An Error Analysis on Students’ Descriptive Writing of The Eighth Grade Students of SMPN 43 South Jakarta in The 2015/2016 Academic Year

martriwati, m.pd.; fidaniar tiarsiwi, m.pd.;

RATIH KOMALASARI. 1201065202. An Error Analysis on Students’
Descriptive Writing of the Eighth Grade Students of SMPN 43 South Jakarta in the 2015/2016 Academic Year. The Paper, Jakarta: The Study Programme of English Education, the School of Teacher Training and Education, the University of Muhammadiyah Prof. Dr. Hamka, Jakarta 2016.
This research was conducted at the eighth grade students of SMPN 43
South Jakarta in 2015/2016 academic year. The respondents of this study were 35 students. In the first meeting, the writer asked the students to make descriptive writing based on the instruction that had been given in the writing task.
Afterward, the writer collected the students’ writing to be analyzed by marking the mistakes. In the second meeting, the writer gave back the writing to the students. Next, the writer asked the students to re-correct their mistakes that had been marked by the writer. Then, the writer analyzed the types of error by using Azar’s theory and the sources of errors by Brown’s theory in the students’ writing.
The result of the research revealed that the types of errors on the students’ writing were error in the word choice (24.81%), add a word (21.10%), omit a word (17.93%), singular-plural (15.10%), verb tense (7.03%), spelling (4.33%), word order (3.44), word form (3.28%), article (2.54%), and the last incomplete sentence (0.45%). Furthermore, the common errors on the sources of errors were in the intralingual transfer (57.54%), and interlingual transfer (42.46%). Regarding to
the result of the study, it is indicated that some students need more treatment and remedial teaching from the teacher toward their errors in English writing.