An Error Analysis On Students’ Descriptive Writings Made by Of The Eighth Grade Students Of SMPN 208 East Jakarta In The 2017/2018 Academic Year

ahmad subaki, s.e., m.m., ak., ca., cpa. ; dr. yadi nurhayadi, m.si.; drs. sigit sumarsono, m.pd.; heni novitasari, m.pd.;

FIDA RIZKI KHOIRUNISA. NIM: 1301065065. An Error Analysis On
Students’ Descriptive Writings Made by Of The Eighth Grade Students Of SMPN
208 East Jakarta In The 2017/2018 Academic Year. A Paper, Jakarta: The Study
Programme of English Education the School of Teacher Training and Education,
The University Of Muhammadiyah Prof.DR.Hamka, 2018.
The objective of the study was to find out the common errors and the
sources of errors made by students on their descriptive writing. The sample of this
study was 20 students. In the first meeting, the writer asked the students to make
the descriptive writing based on the instruction given on the writing task. The
topic are family members, teacher, or friend. After that, the writer collected the
students‟ writing to be analyzed by giving clues to the mistakes for the correction.
In the second meeting, the writer gave back the writing to the students. Next, the
writer asked the students to revise their mistakes based on the clues given before.
Then, the writer recollected the students‟ writing. After that, the writer analyzed
the types of errors based on Betty Azar‟s classification and the sources of errors
related to Brown‟s version on the students‟ writing. In this study, the writer used
the descriptive analytical method. To collect the data, the writer administered the
kind of writing task to the students. Then, the writer analyzed the errors made by
the students on their writing.
The result of the study revealed the common errors on the students‟
writing. The types of errors are: 31 capital errors (12.4%), 5 word form errors
(2%), 54 word choice errors (21.6%), 5 spelling errors (2%), 8 verb tense errors
(3.2%), 39 add word errors (15.6%), 37 omit word errors (14.8%), 3 meaning not
clear errors (1.2%), 49 punctuation errors (19.6%), 0 run-on sentence errors (0%),
2 word order error (0.8%), 1 incomplete sentence error (0.4%), 12 singular plural
errors (4.8%), and 4 article error (1.6%). Besides, the common errors for the
sources of errors are: 146 intralingual transfer errors (58.4%) and 104 interlingual
transfer errors (41.6%).
Based on the above result of the study, the writer concluded that the most
common type of error made by the students is word choice and the most source of
error made by the students is intralingual transfer. Hopefully, this paper will be
useful, for the writer and the readers who are learning the same subject, and also
for the English teachers.