An Error Analysis On Undergraduate Thesis Abstracts Of English Language Education Students Of Sanata Dharma University

AN ERROR ANALYSIS ON UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
ABSTRACTS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION
STUDENTS OF SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Voni Novita
Student Number: 141214021
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2018
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

i
AN ERROR ANALYSIS ON UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
ABSTRACTS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION
STUDENTS OF SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Voni Novita
Student Number: 141214021
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2018

iv
The pain that you’ve been feeling, can’t compare to the JOY that’s coming.
Romans 8: 18

vii
ABSTRACT
Novita, Voni. (2018). An Error Analysis on Undergraduate Thesis Abstracts of
English Language Education Students of Sanata Dharma University. Yogyakarta:
English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University,
Indonesia.
This research focused on the mechanical and grammatical errors found in
the undergraduate thesis abstracts year 2014-2017 in English Language Education
Study Program at Sanata Dharma University. There are two research questions
formulated in this study, they are 1) ‘What are the spelling and punctuation errors
found in the ELESP undergraduate thesis abstracts?’ and 2) ‘What types of
grammatical errors are found in the ELESP undergraduate thesis abstracts?’
This research is a descriptive study that examined undergraduate thesis
abstracts year 2014-2017 in English Language Education Study Program at Sanata
Dharma University, using an error analysis technique proposed by Ellis and
Barkhuizen (2005). The grammatical errors are classified into the 4 types of
grammatical errors proposed by Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982), which are
addition, omission, misformation, and misordering.
There were 540 errors found in the undergraduate thesis abstracts year 2014-
2017. Omission has the highest frequency of errors with 194 errors (35.9%),
followed by misformation with 116 errors (21.5%), addition with 99 errors (18.3%),
punctuation with 64 errors (11.9%), spelling with 50 errors (9.3%), and last,
misordering with 17 errors (3.1%).
The findings of the research indicate that the students’ abstracts lacked
precision and accuracy in terms of the language usage. It can be inferred that the
students need a deeper understanding to achieve language convention mastery. It is
recommended that teaching staff encourage students to improve their writing skills
and proofread their writings.
Keywords: error analysis, abstract, error, grammar, spelling, punctuation

viii
ABSTRAK
Novita, Voni. (2018). An Error Analysis on Undergraduate Thesis Abstracts of
English Language Education Students of Sanata Dharma University. Yogyakarta:
Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma, Indonesia.
Karya ilmiah ini fokus kepada kesalahan yang ditemukan di dalam abstrak
karya tulis ilmiah Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris tingkat S1 tahun 2014 sampai 2017 di
Universitas Sanata Dharma. Terdapat dua rumusan masalah pada karya ilmiah ini,
yang adalah 1) ‘Kesalahan ejaan dan tanda baca apa saja yang ditemukan dalam
abstrak karya tulis ilmiah Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris tingkat S1?’ dan 2) ‘Tipe
kesalahan grammar apa yang ditemukan dalam abstrak karya tulis ilmiah
Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris tingkat S1?’
Karya ilmiah ini merupakan studi deskriptif yang meneliti abstrak karya tulis
ilmiah Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris tingkat sarjana S1 tahun 2014 sampai 2017 di
Universitas Sanata Dharma, dengan menggunakan teknik analisis kesalahan yang
dicetuskan oleh Ellis dan Barkhuizen (2005). Kesalahan gramatikal diklasifikasikan
berdasarkan 4 tipe kesalahan gramatikal menurut Dulay, Burt, dan Krashen (1982)
yang adalah addition (penambahan unsur yang tidak perlu), omission (pengurangan
unsur yang perlu), misformation (penggunaan unsur yang salah), and misordering
(penempatan unsur pada pola yang salah).
Ditemukan 540 kesalahan dalam abstrak karya tulis ilmiah tingkat sarjana
S1 tahun 2014 sampai 2017. Kesalahan dalam Omission merupakan yang
terbanyak, dengan 194 kesalahan (35.9%), diikuti oleh misformation dengan 116
kesalahan (21.5%), addition dengan 99 kesalahan (18.3%), punctuation dengan 64
kesalahan (11.9%), spelling dengan 50 kesalahan (9.3%), dan yang terakhir,
misordering dengan 17 kesalahan (3.1%).
Hasil temuan mengungkapkan bahwa terdapat kurangnya presisi dan akurasi
pada abstrak mahasiswa terkait penggunaan bahasa. Dapat disimpulkan juga bahwa
mahasiswa membutuhkan pemahaman yang lebih dalam untuk mencapai
penguasaan konvensional tersebut. Pengajar dapat mendorong peserta didik untuk
meningkatkan kemampuan menulis dan mengoreksi hasil tulisan mereka.
Kata kunci: error analysis, abstract, error, grammar, spelling, punctuation

ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to thank God for His blessings on me. I am
truly grateful to my Father; to my Jesus, who has never and will never ever let go
of my hand no matter how hard the situation is. I am so blessed for He has guided
me throughout my thesis writing and helped me get through difficult times. I thank
Him for all the blessings, everlasting love, unfailing kindness upon me and my
family.
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my Academic Advisor, Patricia
Angelina, M.Hum. for supporting me and the whole Class A, and keeping us
focused on our goals; to my Thesis Advisor, Dr. Emanuel Sunarto, M.Hum. for
guiding me on how to write a good thesis; to one of the best teachers, Drs. Barli
Bram, M.Ed., Ph.D. for the lessons and opportunities that he had given me so that
I could improve myself to be a better writer; to Priyatno Ardi, S.Pd., M.Hum. for
willing to lend a helping hand and giving positive feedback on my research; to Dwi
Agus Yuliantoro, S.Pd., M.A., Ph.D. for taking the time from his busy schedule
to discuss my research and validate the findings; to all teaching and
administrative staff who had given their best to teach and assist me so I could learn
to be better each day. Without them, this thesis would not have been possible. I
could never thank them all enough for the valuable lessons in college.
I would like to offer my special thanks to my family for their love, support,
and prayers so that I could finish my thesis. I thank my parents, Toni Hermanto
and Munisih; my siblings, Niko Agustia, Silvia Febriani, and Kezia Natalia; my

x
sister from another mother, Gaby; my pets, Lulu, Pampam, Billie, Leo, Luis,
Monte and Carlo; special thanks also to Mbak Iin, who never gave up on me and
always motivated me to finish what I started. I thank them all for believing in me.
I also want to thank my friends, Icak, Yayas and Naji, for the best four years
of my college life – without their presence in the class, I did feel so lost and lonely;
to Lika, Krisna, and Ve for the time we spent together in Ethikopia to write our
theses; to Selly and Jojo, for graduating earlier than I did so that I had more
motivations to catch up; to Bebeb, for having faith in me and comforting me.
I could not thank the Lord enough for all the incredible people He had sent
into my life. They have made my life perfect and taught me a lot of things in life. I
have been given a number of chances every day to learn, not to be better than others,
but to be better than I was before.
Voni Novita

xi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE ........................................................................................................... i
APPROVAL PAGES.............................................................................................. ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ........................................................v
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI....................................................... vi
ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................... vii
ABSTRAK............................................................................................................. viii
ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS................................................................................... ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS....................................................................................... xi
LIST OF TABLES.................................................................................................xv
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................. xvi
LIST OF APPENDICES..................................................................................... xvii
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.............................................................................1
A. Research Background......................................................................................1
B. Research Questions..........................................................................................4
C. Research Significance......................................................................................5
D. Definition of Terms .........................................................................................6
CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE .....................................10
A. Theoretical Description..................................................................................10
1. Errors ..........................................................................................................10

xii
a. Definition of Errors ................................................................................10
b. Errors vs Mistakes..................................................................................11
c. Error Analysis.........................................................................................11
2. Abstracts .....................................................................................................13
3. Grammar.....................................................................................................14
4. Grammatical Errors.....................................................................................15
a. Definition................................................................................................15
b. Types of Grammatical Errors.................................................................16
5. Minimum Requirements .............................................................................17
a. Tenses.....................................................................................................18
b. Articles...................................................................................................18
c. Nouns .....................................................................................................20
d. Pronouns.................................................................................................21
e. Agreements or Concords........................................................................22
f. Gerunds...................................................................................................23
g. Prepositions............................................................................................23
h. Suffixation..............................................................................................24
i. Word Choice or Diction..........................................................................25
j. Redundancy.............................................................................................25
k. Spelling ..................................................................................................26
l. Punctuation Marks ..................................................................................26
B. Theoretical Framework...................................................................................31

xiii
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................33
A. Research Method ...........................................................................................33
B. Type and Source of Data................................................................................34
C. Data Gathering Technique .............................................................................34
D. Data Analysis Technique...............................................................................35
1. Identification of Errors................................................................................38
2. Description of Errors...................................................................................39
3. Explanation of Errors..................................................................................41
CHAPTER IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .................................................42
A. Research Results............................................................................................42
B. Research Discussion ......................................................................................44
1. Mechanical Errors.......................................................................................44
a. Spelling...................................................................................................45
b. Punctuation.............................................................................................47
2. Grammatical Errors.....................................................................................49
a. Addition..................................................................................................50
b. Omission ................................................................................................53
c. Misformation..........................................................................................56
d. Misordering............................................................................................59
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS,
AND RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................................................60
A. Conclusions....................................................................................................60

xiv
B. Implications....................................................................................................62
C. Recommendations..........................................................................................63
REFERENCES.......................................................................................................66
APPENDICES .......................................................................................................69

xv
LIST OF TABLES
Tables Page
Table 2.1. English Word-Formation (Nouns and Verbs) through Suffixation ......25
Table 3.1. An Illustrative Table of Categorization of Errors .................................39
Table 3.2. The Number of Errors in Each Research Field.....................................40
Table 4.1. The Number of Errors in the Abstracts.................................................42

xvi
LIST OF FIGURES
Figures Page
Figure 3.1. A Screenshot of Grammarly Browser Extension in Google Chrome..36
Figure 3.2. A Screenshot of Grammarly in the Process of Describing a
Spelling Error......................................................................................37
Figure 4.1. The Number of Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar Errors ..............43
Figure 4.2. The Classification and Number of Errors in Spelling .........................45
Figure 4.3. The Classification and Number of Errors in Punctuation ...................47
Figure 4.4. The Classification and Number of Errors in Addition .......................50
Figure 4.5. The Classification and Number of Errors in Omission .......................53
Figure 4.6. The Classification and Number of Errors in Misformation.................56

xvii
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendices
Page
Appendix A. Classification of Errors in Spelling ..................................................69
Appendix A.1. Unneeded Capitalizations ...........................................................69
Appendix A.2. Absence of Required Letter(s) ....................................................69
Appendix A.3. Extra Letter(s) .............................................................................70
Appendix A.4. Missing Spaces............................................................................70
Appendix A.5. Requiring Capitalizations............................................................70
Appendix A.6. Miswritten Letter(s) ....................................................................71
Appendix A.7. Unneeded Spaces ........................................................................71
Appendix A.8. Jumbled Letter(s) ........................................................................71
Appendix B. Classification of Errors in Punctuation.............................................71
Appendix B.1. Absence of Commas....................................................................71
Appendix B.2. Absence of Hyphens....................................................................72
Appendix B.3. Unneeded Commas .....................................................................73
Appendix B.4. Unneeded Hyphens .....................................................................74
Appendix B.5. Misuse of Quotation Marks.........................................................74
Appendix B.6. Unneeded Colons ........................................................................74
Appendix B.7. Missing Full Stops.......................................................................74
Appendix B.8. Misuse of Semicolons .................................................................75
Appendix B.9. Unneeded Full Stops ...................................................................75

xviii
Appendix B.10. Requiring Colons.......................................................................75
Appendix B.11. Misuse of Dashes ......................................................................75
Appendix C. Classification of Errors in Addition..................................................75
Appendix C.1. Unneeded Articles.......................................................................75
Appendix C.2. Unneeded Articles (General Nouns) ...........................................76
Appendix C.3. Unneeded Suffix -s or -es (Noun) ...............................................76
Appendix C.4. Unneeded Suffix -s or -es (Compound Noun) ............................77
Appendix C.5. Unneeded Prepositions................................................................78
Appendix C.6. Unnecessary Repetitions .............................................................78
Appendix C.7. Unneeded Suffix -s or -es (Verb) ................................................79
Appendix C.8. Unneeded Apostrophe ’ or ’s ..................................................... 79
Appendix C.9. Unneeded Verbs ..........................................................................79
Appendix C.10. Unneeded Repetitions ...............................................................79
Appendix C.11. Regularizations..........................................................................80
Appendix C.12. Unneeded Suffix -d or -ed.........................................................80
Appendix C.13. Redundancy...............................................................................80
Appendix C.14. Unneeded Conjunctions ........................................................... 80
Appendix C.15. Unneeded Nouns .......................................................................81
Appendix D. Classification of Errors in Omission ................................................81
Appendix D.1. Absence of Articles.....................................................................81
Appendix D.2. Absence of Suffix -s or -es (General Nouns)..............................84
Appendix D.3. Absence of Suffix -s or -es (Nouns)............................................85
Appendix D.4. Absence of Verbs........................................................................85

xix
Appendix D.5. Absence of the Apostrophe ’ or ’s ..............................................86
Appendix D.6. Absences of the Suffix -s or -es ..................................................86
Appendix D.7. Absence of Prepositions..............................................................86
Appendix D.8. Absence of Nouns .......................................................................87
Appendix D.9. Incomplete Sentences..................................................................87
Appendix E. Classification of Errors in Misformation..........................................87
Appendix E.1. Misuse of Prepositions ................................................................87
Appendix E.2. Misuse of Verbs...........................................................................88
Appendix E.3. Word Choice Errors.....................................................................89
Appendix E.4. Misuse of Articles........................................................................90
Appendix E.5. Necessary Pronoun References ...................................................90
Appendix E.6. Ill-Formed Structures...................................................................91
Appendix E.7. Requiring Gerunds.......................................................................91
Appendix E.8. Misuse of Nouns..........................................................................91
Appendix E.9. Misuse of Demonstrative Pronouns.............................................92
Appendix E.10. Misuse of Relative Pronouns.....................................................92
Appendix E.11. Misuse of Personal Pronouns ....................................................92
Appendix E.12. Misuse of Objective Pronouns...................................................92
Appendix E.13. Misuse of Gerunds.....................................................................92
Appendix F. Classification of Errors in Misordering.............................................93
Appendix G. The Total Number of Errors in Education........................................94
Appendix H. The Total Number of Errors in Linguistics......................................95
Appendix I. The Total Number of Errors in Literature..........................................96

xx
Appendix J. A Sample of Abstract: Education 2015 (Doc #16)............................97
Appendix K. A Sample of Abstract: Education 2015 (Doc #17)...........................98
Appendix L. A Sample of Abstract: Linguistics 2016 (Doc #36)..........................99
Appendix M. A Sample of Abstract: Linguistics 2016 (Doc #37) ......................100
Appendix N. A Sample of Abstract: Literature 2017 (Doc #56) .........................101
Appendix O. A Sample of Abstract: Literature 2017 (Doc #57) .........................102

1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter elaborates the research background, the research questions, the
research significance, and the definition of terms which are frequently used in this
study.
A. Research Background
Abstracts play an important role in academic writing. According to Sheldon
and Jackson (as cited in Lang, 2014), “an abstract provides a succinct overview of
the paper” (p. 22). It is supported by Gambescia (2013), who stated that “abstract
is a concise summary of an article’s subject matter, purpose, results, and
implications communicated to the reader” (p. 122). Derntl (2014) also claimed that
“everything of relevance to potential readers should be in the abstract” (p. 109).
Consequently, since abstracts summarize the whole research in one page, they are
considered to be the first element of a paper that people will read in order to discover
the overview of the rest of the research. Therefore, abstracts are important in
academic writings.
Abstracts become the topic of interest in this research because an abstract is
one of the most important elements in academic writings. They can determine
whether or not readers want to continue reading the whole research. There are
reasons why abstracts are crucial in academic writings. First, a call for papers

2
selects and accepts papers based on their abstracts. Gambescia (2013) stated that
abstracts for academic journals are required for acceptance to present at a
professional or scientific conference. Second, those who search for academic papers
or journals will read the abstracts first before downloading or deciding to go on for
the whole papers. Gambescia added that abstracts of some journals are published in
proceedings after a meeting of experts or stakeholders, such as a conference, after
which those interested in the subject can contact the authors for more expanded
treatment of the research or program. Third, abstracts are included in a thesis and
dissertation as a partial fulfillment of the requirements to obtain an academic
degree. Thus, abstracts must be well-written and well-organized since they can
explicitly show the writer’s linguistic competence and writing skills. It can be
concluded that abstracts are basically the gateway of the rest of the work. Thus,
writers should write abstracts precisely and accurately, as well as minimize the
errors since it is important to avoid errors in writing abstracts for academic writing.
Abstracts must be well-written and well-organized. According to Gambescia
(2013), it is important to be able to craft a high-quality abstract. Thus, conveying
the information, thoughts, and knowledge precisely and accurately in abstracts is
crucial. Biros (2017) argued that writings must adhere to scientific and writings
ethics since they are to share ideas, discoveries, and perspectives to a broader
audience. She said that writers are not supposed to provoke the readers with
inaccuracy, misspelling, and incorrect formatting. Hence, besides the content of the
writings, writers are also required to check the language conventions. They include

3
spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Consequently, it is essential for writers to
avoid language convention errors.
Errors commonly occur in academic writings, particularly in abstracts. There
have been error analysis studies conducted on abstracts. Three examples of the
studies are: First, a previous error analysis study on abstracts which was conducted
by Hidayati (2015) revealed that students of Diponegoro University majoring Civil
Engineering committed errors in their English abstracts. The errors were mostly
caused by the use of the wrong morpheme or structure. The factors triggered the
errors were carelessness, first language interference, and translation. Second, a
similar research was done by Setiawan (2014), who analyzed English translation
errors on postgraduate students’ abstracts of Educational Administration in the
State University of Medan. It was found that the most frequent error type was the
use of verb groups. It was caused by confusion in dealing with the English grammar
system. Last, another error analysis on abstracts was done by Sermsook,
Liamnimitr, and Pochakorn (2017). The results of the research showed that the most
frequent errors committed by second-year English major EFL students of Thailand
were punctuation, articles, subject-verb agreement, spelling, capitalization, and
fragment. The major sources of errors were inter-lingual interference, intra-lingual
interference, limited knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary, and
carelessness of the students.
Given the results above, it can be seen that even students majoring English
language are still prone to making errors, especially when English is a foreign
language. It is also proven in the abstracts of the English Language Education Study

4
Program (ELESP) students of Sanata Dharma University, where spelling,
punctuation, and grammar errors are found. In spite of the fact that they learn about
grammar and learn how to write in writing courses; and there are spelling,
punctuation, and grammar checkers which can be accessed easily through Microsoft
Word, online websites or applications; errors still occur. An error itself is defined
as deviations from the standard or violations of the standard (Hoxha, 2015). Thus,
since there were spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors found in undergraduate
thesis abstracts of students of the ELESP in Sanata Dharma University, it is thought
to be necessary to investigate those errors in order to discover what they are.
This study aims to identify, describe, and explain the types of spelling,
punctuation, and grammar errors found in undergraduate thesis abstracts of students
of the ELESP in Sanata Dharma University. Thesis abstracts were chosen based on
the consideration of the fact that theses are the final products which students must
write as a fulfillment of bachelor degree requirements. The samples of the abstracts
were taken randomly from the year 2014 to 2017. It was intended to collect the
samples from the past 4 years, dating from when this research was written. Given
the importance of abstracts as mentioned previously, compared to the fact that there
are errors occur in academic writings, it is thought to be necessary to conduct this
research.
B. Research Questions
This study aims to analyze spelling and punctuation errors, as well as the
types of grammar errors found in undergraduate thesis abstracts year 2014 to 2017

5
of ELESP students of Sanata Dharma University. Thus, the research problems are
formulated as follows.
1. What are the spelling and punctuation errors found in the ELESP
undergraduate thesis abstracts?
2. What types of grammar errors are found in the ELESP undergraduate thesis
abstracts?
C. Research Significance
Since this study aims to identify, describe, and explain spelling, punctuation,
and grammar errors in undergraduate thesis abstracts, thus, this study will be
beneficial for English learners, grammar teachers, and future researchers. This
research can make a contribution towards raising their awareness of language
convention errors that can still possibly be made by undergraduate students
majoring English Language Education.
1. For English Learners
The aim of this study is to investigate the errors made by the students in their
abstracts. Hopefully, this study will make other students more aware of the errors
in their writings, so that they will not make the same kind of error. English learners
can also explore the theories of grammar, spelling, and punctuation proposed by
various experts provided in this study as the references.

6
2. For Grammar Teachers
Since this study focuses on analyzing the errors found in the undergraduate
abstracts of ELESP students such as spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors,
thus, it can be concluded that there are still errors committed in students’ writings,
some of which they might not know about. It means that students still need a better
understanding of English grammar rules and the mechanics of writing. This study
provides a report on the kinds of errors that students make, thus, teachers can use
as a reference to review the errors.
3. For Future Researchers
The findings of this study will show the kinds of errors made by the ELESP
students in their abstracts. Future researchers can use this research as a reference to
review the errors made in the abstracts, therefore, they can prevent the same kind
error from occurring in their own abstracts and the rest of the research. Not to
mention, an abstract is one of the most important elements in a paper, thus, it must
be written precisely and accurately.
D. Definition of Terms
In order to give clear definitions of common terms used in this research and
to avoid misunderstanding, some of the terms are explained in the following list.
1. Abstract in Academic Writing
In general, the definition of abstracts is the summary of a research paper,
placed at the beginning of the research itself. The definition of abstracts used in this

7
study is along the lines of those proposed by Sheldon and Jackson, and Bram et. al.
According to Sheldon and Jackson (1999), an abstract is a succinct overview of
research (as cited in Lang, 2014). As a concise summary of the whole research, an
abstract should be well-developed and consist of at least four essential points,
namely research background, problem formulation or research questions, research
methodology or approach, and discussion of the findings. Researchers can give
suggestions or recommendations as well. The last of which is usually
complementary or optional. Bram, et. al. (2016) defined an abstract as a summary
of a thesis containing the background of the study, research questions or problem
formulation, approach or methodology used in the study, findings, and if necessary,
suggestions.
2. Error
The definition of error, a term used in this research, is in line with the
definition that of Hoxha (2015), who defined errors as deviations from the standard
or violations of the standard. The standard itself refers to grammar rules, which
several experts define it as the Standard English. This study analyzed errors in terms
of spelling, punctuation, and grammar found in abstracts. Some experts claimed
that errors and mistakes are not the same. While some others said that they cannot
be differentiated, especially in a single observation. In this study, mistakes and
errors are not differentiated since the definitions of which are not certain. The
decision underlying the reason of why mistakes and error were not differentiated
was because of that uncertainty. According to Ellis (1997), it may not be possible
to distinguish between an error and a mistake clearly (as cited in Krisnawati, 2013).

8
Besides, it is also impossible to judge in the abstracts whether it was actually a
mistake or an error through observing the abstracts alone. A more detailed
explanation of the difference between mistakes and errors is written in Chapter II
of this study.
3. Grammar
A common definition of grammar is the set of structural rules governing
English language. Two sentences below are the given examples of what is meant
by a sentence which follows the rules, and the one that does not.
[1]
I buy a book. [2]
I buy a books.
The sentence as shown in [1] is considered as grammatically correct because
it follows the rules, while sentence [2] is not. It can be analyzed through the use of
either the suffix -s or the determiner a in those sentences. In sentence [2], since
adding the suffix -s after a noun indicates plurality, then adding the determiner a
will not be necessary since it can only be paired with a singular noun.
4. Grammar Errors
If a grammatically correct sentence follows the set of rules or principles in
the language, then the one that does not is called ungrammatical or grammatically
incorrect. As seen in the sentence [2] from the previous subsection, it is considered
to be an error because it does not apply the rules. Yule (2004) claimed that ‘being
ungrammatical’ refers to using forms and structures in ways that they are not
generally used and for which no special context of use can be imagined. To make

9
it clearer, an example of a sentence being grammatical or ungrammatical is given
as follows.
The dog is in stay
That is an example of a sentence which can be either grammatical or
ungrammatical, depending on the context. It can be analyzed from its pattern or
structure, whether or not it follows the rules of English grammar. If the word stay
is a verb, then it will become ungrammatical. But if the word stay is a noun, it
becomes appropriate, meaningful and grammatically correct. The dog is in stay in
this context means that the dog, which is well-trained, will not move from its place
since the owner has told it to stay. Thus, what makes a sentence being grammatical
or ungrammatical, is the structures, considering the part of speech used in the
context.

10
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter provides the theories related to the study, consisting of two
sections, namely the Theoretical Description and the Theoretical Framework.
A. Theoretical Description
This section discusses errors, abstracts, grammar, grammar errors, and the
twelve minimum requirements regarding abstract writing used in this study.
1. Errors
This subsection discusses the definition of errors, particularly in the use of a
language, according to linguistic experts; the difference between errors and
mistakes; and definitions and the four stages of error analysis according to Ellis and
Barkhuizen (2005).
a. Definition of Errors
James (1998) identified a language error as an unsuccessful bit of language
(as cited in Sompong, 2014). Similarly, Hoxha (2015) defined errors as deviations
from the standard or violations of the standard. While Corder (1967) claimed that
an error takes place when the deviation arises as a result of lack of knowledge and
that it represents a lack of competence (as cited in Feltsen, 2009).

11
b. Errors vs Mistakes
Corder (1967, as cited in Feltsen, 2009) claimed that a mistake occurs when
learners fail to perform their competence. However, Ellis (1994) argued that the
idea of an error or a mistake is questionable. He said that besides the issue of
differentiating between what a mistake is and what an error is, the idea of which
also assumes that learners will always make the same errors in the same places.
Instead, the learners might sometimes make an error and sometimes a mistake (as
cited in Feltsen, 2009). Therefore, Ellis (1997, as cited in Krisnawati, 2013) said
that distinguishing errors from mistakes can only be done by observing the
consistency of learners’ performance. In the classroom, however, the teacher cannot
immediately identify if the learners make an error or a mistake. In practice, what
the teacher knows is that the learners make. In addition to that, it is impossible to
distinguish between an error and a mistake through a single observation. In final
conclusion, Ellis concluded that it may not be possible to clearly differentiate
between an error and a mistake (1997, as cited in Krisnawati, 2013).
c. Error Analysis
Richards and Schmidt (2002, as cited in Mungungu, 2010) defined error
analysis as the study and analysis of the errors made by second language learners.
Al-Khresheh (2016) also claimed that “error analysis can provide a good
methodology for investigating learners' second language errors because it plays a
fundamental role in investigating, analyzing, and categorizing errors made by
learners” (p.60). While Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005) stated that error analysis

12
consists of a set of procedures for identifying, describing and explaining learners’
errors. They propose four stages in conducting an error analysis research, they are
(1) collection of a sample of learner language, (2) identification of errors, (3)
description of errors, and (4) explanation of errors. The explanation of each stage
is presented in the following subsections.
1) Collection of a Sample of Learner Language
At first, researchers must formulate the research questions and the objectives
of the study. After that, it is important for them to collect data relevant to the study.
The process in which researchers collect the data is called a collection of a sample
of learner language.
2) Identification of Errors
After collecting the data, researchers may start to identify the errors.
However, it is essential to define what an error is beforehand. Corder (1978, as cited
in Al-Khresheh, 2016) stated that it is necessary to identify the presence and nature
of an error, an interpretation of the learner's utterance. He suggested the researchers
indicate the importance of interpretation of learners' utterances. Such an
interpretation might reveal the main differences between 'what a leaner wants to
say' and 'what a learner has said'.
3) Description of Errors
Corder (as cited in Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005) claimed that in order to
describe an error, it is important to specify how the English learner’s error differs
from the native speaker’s. Therefore, researchers are required to generate a kind of

13
classification to make a categorization of the errors. The categorization of errors in
this study is elaborated in a subsection called the Types of Grammar Errors in this
chapter. Taher (2011) stated that, sometimes, for example, a sentence can be so
confusing that it can have two different reconstructions, and therefore two different
types of errors. However, Ellis (as cited in Taher, 2011) wrote that the type of error
is therefore dependent on the researchers’ reconstruction of the sentence.
4) Explanation of Errors
Explaining learner’s errors is the most fundamental stage in error analysis
since the objectives of the study are revealed. In this stage, researchers may explore
the possible factors of the errors and try to explain why the errors or mistakes were
made in the first place.
2. Abstracts
An abstract is generally a brief summary of the whole study. According to
Sheldon and Jackson (1999), “abstract provides a succinct overview of the paper”
(as cited in Lang, 2014, p.22). It is supported by Gambescia (2013), who stated that
“abstract is a concise summary of an article’s subject matter, purpose, results, and
implications communicated to the reader” (p.122). Derntl (2014) also claimed that
“everything of relevance to potential readers should be in the abstract” (p.109). It
can determine whether or not the readers want to continue reading the paper. Even
though an abstract is a brief summary of the whole paper, it must be written
concisely in less than one page.

14
According to Bram, et. al. (2016), abstract in a literature thesis is a summary
of a thesis that contains 4 focal points, which are (1) background, (2) research
questions, (3) the approach of the study, (4) the findings, and if necessary,
suggestions. There is one difference of the focal points in a non-literature thesis,
which is the 3rd
point that elaborates the methodology. The abstracts must be written
in less than one page. They must also employ complete sentences, correct grammar
and usage, conventional spelling, capitalization and punctuation, appropriate word
choices excluding jargon, and define all acronyms at their first use.
3. Grammar
Purpura (2004) defined grammar as “a structural glue, which is the code of
language. It is arguably at the heart of language use, whether it involves speaking,
listening, reading or writing”. He suggested that a systematic way of accounting for
and predicting an ‘ideal’ speaker’s or hearer’s knowledge of the language is the
definition of formal grammar. Ideally, a well-formed utterance or sentence can be
generated by following a set of rules or principles in the language. Formal grammar
is normally used in formal writings, such as academic research, and handbooks.
Learning English grammar is closely related to learning the parts of speech.
Sasao (2013) argued that “knowledge of grammar helps learners identify the part
of speech of an unknown word”. It allows learners to differentiate between advise
and advice, book and booked, or she shed tears and she tears the paper. The
examples of parts of speech themselves are verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs.

15
4. Grammatical Errors
This subcategory consists of definitions of grammatical errors proposed by
experts and the four types of grammar errors proposed by Dulay, Burt, and Krashen
(1982) which are elaborated in the following subsections.
a. Definition
Wilkins (1972) stated that grammar means law in one language, therefore it
gives the language an organized system. When learners do not use English
according to its system, it can be considered ungrammatical since the sentences or
utterances produced are not well-formed. Those sentences or utterances which do
not follow the rules or principles are considered as an error. Baker (1989), however,
used a different term, namely nonstandard or substandard which refers to ‘a contrast
to standard’. The example of a nonstandard sentence is He don’t live here now.
Grammar errors are different in some aspects compared to grammar
mistakes. According to Gass and Selinker (2001), mistakes are generally one-time-
only events. In addition to that, Brown (1991) stated that a mistake is one kind of
errors occurring when learners attempt to produce the language correctly, as a result
of the process of second language rules system which is incompletely formed.
However, according to Norrish (1983), an error is a systematic derivation and
occurs when a learner has not learned something and consistently gets it wrong.

16
b. Types of Grammatical Errors
According to Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982), there are 4 types which
classify how English learners modify target forms, namely addition, omission,
misformation, and misordering. The explanation of each type is presented as
follows.
1) Addition
Dulay, et al. (1982) defined addition as the presence of a form that is not
supposed to appear in a well-formed sentence. This type can be sub-categorized
into regularization, e.g., I ated my lunch., and The mouses are running away.;
double-marking, e.g., He didn’t came last night., and Does she has a phone
number?; and simple additions, which are not describable as regularization nor
double-marking.
2) Omission
According to Dulay, et al. (1982), omission occurs if there is an absence of
a form in a sentence in which it is supposed to be present, which does not make the
sentence well-formed. The following sentences are two of the examples of
omission: My sisters very pretty., and The comics funny.
3) Misformation
Dulay, et al. (1982) suggested that misformation happens when learners use
the wrong form of the morpheme or structure. This type can be sub-categorized into

17
regularization, e.g., Do they be happy?, and She is so confidence.; archi-forms,
for example, learners use me as both a subject and object pronoun, as in Me and my
friends go to the mall.; and alternating forms, for example, Don’t + V and No +
V, as in Please no smoking here.
4) Misordering
Dulay, et al. (1982) characterized misordering by the incorrect placement of
a morpheme or group of morphemes in a sentence. One of the examples is as
follows: She fights all the time her brother, which will be correct if written She
fights her brother all the time.
5. Minimum Requirements
As mentioned previously, abstracts must be well-written in terms of
structure or components and language. If errors are found, they are later identified
in accordance with the rules of spelling, punctuation, and grammar rules. The
process of identifying the errors is the second stage of the error analysis proposed
by Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005). There are requirements that are needed to be
fulfilled in order to produce well-written and accurate abstracts in terms of the
language conventions. Those minimum requirements include the language
conventions which cover grammar, spelling, and punctuation. There are twelve
minimum requirements for abstract writing used in the study. The explanation of
which is shown in the following subsections.

18
a. Tenses
Klein (1994, as cited in Uusikoski, 2016) claimed that tenses are closely
related to the topic time and the time of utterance. Here in this study, the tenses are
limited to the simple and present tense. The subsections below provide a more
detailed explanation about the simple present and past tense.
1) Simple Present Tense
According to Azar (2002), the simple present tense expresses events,
situations or facts which exist always, usually, or habitually. It means that they exist
now, have existed in the past and probably will exist in the future, for example, It
snows in Russia., and She always drinks orange juice every morning.
2) Simple Past Tense
Simple past tense expresses events, situations, or perhaps facts at one
particular time in the past that began and ended in the past. Two of the examples of
the simple past tense are as follows: It snowed yesterday., and She drank orange
juice yesterday morning.
b. Articles
Articles are closely related to nouns because it has a function to specify or
generalize nouns. In nature, there are three kinds of articles, they are indefinite
article, definite article, and no article (Ø) or generalization. The following
subsections provide detailed information on those types.

19
1) Indefinite Article (a and an)
The use of the indefinite articles is to convey generic nouns to make a
generalization which represents a whole class of things, meaning it is not a specific,
real, concrete thing but rather a symbol of a whole group e.g., A banana is yellow.
The difference between article a and an is located in the sound of the nouns which
are to be modified. If the noun begins with a consonant sound, a is required, e.g., a
dog and a banana. However, if the noun begins with a vocal sound, an would be
appropriate, e.g., an apple and an elephant.
2) Definite Article (the)
Article the is used if the object or noun is specific. Azar and Hagen (2006)
claimed that a speaker uses the when he/she and the listener have the same thing or
person in mind, for example, Where is Andy? | He’s in the kitchen. The is also used
to mention a noun for the second time; for example, I have a pencil. The pencil is
green. Article the can be used with singular and plural countable nouns and
noncount nouns; for example, The pencil is green, The pencils are green, The rice
is white.
3) No article (Ø) or Generalization
According to Azar, no article (Ø) is used to make a generalization with plural
countable nouns and noncount nouns. The example of a plural countable noun in a
sentence is, Ø Bananas are yellow; while for noncount noun is, Ø Fruit is good for
you.

20
c. Nouns
A noun is one of the parts of speech that identifies a person, a place or a
thing, such as dog. While a noun phrase is a group of words functioning as a noun,
as in, a cute dog. Nouns have the singular and plural form, as in cat for singular and
cats for plural. Its plural form itself is divided into regular and irregular plural
nouns. A regular plural noun is formed by adding the suffix -s, -es or -ies, as in
pencils, foxes, and ladies. While an irregular plural noun has its own form that does
not require the suffixes, such as men, women, mice, teeth, and feet. Some nouns are
originated and borrowed from other languages, thus, they have their own plural
forms, such as thesis - theses, criterion - criteria, datum - data, analysis - analyses,
and cactus - cacti.
In its nature, a noun comes in two kinds, namely common and proper noun.
A common noun is a noun that identifies any person, place or thing; e.g., singer
and country. A proper noun is a noun that identifies a particular person, place or
thing, beginning with a capital letter; e.g., Maria Callas and Michigan.
In terms of the classification, there are two types of nouns, namely collective
noun and compound noun. A collective noun intends to name a group of people or
things, e.g., family and herd. A compound noun consists of more than one word.
It could be separated by a space, e.g., grammar errors, and nuclear family. It could
also be two words joined by a hyphen, e.g., role-play and twenty-one. In addition,
a compound noun could also be two words combined into one, e.g., keyword and

21
landlord. In order to find out how to spell a word precisely, particularly a compound
noun, it is suggested that writers use a dictionary or thesaurus.
d. Pronouns
A pronoun is a word that is used to replace one or more nouns. It is used to
refer to a noun that precedes the pronoun, which is called the antecedent. There is
one type of pronouns called personal pronoun. It is used to refer to people and
things. It is classified into three groups, namely the first person, second person, and
third person. The first person group refers to the person speaking (singular: I, my,
mine, me; plural: we, our, ours, us), as in I ate the apple chips; the second person
group refers to the person spoken to (singular: you, your, yours; plural: you, your,
yours), as in Bill, did you eat my cake?; while the third person group refers to
anyone or anything else (singular: he, his, him, she, her, hers, it, its; plural: they,
their, theirs, them), as in Leo saw her steal it.
A personal pronoun can be divided into four types, namely subjective,
objective, possessive, and demonstrative pronouns. A subjective pronoun is used
as a subject, e.g., I, you, they, we, he, she, and it. An objective pronoun is used as
an object, e.g., me, you, them, us, him, her, and it. A possessive pronoun is used to
demonstrate ownership. There is also a type of pronouns that is used to indicate a
specific person or a thing which is called demonstrative pronoun. It includes this,
that, these and those; e.g., These are Mike’s bats.

22
e. Agreements or Concords
According to Norduist (2017), an agreement is the correspondence of
a verb with its subject in person and number, and of a pronoun with
its antecedent in person, number, and gender. Generally, there are two kinds of
agreements, namely the subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement.
1) Subject-Verb Agreement
In making sentences, writers should always ensure that the subject agrees
with the verbs. They need to make sure whether the subject or the verb is singular
or plural. Also, a negative and an interrogative sentence require base-form of verbs,
for example, She does not like me., instead of She does not likes me.; and Did you
go to the party?, instead of Did you went to the party?
In addition to the explanation above, a singular verb must always be used
with a singular subject. Similarly, a plural verb must be used with a plural subject,
for example, Peter, Paul, and Mary split the dinner bill., instead of Peter, Paul, and
Mary splits the dinner bill., and Carrie plays with the cat in the yard., instead of
Carrie play with the cat in the yard.
2) Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
The antecedent (the word that a pronoun refers to) must agree in number
with the pronoun. This type of error sometimes occurs when the antecedent seems
to be plural but actually denotes a group or a unit as a whole. For example, The
team scored their final goal in overtime., when it is should be written The team

23
scored its final goal in overtime. Pronoun-antecedent agreement error can also
occur when the antecedent is an indefinite pronoun (i.e., refers to nonspecific
persons or things) and seems to have a plural meaning but actually is singular, for
instance, In this class, everyone performs at their fitness level., when it should be
written, In this class, everyone performs at her or his fitness level.
f. Gerunds
A gerund is a verb functioning as a noun by adding the suffix -ing. It can be
a subject or an object. An example of gerund that is used as a subject is Going to
the movies is my favorite thing to do. In this sample sentence, going to the movies
is a gerund phrase and is a subject, while an example of gerund that is used as an
object is I love reading comics. Here, reading comics is a gerund phrase that acts
as an object.
g. Prepositions
According to O’Brien (2018), a preposition is defined as a part of speech
that shows the relationship between a noun or a pronoun and some other word or
element in the rest of the sentence. There are four categorizations of prepositions,
namely standard or common prepositions, prepositional phrases, conventional
expressions, and collocations. First, the example of standard or common
prepositions are about, before, in, up, over, and to. Second, prepositional phrases
are added with an object, which is a noun or pronoun, it becomes a prepositional
phrase, e.g. in the beginning, at midnight. Third. O’Brien claimed that some
conventional expressions are part of prepositions. The examples of conventional

24
expressions are in spite of, according to, on account of, and in front of. Last,
collocations are generally prepositions that are habitually used with certain other
words, such as nouns, adjectives or verbs, for example, similar to, familiar with,
interested in, and aware of. Some prepositions can be different within a collocation,
depending on the object, for instance, argue about an issue, argue with a person,
responsible for something, responsible to a person, live at the address, live in a
house, live on a street, live with a person.
h. Suffixation
According to Halliday (1978, as cited in Montero-Fleta, 2011), one of the
strategies of creating new words is through derivation. A derivation is produced by
means of affixation, which is a process of adding a derivational affix to a word
through a process called prefixation, suffixation, or infixation. Prefixes are attached
to the front of a base word, suffixes to the end of a base word, while infixes are
inserted inside a root word. However, this research limits only for suffixation that
forms new verbs or nouns. In order to explain the word formation process clearly,
the types of common English suffixes which are easily found in either conversation
or writings are listed in a table as follows.

25
Table 2.1. English Word Formation (Nouns and Verbs) through the Process of
Suffixation
Word-Formation Process Suffixes
Suffixes forming past-form verbs -d, -ed
Suffixes forming third-person verbs -s, -es, -ies
Suffixes forming derived verbs -ize, -en, -fy, -ate
Suffixes forming nouns
-ity, -ty, -cy, -tude, -ness, -ion, -ment, -er,
-ist, -al, -ware, -ure, -sophy, -some, -ship,
-ist, -or, -ee, -ization, -ism, -hood, -ence
Suffixes forming plural regular nouns -s, -es
Suffixes forming derived adjectives
-able/-ible, -free, -ful, -ish, -less, -like, -
wise, -ward, -uous/-ous, -ular, -ive, -ic/-
ical, -etic, -ative, -ate
i. Word Choice or Diction
According to Bram (1995), a comprehensive dictionary lists not only the
meanings or synonyms but also other useful additional details, such as parts of
speech, types of verbs, kinds of nouns pronunciation and hyphen rules. Using
appropriate words is considered as one of the keys to writing naturally as native
speakers of English do. It is crucial to choose the proper words or diction in writing.
Bram suggested that learners look up the words in the dictionary in order to control
and check every word used in their writings since it provides notes on the use of
words, phrases, and idioms.
j. Redundancy
In general, redundancy is a repetition of information that is already conveyed
or expressed more than once, and therefore, it is unnecessary. Wit and Gillette
(1999) defined redundancy simply as repetition of information. Hunnicut (as cited

26
in Wit and Gillete, 1999) stated that redundancy is the information in a complete
sentence over and above that which is essential.
k. Spelling
According to Bram, et.al. (2016), writers should mind their spelling in
writing abstracts. They need to make sure that they use their - there, and then - than
correctly. According to Bram (1995), when a word ends in p, t, d, n, m, l and has a
short vowel in its final syllable, the consonant should be doubled when the suffix -
able, -ed, or -ing is added, for example, stoppable, committed, and bedding. When
the syllable contains a long vowel, the consonant should not be doubled, for
example explainable, bloomed and failing.
In connection with spelling, capitalization errors are also included in spelling
errors. They should also use capital letters to begin the name of a person, town or
country. Capital letters (uppercase) must be used at the beginning of every sentence
According to Brandes (2012), all words must be capitalized (including the second
part of hyphenated words, e.g., Self-Reported), except the following parts of speech:
articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), and
prepositions of three words or less (as, at, by, but, for, in, of, off, on, per, to, up,
via).
l. Punctuation Marks
According to Bram, et. al. (2016), an abstract writing requires writers to
mind not only the spelling but also the punctuation. They need to put a full stop or

27
period (.) at the end of every statement, and a question mark (?) at the end of every
question. Last, they need to use a possessive apostrophe (‘) correctly, for example,
The swan is cleaning its wings., instead of The swan is cleaning it’s wings.; and
They found a student’s bag., instead of They found a students bag.
There are at least 10 punctuation marks that are frequently used in academic
writing, particularly writing abstracts. Those 10 punctuation marks are listed and
explained below.
1) Full Stops or Periods (.)
Bram (1995) argued that a full stop or a period has a function to mark the
end of a positive or negative statement, the end of a complete thought, as in When
I was trying to finish writing this book, in a space of three months, I had to work
hard day and night, and In response to his question, she nodded, saying, “Yes, I
agree with you.” Besides, a full stop is often used to mark the end of initials or
abbreviations though sometimes it is optional, as in Mr. and Mrs. (also Mr and Mrs),
and M.A. or MA (the degree of Master of Arts).
2) Commas (,)
According to Bram (1995), there are 6 conditions in which a comma is
required. (1). A comma is used to separate a series of items from the same category
such as nouns, phrases, and clauses. (2). A comma is normally required to separate
a transitional expression in a sentence. (3). A comma is used after a subordinate or
dependent clause that precedes superordinate or independent clause. (4). A comma

28
is also to introduce a verb phrase beginning with to, a reduced clause or verb-less
clause. (5). A comma is used to add a non-defining phrase or clause or a comment
clause to a sentence. (6). A comma is needed to introduce adverbs of frequency,
place, and time at the beginning of a sentence. In addition to that, a comma is also
used and followed by a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet).
3) Exclamation Marks (!)
According to Bram (1995), an exclamation mark is useful in showing strong
emphasis, such as Mind your step! and Hey! An exclamation mark also commonly
occurs in imperative sentences. Imperative sentences are sentences that give a direct
command, e.g., Close the door! and Be quiet!
4) Question Marks (?)
Bram (1995) stated that one of the main functions of a question mark is to
signal that a message or an utterance is in a direct question form, for instance, How
about a cup of coffee?, and ”Where do they intend to work?” one of us asked.
5) Hyphens (-)
Bram (1995) suggested that a hyphen is needed to connect words in order to
create or form new words or phrases, for example, Lulu’s nine-year-old sister
enjoys reading comics, and The seller offers his goods to passers-by. Since a hyphen
is sometimes not mandatory, it is suggested that writers consult a comprehensive
dictionary. In addition, a hyphen is also used to cut words based on syllables.
Consequently, words consisting of one syllable must not be separated.

29
6) Dashes (–)
A dash is considered informal, thus, it is rarely found in a formal or academic
writing. Bram (1995) claimed that a dash is used to make a certain piece of
information more stressful or more dramatic, as in Do not forget – once again do
not forget – to post the letter today. A dash is also used to introduce additional
details in order to make a previous piece of information clearer or more vivid. In
this case, a dash is similar to that is, viz, or namely, for example, Indonesia lies
between two oceans – the Pacific and Indian Oceans. A dash may also function to
join closely related sentences, though it rarely occurs. Otherwise, it can be
substituted by a semicolon or a full stop.
7) Colons (:)
A colon is used to introduce a long list or a series of things. It is often
preceded by the phrase in the following, as follows, or as in. An example of the use
of colons is given as follows: The members of Green Day are as follows: Billie Joe
Armstrong (vocals), Frank Edwin Wright III (drum), and Mike Dirnt (bass).
8) Semicolons (;)
A semicolon is needed in bridging sentences that convey closely connected
messages, like The children are not tired; they are, in fact, bored. It can also replace
a comma if the comma is already used in a list of items, for example, Indonesia,
India, and Iran are situated in Asia Sudan, Nigeria, and Namibia in Africa; and

30
Italy, Iceland, and Belgium in Europe. In addition to that, a semicolon is also used
to join independent clauses.
9) Quotation Marks and Inverted Commas (“ ... “ and ‘ ... ‘)
Quotation marks are used to mark quotation or others’ speech. The single
mark pairs or the inverted commas are more common in British English. The
combination of the two pairs is also possible. The following sentence is an example
of the use of quotation marks and inverted commas. I heard somebody shout “Help!
Help! The house is on fire!” and then I saw people rushing out of the room,’ an
eye-witness informed the police. In addition, quotation marks are used to give more
attention to a certain word or term. They can also be used to show that a word in a
certain context has a particular meaning, a meaning that is different from the
common one. In this case, the single-quotation mark pair is the more common, for
example, The word ‘ambitious’ usually carried a negative meaning to Indonesians.
10) Apostrophes (‘)
Bram (1995) claimed that there are at least 3 functions of an apostrophe.
First, in an informal writing and in a written dialogue, an apostrophe is used to
indicate that one, or more than one, letter has been deleted. Thus, it represents the
omitted letter, e.g., She’s sent the message. Second, an apostrophe can replace the
letter o in not to form a contraction, as in No, it isn’t. Third, an apostrophe is also
used to mark possession. It is usually followed by the letter s unless the last letter
of the word itself is s, then it becomes optional, as in Carlos’s cookie or Carlos’
cookie.

31
B. Theoretical Framework
This section discusses the theoretical framework containing summarized and
synthesized relevant theories used in this study. It includes the types of grammar,
spelling, and punctuation errors as considered in minimum requirements in abstract
writing.
The theory applied in classifying the types of grammar errors is that of
Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982). They types consist of omission, addition,
misformation and misordering. The theories and references, which are used in
categorizing the errors, are based on the minimum requirements of abstract writing.
Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982) suggested that addition is a presence of a
form that is not supposed to appear in a well-formed sentence. It covers grammar
errors such as unnecessary articles, unnecessary suffixes, and unnecessary
repetitions. Omission is that of grammar errors that have (an) absence(s) of a form
in a sentence in which it is supposed to be present. Omission covers errors such as
the absences of articles, verbs, and suffixes. Misformation occurs when writers use
the wrong form of the morpheme or structure. It includes misuse of articles,
prepositions. While misordering is characterized by the incorrect placement of a
morpheme or group of morphemes in a sentence. It is closely related to the English
sentence structures.
The grammar error classification as explained previously is used in
categorizing the errors, in accordance with the minimum requirements for grammar.
While for spelling and punctuation errors, they are identified based on the theory of

32
spelling and punctuation as mentioned previously. Spelling errors cover any error
regarding spelling words or phrases, such as missing a letter or letters. Punctuation
mark errors cover any error regarding missing and misusing punctuation marks, as
well as those which are not supposed to be present or necessary.

33
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the research methodology applied in this study. It
includes 4 subsections, namely the Research Method, the Types and Source of Data,
the Data Gathering Technique, and the Data Analysis Technique.
A. Research Method
This study is a descriptive study that applied an error analysis method to
analyze spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors which were found in
undergraduate thesis abstracts of the ELESP students of the year 2014-2017.
According to Seliger and Shohamy (1989), “descriptive research is concerned with
providing descriptions of phenomena that occur naturally, without the intervention
of an experiment or an artificially contrived treatment” (p.116). Based on their
theory, this study is heuristic in terms of its objectives. The data were collected in
an attempt to include as much of the contextual information as possible. They were
later categorized, analyzed and written up descriptively. This study is descriptive
for it refers to investigation utilizing already existing data, which were the abstracts.
Seliger and Shohamy (1989) also claimed that “having a heuristic objective to the
research enables us to discover patterns, behaviors, explanations, and to form
questions or actual hypotheses for further research” (p.30).

34
Since this research involved collecting data, identify, describe, and explain
errors in the collected data, it also applied an error analysis method. According to
Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005), “error analysis consists of a set of procedures for
identifying, describing and explaining learner errors” (p.51). A detailed explanation
of error analysis is presented in Chapter II, page 11.
B. Type and Source of Data
The types of data were phrasal, clausal, and sentential structures found in
the abstracts. While the primary source of data was the documents, which were
formal academic writings in the form of abstracts. The documents were the
undergraduate thesis abstracts of ELESP students who submitted their thesis during
the academic year 2014-2017 at Sanata Dharma University. The abstracts were
retrieved from Sanata Dharma University Library website, which is
www.usd.library.ac.id, an open-access repository, in the form of Portable
Document Format (PDF).
C. Data Gathering Technique
As mentioned previously, this study applied four stages of error analysis,
proposed by Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005). The steps are: (1) collection of a sample
of learner language, (2) identification of errors, (3) description of errors, and (4)
explanation of errors. The first of which is a part of data gathering technique, while
the rest of them are parts of data analysis technique. To collect the samples, the
multistage sampling was applied. According to Nafiu, Oshungade, and Adewara
(2012), “Multistage sampling is where the researcher divides the population into

35
clusters, samples the clusters, and then resample, repeating the process until the
ultimate sampling units are selected at the last of the hierarchical levels” (p.199).
The abstracts of ELESP students of Sanata Dharma University were the target
population of this research. In ELESP, there were naturally occurring clusters,
which were the three research fields, namely Education, Linguistics, and Literature.
The abstracts were narrowed down to 4 years, which were from the year 2014 to
2017. From there, 15 abstracts were chosen randomly per year. However, 5 of
which represented each of the research field.
The abstracts were taken from open-access repository Sanata Dharma
University Library website, which is www.usd.library.ac.id. The documents were
later grouped by the year and sorted by the earliest year to the latest. Since they
were in the form of PDF files, they were then converted into Microsoft Word
Document (docx.) format using an online converter called PDF to DOC. In order to
maintain anonymity and confidentiality, the names of the authors written in the
abstracts were erased.
D. Data Analysis Technique
This section explains the technique of analyzing the data in conducting this
study. In identifying the errors, the free version of Grammarly Browser Extension
was used. The free version of Grammarly is an open-access browser extension,
comes in limited features but they matched with the needs of this study, which were
discovering spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors. Despite its limited features,
the free version of Grammarly was chosen because it out-performs grammar and

36
spelling checker in the Microsoft Word to begin with. In fact, Grammarly exposes
detailed errors such as missing commas or unnecessary commas. In addition to that,
Grammarly is easy to use.
It was previously mentioned that Grammarly comes with advantages though
it is free. To operate it, Grammarly needs to be installed on a computer. It requires
files in Microsoft Word Document (docx.) format. Then, it should be opened via
browser in which it was installed. After it is installed, the button will appear in the
bar of the browser, in the top right corner. To give a clear picture of the location of
Grammarly button in a browser, a screenshot of which is shown in the following
picture.
Figure 3.1. A Screenshot of Grammarly Browser Extension in Google Chrome
After clicking the button that is circled in red, it is required to choose the
option Grammarly for Chrome to open it in a new tab. Then, one by one, the
document is uploaded on the Grammarly. Later, it will tell whether or not the

37
document has any mechanical or grammatical errors. If it does, it will show the
errors along with a brief explanation of each error, as well as word suggestions to
replace the errors. The following picture is a screenshot of Grammarly in the
process of describing errors found in Doc #18, which was an education abstract.
Figure 3.2. A Screenshot of Grammarly in the Process of
Describing a Spelling Error
Given the fact that the free version of Grammarly has limited features, the
writer’s linguistic competence was used to double-check the errors confirmed by
Grammarly, as well as the errors that might not be detected, such as misusing
definite or indefinite articles. Then, the errors were also validated by other
references, which were the theory of mechanical and grammatical rules, as well as
Oxford Reference, an online reference product that spans 25 different subject areas.
After all of the findings were collected, they were later validated by Dwi Agus
Yuliantoro, Ph.D. in order to avoid bias and maintain objectivity.

38
This research applied four stages of error analysis, proposed by Ellis and
Barkhuizen (2005), namely (1) collection of a sample of learner language, (2)
identification of errors, (3) description of errors, and (4) explanation of errors. The
first of which is included in the section Data Gathering Technique.
a) Identification of Errors
This is the stage where errors were collected and identified. Since it was not
possible to differentiate between mistakes and errors in this study, therefore, they
were not discriminated. In this stage, the tools required in this study were
operationalized. The Grammarly Extension Browser was used to check the spelling,
punctuation, and grammar errors in each abstract. Whenever every abstract had
been checked with the extension browser, it was later double-checked through
careful and repetitive proofreading done by the writer using another tool as well,
which was Oxford Reference. To make the identification process easier, the errors
found in the abstracts were marked and underlined directly in the original
documents. The spelling errors were marked with green; the punctuation errors
were marked with blue; the grammar errors were marked with red. A missing item
in a sentence was replaced by an asterisk (*). For the samples of the original
documents, see Appendices J-O, page 97. After all the errors were marked, then the
data were recorded in tables of findings. The tables of findings are explained in the
next stage.

39
b) Description of Errors
The description of grammatical errors is based on the types of grammatical
errors in accordance with the classification proposed by Dulay, Burt, and Krashen
(1982), while the spelling and punctuation errors were classified in separated tables.
In collecting and classifying the findings, spelling, punctuation, and grammar error
categorization tables were designed. In other words, there are categorizations of
errors in each type of error, except misordering though a single table of misordering
was shown as well in the Appendices. The tables were used to present the errors,
grouped by each categorization. Thus, the number of the tables is equal to the
number of categorizations. To illustrate the finding table, a sample of which is
presented as follows.
Table 3.1. An Illustrative Table of Categorization of Errors
No Doc # Categorization of Errors x
Education
1
2
3
etc.
Linguistics
Literature

40
The categorizations of errors found in the abstracts were listed in the tables
of findings as illustrated above. The findings were in the form of phrases, clauses,
or sentences. If the amount of the same error occurred more than once, the number
of the errors would be written in the last column in which the symbol multiply (x)
is shown. As mentioned previously, misordering was the only type of error that did
not have any categorization but still had a table of categorization of the same name.
The order of the tables is arranged based on the types of errors, which are
mechanical errors that include spelling and punctuation, as well as grammatical
errors, that include addition, omission, misformation, and misordering. After the
tables were grouped based on the types, then they were sorted from the highest to
the lowest frequency of each categorization (see Appendices A-F, page 69).
After the errors were put in the categorization tables, they were counted and
grouped according to the three research fields of the abstracts. In order to present
the data more clearly, tables showing the number of errors in each research field
were generated. An illustrative table of the frequency of errors is as follows.
Table 3.2. The Number of Errors in Each Research Field
Doc. #
Types of Grammatical Error
Spelling
Punc-
tuation
Errors
Addition Omission
Mis-
formation
Mis-
ordering
2014 Research Field* subtotal**
2015 Research Field* subtotal**
etc.
Total Errors total***
Note: (*) Education, Linguistics, Literature; (**) annual subtotals; (***) total all years: 2014-2017

41
The tables have a function to show the number of errors in a more detailed
way. They show the errors individually and collectively, based on the years of
abstracts, as well as the total amount of errors in each research field. Thus, there
were three tables which belonged to each research field. To see those tables along
with the numbers of errors found in each research field, see Appendices G-I, page
94. Figures in the form of bar graphs were also generated in Chapter IV to present
the categorizations of errors in each type of error.
c) Explanation of Errors
This stage was done after the findings were all collected and put in the tables.
Several samples of errors were presented to be discussed further. The highest and
lowest frequency of errors in each type were taken as the samples in the discussion.
The discussion of each error is based on the theories provided in Minimum
Requirements as written in Chapter II. If possible, an explanation of what might
cause the errors was also presented.

42
CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter presents the results of the research and the discussion. It is
divided into 2 subsections, namely the Research Results and the Discussion. The
first subsection is the elaboration of the findings. It presents the answers to the two
research questions. The second subsection is the discussion of the results. It
provides some of the samples of the errors taken from the Appendices. It also
discusses and compares the highest and the lowest classification of errors.
A. Research Results
This subsection presents the results of the study. The table below is the
findings of the total errors found in 60 undergraduate thesis abstracts of the year
2014-2017 in English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma
University, grouped by the fields of the research, namely Education, Linguistics,
and Literature.
Table 4.1. The Number of Errors in the Abstracts
Research
Fields
Mechanical Grammatical Subtotal
Errors
Spelling
Punc-
tuation
Addition Omission
Mis-
formation
Mis-
ordering
Education 15 24 37 77 43 6 202
Linguistics 15 19 38 62 33 4 171
Literature 20 21 24 55 40 7 167
Total Errors 540

43
Based on the findings as shown in the table, it is found that the total error is
540. It is seen from the results that the research field of Education has the highest
frequency of errors (202 errors, 37.4%) compared to the other fields (Linguistics:
171 errors, 31.7%; and Literature: 167 errors, 30.9%). To see a more detailed
presentation of the errors in each research field, see the total number of errors in the
tables shown in Appendices G-I, page 94. In order to make the value of total errors
across fields and their percentage more clearly, a chart of grammar, spelling, and
punctuation error is generated and presented below.
Figure 4.1. The Number of Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar Errors
As seen in the chart above, it is found that there are 540 errors found the
undergraduate thesis abstracts of the year 2014-2017. Omission has the highest
frequency of errors with 194 errors (35.9%), followed by misformation with 116
errors (21.5%), addition with 99 errors (18.3%), punctuation with 64 errors
(11.9%), spelling with 50 errors (9.3%), and last, misordering with 17 errors (3.1%).
50
64
99
194
116
17
The Errors in the Abstracts Based on the Types
Spelling Punctuation Addition Omission Misformation Misordering
3.1%
21.5%
35.9%
18.3%
9.3% 11.9%
Total Error: 540

44
In other words, mechanical errors take up as much portion as 21.2% (114 errors),
while grammatical errors take up as much portion as 78.8% (426 errors).
B. Research Discussion
This subsection presents the discussion of the findings. It is divided into two
parts based on the classification of each error, namely mechanical errors which
include errors related to spellings and punctuations, and grammatical errors that
include additions, omissions, misformations, and misorderings. Except for
misordering, each of mechanical and grammatical error type was categorized into
several categorizations, depending on the errors found. The findings were also
presented in the form of charts. Then, in discussing each type of error, three samples
of the highest and the lowest amount of errors were presented. For further
information about the findings of this research, see Appendices A-F, page 69.
1. Mechanical Errors
After describing and categorizing the errors, it was found that there were
errors related to the mechanics of writing. As mentioned previously, errors are
defined as deviations from the standard or violations of the standard (Hoxha, 2015).
Here, the violations of the mechanical rules include all errors related to spelling and
punctuation. Capitalization was also categorized in the spelling. It was discovered
that 21.2% (114 errors) of the errors were related to mechanics. The following
subsections provide the discussion of the mechanical errors found in the abstracts
and some samples of the highest and the lowest amount of errors made by the
students in their abstracts.

45
a. Spelling
Spelling errors occurred 50 times or as much as 9.3% in the abstracts. The
most frequent error was the presence of unneeded capitalizations, while the least
frequent was the wrong order of letters in a word. The following graph shows the
classification of spelling errors.
Figure 4.2. The Classification and Number of Errors in Spelling
The most frequent error found in spelling is unneeded capitalizations, while
the least frequent error is the incorrect order of letters in a word. To discover more
about spelling errors found in the abstracts, see Appendix A, page 69. In the
discussion below, the samples unneeded capitalizations and jumbled letters are
discussed.
1
2
3
6
6
7
10
15
Jumbled Letters
Unneeded Spaces
Miswritten Letters
Requiring Capitlizations
Absence of Spaces
Extra Letter(s)
Absence of Letter(s)
Unneeded Capitalizations
Errors in Spelling

46
1) Unneeded Capitalizations
This category includes the letters which are not required to be capitalized
found in the abstracts. The errors occurred 15 times out of 50 errors. Most of the
errors were related to writing titles, such as writing the thesis titles and book titles.
The following 3 samples were taken from the research findings.
Doc #33: [1]
Context Procedure for Vocabulary Learning to The Eighth
Graders
Doc #25: [1]
Women Language of Elizabeth’s Speech In The King’s Speech
movie
Doc #29: [1]
To Kill A Mockingbird
Those are 3 samples of the unneeded capitalization found in the abstracts of
education (Doc #33), linguistics (Doc #25), and literature (Doc #29). According to
Brandes (2012), all words must be capitalized (including the second part of
hyphenated words), except articles, coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions of
three words or less (see Chapter II, page 26). However, the article a and the, as well
as the preposition in, were found and all of the first letters of which are capitalized.
2) Jumbled Letters
This category includes all the words in the abstracts which have incorrect
letter order. This error occurred only once. It was found in Doc #19, which belongs
to the research field of education.
Doc #19: [17]
precentage

47
In the sample above, the position of the letter r and e is inverted. Since in
the word percentage the letter e precedes r, thus, it is seen that the writer had written
the letters in the wrong order. It is also validated using Oxford Reference that the
correct spelling is percentage.
b. Punctuation
Punctuation errors occurred 64 times in the abstracts. In other words, 11.9%
of the errors are related to punctuation. The graph below provides the classification
of errors in punctuation found in punctuation.
Figure 4.3. The Classification and Number of Errors in Punctuation
The most frequent error that occurred in punctuation is the absence of
commas that happened 28 times out of 64 errors. To discover more about
punctuation errors found in the abstracts, see Appendix B, page 71. In the discussion
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
4
19
28
Misused Dashes
Unneeded Full Stops
Misused Semicolons
Unneeded Colons
Requiring Colons
Absence of Full Stops
Misused Quotation Marks
Unneeded Hyphens
Unneeded Commas
Absence of Hyphens
Absence of Commas
Errors in Punctuation

48
below, the samples of errors are those of the absence of commas and the misuse of
dashes.
1) The Absence of Commas
Out of 64 errors regarding punctuation, the absence of commas occurred 30
times in the abstracts. Three samples of which are presented below.
Doc #19: [19]
After that * the researcher got the conclusion from the data.
Doc #10: [7]
However, in order to understand the meaning of the two words
* people have to understand the structure of the words.
Doc #30: [18]
to build a motivation * a human needs
Those are 3 samples of the absence of commas which were found in the
abstracts of education (Doc #19), linguistics (Doc #10), and literature (Doc #30).
To begin with, there are at least six conditions in which a comma is required (see
Chapter II, page 27). First, in Doc #19, After that in the sentence is included as a
transitional expression. Since one of the functions of a comma is to separate
transitional expressions, thus, a comma is required in that sentence. Second, in Doc
#10, a comma is required after a subordinate or dependent clause that precedes
superordinate or independent clause. The clause in order to understand the
meaning of the two words is dependent, while the clause people have to understand
the structure of the words is independent. Thus, in order to connect the two clauses,
a comma is required. Last, in Doc #30, a comma is needed in between the phrase to
build a motivation and a human needs. Referring back to one of the rules of
commas explained previously, a comma is needed to introduce a verb phrase

49
beginning with to. Since Doc #30 has the phrase to build a motivation, then it has
to be followed by a comma for it is a verb phrase beginning with to.
2) Misused Dashes
This category includes the misuse of dashes found in the abstracts. The error
occurred only once. It was found in Doc #11 which is an abstract of the research
field of literature. The sample of the phrase is as follows.
Doc #11: [1]
written by a well – known absurdist playwright, Eugene Ionesco
There are at least two functions of a dash. A dash is used to (1) make a certain
piece of information more stressful or more dramatic and (2) introduce additional
details in order to make a previous piece of information clearer or more vivid (see
Chapter II, page 29). Besides, it is uncommon for dashes to occur in formal writings.
In the sample of error above, the writer tried to join the word well and known. The
correct punctuation which has a function to connect words in order to create or form
new words or phrases is a hyphen. Therefore, the word well and known must be
connected by a hyphen, creating well-known.
2. Grammatical Errors
As mentioned previously, there are 4 types of grammatical errors according
to Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982), they are addition, omission, misformation, and
misordering. After conducting the study, each type of grammatical errors was found
in the abstracts. From the findings, 78.8% of the errors were related to grammar
errors. The following subsections provide the discussion of the errors found in the

50
abstracts and some samples of the highest and the lowest amount of errors made by
the students in their abstracts.
a. Addition
In total, there were 99 grammatical errors that were affiliated with addition.
Addition is the presence of a form that is not supposed to appear in a well-formed
sentence. The following chart shows the categorization of the errors, along with the
frequency of the errors in Addition.
Figure 4.4. The Classification and Number of Errors in Addition
The most frequent error in the students’ abstracts is the unneeded presence
of articles, which occurred 25 times of 99 errors. While the least frequent error is
the presence of unneeded nouns that occurred only once. To discover more about
addition errors found in the abstracts, see Appendix C, page 75. The following
subsections discuss the unneeded articles and unneeded nouns found in the
abstracts.
1
2
2
3
3
3
3
5
6
11
14
21
25
Unneeded Nouns
Unneeded Conjunctions
Redundancy
Unneeded Suffix -d/-ed (verb)
Regularizations
Unneeded Repetitions
Unneeded Verbs
Unneeded Apostrophe '/'s
Unneeded Suffix -s/-es (verb)
Unnecessary Repetitions
Unneeded Prepositions
Unneeded Suffix -s/-es (noun)
Unneeded Articles
Errors in Addition

51
1) Unneeded Articles
This category includes the presence of articles which were not needed in the
students’ writing which occurred 25 times in the abstracts. As explained in Chapter
II, page 18, articles are used to specify or generalize nouns. Here are the samples of
the unneeded articles taken from the research results.
Doc #20: [5]
The data were obtained by using several research instruments,
such as: a field note, the observation checklists
Doc #55: [3]
used in the Adele’s album 25
Doc #29: [3]
This study is aimed to find out the Scout’s personality
development
Those are 3 examples of unneeded articles found in the abstracts of
education (Doc #20), linguistics (Doc #55), and literature (Doc #29). All of the
sentences consist of the unneeded definite article. The definite article the is used
when the object or noun is specific. In addition to that, article the is used to mention
a noun for the second time. In Doc #20, the article is not needed since the noun
observation checklists is not mentioned before. Besides, according to the context,
the writer seemed to mention several research instruments in general.
Consequently, it does not require the definite article the. While Doc #55 and Doc
#29 have the same kind of error. The article the in both sentences is not required.
Adele’s and Scout’s are possessive proper pronouns, while any articles cannot
precede a possessive proper noun nor a proper noun.

52
Fifteen out of 25 errors in this classification were caused by adding unneeded
articles before nouns which are supposed to be general. In mentioning general
nouns, writers are not required to add articles before the nouns, otherwise, it will
make the nouns specific. This term is called generalization (see Chapter II, page
19). Here are 3 samples of unneeded articles found in the abstracts, regarding
general nouns.
Doc #34:
[1.1]
Thus, the English learners should master vocabulary in order to
[1.2]
In order to achieve that, the English learners should
Doc #52: [3]
In order to convince the audiences, the advertiser uses linguistic
features and persuassion techniques in the slogans to persuade people to buy
the products.
Doc #60: [4]
gives some suggestions for the future researchers
Those are 3 samples of unneeded articles related to generalization which
were found in the abstracts of education (Doc #34), linguistics (Doc #52), and
literature (Doc #60). As explained in Chapter II, generalization or no article (Ø) is
used to generalize nouns with plural countable nouns and non-count nouns (see
Chapter II, page 19). From the samples above, English learners, advertiser and
future researchers belong to general nouns. The original abstracts had been checked
to confirm that they do not refer to any specific nouns. Consequently, the nouns
must not be preceded by articles. However, in Doc #52, the noun advertiser also
lacks the suffix -s. Since advertiser is a countable noun, therefore it requires the
suffix -s to make it general.

53
2) Unneeded Nouns
This category includes the presence of nouns that are not required in a
sentence. The presence of unneeded nouns occurred only once in the whole
abstracts. The error was found in Doc #37 that belongs to the research field of
linguistics.
Doc #37: [4]
adults people.
In Doc #37, the presence of the word people is not required for the word
adults has a similar meaning. Adults and people have a similar definition, which is
persons. Thus, using those two words side by side in a sentence would also cause
inefficiency or redundancy. In addition to the fact that the word adult and people
share similar definitions, adult can also be a countable noun. Since adult is an
uncountable noun that can stand alone without the presence of the word people
and vice versa. Thus, the presence of either adult or people must be eliminated.
b. Omission
Based on the research findings, omission is a type of errors that occurred
more frequently compared to the other types. There were 194 errors (35.9%) found
in the abstracts. The bar graph below presents the classification of errors in
omission.

An Error Analysis On Undergraduate Thesis Abstracts Of English Language Education Students Of Sanata Dharma University

An Error Analysis On Undergraduate Thesis Abstracts Of English Language Education Students Of Sanata Dharma University

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to An Error Analysis On Undergraduate Thesis Abstracts Of English Language Education Students Of Sanata Dharma University

Similar to An Error Analysis On Undergraduate Thesis Abstracts Of English Language Education Students Of Sanata Dharma University (20)

More from Daniel Wachtel

More from Daniel Wachtel (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

An Error Analysis On Undergraduate Thesis Abstracts Of English Language Education Students Of Sanata Dharma University