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An Error Analysis of Students’ Skill in Writing Procedure Text

1Tuti Rizki Kurniasih

2Dewi Nopita

3Rona Elfiza

English Education Study Program

Teacher Training and Education Faculty

Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji

Email: tutirizki57@gmail.com Mobile phone: +6285668806238

ABSTRACT

This study analyzed the kinds of errors of students’ skill in writing procedure

text. The data of this research were taken from writing test which done by the

ninth grade students of SMP Negeri 5 Tanjungpinang in academic year

2017/2018. The study used qualitative descriptive method. The research subject of

this study was the IXB students which consist of 40 participants. The result of this

study showed there were classification of errors which was made by students such

as omission of conjunction and preposition, addition of verb and preposition,

misordering and misformation. Moreover, the researcher found errors in generic

structure of procedure text made by students, they were 12 errors in introductory,

4 errors in listing of materials, and 5 errors in steps.

Keywords: Error Analysis, Procedure Text, Classification of Errors, and Generic

Structure

INTRODUCTION

To learn English there are four skills that must be mastered. The first one

is listening, the second one is speaking, third one is reading, and fourth one is

writing. Among those skills, writing is the most difficult skill to be learned. As

Raymond (1987) states that writing is not easy. An experienced writer usually will

often take more time over a single paragraph and it is not counting the thought and

research that went on before the actual writing. In line with it, Richards and

Renandya (2002) also state that there is no doubt that writing is the most difficult

skill for second language learners to master. The difficulties are not only for

generating and organizing the ideas but also in translating them into readable

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texts. Based on those experts opinions, it can be agreed that writing is not as easy

as thought, especially for secondary students. Writing is part of learning language,

especially in learning the English language. As known as that writing is one of the

fourth skills in English. According to Dawson (2011) defines that writing is a skill

that can be learned by practice to improve our writing ability and increase our

knowledge.

The process of writing is said to be difficult because of there are many

details which must be considered. Therefore, since many of details must be

considered to start writing, it caused some problems for students to do it

especially for students in SMP N 5 Tanjungpinang. The problems such as, the

difference structure between English and Bahasa, the students’ lack of vocabulary,

the wrong use of tenses or grammatical aspects. The selection of tenses and

grammar are also needed to consider. For a good English text the structure,

diction, spelling and punctuation are very important to make the meaning clear. It

is also important to learn all of the rules of writing so no one will get a

misunderstanding of what they are reading about.

Students will make mistakes as part of any learning experience for the

reflection of various stages in learning development. Same as Dulay (1982) states

that errors are the flawed side of learner speech or writing. In line with it, Brown

(2003) states a mistake refers to a performance error that is either random guess or

a ‘slip’ in that it is the failure to utilize a known system correctly… an error, a

noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflects the

competence of the learner.

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In our daily life, we always get interacted with texts. We can find many

kinds of texts whether in magazines, newspaper, and we also learn texts in school.

One of those texts which we learn in school or we can find through our life is

procedure text. This text is designed as instructions to describe how something is

achieved through a sequence of steps. As Anderson (1998) explains that a

procedure text as a piece of text that tells the readers or listeners how to do

something. Its purpose is to provide instructing for making something, doing

something, or getting somewhere. While Derewianka (2004) explains that

procedure text is a kind of text designed to describe how something is achieved

through a sequence of actions or steps. Furthermore, Siswanto (2005:98) states

that procedure text is a text which is designed to describe how something is

achieved through the steps of the sequence. The text uses simple present tense. It

also uses the temporal conjunction such as first, second, then, next, etc.

According to Jones and Mann (2004), the procedure text includes the following

language feature:

1. Simple and direct language

2. Use of the second person for example ‘you’

3. Use the imperative

4. Verbs to identify actions that need to be performed

In the procedure, the text is arranged in three main parts. Alred et al (2006)

state that the generic structure of procedure text is also called as constructing a

procedure text. The structure of procedure text usually consists of three stages:

1. An introductory statement which gives the goal or the aim of activity

to achieve.

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2. The listing material or equipment to be used for the procedure.

3. The method or sequence of steps written in the order which they

should be completed.

`The researcher proposed three research questions, they are: (1) What kinds

of errors do the ninth grade students of SMP N 5 Tanjungpinang make in

writing a procedure text? (2) What is the highest error the ninth grade students

of SMP N 5 Tanjungpinang make in writing a procedure text? and (3) What do

the errors in generic structure the ninth grade students of SMP N 5

Tanjungpinang make in writing a procedure text?

METHODOLOGY

The method of this research was qualitative descriptive research.

According to Sandelowski (2000), qualitative descriptive studies offer a

comprehensive summary of an event in the everyday terms of those events. In

addition, in the qualitative descriptive data consists of entire passages from

documents that are collected.

Population is a good calculation and measurement in both qualitative and

quantitative. Dawson (2002) assumes, for many qualitative researchers however,

the ability to generalize their work to the whole research population is not the

goal. Instead, they might seek to describe or explain what is happening within

smaller group of people. This they believe, might provide insights into the

behavior of the wider research population. She also claims that to take a sample,

researches overcome the problem by choosing a smaller, more manageable

number of people to take part in their research. Therefore, the researcher took the

9th

grade students of SMP N 5 Tanjungpinang as the population. The total number

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of population is 240 which divide into 5 classes start from A-F. The sample of this

study is IXB students which consist of 40 students.

In this research, the researcher used purposive sampling technique.

Cresswell (2014), states that purposive sampling involves identifying and

selecting individual or groups that are especially knowledgeable about or

experienced with a phenomenon of interest. In other hand Dawson (2002) states,

purposive samples were used if description rather than generalization is the goal.

The data for this research were collected by writing test which had been

done by the students. The researcher asked the students to write a procedure text.

The topic of the procedure text was determined that by students’ own. The

students should make a procedure text relating to the topic has been determined.

The data analysis technique which the researcher used was going through

several steps such as: (1) analyzed the students’ errors from their writing text, (2)

classified and listing the data of students’ errors in generic structure, omission,

addition, misformation, and misordering (Dulay 1982)., (3) conclude the highest

error (4) anayzing, and (5) concluding.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

After collecting the data which has been done by the ninth grade students of

SMP N 5 Tanjungpinang, the researcher presents the result and the analysis of

the data which were collected through writing test. The writing test was done

by IXB class. The total number of students were 40. From the data collected,

the students’ errors were found on writing procedure text. The researcher

classified the errors on omission, addition, misordering, misformation, and

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generic structure of descriptive text. Here are the following description of the

findings in this research:

Students’ Errors in Omission and Addition

Students

Omission Addition

Direct

language

Sequence

words

Imperative

sentence

Action

verb

Direct

language

Sequence

words

Imperative

sentence

Action

verb

1 - - 1 1 - - - -

2 - - - - - - 1 1

3 - - 1 1 - - 1 1

4 - - 2 2 - - - -

5 - - 1 1 - - 1 1

6 - - 1 1 - - - -

7 - - - - - - - -

8 1 - - - - - - -

9 - - 1 1 - - - -

10 1 - 1 1 - - - -

11 1 - - - - - - -

12 - 3 3 - - - - -

13 1 - 2 2 - - - -

14 - - - - - - - -

15 - 1 2 - - - - -

16 1 1 - - - - - -

17 - - - - - - - -

18 - 2 2 2 - - - -

19 - - 1 - - - - -

20 - - - - - - - -

21 - - - - - - - -

22 2 - - - - - 1 -

23 - - - 2 - - - -

24 - - 1 - - - - -

25 2 - 1 1 - - - -

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26 1 - - - - - - -

27 - - 1 - - - - -

28 - - 2 - - - - -

29 - - 1 - - 1 1 -

30 - - - - - - - -

31 - - - - - - - -

32 - - 2 - - - - -

33 - - - - - 1 1 -

34 - - - - - - - -

35 1 - - - - - - -

36 - - - - - - - -

37 - 1 - 1 - - - -

38 - 2 2 - - - - -

39 1 - - - - - - -

40 - - - - - - - -

Total 66 11

Students’ Errors in Misordering and Misformation

Students

Misordering Misformation

Direct

language

Sequence

words

Imperative

sentence

Action

verb

Direct

language

Sequence

words

Imperative

sentence

Action

verb

1 - - - - - - - -

2 - - - - - - 2 2

3 - - - - - - - -

4 - - - - - - - -

5 - - - - - - 3 3

6 - - - - - - 2 2

7 - - - - - - 3 3

8 - - - - - - 2 2

9 - - - - - - 1 1

10 - - - - - - 3 3

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11 - - - - - - 1 1

12 - 2 - - 1 - - -

13 - - 2 2 1 - - -

14 - 1 1 1 1 - - -

15 - - - - - 1 1 -

16 - - 1 1 1 - 2 -

17 - - 1 1 1 - 1 1

18 - - - - - 2 2 2

19 - - - - - 2 2 -

20 - - 1 1 - - - -

21 - - - - - 1 1 1

22 1 - 1 - - 1 2 -

23 - - - - - 2 2 -

24 - - - - - - 3 3

25 - - - - 3 - 4 2

26 - - - - - - - -

27 - - - - - - 3 1

28 - - - - - - 5 1

29 - - - - - - 3 1

30 - - - - 1 - 1 1

31 - - - - - - 3 1

32 - - - - - - 3 1

33 - - - - - 2 2 -

34 - - - - - - 1 -

35 - - - - - 3 3 1

36 - - - - - 3 3 -

37 - - - - - - 2 -

38 - - - - - - - -

39 - - - - - 1 1 -

40 - - - - - - 2 -

Total 17 129

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a. Errors of omission :

b. Errors of addition :

c. Errors of misordering :

d. Errors of misformation :

After collecting and analyzing the data from the participants, the

researcher found the classification of errors which have been done by the

students. From the table 4.1.1 indicates the errors made by participants in

writing procedure text. Here are the explanations of students’ errors in

classification of errors by Dulay (1982):

1. Omission

As mentioned before, omission is related to the students’ misunderstanding in

the absence of an item which should be appeared in a well-formed utterance.

From the data which be analyzed, there were found 66 errors of omission made

by students. Here are some errors of omission found in students’ writing:

(Table 4.7)

No Students’ writing Correction

1. Mango juice ready to drink Mango juice is ready to drink

2 Boil until cooked Boil until it is cooked

3 The bread that already coat with

the egg mixture

The bread that already coated

with the egg mixture

4 Put the two bowl of rice Put the two bowls of rice

5 Pour the frying oil to frying pan Pour the cooking oil into the

frying pan

According to the table above, the researcher found some errors in omission

made by students, for example; in the sentence ‘Mango juice ready to drink’,

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but not ‘Mango juice is ready to drink’. The student omitted ‘is’ as to be in the

sentence and it caused the sentence incorrect. The sentence ‘boil until cook’,

there were two omissions found in this sentence. The student missed to put the

pronouns and to be in the word between ‘until’ and ‘cooked. In the sentence

‘the bread that already coat with the egg mixture’, the student use word ‘coat’

but not ‘coated’ which is showed past tense. For the sentence ‘two bowl of

rice’, the correct form is ‘two bowls of rice’. The student made error in

applying singular and plural form. In the sentence ‘pour the frying oil to frying

pan’, the student missed the preposition ‘into’ and article ‘the’ in the sentence.

The correct sentence is ‘pour the cooking oil into the frying pan’.

2. Addition

According to the previous explanation, addition is related to the students’

misunderstanding in the presence of an item which should not be appeared in a

well-formed utterance. From the data which be analyzed, there were found 11

errors of addition made by students. Here are some errors of addition found in

students’ writing:

(Table 4.8)

No Students’ writing Correction

1 Stir with is spoon Stir with spoon

2 Banana cake is to ready Banana cake is ready

3 Put the sugar in the glass Put sugar in the glass

4 Put is the egg in the pan Put the egg in the pan

5 Put to tea and sugar into the cup Put tea and sugar into the cup

Referring to the table above, the researcher found some errors in addition

made by students, for example in the sentence ‘stir with is spoon’ the student

made the error by to be ‘is’ which made 2 verb in the sentence and it lead into

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error. The correct form is ‘stir with spoon’. In the sentence ‘banana cake is to

ready’ the student made the error by putting preposition ‘to’ which lead into

error. The correct sentence is ‘banana cake is ready’. For the sentence ‘put the

sugar in the glass’ the student made error by putting article ‘the’. The correct

sentence is ‘put sugar in the glass’. In the sentence ‘put is the egg in the pan’

the student made error by putting to be ‘is’ which is not necessary. The correct

sentence is ‘ put the egg in the pan’. For the sentence ‘put to tea and sugar into

the cup’ the student made error by putting preposition. The correct sentence is

‘put tea and sugar into the cup’.

3. Misordering

Misordering is considered as the students’ misunderstanding in incorrect

placement in a morpheme or group of morphemes in well-formed utterance.

From the data which be analyzed, there were found 17 errors of misordering

made by students. Here are some errors of misordering found in students’

writing:

(Table 4.9)

No Students’ writing Correction

1 Pour water hot and water cold Pour hot water and cold water

2 Put powder milo in a glass Put milo powder in the glass

3 Then put water cold Then put cold water

According to the table above, the researcher found some errors in

misordering made by students, for example in the form ‘pour water hot and

water cold’ the student made error by misordered the word. The correct form is

‘pour hot water and cold water’. Same as the previous form, the student made

error by misordered the word ‘powder milo’ which should be written ‘milo

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powder’. In the sentence ‘then put water cold’, the student misordered the word

water to water cold. The correct sentence should be ‘then put cold water’. Same

as the misordered form which some students have made, it still found that some

of them made error of it.

4. Misformation

Misfromation is considered as the students’ misunderstanding in the use of

wrong morpheme or structure. It can leads into a different interpretation and

confusing meaning. Misformation is the most errors which done by students.

Over 129 errors were made by students in misformation. Here are some errors

of misordering found in students’ writing:

(Table 4.10)

No Students’ writing Correction

1 Enter the milo and sugar to glass Put milo and sugar into the glass

2 Wait one day Wait a day

3 After that put a hot drink in a

glass

After that pour hot water into

the glass

4 Shake with a spoon Stir with a spoon

5 Insert ice cubes on a glass Put ice cubes into the glass

Referring to the sentence above, the researcher found some errors in

misformation made by students, for example; in the sentence ‘enter the milo

and sugar to glass’ the word ‘enter is not suitable in the sentence the correct

form is ‘put milo and sugar into the glass’. In the second form ‘wait one day’

the students made error which can lead the reader in misunderstanding and

wrong meaning. The correct form of it is ‘wait a day’. In the sentence ‘After

that put a hot drink in a glass’ instead using the word ‘hot water’ the student

used hot drink which turn into the wrong meaning. In the sentence ‘shake with

a spoon’ and ‘insert ice cubes on a glass’ the students did not use the correct

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words which make the sentence is ambiguous. The correct sentence should be

‘stir with a spoon’ and ‘put ice cubes into the glass’.

Students’ Errors in Generic Structure of Procedure Text and

Types of Errors

Participants Types of Errors

Student 1 -

Student 2 -

Student 3 -

Student 4 -

Student 5 -

Student 6 -

Student 7 -

Student 8 -

Student 9 -

Student 10 -

Student 11 -

Student 12 Introductory

Student 13 -

Student 14 Introductory and steps

Student 15 Listing of materials and steps

Student 16 -

Student 17 Steps

30%

5%

7%

58%

Classification of Errors by Dulay (1982)

Omission

Addition

Misordering

Misformation

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Student 18 Introductory, listing of material, and

steps

Student 19 Introductory, listing of material, and

steps

Student 20 Introductory

Student 21 -

Student 22 -

Student 23 -

Student 24 -

Student 25 -

Student 26 -

Student 27 -

Student 28 -

Student 29 -

Student 30 -

Student 31 -

Student 32 -

Student 33 Introductory

Student 34 Introductory

Student 35 Introductory

Student 36 Introductory and listing of materials

Student 37 Introductory

Student 38 Introductory

Student 39 Introductory

Student 40 -

The result from the table above shows 12 errors were found in the part of

introductory, 4 errors in the part of listing of materials, and 5 errors were found

in part of steps. The result from the study which taken by the researcher, the

students understand the function of introductory, listing of materials, and the

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steps in writing procedure text although there are a few students still did wrong

in the part of writing it but mostly the students are able to write it.

CONCLUSION

According to the findings, the researcher concludes that there are some

types of errors which students made in writing procedure text by the ninth

grade students of SMP N 5 Tanjungpinang. The types of errors are omission,

addition, misordering, misformation and generic structure in writing procedure

text.

In the error of omission, some students omitted ‘to be’ in the sentence

which they wrote and it caused the sentence incorrect. Another student omitted

the articles and prepositions which caused incomplete sentence. Based on the

finding, there were 27 students did the error of omission. In the error of

addition, some students put ‘to be’ which is not necessary. Another student put

more preposition in their sentences which is not necessary. Based on the

finding there were 6 students did the error of addition. In the part of

misordering the students mostly made error by misordered the word. Based on

the finding there were 7 students did error in this part. In the part of

misformation, the students did error by using the unsuitable word which caused

the ambiguous meaning of the sentences that they wrote. Based on the finding,

there were 34 students did error in this part.

Based on the errors of generic structure of procedure text, it was found that

12 students did error in introductory, 4 students did error in listing of materials,

and 5 students did error in part of steps.

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According to the result of the research, the researcher found that the most

errors which students of ninth grade of SMP N 5 Tanjungpinang made in

writing procedure text is misformation. In the part of error in generic structure

of procedure text, the introductory error becomes the error which students often

made.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The publication of this work was approved by English Education Study Program,

Teacher Training and Education Faculty, Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji.

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