THE COMMA ERROR IN STUDENTS' WRITING: A CASE STUDY OF EIGHT GRADE STUDENTS AT SMPN 25 SURABAYA.

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THE COMMA ERROR IN STUDENTS’ WRITING:

A CASE STUDY OF EIGHT GRADE STUDENTS

AT SMPN 25 SURABAYA

THESIS

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of

Sarjana Pendidikan (S.Pd) in Teaching English

By:

Alif Mufida Ulya

D75211065

ENGLISH TEACHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND TEACHER TRAINING

SUNAN AMPEL STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY

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ABSTRACT

Ulya, Alif Mufida. (2016). The Comma Error in Students’ Writing: A Case Study of Eight Grade Students at SMPN 25 Surabaya. A Thesis. English Teacher Education Department, Faculty of Education and Teacher Training. Sunan Ampel State Islamic University, Surabaya. Advisors: Sigit Pramono Jati, M.Pd., Rachmat Efendi, M.A.

Key Words: comma, error, comma error, students’ writing

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2.

Punctuation of English

Based on Language Portal of Canada3, it is mentioned basic punctuation of English that helps to clarify the sense of what is going to be

written or has been written. The researcher summarizes there are a lot of

punctuation mark need to notice writing paragraphs, they are:

a.

Apostrophe

The apostrophe ( ’ ' ) is used to mark possession as in "John's

book", and to mark letters omitted in contractions, such as you're for you

are. It is tiny marks on the page but probably cause more problems than

the rest of punctuation put together. According to Ann’s book4, they perform two functions as stated below:

1) To show possession

2) To indicate missing letters

b. Brackets

Brackets ( [ ], ( ), { }, ⟨ ⟩ ) are used for parenthesis, explanation or

comment: such as "John Smith (the elder, not his son)..." These are used

on either additional information, where they can have the effect of

3

Government of Canada. “Comma” Language Portal of Canada

(http://www.ourlanguages.gc.ca, accessed on December 14th, 2014). 4

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diminishing the impact. Another example may show the better

understanding about this punctuation.

The director (a tall, handsome man) sat down beside me.

c. Colon and Semicolon

The colon ( : ) is used to explain or start an enumeration. There are

certain time to use this punctuation in writing activity, they are:

1) Before the lists

2) Before explanation

The semicolon ( ; ) is often used to break up listings with commas,

as seen in: "She saw three men: Jamie, who came from New Zealand;

John, the milkman's son; and George, a gaunt kind of man." As well as

joining statements, semicolon can also be used to separate lists,

particularly where the lists are complicated by additional descriptions.

d. Comma

The comma ( , ) is used to disambiguate the meaning of sentences.

For example, "Man, without his cell phone, is nothing" (emphasizing the

importance of cell phone) and "Man: without it, is nothing" (emphasizing

the importance of men) have greatly different meanings, as do "eats shoots

and leaves" (to mean "consumes plant growths") and “eats, shoots and

leaves” (to mean "eats firstly, fires a weapon secondly, and leaves the

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Taken from Language Portal of Canada5 providing theory dealing

with comma mark, as commas are the most punctuation used in the

English language, people need to use them correctly. The following is a

list of basic comma rules to help people out.

1) Use Commas

Table 2.1

The Categories of the Correct Placement of Commas

No. Categories Examples

a) After an introductory clause, phrase or adverb

When choosing between two

products, we need to consider both

quality and cost.

To sum up, the fundraiser was a

success.

Unfortunately, the report was late for

the second week in a row.

summary, but the trainee prepared a

ten-page report.

c) Around parenthetic expressions Management was, on the whole, supportive of the suggestions.

d) Between items in a series Ted bought paper, pens, a computer and a printer.

5

Government of Canada. “Comma” Language Portal of Canada,

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This parcel is being sent to Brandon,

Man.

h) Between parts of dates and after the year

April 1, 1999, is an important date

for many Nunavummiut.

Jack's son was born on Friday,

February 13, 2009.

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The English language is full of ambiguities, but one way of

ensuring that the reader understands what you are writing is by the correct

use of commas. Comma has several important uses which include:6 (1) Separating words in lists

This is one of the most common uses. They are also used to separate a

list of phrases.

For example as follows:

What I like the most is sitting in a hot tub, drinking champagne, eating

strawberries and reading my diary.

(2) Separating extra information

Using a comma either side of an additional piece of information.

The stagehand, who had only recently joined the company, helped me

carry my shopping up to the dressing room.

The sentence, however, would still make sense if the additional

information is left out, as stated:

The stagehand helped me carry my shopping up to the dressing room.

So, the existence of the comma within the sentence is to give more

information about the subject or to give clarity about the subject.

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(3) Marking additions

These includes phrases such as ‘I believe’ and ‘thank you’, linking

phrases such as ‘however’ and ‘on the other hand’, and people’s

names. For example as follows:

The leading man, John Smith, played his part to perfection. The same,

however, could not be said for the leading lady.

The use of comma in this case, marking addition, is quite similar with

the previous comma use that is separating extra information. Dealing

with the example provided above, for the writer do not forget the

second comma when putting additional information in a sentence.

(4) Indicating a brief pause

When a person is talking to someone, he naturally adds pause to his

speech patterns. This is also occurred in writing activity. An individual

wants someone to read what he writes. To come up with the long

sentence, by using commas, he breaks up the long sentences into

smaller segments. The reason is that the person makes someone who

reads his writing, easier to read, and he also indicates where to take a

brief pause. To notice where to put comma appropriately is to read the

writing aloud and where should be paused naturally, put in a comma.

(5) Affecting the meaning

Since language is dynamic, it may provide any ambiguities when a

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not understand what the person is writing. To make sure that the

readers accept and catch what the person is trying to convey through

his writing is by putting the punctuation, more specifically the comma,

in each appropriate place.

For example as follows: Let’s eat, grandpa!

But if the comma after the word ‘eat’ is omitted, the meaning is

completely changed into: Let’s eat, grandpa!

(6) Marking dialogue

The use of comma for this case is to distinguish between the direct

speech and the usual wiring. Generally, it most common use in the

form of text emphasizing on the power of the story, like narrative or

non-fiction. Putting a comma after the person speaking and inside the

speech marks only if the speech is broken, is required.

“Rain before seven” said my mother, “dry before eleven.”

2) Do NOT Use Commas

Table 2.2

The Categories of the Incorrect Placement of Commas

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a) Between the month and the year

WRONG: Treasury Board approved the

submission in February, 2008.

unwrapped, the silver candlestick

and placed it gently on, the table in

With restrictive elements (i.e.

elements essential to the

e) In a series of non-coordinate adjectives

WRONG: Old, stone fences remind

me of home.

REVISED: Old stone fences remind

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e. Dash and Hyphen

The dashes ( – , —, ― ) can be used in some position in writing7: 1) Dashes can be used instead of colons and semi colons to make a

sentence more dramatic.

For example: Furious, I raised myself up to my full height and

looked the director in the eye – this time I was going to speak my

mind.

2) Dashes can be used to indicate that what follows will be

unexpected or surprising in some way.

For example: Furious, I raised up to my full height and looked the

director in the eye – or rather his chest.

3) Dashes can also be used instead of commas either side of a piece

of additional information to give it more impact.

For example: The director – he of the lime green kimono and

jodhpurs – sat down beside me in the stalls and commiserated.

The hyphens ( - ),or commonly called as the little dashes, are generally

used between numbers such as thirty-three, 40-years-old man, then in

compound adjectives such as shop-made, and also in phrases such as

world-war-one veteran.

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Yet, hyphens which join prefixes to words or words together in a

group can cause the readers’ confusion since the words which were once

hyphenated, now they do not use hyphen mark again. Like in the word:

co-operative is now usually just written cooperative. The hyphen mark is

not inserted in the word anymore. It means most of words that use hyphen

mark inside the word itself is now omitted.

f. Ellipsis

An ellipsis ( … ) is a row of three dots. It is mostly used in quotes

to indicate that not all the quote has been used. It is only the relevant parts

used. It simply means, ellipsis is used to mark omitted text. It is, however,

people should not use this to distort the writer’s meaning.

g. Exclamation Mark

The exclamation mark ( ! ) is used to mark an exclamation. It is

used at the end of a sentence. Exclamation mark is used instead of full

stop to indicate:

1) Strong emotions, e.g. I couldn’t believe my ears!

2) Exclamatory phrases, e.g. How stupid you can get!

As writing development nowadays, some writers develop the habit

of using them to signal a joke or light-hearted remark8. As stated in: I feel off the stage, twisted my ankle, dropped my script and broke my phone. It

just wasn’t my day! While some may use exclamation mark to signal to

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the reader that a remark is not meant to be taken seriously. Like an

example shown through the sentence: The director singled me out for

praise. I was so embarrassed I could have murdered him!

Despite the exclamation mark is now being transformed, where it

can be added into any kind of writing to colour it, writers need to keep

using the exclamation mark wisely.

h. Full stop (British), or Period (American)

The full stop or period ( . ) is firstly used to mark the end of a

sentence. They are easy – they come at the end of a sentence.

The full stop or period is also used to mark abbreviation of names

as initials. For instance: Dwight D. Eisenhower's home in Gettysburg, Pa.,

was not very far from Washington, D.C.

i. Guillements

Guillements ( « » ), sometimes called French quotation marks, are

relatively uncommon in English, but are sometimes used as a form

of quotation mark.

j. Question Mark

The question mark ( ? ) has the same placement of putting with full

stop and exclamation mark, that is at the end of sentence. It is used to

mark the end of a sentence which is in the form of question. So that to end

up a sentence with a question mark, it should be ensured that the sentence

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k. Quotation Mark

Quotation marks ( ‘ ’, “ ”, ' ', " " ) are used to mark quotation. The

existence of quotation mark cannot be separated from the dialogue. The

use of quotation mark is to indicate a quote within a direct speech. In

another word, it is to show that there is someone’s talk that needs to be

quoted by quotation mark and distinguishes it from the usual writing.

Quotation mark is also known as inverted comma and speech mark

which is used to enclose: direct speech, quotation, and book or song title.

Meanwhile, the placement of inverted commas when writing

dialogue demands a lot of writers9:

1) Placing speech marks around the word being said;

2) Starting each piece of speech with a capital letter except when

the speech is broken up: ‘If you think I’ve forgotten,’ said Suzy

firmly, ‘you are very much mistaken.’ Direct speech which is

split into parts may only require a single capital letter (think of

the direct speech as a sentence within a sentence);

3) Punctuating the speech before closing it;

4) Starting a new line for each new speaker.

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l. Slash

The slash or stroke or solidus ( /, ⁄ ) is often used to indicate

alternatives, such as "his/her", or two equivalent meanings or spellings,

such as ""grey/gray".

3. The Error in Using Comma

a. The Definition of Error

Making error happens when someone learns either native language

or foreign language. Actually, making errors is a part of language. Brown

points out that human learning are fundamentally a process that involves

the making mistakes. It means that people cannot learn a language without

first systematically committing errors10.

In accordance with the term of error, there are some definitions

given by linguists. Brown defines error is a noticeable deviation from the

native speakers’ grammar, reflecting the Interlingua competence of the

learners11.

Error is thing done wrongly or the state of being wrong in belief or

behaviour and scope to make any mistakes without serious consequences.

However, mistake is an action or opinion that is foolish or wrong of a

word, figure, sum, and so on that is not correct. In other word, error is a

10

H. Douglas Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall Inc., 1980), 164.

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mistake that was done by the language user because he did not know the

correct use of the native language pattern. While mistake is the language

user’s behaviour caused by the factor of forgetting on something. Thus, it

makes the pattern of the target language seems incomplete.

In fiction, misuse of commas may create humor where none was

intended or cause the reader to stop and have to reread for clarity. Each

time a reader stops because of confusion, he is pulled out of the fiction

that the writer worked so carefully to create.12

Breaking the rules of comma usage is acceptable in order to avoid

confusion, of course, followed by always rewriting the sentence to avoid

ambiguity. There are plenty of rules for when to use and when not to use

commas. When you stick to the rules, your readers will be able to follow

your meaning and you won’t give them a reason to be pulled from your

fiction and your imaginary world.

b. The Error Analysis

Error Analysis (EA) is the study and analysis of the errors made by

the second language learners13. Error analysis may be carried out in order to identify strategies which learners use in language learning. It tries to

identify the causes of learners’ errors. In language learning, error analysis

12

Bett Hill. “Finding Commas in All the Wrong Places” The Editor’s Blog, (http://heeditorsblog.net, accessed on February 18, 2016).

13

Jack C. Richard, Focus on the Learner: Pragmatic Perspectives for the Language Teacher

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is also used to obtain the information and common difficulties students’

face. It can be transformed into an aid to teach or a preparation of teaching

materials.

The study of error analysis (EA) proceeds further than merely

predicts errors by our contrastive analysis (CA). The error analysis studies

the native of errors and presents confirmation of prediction made by

constructive analysis. It deals with collecting samples of learners’

language identifying the errors according to their hypothesized causes and

evaluating seriousness of the errors14. It begins from the examination of learners’ learning problems can be inferred. Errors are attributable to all

possible sources, not only those resulting from the native language

transfer, as mentioned by Brown where errors can arise from possible

sources such as Interlingua transfer, Intralingua transfer, context of

learning, and communication strategies15.

The aim of error is normally pedagogic. Errors provide

information which can be used to sequence items for teaching or to devise

remedial lesson16. By analyzing students’ error, teacher cannot only detect the students’ difficulty in learning the target language, but they also can

determine the effectiveness of the teaching methods. In the other hands,

14

R. Ellis, Second Language Acquisition in Context (New York Cambridge: The University Press Prentice Hill Inc., 1987), 127.

15

H. Douglas Brown, Principles of Language… 171. 16

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teacher considers that knowing the students’ error is helpful since teacher

will recognize the learners’ problems on how far they have learned and

what remains for them to learn, by error analysis.

c. The Cause of Error

Contrary to popular belief, commas don't just signify pauses in a

sentence. In fact, precise rules govern when to use this punctuation mark.

When followed, they lay the groundwork for clear written communication.

Commas, in fact, are some of the most often misused punctuation

marks, and with good reason. The rules that guide when and when not to

insert a comma can be a bit clouded in terminology and exceptions.

Because of that a lot of different uses, it drives confusing and leads to

errors. So often, though, it comes down to one question whether it is

essential.

Learning language like any other human being is fundamentally a

process that involves the making mistakes. In fact, those second language

learners’ errors are important for understanding the process of second

language acquisition. The cause is mainly:

1) Interlingua

It is a system that has structurally intermediate status between

the native language and the target language. In addition, errors that

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in learning foreign language, are caused by the interference of mother

tongue.

It happens because the features of the two languages are

different. To identify inter language error, the learners usually look for

the easiest way by translating the sentence form from the learners’

target language into the form of sentence in the learners’ first language

to see if similarities exist without thinking whether the other aspects

are also affected (in this case is commas), because of the translating

activity. For instance, people are about to make sentences in English.

They dominantly will prepare sentence in Indonesian first that soon to

be translated word by word into English. Take a look on the example

below:

Buku itu ditulis saat musim panas, 4 Juli 2004.

(Indonesian)

When the sentence above is translated into English, it will be:

The book was created in the summer of July 4, 2004.

(English)

Otherwise, people tend to put them according to the sentence order,

write them into:

The book was created in the summer, 4 July 2004.

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Thus, the comma placement becomes error. They put the

comma incorrectly and for further case that is not corrected, it may

affect the meaning.

B. Review of Previous Study

After doing searching in-depth, it is found some previous studies

which are similar with this study. They are:

1. A thesis entitled “A Study of Error Analysis of Second Class of

Muhammadiyah 2 Pucang Surabaya in Writing Paragraph” by Anisa

Herawati.17 This previous study and this study, however, have similarities in certain aspect. Both of them discuss the same base theme; that is the

error. Furthermore, the next statement problem is that asking about the

possible causes of errors may happen. Eventhough, still, it is found some

particular things that distinguish one another. Firstly, although the base

theme is the same, both have their own term for error; the previous study

is about the error in general (errors on transitional signal, punctuation

rules, capitalization rules, and grammar in paragraph writing ), while this

study is about the error in specific way, that is punctuation mark, more on

the comma. Secondly, it is about the research subject. This previous study

chooses students of Senior High School as the research subject, while this

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study uses students of Junior High School as the research subject. Thirdly,

this previous study is based on the triangulation research design in which

the method explained briefly as follows: the researcher chose some

students by sampling technique to write a recountcomposition. Thus, the

researcher focused only on those selected students. Meanwhile this study

uses descriptive qualitative reserach as the research design where at the

end of the study is ended by elaborating the error evaluation after all

stages are completely done.

2. A thesis entitled “The Analysis of Grammatical Errors in Recount Text”

undertaken by Jannatul Laily Novia Bahari.18 Within two of this previous study’s research questions, it is found similarities, in which it is being

questioned the types of errors and the possible causes of those errors. She

described the error students produce where there were 336 grammatical

errors finding. In this study the researcher teaches the recount text by

herself to get the data and the researcher also researches about the strategy

of the teacher to solve the students’ grammatical errors and emphasizes on

errors using past tense in the recount writing which is completely different

from the this study. This study gives concern on the comma aspect

through students’ written work, instead of the grammatical term. Then, the

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result of this study is in descriptive way elaborating the overall error found

and being evaluated at the end.

3. A thesis entitled “Error Analysis On The Use Of Simple Present Tense In

Paper Assignment Of Writing Subject Made By The Fourth Semester

Students Of English Department At Stain Salatiga in The Academic Year

Of 2011/2012” conducted by Risti Yani Rahmawati.19 There are several points of similarities between this previous study and this study. Firstly, it

discusses about the error which is discussed a lot as the theme, then the

use of descriptive qualitative research as the research design, and the why

factor of making error as the statement of the problem. Meanwhile the

differences between both of them are firstly, the research subject where

this previous study uses students of university as the research subject.

Secondly, it observes students’ error by their paper assignment. Thirdly,

throughout her research, she found out that the problem majority

happened in the grammatical aspect on the use of simple present tense

when students write their paper assignment. The study, however, is also

intended to give some contributions concerning the factors that influence

the grammatical errors on the use of simple present tense in students’

paper assignment. So that it is quite clear that the researcher on the

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previous study was concerning dominantly on the grammatical issues.

Nevertheless, this study, firstly, picks students of Junior High School as

the research subject. Secondly, it observes the error by students’ written

work regularly. Thirdly, it focuses only on the punctuation mark: comma.

4. A thesis entitled “Informal Language in Academic Writing: A Case Study

at English Education Department, IAIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya” written

by Anang Rifa’uddin.20 It is found some similarities between this previous study and the study that is now researcher working on. Firstly, it is about

the research design used. Both the study which is done by Anang

Rifa’uddin and the study which is done by the researcher use descriptive

qualitative design, in which they end up the study by drawing conclusion

of the findings they obtain while doing research and discover a new

finding. Secondly, it is about the statement of the problem; asking about

the factor affecting the subject to do it. However, in his research, he

conducted it because of his anxiety to the informal English language that

is carried out in real life up to thesis writing project that should be written

in the form of academic writing; the most formal one. It means it is not

allowed to use any kind of slank language while the process of writing

thesis. Hence, he takes this problem into his discussion while focusing on

what features and the factors affecting students to use informal language

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within their thesis. Whereas, this study departs from a number of errors

that the researcher found in the use of punctuation placement, more

specifically on the comma, in the research subjects’ written work which

encourages the researcher to analyze them and find out the possible factor

of why they happens.

5. A thesis entitled “Error Analysis in Students’ Proposal Writing of English

Education Department of Tarbiyah Faculty of IAIN Sunan Ampel

Surabaya” arranged by Mohammad Isnaini.21 There are a number of similarities between this previous study and this study are about the error

which is discussed a lot as the theme, then the use of descriptive

qualitative research as the research design, and the why factor of making

error as the second research question. Meanwhile the differences between

both of them are firstly, the research subject where this previous study

uses students of university as the research subject. Secondly, it observes

students’ error by their proposal. Thirdly, throughout his research, he

found out that the problem majority happened in the sentence devices

when students write proposal. While this study, firstly, uses students of

Junior High School as the research subject. Secondly, it observes the error

by students’ regularly written work. Thirdly, it focuses only on the

punctuation mark: comma.

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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

The method used by the researcher is very important in every research as a

guideline to attain the objective of the study. Chapter three elaborates information

dealing with the procedure of the research that the researcher applies while

conducting this study. It covers approach and research design, researcher presence,

research location, data and source of the data, research instrument, method of data

collection and data analysis, checking validity of findings, and research stages.

A. Research Design

According to Hornby, method is the way of doing something1. Research

design in this study is to seek the data needed and to be able to answer the question of

the study. This study is designed to examine punctuation error in detailed is comma

aspects.

In doing so, the researcher tended to use qualitative research, in this case was

case study to complete this study. Descriptive qualitative research is a research that

describes a natural phenomenon. In line with that definition, the researcher would

observe and describe the real situation and condition that the researcher faced in the

field.

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Qualitative description is based on some quality or characteristic rather than

on some quantity or measured value. The objective of quantitative research is to

gather an in-depth understanding of human behaviour and the reasons that govern

such behaviour. The qualitative method investigates the why and how of decision

making, not just what, where, when. Hence, smaller but focused sample are more

often used than large samples.

Dealing with the objective previously stated, the aim of this study itself was to

find out not only the part of comma error mostly occurs in students’writing that

repesentatived the ‘where’ term, but also the reason of those errors happened in

which it representatived the ‘why’ term. This was the process of tracing root.

Moreover, there were no treatments and no numeric data within this study. In

qualitative research, the reseacher generally used written coclusion in dominant to

accomplish the report of the study based on the whole process of data collection

technique and data analysis2.

B. Researcher Presence

In this research, which is planned to use qualitative method, researcher plays a

role as the primary instrument of the research3. Speaking of it, actually, besides the

researcher itself, there were a number of instruments that can be used while the

research was running, but the researcher presence in this case was the most essential

2

John W. Cresswell, Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research (Boston: Pearson, 2012), 9.

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part in collecting the data. It was because the rest of instruments have limited function

to support the researcher’s duty as instrument. Therefore, the researcher presence

became complement of other instruments to collect the data needed and soon to be

analyzed.

After all the data obtained by the researcher were collected, then they were

expected to answer the research question which had stated previously in the Chapter

I. In addition, in this research, the researcher took role as an observer of participant. It

is because the research subject known about the presence and the role of the

researcher4 within their room, in this case was the research subject’s class to have

teaching-learning activity. Moreover, the research subject welcomed the researcher to

do a research. Thus, it got easier for the researcher to obtain much information from

the research subject.

C. Research Location

The researcher conducted the study in SMPN 25 Surabaya. The researcher

made the decision to hold the study in this school because of some considerations.

First of all was that the school gets “A” accreditation which indicated that the school

had predicate as a good quality school in society. Secondly, according to the result of

preliminary research in the form of asking and giving question undertaken by the

researcher to one of English teachers at SMPN 25 Surabaya, it was known that the

teacher asked students to write paragraphs regularly and soon to be marked. Thirdly,

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it was empowered by the researcher’s experience when having internship there for

two months. And during the months, the researcher figured out a number of mistakes

when teaching a certain class dealing with students’ written work, moreover in the

case of punctuation marks.

SMPN 25 Surabaya is located in Jalan Simomulyo No. 25 Sukomanunggal,

Surabaya. The school has its vision distinguishing from the other schools. The vision

of the school is “Creating Schools that Have Excellent Quality in the Standard of

National Education Based on Faith and Taqwa and Educated Environmentally”

(Membentuk Sekolah yang Berkualitas Unggul Dalam Standar Nasional Pendidikan,

Berdasarkan Iman dan Taqwa serta Berwawasan Lingkungan).

The geographical location of the school is quite strategies. It is found no

difficulties to get to the school location as the caution which is written “SMPN 25

Surabaya” is now everyone able to see easily standing at the bank of the main street

before the aisle as the access to get to the school. The school is not too far to the main

street. Furthermore, public transportations, like lyn, are easily found around the

school that indicates both the teachers and the students can use them and there is no

need to feel worried about how to go to and from the school. The other aspect to

elaborate is that the safety of the school. It is good to know that there are three

security guards who are available to keep the school, so that the school’s safety can

be guaranteed.

SMPN 25 Surabaya is supported by many facilities to improve the students’

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buildings in the school, it is counted 26 (twenty six) classes: 8 classes for seventh

grade, 10 classes for eight grade, and 8 classes for ninth grade which are completed

by a number of fans available in each of classroom; laboratory: one language

laboratory, one science laboratory, one computer laboratory, two multimedia

laboratories; a football and basket-ball field at once; students’ cooperation; mosque,

etc. Next, there are also various extracurricular available at school, such as computer

course, football, basket-ball, badminton, traditional dancing, etc. which are expected

to be able to develop the students’ competence, interests, and talents. In addition,

SMPN 25 Surabaya is supported by Wi-Fi access.

According to the statements elaborated above, the researcher inferred that

SMPN 25 Surabaya was categorized as a good school with complete facilities to

support the teaching-learning process. It indicated that the school do not want to leave

behind compared to the other schools. The school tries to be balance between the

development of science and technology.

D. Data and Source of Data

The first data of the study was the result of document study and the tests in

which both of them were based on students’ work. Those result of students’ work

answered the first research question. It dealt with in which part comma error mostly

occurs in students’ writing. Furthermore, the second data was the result of

questionnaire which was given by the researcher to all of students of Class VIII-G.

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researcher and the English teacher of the class. The aim was to match the students’

answers through questionnaire with teachers’ answer through interview. The second

data answered the second research question. It was about the students’ difficulties in

putting comma that would be elaborated in detail by the researcher on the following

chapter.

Meanwhile, based on the research questions that were stated previously in

Chapter I, the data sources of the research were a teacher and the students of eight

grade at SMPN 25 Surabaya. A teacher that the researcher took for the study was a

female English teacher who taught the class and it was found that she often held

writing activity to drill students’ writing skill in the class. In this case, the researcher

expected that the teacher might assist the researcher by providing information that

was required by the researcher about students’ error in putting comma and the factors

of why it happened.

After determining the setting or research location, then the researcher obtained

the subject for the research, which was obviously important step in conducting a

qualitative research. The researcher took eight grade students of SMPN 25 Surabaya

as the subject and source of the data. There are 10 (ten) classes in the school for eight

grade. The researcher took ascertain class, Class VIII-G, as the subject of the study.

The numbers of the students in Class VIII-G were 37 students. The process of

deciding which class to be researched is after an interview with a number of teachers

at the school, and the researcher found out that Class VIII-G was well-known of

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was not dominated by smart students or stupid students. In choosing the class, again,

the researcher was assisted by the English teacher of the selected class since the

teacher knew perfectly about the students’ ability in the class.

E. Research Instrument

According to Arikunto, “Research instrument is a device used by the research

while collecting the data to make his work becomes easier and to get the better result,

complete and systematic in order to make the data easy to process”5.

To get empirical data and draw conclusion for the research, the researcher

used a number of instruments. Instrument means the measurement tool that

potentially makes the researcher easier in collecting the data. And soon the data

which had been collected would be analyzed by the research. Instruments which were

used by the researcher in doing the research are document study in the form of

students’ handwritten in order to identify to what extend comma errors found within

students’ writing; tests in the form of passage with no commas on it; questionnaire

and interview in order to find out the factors affecting the students’ behaviour. The

research instruments used by the researcher are discussed in detail as follows:

1. Document Study

Document is a written, drawn, presented or recorded representation of

thoughts. Furthermore, the modern term ‘document’ can no longer be defined by

its transmission medium (such as paper), following the existence of electronic

5

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documents. Commonly, document study is one of instruments used in doing a

research to collect data. Document study makes use of the result of work result

which has been existed of the research subject.

In this study, document study was the result of the students’ handwritten

in writing ascertain text in short. It was conducted through asking for the

student’s written work immediately to the teacher. It was obtained from students’

own work on the odd semester examination.

The odd semester examination was divided into two sections. The first

section was 40 questions in the form of multiple choices and second section was 5

questions in the form of instruction to create short texts in English. The

researcher, for sure, took the second section because it dealt with students’ written

work. It was taken only one number of those five that was number 1. It was an

instruction to make an invitation card of two moment choices: happy birthday or

graduation day.

2. Test

Secondly, the further data was conducted through tests. Test is an

assessment intended to measure the respondents’ knowledge or other abilities.

Tests were given in the form of typed/printed passages. It was held by the

researcher twice.

Test in this study was to assess deeper the students’ error in the placement

of comma. The tests were in the form of passages that had typed and printed on

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that both of them required the students to put the lost commas in the correct place.

So, it simply meant, all of students got the same printed passage and what they

had to do with the passage they had gotten was to put commas in the place of

where the commas should be. The first test was narrative text entitled

“SURABAYA” and the second test was descriptive text entitled “MONAS”.

The tests in the form of passages were validated by an expert. She is a

lecturer of English Teacher Education Department at State Islamic University of

Sunan Ampel Surabaya. (See appendix 1)

3. Questionnaire

Questionnaire was usually conducted for the purpose of asking questions

to certain people’s thought about, and feeling toward issue, behaviour, and so on.

Oxford University Press (2007) in its article said that a questionnaire was a

research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the

purpose of gathering information from respondents6. Although they were often

designed for statistical analysis of the responses, in which this was not always the

case.

Citing Bryman through Tharenou’s book7, “Questionnaires are the

instrument completed by the respondents themselves”. They are the most

frequently used method of data collection in a research. According to Moorman

6

Small Arms Survey, Small Arms Survey: Profiling The Problems (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).

7

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43

and Podsakoff through Tharenou’s book8, it is because they are relatively easy to

use, inexpensive, and are often the most plausible alternative for measuring

unobservable constructs, such as attitudes, values and preferences, intentions, and

personalities.

Furthermore, Arikunto states “Questionnaire could be in the form of

multiple choice, essay, check-list and rating-scale so respondents would only

select one of the provided answers in it9”. In conducting this study, the researcher

used multiple-choice questionnaire, in which, the respondents only selected one

of the provided answers (by crossing {A, B, C or D} in each question) and a few

number of open question, in which it enabled the respondents to fill in the blank

by their own answer. This was used to answer the second research question.

In the questionnaire, there provided 15 questions; 13 multiple choice or

questions with optional answers and 2 open questions. The 13 multiple choices

were the introductory questions in which the students needed to choose the

possible answer according to their own feeling (no cheating) by crossing one of

the available answers. Meanwhile, the rest two questions explored more the

students’ answers. The question number 14, for sure, was the core question on the

questionnaire to figure out the second research question that required the students

to answer it as honest as possible. The questionnaire was in Bahasa because the

8

Phyllis Tharenou, Ross Donohue, Brian Cooper, Management Research…. 9

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respondent was the students of Junior High School. The use of Bahasa was aimed

to get the students easier to fill all of the questions in questionnaire sheet.

The questionnaire was validated by an expert. She is a lecturer of English

Teacher Education Department at State Islamic University of Sunan Ampel

Surabaya. (See appendix 2)

4. Interview Guideline

Interview guideline was data collection technique that followed

questionnaire which had stated previously. The data gathered from interviews

were usually qualitative (data in the form of words). According to King’s

statement which was written in Tharenou’s book10, “They are suited to research

questions where a descriptive account of a topic is required, without formal

hypothesis-testing”.

Interview guideline in this study was designed as the secondary instrument

of previous instrument, questionnaire. In another word, interview meant the

follow-up activity after questionnaire was completely done. In this study,

interview was addressed only for the teacher. The interview was used to find out

teacher’s response toward students’ phenomenon in writing activity, especially

students’ error in the term of punctuation mark, more specifically the comma

aspect.

Interview guideline was created to give informant chance to express

meaning by teacher’s word as a verbal data for the researcher. There provided 10

10

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questions to be asked to the teacher. Most of the questions were in the form of

Yes/No questions followed by the reason of why they did both for yes and no

answers. Meanwhile, for the rest questions, they were in the form of 5W

questions, like what and why that explored more the teacher’s answer. Those 10

questions were being asked to the teacher based on the theory employed and dealt

with the issue discussed.

Of those questions, one question was the core to ensure the students’

answers through questionnaire were correct. The teacher’s answer through

interview would be matched with students’ answers through questionnaire. Thus,

it could be drawn a conclusion on the factors that affected students to put comma

incorrectly, which became the second research question to be answered in the

study.

The interview was validated by an expert. She is a lecturer of English

Teacher Education Department at State Islamic University of Sunan Ampel

Surabaya. (See appendix 3)

F. Data Collection Technique

Data collection technique was the way the researcher collected the data

empirically and objectively. To answer two research questions, the researcher

used two techniques of data collection for each question. The first research

question, it was used the document study and test. Meanwhile, the second

THE COMMA ERROR IN STUDENTS' WRITING: A CASE STUDY OF EIGHT GRADE STUDENTS AT SMPN 25 SURABAYA.