imperfection in the process of

producing speech. These hesitations, slips of the tongue, random

ungrammaticalities, and other performance lapses in native-speaker

production also occur in second language speech, and when attention is

called to it, mistake can be self corrected.56 Such mistakes must be

carefully distinguished from errors of a second language learner,

idiosyncrasies in the interlanguage of the learner that are direct

manifestations of a system within which a learner is operating at the time.

53

William T. Littlewood, Foreign and Second language Learning, (Cambridge:

Cambridge Univrsity Press, 1988), p. 22.

54

Theo van Els, et. al., Applied Linguistic and the Learning and Teaching of Foreign

Languages (London: Edward Arnold, 1991), p. 47. 55

Peter Hubbard et. al., A Training Course for TEFL, (New York: Oxford University

Press, 1983), p. 134.

56

H. Douglas Brown, Principle of Learning and Teaching, (New York: Prentice Hall

Regents ), p. 205.

An error is a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native

speaker, reflecting the interlanguage competence of the learner.57

Julian Edge, in Harmer (2001), suggested that mistake can be

divided into two broad categories: ‘slip’ and ‘attempts’. Slips are mistakes

which students can correct themselves once the mistake has been pointed

out to them, while attempts are mistakes committed when a student tries to

say something but does not yet know the correct way of saying it.58

For this paper the writer adopt the definition of genuine errors that

caused by lack of knowledge about English or by lack of incorrect

hypothesis about English. So, if the student can not correct himself when

he was challenged, it means he made an error, but he made mistake if he

can correct himself when he was challenged because a mistake is caused

by temporary lapses of memory, confusion, slips of the tongue and so on.

5. The Error Analysis

It is impossible that learners never make some errors in language

learning process. According to Peter Hubbard et.al., “The behaviorists

regarded language learning as the acquisition of skills, comparable to the

process of learning to do something practical, like driving a car. The

complex skill was broken down into a series of habits, which ere drilled

until they became automatic and unthinking. The habits were taught is a

series of small steps, so as to avoid errors.” In other words, to achieve the

English acquisition, the students must get through some errors first, and

then automatically they can learn from their own errors.

The teacher will also need to know which part of the subject matter

that most students do some errors and most students do not. Finding out

the learners’ errors then analyzing it is called Error Analysis.

57

Muhammad Farkhan, An Introduction to Linguistics, (Jakarta: UIN Jakarta Press,

2006), p. 149.

58

Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching 3rd

Edition, (London:

Longman, 2001), p. 99.

There are many definition of error analysis. Oxford Concise

Dictionary defined Error analysis is “The analysis for practical but also

potentially for scientific ends, of errors made by students learning another

language”.59

Longman Dictionary of language teaching and Applied Linguistics

defines error analysis as the study and analysis of the error made by the

second language learners.60

The fact that learners do make errors and that these errors can be

observed, analyzed, and classified to reveal something of the system

operating within the learner, led to a surge of study of learners’ errors,

called error analysis. Error analysis become distinguished from contrastive

analysis by its examination of errors attributable to all possible sources,

not just those which result from negative transfer of the native language.

Error analysis easily superseded contrastive analysis, as we discovered that

only some of the errors a learner makes are attributed to the mother

tongue, that learners do not actually make all the errors that contrastive

analysis predicted they should, and that learners from disparate language

backgrounds tend to make similar errors in learning one target language.61

Corder stated, “Error analysis confirms or disproves the predictions

of the theory lying behind bilingual comparison.62

In this sense error

analysis is an experimental technique for validating the theory of transfer.

But error analysis goes beyond this; it aims at telling us something, about

the psycholinguistic processes of language learning. We hope to be able to

draw certain conclusion about the strategies adopted by the learner in the

59

Mathews, P. H, Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistic, (New York: Oxford

University Press, 1997), p. 117.

60

JC Richard, John Platt, and Heidi Platt, Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistic, (London: Longman, 1992), p. 127.

61

Farkhan, An Introduction..., p. 149.

62

S. P. Corder, Error Analysis and Interlanguage, (Oxford: Oxford University Press,

1981), p. 35.

process of learning. In this sense, error analysis is part of the methodology

of the psycholinguistic investigation of language learning.

According to definition above the writer conclude that error

analysis is an effort to get in information about the students’ difficulty in

learning a language especially to write it.

6. The Types of Error

Theo van Els, et. al., distinguish the type of students’ error as

errors of performance and errors of competence.

Error of competence are the result of the application

of rules by the L2 learner which do not (yet) correspond to

the L2 norm; Error of performance are the result of mistakes

in language use and manifest themselves as repeats, false

starts, corrections or slips of the tongue. Error of performance occurs frequently in the speech

of both native speakers and L2 learners. They are especially likely to occur when the speaker suffers from stress,

indecision or fatigue. Corder has suggested the following operational criterion for differentiating between these two

types of error: L2 learners can recognize and correct errors of performance, but not errors of competence.

However, identification of errors of competence will

only be possible if we can establish a difference between

actual and intended L2 utterances.63

Noam Chomsky made a distinction between competence and

performance. Competence is knowing what is grammatically correct;

performance is what actually occurs in practice. He regarded performance

as a faulty representation of competence, caused by psychological

restrictions, such as memory lapses and limitations, distractions, changes

of direction half-way through a sentence, hesitation and so on.64

63

Els, et. al., Applied Linguistic..., p. 52.

64

Hubbard et. al., A Training..., p. 133.

7. The Sources of Error

The final step in the analysis of erroneous learner production is that

of determining the sources of error. By trying to identify sources we can

begin to arrive at an understanding how the learner’s cognitive and

affective self relates to the linguistic system and to formulate an integrated

understanding of the process of second language acquisition.65

Errors-overt manifestation of learner’s system-arise from several

possible general sources: inter-lingual errors of interference from the

native language, inter-lingual errors within the target language, the

sociolinguistic context of communication, psycholinguistic or cognitive

strategies, and countless affective variables.66

Pit Corder (Hubbard, 1993) claims that there are three major causes

of error, which he labels ‘transfer errors’, ‘analogical errors’, and

‘teaching-induced errors’. While Hubbard proposed a slightly different

names;

d. Mother-tongue interference

Although young children appear to be able to learn a foreign language quite easily and to reproduce

new sound very effectively, older learners experience

considerable difficulty. The sound system (phonology)

and the grammar of the first language impose themselves

on the new language and this lead to a “foreign”

pronunciation, faulty grammatical patterns and,

occasionally, to the wrong choice of vocabulary.

e. Overgeneralization

The mentalist theory claims that errors are

inevitable because they reflect various stages in the

language development of the learner. It claims that the

learner processes new language data in his mind and

produces rules for its production, based on the evidence.

Where the data are inadequate, or the evidence only partial, such rules may produce incorrect pattern.

f. Context of learning A third major source of error, through is overlaps

both types of transfer, is the context of learning.

65

Brown, Principle of..., p. 213.

66 Brown, Principle of…, p. 218.

“Context” refers to the classroom with the teacher and the

material in the case of school learning or the social

situation. In a classroom context, the teacher or the

textbook can lead the learner to make faulty hypothesis about the language what Richards called “False concept”

and what Stenson termed “Induced errors.” Students often make errors because of a misleading explanation

from the teacher, faulty presentation of a structure or word in the textbook, or even because of a pattern, that

was rote memorized in a drill but not properly contextualized.67

William T. Littlewood claims that there are four major causes of

errors.

e. Overgeneralization

f. Transfer

Transfer and overgeneralization are not distinct

processes. Indeed, they represent aspects of the same

underlying learning strategy. Both result from the fact

that the learner uses what he already knows about

language, in order to make sense of new experience. In

the case of overgeneralization, it s his previous

knowledge of the second language that the learner uses. In the case of transfer, the learner uses his previous

mother-tongue experience as a means of organizing the second language data. It is significant that Barry Taylor

found transfer errors to be more frequent with beginners than with intermediate students. The beginner has less

previous second language to draw on in making hypotheses about rules, and might therefore be expected

to make correspondingly more use of his first language

knowledge.

g. Ambiguous source of many errors

h. Simplification by omission.68

8. Some Errors on Students’ Paragraph Writing

Every learner has a different type of making errors. Furthermore,

the most common errors that occur in writing are:

67

Hubbard et. al., A Training…, p. 140-143.

68 Littlewood, Foreign and..., p. 23-28.

n. Additional Word

Additional words mean that there is a missing word should be

completed by the appropriate word, for instance, “I very hungry” it

should be “I was very hungry”. This error can be seen as a form of

simplification. The simplification is sometimes called “redundancy

reduction’ because it eliminates many items, which are redundant to

conveying the intended message. Redundancy reduction makes

production easier but it makes comprehension difficult or even

impossible.

o. Article

The occurrence of the article varies depending upon the type of

noun. The definite and indefinite article is customary to recognize a

zero article. The two article are the and a. They may be used with a

singular or a plural noun. Each of articles undergoes a change before a

word beginning with a vowel sound – the changes in pronunciation, a

changes in both pronunciation and spelling.69 The spelling of a is

changed to an before a word that begins with a vowel sound (a, e, i, o,

u). an essay, an heir (silent h). Use a before a word that begins with a

consonant sound (all the other sounds except the vowels). a pencil, a

hotel, a university (here the u sound is really a consonant sound like yu

instead of like the vowel sound of u in understanding above).70 In

Indonesian writing, no need to use article. It influences the students in

their writing. Some students did not use articles in their composition.

e.g. “I have cute little brother” it should be “I have a cute little

brother.”

69

Douglas Bibe, Stig Johanson, et. al., Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written

English, (England: Personal Education Limited, 1999), p. 260.

70

Teresa Ferster Glazier, The Least You Should Know About English Basic Writing Skills,

(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977), p. 6.

The chief semantic function of articles is to mark nouns as

definite or indefinite. The signals a particular person or thing that has

been singled out from others – the students sitting next to you. A

signals unspecified one of others – a students sitting in front of row.71

p. Capitalization

There are many uses of capitalization, some clearly understood

by most writers and some not so clearly understood. According to

Eugene Ehrlich, there are many rules that are presented:72

15) Sentences

The first word of every grammatical unit punctuated

as a sentence is capitalized.

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of

their party. 16) Poetry

The first word of every line of conventional poetry is capitalized. The great majority of poets start each line with a

capitalize word. One impulse from a vernal wood

May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good,

Than all the sagas can.

-- William Wordsworth

17) Quotations

The first word of a quotation is capitalized, unless the

quotation is less than a sentence long. Quotations sometimes

do not consist of complete sentences. When they do not, the

opening word of the quotation is not capitalized unless there

is some other reason for capitalization. When the quotation is

a complete sentence, the first word is capitalized.

Dave’s father said, “You must learn to fend for

yourself.”

Hobbes’s famous phrase “a kind of sudden glory”

describes the feeling of the onlooker when he sees misfortune befall another.

71

Marcella Frank, Modern English a Practical Reference Guide, (New Jersey: Prentice-

Hall, 1972), p. 125.

72

Eugene Ehrlich, Punctuation, Capitalization, and Spelling, (New York: McGraw-Hill,

1992), p. 105-117.

Sometimes a quotation of a complete sentence is

broken into two parts in the sentence quoting it. The second

part is not capitalized if it is not treated as a sentence.

“You will,” he went on, “do exactly as I say.” 18) The Words I and O

The pronoun I and the interjection O are capitalized. Except for I, pronouns are not capitalized unless they are the

first word of a sentence or a line of poetry. He and I are going into business together. (He is

capitalized because it is the first word of a sentence, I because it is I.)

The interjection O, which is seen mainly in literature

and prayer but is rarely used today, is always capitalized,

even though the interjection oh is not.

Hear me, O Israel!

19) Names

Proper Nouns and Adjectives

Proper nouns and adjectives are capitalized. A proper

noun is the name of a particular person, place, or thing. A

proper adjective is an adjective derived from a proper noun.

Frank met Lucy for dinner. (Frank and Lucy are

proper nouns.)

The White House is the center of political activity in

the United States. (White House and United States are proper nouns.)

Eleanor Holm was expert in the Australian crawl. (Australian is a proper adjective.)

20) Particles American family names beginning with the particles

Van, Von, De, Di, or Da are capitalized. Do not capitalize foreign family names beginning with the particles van and

von. Do not capitalize foreign names beginning with the

particles de, du, di, or da unless they appear without first

names or titles.

One of the best engineers I know in Connecticut is

Paul Von Hardenburg. (An American name.)

Wernher von Braun started his career as a racketeer at

Dortmund, Germany. (A German name.)

21) Geographical Names

Since geographical names are proper nouns, they are

capitalized. There are several conventions that are followed

with geographical names.

The words such as river, ocean, mountain, and gorge

are geographical terms that are used both alone and as a part of the names of geographical features: Mississippi River,

Atlantic Ocean, Deo Mountain. When river and the others

occur as a part of a geographical name, they are capitalized.

When they do not occur with a geographical name, they are

not capitalized.

I have seen mountains in my time, but none to rival the Rocky Mountains.

Of all the rivers in the United States, there is none to rival the Mississippi River.

22) Compass Directions Compass directions are capitalized when they are part

of the names of specific regions. Do not capitalize east, west,

north, and so on when they merely indicate directions: Travel

east on this road. Do not capitalize directions when they

serve as part of the name of a place or region.

An old song referred to the region just a little bit

south of South Caroline.

23) Regional Names and Nicknames

The names and nicknames of geographic regions and

political units are capitalized. As in compass directions used

in regional names, all terms commonly used to name

geographic regions and political units are capitalized. Not

only are the proper names of countries and regions

capitalized, but so are the nicknames used by the press,

historians, and political commentators to designate such

units. Columbus set forth from the Old World to find what

turned out to be the New World. 24) Streets, Buildings, Parks, and Companies

The names of all formally designated streets, buildings, parks, public places, companies, and other organizations are

capitalized. All the world has heard of New York City’s Fifth

Avenue.

The Flatiron Building was once considered a New

York landmark.

25) Organizations and Other Groups

The proper names of all organizations, religions, races,

nationalities, and so on are capitalized. this rule is another

specific expansion of the rule governing the capitalization of

proper names: Columbia University, Seventh-Day Adventists,

Asians, Poles, Department of Commerce.

When anything but the proper name of such a group is used,

no capitals are required: college departments,

fundamentalists, bureaucrats, government officials, charities.

When a phrase is used that could serve as the name of an organization but does not, the phare is not capitalized. only

official namea are capitalized.

We ought to organize a cheerleaders’ group.

The Tenafly Cheerleaders’ Club is a popular group.

26) Deity and Sacred Writing

Nouns and pronouns referring to God and writing held to be sacred are capitalized.

The Koran is the holy book of the Nation of Islam. God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost were

celebrated in a special Mass. 27) Events, Eras, Prizes, Documents

The proper names of all wars, battles, historic events, treaties, documents, prizes, and important historical periods are

capitalized. this rule is still another extension of the general

rule governing capitalization of proper names. Proper names

of wars, battles, and so on merit capitalization just as much as

the names of people or companies.

The end of the Spanish Civil War saw the death of

democracy in that country.

A civil war is the saddest of wars.

The Noble Prize for Literature was won by Saul

Bellow in 1976.

28) Titles

Civil and Military Titles

Military and civil titles are capitalized when they precede a

name, indicate high rank, or are used as substitutes for the names of individuals.

Did you know that Consul Burton was in danger of losing his position at that point in his career? (Title

preceding a name). The Secretary of State is generally the most important

person in the administration of the country’s foreign affairs. (Title of High rank. Notice that unimportant

words that are part of a title are not capitalized.

Unimportant words are generally considered to be

articles and prepositions and conjunctions of fewer

than five letters.)

Academic Degrees

Capitalize all academic degrees and their abbreviations

Many lawyers who hold the degree of Bachelor of Laws

(LL.B) would prefer to receive the degree Doctor of Law

(J.D), which is now common in most American law schools

as the initial law degree.

Books, Plays, and Periodicals

Capitalize the first word and all important words in the title

of a book, play, story, article, poem, musical work, journal, magazine, and newspaper. The only problem in this rule is

definition of all important words. Important words are

anything but short articles, prepositions, and conjunctions.

Prepositions and conjunctions of five letters or more are

considered important.

The House of Seven Gables (The is the first word; of has fewer than five letters.)

Much Ado About Nothing (About has five letters.)

q. Diction

Diction or word choice is choosing the right word in a

sentence. Sometimes one word has the same meaning but has

difference usage in the sentence. For example, pal – pai. That is

same when learning about homonyms, as stated by Katherine

Ploeger in her book, “Homonyms are words that sound the same or

almost the same but have different meanings. Some are possessives,

other constructions, other something else.73

Some students made mistake in diction because of their lack

of knowledge about this problem. They also generalized the meaning

of words. For example, the using of where instead when in the

sentence “When we member of scout”. They over generalized the

meaning of word “where” and used it in wrong place. The students

can know the right usage of diction only from learning by reading an

exercise in writing.

To take it clear see to this 2 tables below (common

homonyms and homonym problem).

Table 1: Common Homonyms

Possessive Pronoun

(Shows ownership)

Contraction Other

Its

Our

Their

Theirs

Whose

Your

It’s (It is)

They are

There is

Who’s (who is)

You’re (you are)

Hour (time)

Are (to be verb)

There (location)

73

Katherine Ploeger, Simplified Paragraph Skills, (Chicago: NTC Publishing Group,

2000), p. 21.

Other problem words that sound the same or almost the same

but have different meanings are listed in this table below.

Table 2: Homonym Problems

Accept (to agree)

Allowed(accepted) Here (at this location)

Knew (past tense of

know: had knowledge)

Know (to know

knowledge)

Quiet (not noisy)

Whether (if)

Except (not allow)

Aloud (loudly) Sight (the ability to

see) New (never see

before)

No (negative)

Quite (very mess)

Weather (clouds,

sunshine)

Site (location)

Quit (to stop)

r. Omission Words

Omissions in sentences may occur because of the writer’s

haste, carelessness, or lack of proof reading. A few types of omissions

common in speech can be very confusing in writing. Omissions of this

short typically fall into three categories: omitted prepositions and

verbs, omission in compound constructions, and incomplete

comparisons.74

Avoid the omission of words needed to complete the meaning

of a sentence. The wording of that statement rightfully implies that

judgment is involved. Some words are important to the meaning of a

sentence, and others are not. Note that the words in parentheses could

safely be omitted from these sentences: I hope (that) he understands

my message. My father and (my) mother are interior decorators.

Words needed to clarify meaning, however, should always be

expressed.75

74

Melinda G. Kramer, Donald C. Rigg, Workbook for Writers 3rd

Edition, (London:

Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1982), P. 127.

75

Robert E. Barry, Business English for the 80’s, (London: Prentice-Hall, Inc.,

Englewood Cliffs, 1979), p. 261.

s. Preposition

A preposition shows the relation of its object to another word

in the sentence.76

A preposition is a connecting word that typically indicates

time, place, or movement. A preposition connects its object (a noun,

pronoun, or noun substitute) with some other word in a sentence.

Together the preposition, its object, and any words modifying the

object form a preposition phrase-for example, on a sunny morning.77

The use of preposition:

11) To talk about the place where someone or something is.

Prepositions are followed by a noun group. Which is called

the object of the preposition, such as, above, among, at,

behind, below, beneath, beside between, in, inside, near,

on, opposite, outside, over, round, through, under, underneath.

12) To talk about the direction that someone or something is moving in, or the place that someone or something is

moving towards. The preposition are across, along, back to, down, into, onto, out of, past, round, through, to, towards,

up. 13) Many prepositions can be used both for place and direction.

They are across, over.

14) We can use adverbs and adverb phrase for place and

direction. They are abroad, away, downstairs, downwards,

here, indoors, outdoors, there, underground, upstairs,

anywhere, everywhere, nowhere, somewhere.

15) Many words can be used as prepositions and as adverbs,

with no difference in meaning. Remember that prepositions

have noun groups as object, but adverbs do not, such as

down the stairs, underneath the bed.

16) Use ‘at’ when you are thinking of a place as a point in

space.(at the bus stop).

17) Use ‘at’ with words such as ‘back’, ‘botton’, ‘end’, ‘front’,

and ‘top’, to talk about the different parts of place. 18) Use ‘in’ when you are talking about a place as an area. Use

‘in’ with: a country or geographical region, a city, town, or village, a building when you are talking about people or

things inside it.

76

Barry, Business English..., p. 213.

77 Kramer, Rigg, Workbook for..., P. 15.

19) Use ‘on’ when you are talking about place as a surface.

You can also use ‘on top of’.

20) Use ‘by’ to talk about the type of vehicle or transport you

use to travel somewhere.

t. Pronoun

Pronouns make up a small class of words of very high

frequency. Pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. The

pronouns that are actual substitutes may refer not only to a preceding

noun-its antecedent-but to a large part of a discourse that precedes.78

In addition, many pronouns have the ability to serve either of

two functions—they may stand alone in noun function, or they may act

as adjectives (determiners) that precede descriptive adjectives.

According to Marcella Frank, there are seven types of pronouns

they are:

8) Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns refer to: a) The speaker, called the first person

Singular – I (spelled with a capital letter) Plural- we (includes the speaker and one or more others)

b) The speaker, called the first person

The person spoken to, called the second person –you

(singular and plural)

c) The speaker, called the first person

The person or thing bring spoken of, called the third

person

Singular –he (for males), she (for females), it (for things;

also for live beings whose sex is unknown or unimportant

to the speaker)

Plural-they (for all live beings and for all things)

9) Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative pronouns introduce direct or indirect questions.

There are three interrogative pronouns-who (for person), what (for things), and which (for a choice involving either

persons or things). The three interrogative pronouns have generalizing forms: whoever, whatever, and whichever.

78

Frank, Modern English…, p. 20.

10) Relative Pronoun

Relative pronouns refer to noun antecedents which

immediately precede them. They introduce adjective clauses

in which they serve as subjects or objects- The man who

answered the phone was rude. (Who is the subject of the

verb answered in the adjective clause who answer the

phone). The most common relative pronouns are who (for

persons), that (for persons or things), which (for things). As sometimes also serves as a relative pronoun-She likes the

same things as (= that) her husband does. 11) Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns point out someone or something.

The most common demonstrative pronouns are this (plural

these) and that (plural those). This generally refer to what is

near at hand, that to what is farther away. This distinction in

space is related to the distinction between the adverbs here

and there-This table (over here) is prettier than that one

(over there).

Demonstrative pronouns may also point to something that

has just been said-He told his wife he had just received an

increase in salary. This pleased her very much.

Occasionally a demonstrative pronoun points to a part of a

discourse that follows-I must tell you this. I can no longer

afford to go out to expensive restaurants for dinner. That or those may be more emphatic alternatives for the.

12) Reflective pronoun The reflexive pronoun is a combination of –self with one of

the personal pronouns or with the impersonal pronoun one. The reflexive pronoun generally refer to an animate being,

usually a person. The most common use of the reflexive pronoun is an object that “reflects back” to the subject; in

other words, it has the same identity as the subject. Thus, in

the sentence The child hurt himself, child and himself are

identical.

13) Reciprocal Pronoun

Reciprocal pronoun has the same identity as the subject. The

reciprocal pronoun indicates that the individual members of a

plural subject mutually react one on the other. The reciprocal

pronouns are each other and one another.

14) Indefinite Pronoun

Such pronouns refer to indefinite (usually unknown) persons

or things, or to indefinite quantities.

Indefinite person or things are all singular in form and are

used without noun antecedents. For example: somebody, someone, and something.

Indefinite quantities, such as all, another, any, both, each,

either, few, least, lest, little, a lot, etc.

u. Punctuation

Punctuation is the practice or system of inserting various marks

in written test in order to aids interpretation.79

Punctuation is mainly confined to the four following general

uses:

5) Punctuation marks the ends of main sentence patterns-of

sentences or of independent clauses in sentences. The

period, question mark, and exclamation mark, with

different meanings, indicate the ends of complete

sentences. The semicolon, and sometimes the colon or

dash or comma, indicates secondary breaks, breaks

between independent clauses within the sentence.

6) Punctuation tends to preserve the flow from subject to verb to complement by setting apart any elements which

interrupt the thought of the pattern-non-restrictive modifiers, parenthetical expressions, and the like. Usually

the comma is used for such purposes, although semicolon, dashes, and parentheses sometimes mark

sharper separations. 7) Punctuation separates co-ordinate elements not

sufficiently separated by punctuation words. Usually

commas are sufficient for such separation, but sometimes

a semicolon is used.

8) Punctuation has a number of conventional uses-to clarify

statistical material, to mark bibliographical materials, to

identify quotations, and so on. Most of these uses have

been established by custom and are mechanical habits or

traditions to be learned.

Marks of punctuation

. The period marks the ends of sentences not to be

distinguished as questions or exclamations. It has also a few

conventional uses, mainly to mark abbreviations.

? The question mark (interrogation point) is used at the

end of a direct question-not an indirect one.

79

Sylvia Chalker, Edmund Weiner, The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar, (New

York: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 234.

! The exclamation mark is used at the end of a

complete or incomplete sentence to indicate strong emotion

or feeling.

: The colon has mainly conventional uses, especially to introduce formal lists; it sometimes separates independent

clauses. ; The semicolon mainly separates independent clauses,

although it sometimes separates items in series. , The comma is the most common punctuation mark in

English, with a wide variety of uses. - The dash, made with two hyphens on the typewriter,

sometimes marks sharp breaks between clauses and

sometimes sets off parenthetical material more sharply than a

comma would.

“ “ Quotation marks enclose direct quotations, words

reproduced as spoken or written.

( ) Parentheses have mainly conventional uses, but they

also sometimes mark material to be sharply set apart within

the sentence.

[ ] Brackets mainly have conventional uses to set off

inserted materials. Since standard typewriters usually do not

have brackets, brackets should be inserted by hand in typed

material or made with the diagonal and underlining bars.

… The ellipsis, three periods, marks an omission, usually from quoted matter.80

Most of the students misused the punctuation, e.g., “When I

saw you for the first time. I was very surprised” he/she used a period

instead of comma. In this punctuation case, the students made errors

because they do not pay attention to the punctuation in writing,

whereas punctuation is important to make the meaning clear. They did

not realize that written English is different from spoken language.

Gestures, tones, and stressing can make the meaning clear in spoken

language but only punctuation can make the meaning clear in written

English.

This error is sometimes the result from immediate

communication strategy when the learner tried to express a meaning,

which their competence contained no appropriate items or rules at all.

80

Robert M. Gorrel, Charlton Laird, Modern English Handbook 3rd

Edition, (New Jersey:

Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1964), p. 467-468.

Overgeneralization and transfer may also become the result of an

immediate communication strategy. Indonesian word order and

English word order is different. For example,” Smart you are” it

should be “You are smart”.

v. Singular and Plural

According to Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar,

“Singular is a word or form that denotes or refers to a single person or

thing. Singular contrasts mainly with plural in the description of nouns,

pronouns, and verb form.

Uncount nouns are sometimes described as singular because

they take singular verbs. But this is misleading, since singular count

nouns and uncount nouns do not share all the same determiners (e.g.

a/one roll but some/much bread). Invariable nouns of plural meaning

lacking an –s but taking a plural verb (e.g. police) are sometimes

described as singular nouns. The term ‘singular noun’ is also

sometimes applied to a noun which, in a particular meaning, can be

used with a/an (e.g. What a pity!).81

While plural is a word or form denoting more than one.

Contrasted with singular. In English, plural applies to certain nouns,

pronouns, and determiners, and to verbs. In general, count nouns have

distinct plural forms, which in regular nouns end in –s or –es. Nouns

with irregular plurals include some of Old English origin (feet,

children, etc., and zero plurals such as sheep, deer) and some foreign

plurals (crises, errata, etc.).

A few nouns are plural only. Many end in –s (e.g. premises).

But some plural-only words are unmarked (e.g. cattle, people). 82

The plurals of most English nouns, however, conform to a

standard pattern; that is, most of them form their plurals by the

81

Chalker, Weiner, The Oxford..., p. 363.

82 Chalker, Weiner, The Oxford..., p. 300.

addition of s or es. If you keep the following principles in mind and

consult your dictionary whenever doubt arises, you will have no

difficulty in controlling plural forms. If the dictionary entry for a noun

shows no plural, it is formed simply by the addition of s or es.

20) English nouns that end in s, x, z, ch, or sh are made plural by

the addition of es. business businesses

bush bushes tax taxes

watch watches

quiz quizzes

All other proper nouns (those not ending in s, x, z, ch, or sh) are

made plural by the addition of s.

Martin The martins

Sperry the Sperrys

Ford the Fords

21) Most common nouns are made plural by the addition of s.

automobile automobiles

employee employees

22) Common nouns that end in y fall into two classifications: if a

noun ends in y preceded by a vowel, the plural is formed by

the addition of s. if it ends in y preceded by a consonant, the plural is formed by changing the y to i and adding es. Plurals

of nouns ending in quy are formed in this same manner. 23) The plurals of personal names accompanied by titles may be

correctly expressed in more that one ay. The modern tendency in business writing is to avoid the use of plural

titles, such as Messrs, because they are very formal in nature. 24) Most nouns that end in f, fe, or ff are made plural by the

addition of s. in some nouns, however, the f or fe is changed

to v and es is added.

25) The principle that governs nouns ending in o is divided into

four parts: if a noun ends with o preceded by a vowel, the

plural is formed by the addition of s. If a musical term ends

in o, the plural is formed by the addition of s. if a noun ends

in o preceded by a consonant, the addition of es may be

required. The modern tendency, however, is to form the

plurals of such nouns by adding just the s. check a good

dictionary when you are in doubt. Some nouns ending in o

have two plural forms.

26) Some nouns are made plural by a vowel change (man men).

27) A few nouns take en as a plural ending. (child children). 28) Some nouns are the same in the singular and the plural.

(sheep sheep)

29) A few nouns that end in s are singular in meaning and require

singular

30) verbs when used as subjects of sentence. (news mathematics)

31) Plural nouns such as scissors, thanks, goods, etc. may be either singular or plural in meaning, but they are used only

with plural verbs. They have no corresponding singular forms.

32) Compound nouns consist of a combination of two or more words that are written in one of these ways: in solid forms as

one word, as a hyphenated word, or as separate words. 33) The plural of a letter, a numeral, a symbol, or a word referred

to as a word is formed by the addition of an apostropedhe and

s.

34) The plural of an abbreviation is generally formed by the

addition of s to the singular form.

35) Some abbreviations have the same form for both the singular

and the plural.

36) The plural of an abbreviation made up of separate letters is

formed by the addition of an apostrophe and s.

37) The plural of a contraction is formed by the addition of s.

38) Many nouns that are foreign in origin are commonly used in

formal, scientific, and technical matter. Some of these nouns

have only their foreign plurals; other have been given an

additional (English) plural. 83

w. Spelling

Spelling ability is not necessary an index to intelligence or

education, but certainly the person who spells inaccurately works

under a handicap. He is likely to be considered uneducated by anyone

who catches him in errors, and he is likely to be limited in his writing,

as he relies on simple but sometimes colorless words in order to be

safe in his spelling. Some people are sufficiently eye-minded that they

learn to spell unconsciously. By the time they have seen a word spelled

correctly several times, they know it. Others have to work on spelling,

not because they are slow or stupid but because their minds happen not

to work in the way that records spelling automatically. But fortunately

almost any intelligent person can learn to spell reasonably well if he

83

Barry, Business English..., p. 63-67.

will work at it. A “bad” speller is usually only a person who does not

spell without learning, who has never been properly taught, or who has

never tried hard enough to learn.

In spelling, as in almost every else, there is no substitute for a

good background. The more a student reads, and the better writing he

reads, the better he is likely to spell. Any diagnosis is likely to turn up

problems like the following.

3) Habitual misspelling: the student is misspelling the

same few words over and over.

4) Carelessness: hesitating during composition to spell

every word correctly may impede writing, but there is

no excuse for leaving misspelling uncorrected after

the writing is done. An uncertain speller should

scrutinize every word before he lets any written work

out of his hands.84

While Willis states that spelling is how to write a word

correctly, spelling error can because by lack of knowledge and the

influence of their native language. For instance; hight, wildt, forbitten,

coupel, etc. some students made many errors in this case. It caused by

the students’ lack of knowledge and the influence of their native

language. Spelling problems can be over come only through practice

and if the students need more practice, they should arrange practice

session with a friend.85

x. Verb Tense

Tense is a firm taken by a verb to indicate the time at which the

action or state is viewed as occurring.86

They made mistakes because

84

Gorrel, Laird, Modern English..., p. 510-512. 85

Hullon Willis, Structure, Style, and Usage and Guide to Expository Writing, (New

York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964), p. 257.

86

Chalker, Weiner, The Oxford..., p. 395.

they did not understand well the grammar; it is also caused by intra-

lingual transfer overgeneralization.

y. Word Form

Word form is any variant of a lexeme. Used as a way of

avoiding ambiguity of word. e. g. see, sees, seeing, etc.87

Overgeneralization and transfer can be the cause of error in

word form. Indonesian word form is different from English word form.

They often over-generalize the form of words. For example, “to

responded” it should be “to respond”; “I were cooking fried rice” it

should be “I was cooking fried rice.”

z. Word Order

According to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary “Word

order is arrangement of words in a phrase, clause, or sentence. 88

This error is sometimes the result from immediate

communication strategy when the learner tried to express a meaning,

which their competence contained no appropriate items o rules at all.

Overgeneralization and transfer may also become the result of an

immediate communication strategy. Indonesian word order and

English word order is different. For example, ‘Smart you are” it should

be “You are smart.”

D. Writing

2. The Definition of Writing

Sometimes people write something. They convey their ideas

through writing. Learning to write does not come naturally in the same

way as learning to speak. It involves many complex skills, knowledge and

87

Chaker, Weiner, The Oxford..., p. 427.

88 Merriam-Webster’s…, p. 1442.

concepts. Before learning to write a writer must understand the definition

of writing.

In this part the writer quotes some definitions of writing.

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, writing is to make

letters or other symbols (ideograph) on a surface.89 It means that writing is

an activity to arrange a group of letters or symbols, which have a meaning

on a medium.

Writing is an integral part of human life. Someone almost writes

something everyday. He/she maybe writes a lesson, a letter or story, etc,

learning to write does not come naturally in the same way as learning to

speak. It involves many complex skills, knowledge and concepts. One of

important aspects of learning to write is growing an awareness of self to

practice writing. Meanwhile understanding the definition of writing is a

must.

In other word, Ann Brown gave the definition of writing from

sociological view; it is a medium of interaction among people to make

relationship and to exchange information among each other in any

distances. She said, “Writing is important in our lives and as a

communicative act that transmit information and link people together”.90

The various definition of writing according to experts above can be

identified by the key words of each definition and it can be concluded in a

sentence. So the writing is a process of the mental physical act in

expressing thoughts and feeling of thinking in forming letters and words

into sentences correctly to shape experiences, to communicate and to link

people together on a surface.

89

A. S. Hornby, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, (Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 996.

90

Ann Brown, Helping Children’s Write, (New York: Paul Chapman Publishing Ltd,

1993), p.2

3. The Writing Sentence

The word sentence in a number of handbooks will probably find a

different definition in each one. According to the Oxford Dictionary of

English Grammar, sentence is the largest unit of language structure treated

in traditional grammar; usually having a subject and predicate, and (when

written) beginning with a capital letter and ending with full stop.91

While Donald Hall and Sven Birkerts in their book Writing Well

state that sentence is a group of words with a period, an exclamation point,

or a question mark at the end. A sentence is also a verbal structure that

reflects something about the world. It puts words in relation in order to

map our understanding of the sensible structure of things.92

In addition Enno Klammer explains that sentence is an independent

unit of expression. Moreover she explains that sentence is a group of

words containing a subject and a predicate and expressing a complete

thought.93

6. The Types of Sentence

According to Bob Brannan, there are four types of sentences they

are simple sentence, compound sentence, complex sentence, and

compound-complex sentence. 94

a. Simple Sentence

A simple sentence contains one main clause with no

subordinate clauses. It may be short and truly ‘simple’, as in

uncomplicated, or it may have several phrases that lengthen it

and add complexity. Here are several examples:

Aaron likes ice cream.

91

Chalker, Weiner, The Oxford..., p. 358.

92 Donald Hall, Sven Birkerts, Writing Well. 9th Ed, (Washington D. C: Addison Wesley

Longman, 1998), p. 126.

93

Enno Klammer, Paragraph Sense: A Basic Rhetoric, (New York: Harcourt Brace

Jovanovich, Inc, 1978), p. 2.

94

Bob Brannan, A Writer’s Workshop Crafting Paragraph, Building Essays, (New York:

McGraw–Hill, 2003), p. 502-503.

Aaron and his younger sister like ice cream.

b. Compound Sentence

A compound sentence merely adds one or more main clause

to a simple sentence. A sentence has two sets (or more) of subjects and verbs that are usually divided with a

coordinating conjunction like and or but and a comma-or a semicolon if the conjunction is omitted. Compound sentence

may be uncomplicated or may contain a great deal of information, but it may not contain a subordinate clause.

Here are several examples: Aaron likes ice cream, so he eats a lot of it.

Aaron and his younger sister like ice cream, so they eat a lot

of it.

c. Complex Sentence

Complex sentence is not necessarily any more “complex,” as

in complicated, than simple or compound sentences, but it

does certain another kind of clause-the subordinate or

dependent clause. A complex sentence, then consist of one

main clause and one or more subordinate clauses along with

whatever other phrases the sentence accumulates. Here are

several examples:

Aaron likes ice cream because it tastes sweet.

Aaron and his younger sister like ice cream because it tastes

sweet. d. Compound-Complex Sentence

The compound-complex sentence is just a combination of the two preceding sentence types. It consists of two or more main

clauses with one or more subordinate clauses along with accompanying phrases. Here are several examples:

Aaron likes ice cream because it tastes sweet, so he eats a lot of it.

Aaron likes ice cream that is full of chocolate chips, so he

eats a lot of it.

While John Langan in his book Sentence Skill also divides the

sentence into four types as simple, compound, complex, and compound-

complex.95

Each is explained below.

e. Simple Sentence A simple sentence has a single subject-verb combination. A

simple sentence may have more than one subject or more than one verb. For example:

The game ended early. Lola and Tony drove home.

95

John Langan, Sentence Skills A Workbook for Writers 7th

Edition, (Boston: McGraw-

Hill, 2003), p. 139-146.

The children smiled and waved at us.

f. Compound Sentence

A compound sentence, or “double,” sentence is made up of

two (or more) simple sentences. The two complete statements in a compound sentence are usually connected by a comma

plus a joining word (and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet). For example:

The rain increased, so the officials canceled the game. Martha wanted to go shopping, but Fred refused to

drive her. g. Complex Sentence

A complex sentence is made up of a simple sentence (a

complete statement) and a statement that begins with a

dependent words such as, after, as, because, etc. For

example:

Because I forgot the time, I missed the final exam.

h. Compound-Complex Sentence

A compound-complex sentence s made up of two (or more)

simple sentences and one (or more) dependent statements.

For example:

When the power line snapped, Jack was listening to

the stereo, and Linda was reading in bed.

C. Writing Paragraph

1. The Definition of Paragraph

Considering the facts that everyone has his/her own opinion and

view about something, many writing experts also give their opinion and

view in a paragraph. A paragraph can be defined in many ways; it depends

on the one who will give the definition. Reid says that a paragraph is a

series of sentences about one idea called the topic. A paragraph usually

consists of four to eight sentences about a single topic. Usually, a

paragraph begins with a general sentence that introduces the topic, begins

with an indentation.96

While Oshima in her book Writing Academic English states that a

paragraph is a basic unit of organization in writing in which a group of

related sentences develops one main idea. A paragraph can be as short as

96

Joy M. Reid, The Process of Paragraph Writing, (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc,

1994), p. 29.

one sentence or as long as ten sentences. The number of sentences is

unimportant; however, the paragraph should be long enough to develop

the main idea clearly, and a paragraph may stand by itself. 97

Bob Brannan

says in his book A Writer’s Workshop Crafting Paragraph, Building

Essays that a paragraph is a collection of related sentences that are clearly

connected to one another and that make some point. There is no set length

for a paragraph, the kind of writing and audience for it usually determining

the number of sentences.98

Gorrell writes in his book Modern English

Handbook that a paragraph is the conventional working unit for

developing an idea with more detail and more precision than a sentence

allows.99

While John Langan states that a paragraph is a series of sentences

about one main idea, or point. A paragraph typically starts with a point,

and the rest of the paragraph provides specific details to support and

develop that point.100 And then Donald Hall and Sven Birkerts express

their thoughts in their book entitled Writing Well that a paragraph is small

box of sentences, making a whole shape that is at the same time part of

another whole. It is a miniature essay itself, with its own variable

structure. The paragraph within the essay makes a sign for the reader; it

alerts the reader to the part structure of an essay. Paragraphs give signals

and directions and help to connect writers with audiences. Paragraphs are

partly arbitrary, and they will vary in length and purpose according to the

essay’s occasion. 101

Margaret Pogemiller Coffey states that a paragraph is

a group of sentences that clearly and concisely express one basic idea. The

97

Alice Oshima, Ann Hogue, Writing Academic English. 3rd

Edition, (London: Longman,

1999), p. 16.

98

Brannan, A Writer’s..., p. 35.

99

Gorrel, Laird, Modern English..., p. 52

100

Langan, Sentence Skills…, p. 11.

101

Hall, Birkerts, Writing Well..., p 183.

paragraph can be complete in itself, or it can be a part of an essay, a

research report, a book, and so on. Indent (leave a space) at the beginning

of every paragraph. Also leave a margin (a column of space) on both the

left- and right- hand sides of the page.102

In written form, English divided into paragraph to distinguish one

main idea from other main ideas. A paragraph is a series of sentences

about one idea. The paragraph is the basic unit of composition. A

paragraph is a group of sentences which develop one central idea,103

as

conventionally defined a paragraph contains a topic sentence and

supporting material; it begins with capital letter, the first line is indented,

and it concludes with an end stop.104

The first sentence of a paragraph is always indented so that that the

reader will know a new subject or a different aspect of the same subject is

being dealt with, the writer does this by leaving a blank space at the

beginning of the paragraph. The student should think of indentation as

simply another kind of punctuation. Just as a sentence ends with a period,

so each new paragraph begins with an indentation.

Cowan stated, “Paragraph is composed of a sentence or chunk of

sentences which the writer has grouped some definite reasons”.105

The

definition above can be concluded that the paragraph is a group of

sentences developed based on a subject that has related statements and

definite reason, which begins by indenting the first word from the left-

hand margin, or by leaving extra space.

102

Margaret Pogemiller Coffey, Communicating Through Writing, (New Jersey:

Prentice-Hall Regents, Englewood Cliffs, 1987), p. 2.

103

Martin L. Arnaudet and Marry E. Barrett, Paragraph Development, (New jersey:

Prentice Hall, Inc, 1981), p. 1. 104

William D. Baker, Reading and Writing Skills, I (USA: McGraw-Hill, 1971), p. 294.

105

Elizabeth Cowan, Writing Brief Edition, (Glenview: Scott, Foresman and Company,

1983), p. 119.

In order to make statements with paragraphs, a writer must be able

to construct good ones. The paragraph must have unity, and for unity,

he/she often requires a topic sentence. The paragraph must have coherence

within itself, and a series of paragraphs must cohere to form the essay. So

once a writer understands precisely what a paragraph does and how it does

it, he/she will be able to check and revise the writing for smoothness.106

Finally, a writer must learn to develop the paragraph until it is

adequate in its fullness and in its length, and until it presents its material in

the best possible order.

2. The Basic Parts of Paragraph

A paragraph generally is a group of sentences, which consist of

only one central idea and are developed with some supporting details, each

other has unity and coherence as well. Further, in his book Coffey states

that “A paragraph has three basic parts: the topic sentence, the developing

sentences, and the conclusion. Each part plays a role in writing a good

paragraph”.107

a. Topic Sentence

Topic sentence mostly talk about what the writer is interested

in to write. Lorc says that the most important of topic sentence should

catch the reader’s interest. She adds to get the interesting one writer

should use a vivid language, be controversial, and humanize (connect

to the topic with people).

Therefore, when a writer feels interested and necessary to write

about something, he at least firstly must have a definite purpose or

point of view.108

Therefore, he must have a strong reason for stressing

106

Cowan, Writing Brief..., p. 119.

107

Coffey, Communication Through..., p. 3.

108

Joseph P Canavan, Paragraph and the Short Theme (London: D.C. Heat and

Company, 1969), p. 32.

a particular aspect of his thought about the subject. In contrast, the

topic would probably weak, if there just only has a simply facts.

The important of topic sentence existences bring many writing

experts feel necessary in giving enforcement of it. Frank J.D Angelo in

his books titled process and taught in composition states, “The thought

of such a paragraph can usually be expressed in a single, coincide

statement called the topic sentence, which is ordinary stated at the

beginning of paragraph”.109

He adds it also introduces the term to be

defined.110

It means that topic sentence has important plays in a

paragraph because it will give any description about the whole of

paragraph to the reader. So that, the topic sentence needs appoint in

giving idea that is worth to develop a paragraph further.

Some reader may feel confused at that time they did not find

the topic sentence at the beginning of paragraph. It just because that

they do not know how the writer develops his paragraph. Therefore,

the position of the topic sentence depends on the methods that the

writer will develop it.

The topic sentence is mostly placed at the beginning of

paragraph, but it can be played in the middle or even at the end of it.

Coffey says “Although the topic sentence can be located in the middle

or at the end of a paragraph, it is most commonly found at the

beginning.111

The writer who begins his paragraph with the topic sentence

actually has advantage, at least the reader immediately can sign the

main idea that writer will develop in his paragraph. MacCrimmon says,

109

Frank J.D Angelo, Process and Taught in Composition, (Boston: Winthrop, 1977), p.

228.

110

Angelo, Process and…, p. 228. 111

Coffey, Communication through..., p. 23.

“The reader can then follow the movement of paragraph easily for he

or she will expect and expand the idea.112

b. Supporting Details

Overall, everybody knows that supporting details is one of the

contents in building a paragraph. The task of the detail is to cover

completely the idea that is presented in the topic sentence.113

No one can say exactly how many sentences that the details

will take. As mentioned above in the requirement of paragraph,

completeness in a paragraph is relative. However, the important rule is

to present all the information or details that necessary to express an

idea and does not make any unnecessary points. In other words, it is an

error to give too much information or not to give it enough.

c. Conclusion

Some writers build up their paragraphs with only two kinds of

sentences; topic sentence and a number of supporting sentences,

whereas, others add their paragraph with the clincher as the closing

sentence. The clincher shows the main idea (topic sentence) that is

stated again at the end of a paragraphs s conclusion.

Martin says, “The clincher sentence is a concluding sentences

that summery what a paragraph has said.114

It means that the clincher

entice restates the main idea or summarize the detail that develop in

the main idea.

So far, besides to end a paragraph, a clincher sentence is also

needed to sign the reader that the writer has finished discussing the

idea. As Coffey states, “Conclusion of a paragraph is generally one

sentence that brings the development of your idea to close”.

112

James MacCrimmon, Writing with a Purpose , ( Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984), p. 22

113

Coffey, Communication through…, p. 24.

114

Jerome Martin, Heath English, (New York: D.C. Heat and Company, 1984), p. 33

3. The Characteristic of Paragraph

As the part of writing a paragraph has uniquely characteristic that

is different with other part of writing. It consists of sentences (usually

more than one), each with its own structural pattern, in a series that

develops one single idea. Generally, a paragraph consists of a main idea in

the form of a generalization with supporting material that enables the

reader to accept generalization.115

It is clear, based on the above opinion, if a writer will develop

paragraph in writing, he/she has to understand and hold on the

characteristics of paragraph in every subject of writing. They are:

a. Sentence that have own structural pattern.

b. Main idea as point of paragraph and supporting materials, which

support main idea.

c. Conclusion.

4. The Function of Paragraph

When a writer makes paragraph on a writing work, he/she tries to

present distinctive styles of organization and development of thought to

readers. A model paragraph illustrates two important functions of

paragraphing:

a. Paragraphing enables a writer to organize and develop effectively a

single important idea.

b. Paragraphing enables a writer to effectively develop the thesis of a

longer piece of writing.116

Based on the first point it is frequently found in a writing work that

a writer expresses main idea in the form of a generalization known as a

topic sentence or statement sentence. Nevertheless, occasionally she

115

Canavan, Paragraph and…, p. 29.

116

Canavan, Paragraphs and..., p. 32.

develops her main idea by a number of sentences known as support. She

lets the reader concludes the main idea from the contents of the paragraph.

A paragraph or a group of paragraphing can serve as one link in a

chain of thought.117 The statement refers to the second point above. It

explains as a group of sentences relate to each other and to main idea. So a

group of paragraphs relate to another and to the thesis of a theme or an

even longer pieces of writing.

However, Elizabeth Cowan stated some uses of function

paragraphs are to:

a. Add drama and get the reader’s attention.

b. Make a transition from one part of the writing to another.

c. Set off conventional dialogue.

d. Break up long paragraphs or making paragraphs of about equal length.

e. Accommodate the author’s personal writing style.

f. Emphasize a point, develop an example, or add detail.118

Those function paragraphs are amusing and fascinating to learn.

But the main thing about them is that they are useful. By knowing about

function paragraphs, the students are not confused when they read writing

in books or others reading materials and find paragraphs that do not

always begin with a new thought and give a develop message.

5. The Paragraph Development

Developing a paragraph

A paragraph might be organized as follows:

a. Transition, to relate a paragraph to the one previous

b. Generalization or topic sentence, to state the subject.

c. Supporting material, to elaborate the generalization.

d. Summary, to restate the generalization, perhaps in a modified form.

e. Transition, to lead to the following paragraph.119

117

Canavan, Paragraph and…, p. 33.

118 Cowan, Writing Brief..., p. 138-142.

The important feature of an effective paragraph is development.

There are four requirements of a good paragraph namely unity,

completeness, order of movement, and coherence.120

a. Unity

One important feature of an effective paragraph is unity: all

sentences within the paragraph are related to the main point.

Unity in a paragraph is internal consistency. If the paragraph

is unified, each succeeding sentence will support that idea. A

unified paragraph makes clear reading. There are two

important features to remember about paragraphs:

1) A paragraph is a group sentences that develops one main

point or idea.

2) A paragraph has unity when all of its sentences are

related to the main point.

The best way to keep a paragraph unified is to be sure what

writers intend it to do. If the topic sentence accurately reflects

the intent, then all writers have to do in the paragraph is what they meant to do when they wrote the topic sentence. The

topic sentence is their guideline through the paragraph. b. Completeness

Completeness is relative. How much explanation an idea requires depends on how much the reader needs. This a

decision the writer must make out of knowledge of the subject and of the audience. It is an error to give either too

much explanation or not enough. Unless you give your

readers the information they need, you make it difficult for

them to understand you. Incomplete paragraphing is a

common fault in freshman writing, once a student realizes the

important of developing his generalizations with supporting

details.

c. Order of Movement

The movement of a paragraph should follow some clear

order. The order of sentences within a paragraph is largely

decided by the pattern of organization your purpose requires.

A well-constructed paragraph moves in some consistent

direction, there are some directions in the movement of a paragraph.

1) General to particular The paragraph begins with a general statement, then

moves to particular which explain or illustrate, or

119

Baker, Reading and…, p. 128.

120 McCrimmon, Writing with..., p. 84-97.

persuade the reader to accept the generalization. In effect,

the topic sentence at or near the beginning of the

paragraph is an introductory summary of the content.

That sentence may be followed by one or more explanatory statement which help to make its meaning

clear. Then the paragraph proceeds with the number of specific examples or supporting details which illustrate

the meaning of the topic sentence. 2) Particular to general

The paragraph begins from a series of explanatory or illustrative statements to the conclusion drawn from

them. Topic sentence at or near the end of paragraph.

3) Whole to parts

Paragraph moves through a succession of parts or stages

of the whole. Often in the first, second, or third order.

This kind of paragraph is sometimes called enumerative,

because it lists or enumerates the parts of a topic. It is

useful in summaries which show only the headings under

which a topic is to be discussed.

4) Question to answer/ Effect to cause

Less common is the paragraph that begins with a question

and gives the answer, or begins with an effect and moves

toward the cause. Such a paragraph may have no explicit

topic sentence, since the answer or the cause is given by the paragraph as a whole.

d. Coherence Literally, the word cohere means to hold together. A

paragraph is said to have coherence when its sentences are woven together or flow into each other. If a paragraph is

coherent, the reader moves easily from one sentence to the next and reads the paragraph as an integrated unit, not a

collection of separate sentences.

6. The Types of Paragraph

According to Janet R. Mayer, there are two major types of

paragraph, namely:

a. Paragraph that comes within a whole essay.

There are several good ways to organize this kind of paragraph:

Put the topic sentence first, when the topic sentence comes

at the beginning of the paragraph it usually becomes a kind of

promise to the reader that the rest of the paragraph will have

something to do with the topic sentence.

The topic sentence will come at the end, in this type a

writer first give the explanation about the topic sentence and then

give the conclusion using topic sentence of one paragraph at the

end.

The topic sentence in the middle of the paragraph,

sometimes the paragraph has an unwritten overall topic that is

implied in the details of the individual sentence and all sentences

provide bits of information.

b. The opening or introduction paragraph of an essay

This kind of paragraph makes a promise to the reader that

the whole essay will discuss a certain topic.

For example, in an essay in which you want to prove the

truth of something, your opening paragraph may state the point to

be proven. You make a contract with your reader that you are

going to prove something to hem. Give the evidence you can

provide in the rest of your essay for the truth of your essay topic.

And the more evidence you can provide, the more your reader will

be confidences of the truth of your topic statement.121

While Donald Pharr and Santi V.Buscemi stated that there

are nine types of paragraph, namely description, narration,

exemplification, process analysis, causal analysis, definition,

classification, comparison/contrast, and argument.122

1) Description

In description, the emphasis is on sensory detail-engaging

the reader’s ability to see, hear, feel, smell, and so on.

2) Narration

The narrative paragraph within an essay, tells a story in

order to entertain the reader or point out a significant

effect caused by the story’s events. Narrative paragraphs

use time order, with the writer employing transitions to

121

Janet R. Mayes, Writing and Rewriting, (New York: Macmillan Publishing .co. Inc,

1972), p. 378-380.

122

Donald Pharr, Santi V. Buscemi, Writing Today: Contexts and Option for the Real

World Brief Edition, (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004), p. 55-60.

ensure that the reader can follow the events without

losing the “thread” of the story.

3) Exemplification

When writers use the exemplification option, they are trying to prove a general assertion by providing specific

evidence to back the assertion up. 4) Process Analysis

The process analysis strategy has two possible purposes. One is to explain to the reader how to do something:

perform a task, repair machinery, and so on. The second purpose is to explain how an activity happened in the past

or happened routinely.

5) Causal Analysis

Paragraphs developed using causal analysis normally

concentrate on either cause or effect.

6) Definition

Writers use definition to clear up possible confusion

about a troublesome term or to bring new meaning to a

commonplace word or idea.

7) Classification

Writers classify when they take large subjects and divide

them into smaller subjects. Classification is a way of

making a subject clear by discussing its parts or

categories. 8) Comparison/Contrast

When writers compare and contrast two subjects, writers have to options for structuring their paragraph or essay. If

writers use the subject-by-subject approach, writers discuss one of the subjects first, then the other. In an

essay, writers can use various paragraphs strategies, including most of the ones in this section. If writers use

the point-by-point approach, however, writers compare

and contrast the two subjects in relation to one point of

comparison per sentence or group of sentences.

9) Argument

Writers could use any type of paragraph when developing

an argument, but most paragraphs used in argument make

and support assertions. In argument paragraph, writers

are, obviously, trying to prove their point. However, any

subject worth arguing has very good arguments on each

side. The yield is a type of paragraph that acknowledges

the other side’s assertions. Yield paragraphs do not

appear in all argument paragraphs, but they are useful

devices.

CHAPTER III

THE PROFILE OF “MAN 2 KOTA BOGOR”

A. The Curriculum

Curriculum is one of the important component which may significantly

support the requirements of teaching learning process in the school.

Comprehensively, it is defined as the learning which is planned and guided by

the school, whether it is carried on in groups or individually, inside or outside

of the school.

Curriculum can be viewed as a program arranged by an educational

institution to provide sequentially organized knowledge, understanding, skills,

and concepts for the learners. A significant aspect of curriculum is the

instuments to bring the needs of the learner together with the needs of society.

In this research, the curriculum used in “MAN 2 Kota Bogor” is The

School-Level Curriculum – the “KTSP”. The “KTSP” is operated in “MAN 2

Kota Bogor”. It has been developed into syllabus, the lesson plan, and annual

program. It is developed and implemented by the school based on the national

educational standards.

In learning and teaching activities, teachers try to take into account the

learners’ potentials, developmental level, and their living environment in

developing the course syllabus and instructional materials. In addition, they

also have to considere variety and integratedness, responsiveness, relevance,

holisticism, and continuity, even the balance between national and local needs

in the selection, gradation and presentation of their instructonal materials.123

In terms of the development of the syllabus of English subject, the

teacher tries to elaborate the items of the Content Standards into the

description of learning and teaching activities, of lesson materials, of a variety

of competency indicators, of time allocation, of lerning and teaching

resources, and even of evaluation instruments and techniques.

123

Bahrul Hasibuan, “KTSP: Problem or Solution”, in Onward English Education

journal, No. 2 Volume. I, December 2007, p. 31.

B. The English Teaching Method

As the writer had observed, the teaching method of English teacher in

XI year students of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor” may be categorized into the

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). It might be shown from several

teaching techniques the teacher used that involved dominantly the students’

activity in expressing something whether spoken or written. The teacher didn’t

dominate the class, but he let his students’ intervention. He used the authentic

materials when he taught them reading comprehension, for instance a reading

passage taken from a mass media and others. This affected them to be

interested because the issues given had already been known for most of them.

Also the teacher used another media which enabled his students to learn

creatively and cooperatively, for example pictures and realia. The media

provided the students more information and the students were expected to

have a respond to every information and problems given.

Theoretically, Communicative Language Teaching aims the learners

become active in communicating. It is useful for them to express something in

their daily life. The goals of Communicative Language Teaching are contained

in a communicative competence.

Communicative competence, according to Menachem B. Dagut, stands

for “… the ability to communicate both actively, by expression, and passively,

by comprehension, in the foreign language”.124 Moreover, it may be classified

into four dimensions, they are:

a. Grammatical competence: is the degree to which the language user has

mastered the linguistic code, including vocabulary, grammar,

pronunciation, spelling, and word formation.

b. Sociolinguistic competence: is the extent to which utterances can be

used or understood appropriately in various social contexts. It includes

knowledge of speech acts such as persuading, apologizing, and

describing.

124

Menachem B. Dagut, “a Teaching Grammar of the Passive Voice in English”, in Bertil

Malmberg and Gerhard Nickel (eds.), International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language

Teaching, (Hemsbach: Beltz Offsetdruck, 1985), p. 2.

c. Discourse competence: is the ability to combine ideas to achieve

cohesion in form and coherence in thought, above the level of the

single sentence.

d. Strategic competence: is the ability to use strategies like gestures or “talking around” an unknown word in order to overcome limitation in

language knowledge.125

It is clear that in learning a language, the learners need not only

knowledge of structures and vocabularies, but also they require to know how

the language elements work together when the learners try to produce a well

communication as an achievement of communicative competence.

Here, the English teacher of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor” tried to let the

students to know their ability in producing English whether spoken or written

by serving them the materials communicatively. He arranged the teaching

situation without his determination and opened widely the opportunity for the

students to express their ideas based on the given context.

C. The English Textbook

The English textbook which is used by the teacher and the eleventh

students at “MAN 2 Kota Bogor” is the English textbook published by

Grafindo Media Pratama and titled “Contextal Learning: Developing

Competencies in English Use for SMA”, edited by Bachrudin Musthafa.

The textbook has been consistently harmonious with the principles of

developing communicative competence with the emphasis on the ability to

understand and to produce both oral and written text.

It provides with practice of using English in contextual, integrated, and

collaborative ways to develop the ability to use English appropriately and

accurately.

125

http://www.freewebs.com/dzchun/Unit%202.htm (Friday, 3rd

of August 2007: 19.33).

D. The Profile of English Teacher

There are five English teachers at “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”, the following

information show the personal details of the teachers:

Table 3: The Personal Details of the Teachers

No. Name Age Sex Honorary/Public

Servant Civil

Teaching

Experiences Class

Latest

Education

1. Drs. Ruyani

46 Male Public Servant

Civil Since 1994 (14 years)

X, XI

S 1 from

“IAIN

Jakarta”

English Education

Department

2. Sri

Damayanti 40 Female

Public Servant

Civil

Since 1995

(13 years) XII

S 1 from

“IAIN

Bandung”

English

Education

Department

3. Jijah

Jilhijjah 37 Female

Public Servant

Civil

Since 2004

(4 years) XII

S 1 from

“IAIN

Jakarta”

English

Education Department

4. Wiwik

Sutiani 25 Female Honorary

Since 2005

(3 years) X

S 1 from

UNPAK

English

Education

Department

5. Rida

Nurul

Istiqomah

27 Female Honorary Since 2005

(3 years) XI

S 1 from

“IAIN”

Bandung

English

Education

Department.

E. The English Activities, Condition, and Environment

As the writer had observed, the activities that involved English were

implemented by the English teacher and the students inside and outside of the

classroom. The English teacher delivered the course mostly in English inside

the class. And, the discourse which was employed by the English teacher and

the students outside the classroom was about greetings or other simple

expressions. Moreover, the interaction among the English teachers and others

used English in low intensity.

The activities which have mentioned above affected the students

became accustomed in expressing something in English and this condition

might led them to be competence in English. Also, the purpose of teaching

and learning process might be easily achieved, that was the communicative

goals.

The students’ English ability improvement were also supported by

providing of English facility, for instance the English laboratory, and English

instruments, for instance the availability of some posters which were written

by using English and other foreign languages, the English novels, magazines,

and books, and so on.

CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND FINDING

A. Research Methodology

1. The Objective of Research

The objectives of this research are:

a. To know the types of errors the students made in writing.

b. To know the most errors made by the students.

2. The Method of Research

In this research, the writer uses the qualitative method. It is called

qualitative because, as Donald Ary, et al., imply that, “Qualitative method

seeks to understand a phenomenon by focusing on the total picture rather

than breaking it down into variables”.126

In case, phenomenon refers to the

study of finding the students’ error types and the most their error types

occur in their descriptive writing.

Since this study only focuses on specific school namely “MAN 2

Kota Bogor”, it is also considered as a case study. Meanwhile, based on

Donald Ary, et al., the purpose of case study “…… is to arrive at a

detailed description and understanding of the entity. In addition a case

study can result in data from which generalization method, such as

interview, observation, and achieves to gather data”.127

3. The Instrument of Research

The writer uses a written test as the instrument for collecting the

data. For the test, the teacher gave selected topics that related with person,

126

Donald Ary, et al., Introduction to Research in Education Sixth Edition, (Belmont:

Wadsworth Group Thomson Learning Inc., 2002), p. 25.

127 Ary, et al., Introduction to … p. 27.

place, and things, that have relation with descriptive text and students were

asked to write a descriptive writing.

Besides that the writer uses observation and interview to complete

the data needed.

4. The Technique of Sample Taking

The population of the study includes all XI year of science students

of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”. There are 400 students in this level. They are

divided into ten classes. In order to take the sample of the school the

purposive sampling is used, that is Science V become the sample of the

research. Thus, the total number of sample is 40 students.

5. The Technique of Data Collecting

There are three techniques of collecting data applied in this

research; they are observation, written test, and interview.

a. Observation

Observation technique is used to collect the data about the

implementation of teaching English in the classroom during the

teaching learning process. It deals with the activities of English teacher

in teaching writing. The observation was conducted 7 times for the

English teacher on September 5 up to December 8, 2007. In this case,

the writer acted as an observer whom observed the teaching-learning

process without being involved in the process.

b. Written Test

Written test is a technique in collecting the data to find out the

students’ errors type in descriptive writing they have made and to

know the most errors type occur in their writing. In gaining data, the

teacher addresses the students a test to write descriptive writing with

the chosen topic relates to person, place, and thing.

c. Interview

This technique is used to supplement the data needed which are

not covered by two techniques previously, such as the reason why the

teacher used the technique of teaching writing selected by him, and the

background of his study. This technique was used to interview a

teacher of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”.

6. The Place and Time of Research

The research was held at the eleventh year students of “MAN 2

Kota Bogor”, which is located at Jl. Padjajaran no. 6 Bogor, West Java.

The research was carried out on October 5 up to December 8, 2007. On

October 5, 2007, the writer asked permission with the headmaster to do

research. On October 11, 2007, she continued her research to observe the

teaching writing process. On November 19, 2007, she continued her

research interviewing with the English teacher. On November 23, 2007,

she continued her research to give the writing test to the student. On

December 5, 2007, she continued her research to discuss the students’

writing with her and explained the error made by the students.

7. The Technique of Data Analysis

The raw data obtained through observation, written test and

interview, are analyzed in some ways as shown below:

a. Data from the Observations

The data analysis is conducted by arranging the data which is

obtained systematically, this is done to make it easier for the writer to

write the research report.

As the writer had observed, the process of teaching writing in

XI year of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor” is appropriate with the standard

competence and based competence of writing skill. It is shown from

the material that the teacher gave to the students and also the process

of teaching learning. The material used by the teacher was related to

the genre/discourse. Also the process of teaching learning was students

centered. He didn’t dominate in class, he tried to make the students

active and practice the language in class. For example, he taught past

continuous tense in the form of narrative text, he asked the students

opinion in the material that was discussed, and he made the students

practice it directly.

The teacher taught the genre in detail. He explained the

grammatical pattern, the schematic structure, and gave the example of

the genre. To see the students’ comprehension, he discussed, revised,

and analyzed it in class with the students. Also he tried to make them

to produce a writing or text.

The teacher taught the English language skills (listening,

speaking, reading and writing) appropriately. But when the writer

observed, she viewed that the teacher were less to teach the English

language component, such as grammar, phonology, morphology (the

study of how words are put together), syntax (sentence structure), and

semantic (meaning). (See appendix)

b. Data from the Written Test

The data gain from the written test is analyzed by using data

Percentage Table (Tabel Persentase). According to Anas Sudjono,

Percentage Table is “Tabel Distribusi Frekuensi Relatif juga

dinamakan Tabel Persentase. Dikatakan “Frekuensi Relatif” sebab

frekuensi yang disajikan disini bukanlah frekuensi yang sebenarnya,

melainkan ferekuensi yang dituangkan dalam bentuk angka

persenan”.128

128

Anas Sudjono, Pengantar Statistik Pendidikan, (Jakarta: Raja Grafindo Persada, 2005)

p. 42.

His idea may be approximately turned into English as follows:

Distribution Table of Relative Frequency is also named table of

percentage. It is called “Relative Frequency” because the frequency

which is stated here is not the real frequency, but it is a frequency

which is cited in percentage number form.

Hence, she makes the table of percentage from the frequency of

information and it is divided the number of students. Its formula is:

f p = X 100% N

f = frekuensi yang sedang dicari persentasenya (error)

N = jumlah frekuensi/banyaknya individu (total error)

p = angka persentase (percentage)129

(See appendixes)

c. Data from the Interview

The data gain from interview used to confirm the data collected

by the other technique previously. These data made the researcher

more convinced what the teacher had done and stated.

B. Research Finding

1. The Description of Data

In this occasion, to process the data the writer analyzes the

students’ writing errors. Then, she marks the sentences containing errors

by underlined the word to indicate the errors. After that, she marks it to

classify the types of errors on the students’ writing.

The writer examines the forty students’ writing test to take an

appropriate sample of the whole population. Next, she counts the kinds of

error made by the students in writing and the number of errors by

tabulating and calculating the result of errors. Then, she processes the

129 Sudjono, Pengantar Statistik… p. 43.

calculation of result of the test by changing the result of errors into

percentage. Next, she makes graphic of writing error based on the

calculation.

2. The Analysis of Data

From the data collected, the writer found thirteen types of errors of

the writing. The focus of errors will be analyzed, as the following criteria;

a. The Analysis of Error Types.

After identifying each student’s error, the writer would like to

analyze the students’ error in their writing based on their types of their

error. They are:

1) Article

In Indonesian writing, there is no need to use article. It

influences the students in their writing. Some students use wrong

articles in their composition. They were confused to use a or an

before singular noun that is initialized with vowel, for examples:

Table 4

Error in Article

Corpus Reconstruction

1. Young Red Cross is a

extracurriculer movement in sector humanity and healthty.

2. MAN 2 BOGOR is a Islamic high School in Bogor

1. Young Red Cross is an

extracurricular movement in sector of humanity and healthy.

2. MAN 2 Bogor is an Islamic High School in Bogor.

The students made 3 errors or 0.67%.

2) Capitalization

Some students cannot decide whether an expression or a

word should be capitalized or not. They used capital letter not in

the certain words or, simply said, out of the rules. They also used

the wrong capital letter in particular words. They did not put any

capital letter at the beginning of the sentence, in the name of a

person, place, and abbreviation. Also, they used capital letter in the

middle of the sentence, for examples:

Table 5

Error in Capitalization

Corpus Reconstruction

1. honeybees used to medicine.

2. he is live in Cijeruk Village.

3. Taman buah Mekarsari is one of the

biggest fruit garden and popular in

the Indonesia.

4. “… he is go to mosque raya bogor

for pray Dzuhur”.

1. Honeybees are used as medicine.

2. He lives in Cijeruk Village.

3. Taman Buah Mekarsari is one of

the biggest and popular fruit

garden in Indonesia.

4. “… he goes to mosque of Raya

Bogor to pray Dzuhur”.

The students made 68 errors or 15.14%.

3) Diction

Diction or word choice is choosing the right word in a

sentence. Sometimes one word has the same meaning but has

different usage in the sentence. Some students choose the wrong

words whose meaning doesn’t appropriate with the sentence. The

result is that a sentence is unclear or the students fail to express

what they mean, for examples:

Table 6

Error in Diction

Corpus Reconstruction

1. If you follow in Young Red Cross

you can many study about Humanity

and healthty.

2. They can make us happy for doing

activities at house.

3. MAN 2 too have many kinds

Extraculiculer.

4. It’s have 2 direction, science and

social.

5. The bathroom is seldom to be clean

by school watch man.

1. If you join with Young Red Cross

you can study more about

humanity and healthy.

2. They can make us happy for doing

activities at home.

3. MAN 2 also has many kinds of

extracurricular.

4. It has 2 departments; science and

social.

5. The bathroom is seldom to be

cleaned by the janitor.

6. Young Red Cross in MAN 2 Bogor

have many parts, one of them its me.

6. Young Red Cross in MAN 2

Bogor has many members, one of

them is me.

The students made 20 errors or 4.45%,

4) Omissions

Sometimes, the students miss several words in their text

when they are writing a composition. There are 30 students that

miss some words in their writing. Because of that when the writer

analyzing each of student’s writing, she should add some words to

complete their writing. For examples:

Table 7

Error in Omissions

Corpus Reconstruction

1. Lion skin yellow.

2. School area clean and healthy.

3. Koran very important.

4. Garden is place that comfortable

and fresh.

5. I must sleep 9 clock.

1. The lion’s skin is yellow.

2. The school area is clean and

healthy.

3. The Koran is very important.

4. Garden is a comfortable and fresh

place.

5. I must sleep at 9 o’clock.

The students made 61 errors or 13.58%.

5) Preposition

Some students made error in using preposition. They used

wrong preposition in a sentence, especially in indicating to the

address, for examples:

Table 8

Error in Preposition

Corpus Reconstruction

1. It’s location on Padjajaran street

no.6.

2. The school location in Padjajaran

street. No.6.

1. It is located at Padjajaran street

No. 6.

2. The school is located at Padjajaran

street No. 6.

The students made 4 errors or 0.89%.

6) Pronoun

Some students made errors in using pronoun. The pronoun

they choose doesn’t fit with the subject, complement, object, or

possessive, for examples:

Table 9

Error in Pronoun

Corpus Reconstruction

1. He is pet animal

2. The rabbit usually eat the carrot or

spinach. He is very happy, if we

give it.

1. It is a pet.

2. The rabbit usually eats the carrot or

spinach. It is very happy if we feed

it.

The students made 12 errors or 2.67%.

7) Punctuation

Some students made errors in punctuation. They didn’t use

punctuation in the end of the sentence, and between independent

(main) clauses and coordinate conjunction, for examples:

Table 10

Error in Punctuation

Corpus Reconstruction

1. “MAN 2 Bogor can be

championship in many Event for

example in a week ago …

2. he is famous in group students and

teacher

3. In MAN 2 Bogor does many

Extrakurikuler

1. “MAN 2 Bogor Can Be A

Champion In Many Events, For

Example, In A Week Ago …

2. He Is Famous In The Group Of

Students And Teachers.

3. MAN 2 Bogor Has Many

extracurricular.

The students made 15 errors or 3.34%.

8) Singular/Plural

Some students made mistake in using singular and plural

noun. They didn’t use the plural form for the plural nouns, made

errors to the words that come after expression of quantity, and used

incorrect irregular plural nouns, for examples:

Table 11

Error in Singular/Plural

Corpus Reconstruction

1. Houses are protect place for

Humans of sunshine, rainy and

others.

2. All students and teacher must for

read Al-Qur’an

3. They have six feet, and they have

two wing.

4. There are usually fifty three room.

5. All animal afraid him.

1. Houses are the protective places for

humans from sunshine, rain and

others.

2. All students and teachers must read

Al-Qur’an.

3. They have six feet and two wings.

4. There are usually fifty three rooms.

5. All animals afraid him.

The students made 27 errors or 6.01%.

9) Spelling

Spelling is how to write a word correctly. More students

misspelled certain words, especially for the English words that

changed into Indonesian language and made some incorrectly

separated words, for examples:

Table 12

Error in Spelling

Corpus Reconstruction

1. Extraculiculer

2. Favourit

3. Voly ball

4. Sains

5. Scouth

6. Handphone

7. Be cause

1. Extracurricular

2. Favorite

3. Volleyball

4. Science

5. Scout

6. Hand phone

7. Because

The students made 59 errors or 13.14%.

10) Verb Tense

Most of students made mistake in tense, they were confused

in using tenses in their writings. They made errors in the form of

simple present tense, simple past tense, simple continuous tense,

and passive form, for examples:

Table 13

Error in Verb Tense

Corpus Reconstruction

1. Last week Young Red Cross win as

a favorite champion in SDB (Sasih

Darma Bakti).

2. … they went to Bogor Great

Mosque for pray together everyday.

3. Mr. Kosasih is going to school,

everyday.

4. He is seriously if studying and listen

very well. he didn’t much speak.

1. Last week Young Red Cross won

as a favorite champion in SDB

(Sasih Darma Bakti).

2. … they go to Bogor Great Mosque

for praying together everyday.

3. Mr. Kosasih goes to school

everyday.

4. He studies seriously and listens

very well. He doesn’t much speak.

The students made 88 errors or 19.6%.

11) Word Form

Indonesian word form is different with English word form.

They often over generalize the form of words. Some students made

errors in using word form in their composition. For instance, they

misuse a word when the sentence followed by modal auxiliary, or

using inappropriate word in a sentence like adjective and adverb,

for examples:

Table 14

Error in Word Form

Corpus Reconstruction

1. Garden is comport place.

2. The function of them are for sleepy,

having fun together family …

1. Garden is a comfortable place.

2. The functions of them are for

sleeping, having fun together with

family …

3. We can to pick fruit and to consume

fresh fruit.

3. We can pick and consume fresh

fruit.

The students made 24 errors or 5.35%.

12) Word Order

This error is, sometimes, the result from immediate

communication strategy when the learner tried to express meaning,

which their competence contained no appropriate items on rules at

all. Indonesian word order and English word order are different, for

examples:

Table 15

Error in Word Order

Corpus Reconstruction

1. It has exclusive perfume and form

nice.

2. Address my home at Jln. Mayjen

HE. Sukma.

3. my room favorite is my bedroom 4. There is more place interesting.

1. It has exclusive perfume and nice

form.

2. My address on Jln. Mayjen H.E.

Sukma.

3. My favorite room is my bedroom. 4. There are more interesting places.

. The students made 34 errors or 7.57%.

13) Wordiness

In the student’s writing, they sometime added some useless

words in a sentence that had better to be omitted. Some students

repeated a word in the same sentence. They also used two words

that have equal meanings. It simply means that they say the same

thing twice, for examples:

a) Repeated words

Table 16

Error in Wordiness

Corpus Reconstructions

1. The Young Red Cross it is a

extracurikuller movement in sector

humanity and healthty.

1. The Young Red Cross is an

extracurricular movement in sector

of humanity and healthy.

2. Color paint it is white. 2. The paint is white.

b) Unnecessary words

Table 17

Error in Wordiness

Corpus Reconstruction

1. In the garden can become place to playing, to break, etc.

2. All students and teacher must for read Al-Qur’an.

1. The garden can become a place to play, to break, etc.

2. All students and teachers must read Al-Qur’an.

c) Redundancies

Table 18

Error in Wordiness

Corpus Reconstruction

1. There are still many more flowers in

Indonesia.

2. He is pet animal

1. There are still many flowers in

Indonesia.

2. It is a pet.

The students made 34 errors or 7.57%.

3. Data Interpretation

From the data mentioned above, we can see that there are thirteen

kinds of errors made by the students. There are article, capitalization,

diction, omissions, preposition, pronoun, punctuation, singular/plural,

spelling, verb tense, word form, word order, and wordiness. The highest

error is made on verb tense with 88 errors or 19,6%, and the lowest is

article.

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

C. Conclusion

Based on the data and the discussion on the previous chapter, the

writer would like to conclude that the types of error that always made by the

students in their English writing are verb tense (88 errors or 19.6 %),

capitalization (68 errors or 15.14 %), omissions (61 errors or 13.58 %),

spelling (59 errors or 13.14 %), word order (34 errors or 7.57 %), wordiness

(34 errors or 7.57 %), singular/plural (27 errors or 6.01 %), word form (24

errors or 5.35 %), diction (20 errors or 4.45 %), punctuation (15 errors or 3.34

%), pronoun (12 errors or 2.67 %), preposition (4 errors or 0.89 %), and article

(3 errors or 0.67 %). Each of students of the eleven year of “MAN 2 Kota

Bogor” made many errors on the types of error as mentioned above. The

highest error is 88 errors or 19.6 % of errors in verb tense.

D. Suggestion

Based on this fact the writer would like to give her suggestion to the

teacher and the students:

a. For Teacher

1. Gives more time for the student to study the form and the appropriate

tenses in writing.

2. Teaches them some materials that the students made errors in their

writing.

3. Teaches the writing skill and the English language components.

4. Makes writing a daily experience.

5. Has most writing done in class.

6. Discuss the problem of the students’ writing in class.

b. For Students

1. Must have more practice to use the right form of tense and to state the

appropriate tense in writing

2. Discuss the problem in writing with their classmate and teacher.

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19.33).

Appendix 1

CLASS OBSERVATION I

Observed Class : Eleventh year students of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”

Teacher : Drs. Ruyani

Number of Students : 39 students

A. Equipment and Material

1. Textbook

2. Whiteboard

3. Board marker

4. Paper

5. Handout

B. Procedures

1. Warm-Up Activity

In this stage, the teacher greets his students warmly in English.

Then, he tells about his imagination to be a president.

2. Presentation

Today’s lesson is “Conditional Sentence”. Then, the teacher asks

the students to imagine something. He tells to them about his imagination.

3. Whole Class Activity

The teacher asks some students to tell their imagination. Then, he

asks them to answer his question: “What would you do if you were the

new President of Indonesia?” and “Where would you be now if you were a

police officer?” After that, the students find a partner and answer the

partner’s questions in a complete statement. Use if-clause in answering the

questions and each pairs takes turning in questioning and answering. Then,

he states two things which will suggest an idea to the students. He asks the

students to make up the sentences by using if-clause. Then, he explains the

conditional sentence. Moreover, he asks the students to put the verbs into

the correct form individually.

C. Closure

The teacher concludes the material and gives the assignments to make

conditional sentences.

D. Conclusion

The students are able to produce spoken or written conditional

sentences which are related to the given themes by the teacher and to use the

certain verbs correctly in conditional sentences.

CLASS OBSERVATION II

Observed Class : Eleventh year students of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”

Teacher : Drs. Ruyani

Number of Students : 39 students

A. Equipment and Material

1. Textbook

2. Whiteboard

3. Board marker

4. Paper

5. Handout

B. Procedures

1. Warm-Up Activity

In this stage, the teacher greets his students warmly in English.

Then, he asks them about their last weekend. He spends this activity about

5 minutes.

2. Presentation

Today’s lesson is “Narrative text and Past Continuous Tense”.

Then, the teacher asks the students to open the textbook about narrative

text.

3. Whole Class Activity

The students are asked to read the text and answer the questions.

After that, the teacher asks them to pay attention to the italic words that

explain the past continuous activity. He asks them to mention about two

activities in the text and to state which sentences come first. After the

students identify the past continuous sentence, then he explains it to them.

After that, he asks them to write the appropriate form of words in brackets

to make a good sentence in a form of past continuous tense. The students

do the activity individually. Then, they check the right answer in a class

together.

C. Closure

The teacher asks the students to identify the structure of narrative text.

D. Conclusion

The students are able to arrange the narrative text and to determine the

structure of each sentences based on the given text (narrative text).

CLASS OBSERVATION III

Observed Class : Eleventh year students of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”

Teacher : Drs. Ruyani

Number of Students : 39 students

A. Equipment and Material

1. Textbook

2. Whiteboard

3. Board marker

4. Paper

5. Pictures

B. Procedures

1. Warm-Up Activity

In this stage, the teacher greets his students warmly in English.

Then, he gives motivation by telling his activity that has a relation with the

topic.

2. Presentation

Today’s lesson is “Descriptive Text”. The teacher gives the

pictures of “Bogor Botanical Garden” and asks the students to describe it.

He asks the students to mention some words that relate to the topic and to

explain it in sentences. The students discuss it and share their opinions.

3. Whole Class Activity:

The teacher gives an example of descriptive text and the students

answer the question based on the text. After that, the teacher and the

students study and discuss the descriptive text and analyze its social

function, the objectives, the structure, and language features. Moreover,

the students write the structure of the text and the characteristics of the

descriptive text individually.

4. Teacher and Students Talk

When observing this class, the writer finds that the teacher is good

enough to conduct the activities. He can handle the problems

professionally. He is able to create the interactive circumstances and to

stimulate his students to express their ideas.

C. Closure

The teacher asks the students about the problem that they face on

today’s lesson and concludes the material. Also, he gives the assignment to

find some examples of descriptive text.

D. Conclusion

The students are able to determine the parts of descriptive text, to

mention the characteristics of its, and to identify the structure of every

sentences in the text.

CLASS OBSERVATION IV

Observed Class : Eleventh year students of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”

Teacher : Drs. Ruyani

Number of Students : 40 students

A. Equipment and Material

1. Textbook

2. Whiteboard

3. Board marker

4. Paper

5. Handout

B. Procedures

1. Warm-Up Activity

In this stage, the teacher greets his students warmly in English. He

gives motivation by telling a famous person and describes him/her clearly.

2. Presentation

Today’s lesson is “Descriptive Text”. The teacher distributes the

text about Albert Einstein. The teacher asks some students to read some

paragraphs loudly and corrects the pronunciation of the students. Then, the

students are asked to answer the questions based on the text for reading

comprehension and to identify the structure of the text.

3. Group Work Activity

After identifying the text, the students, in group that consists of 4

persons, are given the assignment by the teacher to make a paragraph by

selecting three pictures given by the teacher.

4. Teacher and Students Talk

When observing this class, the writer finds that the teacher is good

to conduct the activities, especially, to make the students talk in English.

They are active enough in getting involved with the speaking activity.

C. Closure

The teacher gives an assignment to translate the descriptive text in a

textbook.

D. Conclusion

The students are able to read the text with the correct pronunciation, to

answer the questions, to identify the structure of the text, and to produce the

simple descriptive text in group.

CLASS OBSERVATION V

Observed Class : Eleventh year students of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”

Teacher : Drs. Ruyani

Number of Students : 40 students

A. Equipment and Material

1. Textbook

2. Whiteboard

3. Board marker

4. Paper

5. Handout

B. Procedures

1. Warm-Up Activity

In this stage, the teacher greets his students warmly in English. He

gives motivation by telling his famous person and describes the person

clearly.

2. Presentation

Today’s lesson is “Descriptive Text”. The teacher asks the students

to open the textbook and to read the descriptive text. He asks some

students to read some paragraphs loudly and corrects their pronunciation.

Then, he asks the students to identify the detail information for describing

the things, the places, and the persons in a text by asking “What details

does the author use to describe the woman?” He tells the students to use

the words that are related to the sense of sight, sound, touch, smell, and

taste (sensory words) in writing a descriptive paragraph.

3. Individual Activity

After identifying the text, the students are given the assignment by

the teacher to make a descriptive paragraph with different things, such as,

people, things, or places. They are asked to select one topic and to describe

it for making descriptive paragraph.

4. Teacher and Students Talk

When observing this class, the writer finds that the teacher is good

to conduct the activities, especially, to make the students talk in English.

He is able to attract their students to be able to states their ideas whether

spoken or written by delivering them the interesting issues or problems.

C. Closure

The teacher concludes the material and gives the assignments to find

some examples of descriptive text.

D. Conclusion

The students are able to read the text with the appropriate

pronunciation, to identify the detail information by involving the sensory

words, and to produce the descriptive paragraph individually.

CLASS OBSERVATION VI

Observed Class : Eleventh year students of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”

Teacher : Drs. Ruyani

Number of Students : 39 students

A. Equipment and Material

1. Textbook

2. Whiteboard

3. Board marker

4. Paper

5. Handout

B. Procedures

1. Warm-Up Activity

In this stage, the teacher greets his students warmly in English. He

tells about the latest information. He spends this activity about 5 minutes.

2. Presentation

Today’s lesson is “Report Text”. The teacher asks the student to

open the textbook about report text.

3. Whole Class Activity

The teacher asks the student some questions that are related with

the topic. He asks about the rainbow. After that, he asks the students to

complete the text with the verbs given in the box. After the students finish

the task, they correct it together with their teacher. Moreover, the teacher

asks the students to identify the structure of report text. He explains the

report text and enlightens the structure, the objective, language features,

and the characteristic of report text to the students.

4. Individual Activity

The students are asked to arrange the paragraphs into the correct

order to become a good text in the form of report text.

C. Closure

The teacher concludes the material and gives the assignments to find

some examples of report text.

D. Conclusion

The students are able to use the new words appropriately, to analyze

the parts of reports text, and to reconstruct the scrambled paragraph into the

perfect paragraph.

CLASS OBSERVATION VII

Observed Class : Eleventh year students of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”

Teacher : Drs. Ruyani

Number of Students : 40 students

A. Equipment and Material

1. Textbook

2. Whiteboard

3. Board marker

4. Paper

5. Newspaper

B. Procedures

1. Warm-Up Activity

In this stage, the teacher greets his students warmly in English.

Then, he tells about the latest information. He has this activity about 5

minutes.

2. Presentation

Today’s lesson is “Report Text”. The teacher asks the students to

read the report text in the newspaper.

3. Whole Class Activity

The teacher asks some questions to the students about the text in

the newspaper. He asks the students to retell the main idea of certain

paragraphs and to identify the structure, the characteristics, and the

language features. After that, he points some students to report the certain

text in the newspaper.

C. Closure

The teacher concludes the material and gives assignments to find some

examples of report text.

D. Conclusion

The students are able to identify the structure, the characteristics, and

the language features of the report text, to determine the main idea of report

text, and to re-present the report text based their ability.

Appendix 2

The Recapitulation of Students Error

Errors

Stu

den

ts’

Na

me

Art

icle

Cap

ital

izat

ion

Dic

tion

Om

issi

ons

Pre

po

siti

on

Pro

nou

n

Pu

nct

uat

ion

Sin

gula

r/P

lura

l

Sp

elli

ng

Ver

b T

ense

Wo

rd F

orm

Word

Ord

er

Wo

rdin

ess

Tota

l E

rror

Student 1 2 5 1 3 - - 3 4 7 3 1 - 5 34

Student 2 - - - 3 - - - 1 1 1 1 - - 7

Student 3 - - 1 1 - - - - - 1 - - - 3

Student 4 - - - 1 - - 1 - - - - 1 3 6

Student 5 - 1 - 4 - - 1 1 3 - - 1 11

Student 6 - - - - - 3 - 1 - 3 - - - 7

Student 7 - 2 1 3 - - - 1 1 1 1 1 - 11

Student 8 - 1 1 1 1 - 1 1 3 4 - 1 2 16

Student 9 - - - - - - - - - - - 2 1 3

Student 10 - 3 - 4 - - - - 2 2 4 1 3 19

Student 11 - - - 7 - - - 1 1 1 1 8 3 22

Student 12 - 6 2 1 - - - - 1 3 - - - 13

Student 13 - - 3 - - - - 1 1 1 5 1 1 13

Student 14 - 3 - 2 - - - 1 3 1 - 1 3 14

Student 15 - 3 1 1 - 3 - 1 - 4 1 - - 14

Student 16 - 2 - - - - - 5 1 - - - 8

Student 17 - 1 - 2 - 1 1 1 6 - 1 - 1 14

Student 18 - 3 - - 1 - - 2 3 - - - - 9

Student 19 - - - 1 - - - - - - - - - 1

Student 20 - - 3 1 - - - - - 5 - 1 1 11

Student 21 - 7 - 1 - - 3 - 3 6 - - 2 22

Student 22 - 2 - 2 - - - - 1 2 - 1 - 8

Student 23 - 1 - - - - - 1 3 1 - - - 6

Student 24 - 4 - 1 - - 2 - 1 2 4 2 4 20

Student 25 - 1 - 3 - - 1 - 3 - - 1 9

Student 26 1 2 - 3 1 - - - 3 3 - 1 - 14

Student 27 - 3 - 1 - - 2 2 2 6 - 2 - 18

Student 28 - 1 2 4 - - - 1 - 2 - 3 - 13

Student 29 - - - - - 1 - 1 1 7 - - - 10

Student 30 - 3 3 1 - - - 1 2 - - - - 10

Student 31 - 3 - - - - - 1 - 9 2 1 1 17

Student 32 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 2 - 4 - 2 - 17

Student 33 - 1 - 3 - - - 1 - 2 - 1 1 9

Student 34 - - - 1 - - - - - - - 1 - 2

Student 35 - - 1 1 1 - - - - 1 - 2 1 7

Student 36 - 2 - 1 - - - - - 1 2 - - 6

Student 37 - 2 - 1 - - 2 - 3 - - - - 8

Student 38 - - - - - - - - - - - 1 - 1

Student 39 - 3 - 1 - - - - - 4 - - 1 9

Student 40 - 1 1 - - - - - 5 2 - - 1 10

3 68 20 61 4 12 15 27 59 88 24 34 34 450

Total %

0.6

7%

15

.14%

4.4

5%

13

.58%

0.8

9%

2.6

7%

3.3

4%

6.0

1%

13

.14%

19

.6%

5.3

5%

7.5

7%

7.5

7%

10

0 %

Appendix 3

Interview

Nama Sekolah : MAN 2 Kota Bogor

Nama Guru : Drs. Ruyani

Guru Bahasa Inggris Kelas : XI

A. KUALIFIKASI GURU

1. Apakah pendidikan tertinggi yang pernah Bapak/Ibu tempuh?

Jawab: S 1 “IAIN Jakarta” Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris.

2. Apakah status Bapak/Ibu di sekolah ini?

Jawab: PNS (Guru dan Wakil Ketua Komite Madrasah)

3. Sudah berapa tahun Bapak/Ibu mengajar di sekolah ini?

Jawab: Dari tahun 1994 (14 tahun).

4. Berapa jam pelajaran Bapak/Ibu mengajar Bahasa Inggris selama

seminggu di sekolah ini?

Jawab: 28 jam pelajaran dalam seminggu (kelas X, XI)

5. Sebelum mengajar di sekolah ini, apakah bapak/Ibu pernah mengajar di

sekolah lain?

Jawab: Ya

6. Jika jawaban no. 5 “Ya” Bapak/Ibu sebutkan nama sekolah tersebut dan

berapa lama?

Jawab: STM, Daruttafsir, selama 4 tahun.

7. Selain Bahasa Inggris, apakah Bapak/Ibu mengajar mata pelajaran lain?

Jawab: Ya

8. Jika jawaban no. 7 “Ya”, mohon Bapak/Ibu sebutkan mata pelajaran

tersebut?

Jawab: Pelajaran Psikologi di “STAI” Samsul Ulum.

B. PERSIAPAN MENGAJAR

9. Sebelum mengadakan pertemuan tatap muka di kelas, apakah Bapak/Ibu

membuat persiapan mengajar tertulis tentang pengajaran menulis?

Jawab: Ya

10. Persiapan mengajar tertulis tentang pengajaran menulis yang Bapak/Ibu

susun tercakup dalam?

Jawab: Administrasi Guru

11. Apakah dalam membuat persiapan mengajar tertulis tentang pengajaran

menulis Bapak/Ibu mengacu pada Silabus?

Jawab: Ya

C. MATERI PELAJARAN

12. Materi pelajaran Bahasa Inggris khususnya untuk pengajaran menulis yang

Bapak/Ibu ajarkan diambil dari?

Jawab: Grafindo dan hasil penataran GMP Guru.

13. Alasan Bapak/Ibu menggunakan sumber tersebut dalam mengajarkan

menulis adalah?

Jawab: Tahu editornya, selain itu buku ini merupakan hasil

analisis/identifikasi dengan kurikulum, dan kaya akan model materinya

dan penyediaan materi.

D. PROSES BELAJAR MENGAJAR WRITING

14. Teknik yang Bapak/Ibu gunakan dalam mengajarkan menulis adalah?

Jawab: Aturan mengajar.

15. Alasan Bapak/Ibu memakai teknik (teknik-teknik) yang telah Bapak/Ibu

sebutkan pada pertanyaan no. 14 adalah?

Jawab: Membuat siswa belajar dengan pengalamannya.

16. Trik-trik apa yang Anda gunakan untuk membantu siswa agar menyerap

pelajaran menulis dengan baik?

Jawab: Membuat outline, biarkan anak untuk menulis, guru sebagai

director dan fasilitator.

17. Topik apa yang biasanya digunakan dalam mengajar menulis?

Jawab: Topik yang fenomenal.

18. Apa yang Bapak/Ibu lakukan agar pembelajaran menulis menjadi

contextual/meaningfulness?

Jawab: Menekankan menulis itu penting, mempunyai daya informasi yang

luas jika menjadi penulis, agar ada pembiasaan.

19. Setelah siswa menulis, maka siapa saja yang membaca tulisan siswa?

Jawab: Grouping, menyebar.

20. Bagaimankah kegiatan siswa di kelas dalam proses belajar menulis?

Jawab: menentukan judul sendiri, penekanan ke independently, home

work.

E. HAMBATAN DAN PEMECAHAN HAMBATAN MENGAJAR MENULIS

21. Hambatan-hambatan yang Bapak/Ibu alami dalam mengajarkan menulis

adalah?

Jawab: Diakibatkan pemikiran bahasa itu parsial, lack of vocabulary,

structure yang terlalu hapalan/teoritis, pemahaman menulis belum

dianggap penting.

22. Tindakan Bapak/Ibu bila mengalami hambatan mengajar menulis akibat

hal yang telah disebutkan di atas adalah?

Jawab: Menyadarkan kepada anak bahwa menulis penting (product

ability), anak harus terus-menerus menulis dengan cara memperhatikan

tulisan-tulisan orang lain. Bersinergi.

23. Bagaiman Bapak/Ibu menanggapi siswa yang belum paham dengan materi

yang diberikan?

Jawab: Perlakuan yang berbeda bagi yang mempunyai kesulitan,

memberikan perhatian yang lebih. Semua anak punya potensi tapi ada

klasifikasinya. Unggul dilayani secara umum dan diberikan pengayaan,

anak diberikan tes yang sama, anak yang unik dilayani secara umum dan

khusus, dalam arti melaksanakan remedial.

24. Apa yang Bapak lakukan jika siswa melakukan kesalahan (error)?

Jawab: Kepada kelas diajukan pertanyaan (classroom assessment)

penilaian berbasis kelas.

25. Siapa yang mengoreksi tulisan anak?

Jawab: Antar anak, guru memberi komentar.

Appendix 4

TEST INSTRUMENT

1. Write a descriptive writing with the topic that has a relation with person,

place, and thing!

Appendix 5

Students’ Writing

PESERTA WISUDA

FAKULTAS ILMU TARBIYAH DAN KEGURUAN

UIN SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH JAKARTA

1. Nama : Elis Fadliyah 2. Tempat/Tanggal Lahir : Bogor, 18April 1984

3. NIM : 103014026945 4. Jurusan : Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris

5. Program : Reguler 6. Judul Skripsi : Error Analysis on Students’ Writing

(A Case Study of the Eleventh Year

Students of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”)

7. Pembimbing : Drs. Arifin Toy, M.Sc.

8. Penguji : 1. Drs. Nasrun Mahmud, M.Pd

2. Drs. H. Munir Sonhadji, M.Ed.

9. Tanggal Lulus : 2 Juni 2008

10. Nomor Ijazah :

11. Indeks Prestasi/Yudisium : 3.28/Amat Baik

12. Jabatan dalam Organisasi

Kemahasiswaan

: -

13. Alamat Asal : Jln. Abdul Fatah No. 30 Cibitung RT

12/03

Kec. Tenjolaya Kab. Bogor 16620 (0251) 626 978

0856 9490 7723 14. Alamat Sekarang : Jln. Abdul Fatah No. 30 Cibitung RT

12/03 Kec. Tenjolaya Kab. Bogor 16620

(0251) 626 978 0856 9490 7723

15. Nama Ayah : H. Abd. Rosyid

16. Pendidikan Terakhir Ayah : PGAN 6 tahun

17. Pekerjaan Ayah : Pensiunan PNS di DEPAG Bogor

18. Nama Ibu : Hj. Khoiriyah

19. Pendidikan Terakhir Ibu : SD

20. Pekerjaan Ibu : Ibu Rumah Tangga

Jakarta, 3 Juni

2008

Calon

Wisudawan/Wati

(Elis Fadliyah)

SURAT PERNYATAAN

Assalamu’alaikum Wr. Wb

Dengan hormat, Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini

Nama : Elis Fadliyah

Tempat/Tanggal Lahir : Bogor, 18 April 1984

NIM : 103014026945

Jurusan/Prodi : Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris/S1

Menyatakan bahwa skripsi yang saya susun dengan judul “Error Analysis on

Students’ Writing (A Case Study of the Eleventh Year Students of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”)” dan telah dinyatakan lulus dalam munaqasah pada tanggal 2 Juni

2008 dihadapan para penguji adalah benar-benar hasil karya sendiri, bukan hasil

karya orang lain, atau hasil plagiat karya orang lain.

Demikian surat pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya untuk digunakan

sebagaimana mestinya.

Wassalamu’alaikum Wr. Wb.

Jakarta, 3 Juni 2008

Penulis,

(Elis Fadliyah)