An Error Analysis on Students’ Descriptive Writing at the Tenth Grade Students of SMAN 88 Jakarta

h. enong muiz, s.e., m.si.; drs. zuhad ahmad, m.pd.; dr. akhmad haqiqi ma'mun, m.pd.;

THRESNASARY CONSTANTINOVA. Student identity: 1101065099. An
Error Analysis on Students’ Descriptive Writing at the Tenth Grade Students of
SMAN 88 Jakarta. The Paper: Jakarta. The Study Programme of English
Education.The School of Teacher Training and Pedagogy. The University of
Muhammadiyah Prof. Dr. Hamka, Jakarta 2016.
The objective of the study was to know the types and the sources of errors
in descriptive writing, and also to know the appropriate remedial in overcoming
errors of the student’s writing of the tenth grade students of SMAN 88 Jakarta.
There are 147 students who were distributed into 5 classes. The writer only took
one class which consists of 25 students as sample. The sampling technique used
was Purposive Sampling Technique. The writer used descriptive method with the
test technique in this research by taking the data twice.
Based on calculation, the writer concludes that the most typical types of
errors made by students are in word choice (31.64 %), verb tense (19.92 % ),
spelling (10.15 %), add a word (7.03 %), capitalization and word form (5.85%),
omit a word and word order (5.07 %), singular-plural (3.90 %), article (2.34%),
punctuation (1.95 % ), meaning not clear, run-on sentence, and incomplete
sentence (0.39%). In accordance to the above typical errors, the writer found out
that the most sources of errors made by the students are in carelessness (18.76%),
first language interference (61.32%), and translation (19.92%).
To solve errors made by the students in the research, the writer suggests
that in word choice the teachers should give the students examples English writing
such as of the story books, magazine, newspaper, and novel. And also, play word
games like scrabble, and words with friends, which force students to actively use
the vocabulary, in verb tense the teachers should give students an overview of the
entire verb system in the different time, and in spelling the teachers should also
expose the words in right writing. The benefit of the research result is to give
information of the typical errors and the sources of errors which are made by the
students and to give an appropriate remedial teaching to eliminate the students’
errors.