An Error Analysis of Students' Writing Assignments

Abstract

The objective of this descriptive study was to analyze students' grammatical errors in writing assignments, in this case writing a cover letter for second-semester Computer Science students at University of Semarang. The target population included 21 Computer Science students enrolled in a Business English class chosen randomly from a pool of 50 participants. They were asked to write an application letter in English. Then, using the surface approach taxonomy, the researcher examined the students' writing for the following errors: 1. Omission Errors; 2. Addition Errors; 3. Misinformation Errors; and 4. Misordering Errors. The findings of this study show that student errors range from the most common to the least common, with a total of 67 phrases: (1) Omission 38.8%, (2) Misinformation on Sub-Alternating Forms 23.8%, (3) Addition on sub-Simple Addition 22.3%, (4) Misinformation on sub-Alternating Forms 8.9%, (5) Addition to sub double markings 2.9%, (6) Misinformation to sub regularization 2.9%. The errors in the Addition type (sub-regularization) and Misinformation categories do not appear at all (0%). According to the data above, pupils still do not comprehend how to employ basic English grammar structures or how the first language (L1) affects how sentences are formed in English.@font-face {font-family:SimSun; panose-1:2 1 6 0 3 1 1 1 1 1; mso-font-alt:宋体; mso-font-charset:134; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:515 680460288 22 0 262145 0;}@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-469750017 -1073732485 9 0 511 0;}@font-face {font-family:"Book Antiqua"; panose-1:2 4 6 2 5 3 5 3 3 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;}@font-face {font-family:"\@SimSun"; panose-1:2 1 6 0 3 1 1 1 1 1; mso-font-charset:134; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:515 680460288 22 0 262145 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:SimSun; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:SimSun; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-ID;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}