ABSTRACT
This thesis is written to identify: (1) the types of errors, (2) the percentage of error, (3) the causes of errors, and (4) the recommendations can be suggested to help the in writing discussion text.
The research method used in this research is descriptive research, The research was conducted in January 2014 at the twelfth grade students of XII IPS 4 of SMA Negeri 1 Tawangsari in the academic year 2013/2014. The research data are collected through a test. The data are then analyzed through the procedure of: identifying errors, classifying errors, explaining errors, and evaluating errors.
The research findings point out that (1) errors are described in two categories: linguistic category and surface category. The data analyzed based on surface category that can be divided into four types: a) omission; b) addition; c) misformation; and d) misordering. (2) The percentage of types of error according to surface category are: a) omission 36.48% of total errors percentage 99.99%; b) addition 11.44% of total errors percentage 99.99%; c) misformatin 20.06% of total error percentage 99.99%; and d) misordering 32.01% of total errors percentage 99.99%. (3) There are three sources of errors that involved in students errors: a) interlingual transfer; b) intalingual transfer that categorized into four (overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restriction, incomplete application of rule, and semantic); and c) communication strategies. (4) There are fifteen strategies to overcome the difficulties to overcome the students’ difficulties in writing discussion text (understanding the differences of Indonesian and English grammar, not translating Indonesian sentence pattern to English because they have completely different grammar, not translating based on the dictionary only, being careful when using plural and singular noun in English, checking every word in monolingual dictionary, checking vocabulary whether the word has spelled correctly or not, etc).
Thus, I hope that this error analysis can be beneficial for other teacher to pay attention and to reduce student’s errors in writing a text. For students, they should be aware of their errors and try to overcome their difficulties in studying English, especially in writing.
Key words: error analysis
