20
sketches. As its name indicates, a character sketch delineates the character of a person, or at least his or her main personality traits. In the process, it may include
an identification and an impression, but it will do more than tell what people look or seem like: it will show what they are like. A character sketch may be about a
type rather than an individual, revealing the characteristics common to the members of a group, such as campus jocks, cheerleaders, art students, religious
fanatics, television devotes.
41
b. Description of Places and Things To make the subjects as interesting and as vivid to readers as they are the
writer it needs two techniques: using proper nouns and effective verbs.
Using Proper Nouns
In addition to filling the writing with concrete details and figures of speech, the writer might also want to include a number of proper nouns, which as
the writer know are the names of particular persons, places and things. Here are some examples: Arizona, University of Tennessee, Lake Michigan, Farmers and
Merchants’ Savings and Loan, Spanish, Chinese, Belmont Avenue, etc. Including proper nouns that readers recognize easily can make what the writer is describing
more familiar to them.
42
Using Effective Verbs
Writers use verbs to make descriptions, more specific, accurate and interesting. For instance, “the wind had chiseled deep grooves into the sides of the
cliffs” is more specific than “the wind had made deep grooves.” The verb chiseled also gives the reader a more accurate picture of the wind’s action than made
does.
43
C. Error Analysis
Error is natural in language learning. It is unavoidable during the learning process. Learning the foreign language is a process unlike the mother language.
41
Michael E. Adelstein and Jean G. Pival, Op. Cit., pp. 150—152.
42
Santi V. Buscemi, A Reader for Developing Writers, Boston: McGrawHill, 2002, p. 267.
43
Ibid., pp. 267—268.
21
James pointed out, “Error Analysis is the process of determining the incidence, nature, causes and consequences of unsuccessful language.
44
No one learner ever makes some errors in language learning process. It will always occur although
best effort has been done. Errors made by students do not mean a failure or inadequacy but they can be viewed as important evidence of strategies or
procedure employed by the students in learning a target language.
1. Definition of Error
Errors are the flawed side of learner speech or writing.
45
According to “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English”, Error is something done wrong; or a mistake.
46
According to S. Pit Corder, has another opinion concerning error, “Error are a result of partial knowledge because the teaching – learning process extends
over time”.
47
2. Distinction between Errors and Mistakes
In the study of error analysis, some linguists distinguish error and mistake. Hubbard et al in their book make a distinction between error and mistake. “Errors
caused by lack of knowledge about the target language English or by the incorrect hypothesis about it; and unfortunate mistakes are caused by temporary
lapses of memory, confusion, slips of the tongue and so on.
48
Rod Ellis pointed out, “Errors reflect gaps in a learner’s knowledge; they occur because the learner does not know what is correct. Mistakes reflect
occasional lapses in performance; they occur because in particular instance, the learner is unable to perform what he or she knows.”
49
In other words, error is a
44
Carl James, Error in Language Learning and Use: Exploring Error Analysis, New York: Longman, 1988, p. 1.
45
Heidi Dulay, et al., Language Two, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982, p. 138.
46
A S Hornby, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, London: Oxford University Press, 1974, p. 138.
47
S. Pit Corder, Introducing Applied Linguistic, New York: Penguin Books, 1973, p. 283.
48
Hubbard, et al., A Training Cause for TEFL, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993, p. 134.
49
Rod Ellis, Second Language Acquisition, New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 17.
