An analysis of students' errors in writing descriptive text

Abstract

This research aims to find out the types of errors made by students in their descriptive text writing, the dominant errors made by the students, and to know students’ perception toward their error in writing. Moreover, this study used a descriptive qualitative study. In collecting the data, the researcher used a writing test and a written interview. The result of this study showed that students made 418 errors in writing descriptive text, they are organization 10 errors (2.4%), vocabulary 70 errors (16.7%), grammar 9 errors (2.2%), mechanic 162 errors (38.8%), omission 62 errors (14.8%), addition 74 errors (17.7%), misformation 23 errors (5.5%), and misordering 8 errors (1.9%). Based on the result, the mechanic was the dominant error that occurred in students’ writing. In addition, based on students' written interview result, the errors that students made were cause by their ignorance and lack of knowledge in writing. The purposes of this research were to know the errors made by students in writing then; the students will be motivated to continue learning so as not to make the same errors. Keywords: Error analysis, Writing, Descriptive Text, Students’ Perception