Error analysis on students’ writing of descriptive text of the tenth-grade students at MA DDI Tosale

Abstract

English language learners often make mistakes in terms of linguistic features when writing descriptive paragraphs. In this study, the researcher focuses on the examination of grammar usage. The primary objective of this study was to identify the writing errors made by students when composing descriptive texts and determine the most prevalent error category according to the surface strategy taxonomy. The researcher employed a quantitative descriptive approach for this investigation. The study's target population comprised tenth-grade students at MA DDI Tosale. The research sample was selected using a complete sampling technique and included 30 students from both the tenth-grade IPA and IPS classes. The data analysis revealed that students made various types of errors, including omissions, additions, misordering, and misformations, as classified under the surface strategy taxonomy. Data collection was carried out through a descriptive text writing test. The most frequent error category identified was misformation, with a total of 131 instances, while the least frequent error category was misordering, with only 48 occurrences. In summary, based on the study's findings, it can be deduced that misformation errors were the most common, while misordering errors were the least common among the students' writing errors in descriptive texts.