An Error Analysis of Descriptive Writing of The Eighth Grade Student of SMPN 24 Tangerang In The 2018/2019 Academic Year

zulpahmi, s.e., m.si ; dr.h. yadi nurhayadi, m.si; drs. zuhad ahmad, m.pd.; heni novitasari, m.pd.;

Nurtsalitsah Hasan. 1401065086. An Error Analysis of Descriptive Writing of The Eighth Grade Student of SMPN 24 Tangerang In The 2018/2019 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, Jakarta 2018.
This study was held at SMPN 24 Tangerang. The objective of the study was to find the empirical evidence of the most typical types and sources of error made by the eighth grade students of SMPN 24 Tangerang in descriptive writing in the 2018/2019 academic year. The samples of this study were 30 students of 8-I class.
The writer used the descriptive writing task. The writer used error analysis and descriptive analysis as the methods. Based on the data calculation, the writer found that the most typical errors in the students’ writing was capitalization (39%) , word choice (23%), punctuation (7%), singular-plural (6%) , spelling (5%), article (5%), verb tense (4%), meaning not clear (3%), omit a word (2%), incomplete sentence (2%), word order (2%), add a word (1%), word form and run-on sentence (1%). Furthermore, the most typical sources of errors were the intralingual error (87%) and the interlanguage error (13%).
The result of the data analysis showed that the students still had some problems in their language competence especially in descriptive writing. It is proved that the students mostly make some errors in capitalization, word choice, and punctuation. Thus, the teacher needs to give more explanation about the use of capitalization,word choice, and punctuation. Moreover, the advantages of this study are to give the information about the types and sources of errors which the eighth grade students of SMPN 24 Tangerang made and they will fully understand the correct sentence structures and minimize their writing errors better. This study also gives the proper remedial teaching especially in capitalization, word choice and punctuation errors.