d. Errors in Manner, Agent, and Instrument Form
Among all forms of preposition, this form was the lowest rank of preposition errors which students made in their writing. Based on the students
writing assignment, this form was rarely applied by the students in their writing. Table following table shows the average percentage of error in this form.
Table 4.12 Preposition Errors in Manner, Agent, and Instrument Form
Number of Erroneous Item Percentage of Erroneous Items
Average Percentage
Topic 1 Topic 2
Topic 1 Topic 2
4 4
11,11 5,63
8,37
Preposition errors in the form of manner, agent, and instrument were in the lowest rank with total percentage 8,37. The sentences below are the examples of
errors made by the students. 1
I was invited my grandmother walking to Kiailanggeng. Participant no. 24
2 With join this Boy Scout makes our life full meaning. Participant no. 24
In this section, the students omit the preposition, as showed in the first sentence, and also use inappropriate preposition in the second sentence. In
manner, agent, and instrument form, „by‟ is used to describe manner or the person
that performs an action. „By‟ is usually followed by noun. Otherwise, preposition
„with‟, is used to express instrument or material used. It precedes the name of the instrument used to perform an action.
In the first sentence, the students should add preposition „by‟ to describe
the person who performs an action. In this sentence the person is ‘my
grandmother’ who invited the students to walk to Kiailanggeng. In the second
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sentence, the students describe a manner, which is joining Boy Scout. As a result, the students should use preposition
„by‟. Two sentences below are the corrected sentence with appropriate preposition.
1 I was invited by my grandmother walking to Kiailanggeng.
2 By joining this Boy Scout makes our life full meaning.
Based on tables of individual errors in students’ writing assignments, the researcher found that the length of paragraph and the existence of preposition in
each form influence the amount of preposition errors. The length of the paragraph is influenced by the number of sentences which students made in their writing
assignments. However, the number of sentences does not always influences the existence of the preposition in students’ writing.
Table 4.2 shows that two participants who made a paragraph in five sentences or less than five sentences made a few errors in their writing. Total
errors that they made were three items. They also did not apply all the form of preposition in their paragraph. Both of them did not applied preposition in
Manner, Agent, and Instrument form. Participant number six 6 applied three forms of preposition, Place and Position, Direction and Motion, and Time.
Preposition in Direction and Motion form and Time form were applied correctly. The participant made three erroneous items in place and Position form. However,
participant number twenty 20 only applied one form of preposition. Only Place and Position form existed in their writing and it was applied properly.
Table 4.3 shows the list of preposition errors which appeared in a writing assignment which consisted of six up to fifteen sentences. In this table can be seen
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that the amount of preposition errors is more than the amount in the previous table. It is because the existence of preposition in each form. All of the students
made three of the preposition forms in their writing. Nine students out of total 23 students applied preposition in manner, agent, and instrument form. From Table
4.3 the place and position form was considered as the highest rank of preposition errors with total 38 items. This form of preposition was applied by all of the
students in both topic of writing. The lowest rank of errors was manner, agent, and instrument form with total errors are four items. This form was the most rarely
applied by the students in both topic of writing. In this table also appeared that participant number 3 had the most erroneous items in place and position form with
total five items. Participant number 16 applied all the forms of preposition and she did not make an error in every forms.
From table 4.4 can be seen that preposition in place and position form was the top rank of errors with total sixteen items. It was lowest than the amount of
total errors in the same form in Table 4.3 although the number of the sentences in this table was more than Table 4.3. Almost all of the participants in this group
applied four forms of preposition in both topics. There were ten participants included in this group, and only four participants did not apply the forth form of
preposition. The average error which the participants made is only one in this group.
Table 4.5 only consists of two participants who made paragraphs more than twenty six sentences. Both of participants applied all forms of preposition.
Participant number eleven 11 made forty two sentences and she made three
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erroneous items in place and preposition form and one item in time form. Participant number twenty four 24 made sixty sentences and she made a lot of
errors in applying preposition in her writing. She made two errors in place and position form, five errors in direction and motion form, three errors in time form,
and one error in manner, agent, and instrument form. Based on the data presentation in Table 4.5 can be explained that students who made a lot of
sentences and applied a lot of preposition in their writing tend to produce errors in applying preposition.
Based on the data presentation in Table 4.2 up to Table 4.5 can be concluded that the length of the paragraphs and the existence of all forms of
preposition influenced the production of p reposition errors in students’ writing.
Students who made few sentences and applied minimum preposition tend to produce a few preposition errors. Students who made a lot of sentences but
applied few preposition tend to produce few preposition errors. However, students who produce a lot of sentences and applied a lot of preposition in their writing,
tend to produce a lot of preposition errors. The number of preposition errors also depends on the frequency of
application of each preposition form. Place and Position form, Direction and Motion form, and Time form frequently appeared
in students’ writing. As a result, these forms had the big amount of errors. In the other hand, Manner, Agent, and
Instrument form rarely appeared in students’ writing. As the consequences, a few
errors are found in this form of preposition.
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2. The Possible Causes of Errors in Using Prepositions Made by Tenth