production easier but makes comprehension difficult or even impossible.
4. Word choice
Sometimes the students misuse the words to make their composition understandable. Because, sometimes two words have
same meaning but have different usage in the sentence. For instance, pale and pail look same spelling but they are different.
Pale is an adjective and pail is a noun, they are used in different way. It is known as homonym, as stated by Katherine Ploeger in
her book told that homonyms are words that sound the same or almost same but have different meaning. Some are possessives,
others contractions, others something else.
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To make it clear the problems words that sound the same or almost the same but have
the different meaning see the table below. Table 1: Homonym Problem
Accept to agree Except not Allow
Allowed accepted Aloud loudly
Here At this Location Sight The Ability to see
Site location Knew Had Knowledge
New never seen before Know to have knowledge No negative
Quiet not noisy Quite very much
Quit stop Whether if
Weather clouds,
sunshine
41
Katherine Ploeger, Simplified Paragraph Skill, Chicago; NTC Publishing Group, 2000, p. 177
Some students made mistakes in choosing the words to use because they are lack of knowledge of grammar and they also
generalize the meaning of the words. For example, the using of where instead of when in the sentence “where we were members of
the organization”, it should be “when we were members of the organization”. They over generalized the meaning of the word
“where” and used it in a wrong place.
5. Capitalization.
Hullon Willis on his book stated that there are two sources of the uncertainty about capitalization. First, the rule often calls for
capital letters for specific reference and lower-case letters for general reference, as in president-president, Mayor-mayor, etc. but
frequently the writer is not sure whether he is making a specific or general reference. Second, a capital letter is often used to give
emphasis to an important word, as in this sentence “A study of Humanities is the only avenue to true education”. Moreover,
writers are often uncertain as to when a word warrants capitalization for emphasis, for example, is Humanities a more
important word in the above sentence than education?
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While according to Leo Filkelstein, Jr. there are some common reasons for capitalizing words:
42
Hullon Willis, Structure, Style and Usage a Guide to Expository Writing, New York;Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964, p. 278
• Capitalized names of specific persons, place, or things proper noun
• Capitalize abbreviations or acronym ATM, USA, Ph.D • Capitalize title that precedes a person’s name, but not those that
follow Professor John Smith, the professor.
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• Capitalize the first word of every sentence and pronoun I. However, in some cases, some students did not put any
capital letters in the beginning of the sentence and in proper noun because they do not certain to their own writing, and they are still
doubt in giving capital letter.
6. Omission Word
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