3 Logical Order
It emphasizes logical connection among parts of an essay. It could be in deductive order, from general to specific, or inductive, from specific to general. Logical order is
appropriate in constructing generalization.
e. Academic Essay Writing
In this research, based on Academic Essay Writing Syllabus Aji, 2009, Academic Essay Writing class is a writing
class in ELESP Sanata Dharma University
which aims at introducing the students to the underlying principles of academic writing. Then, through this class, the students are expected to be able to analyze the
characteristics of academic essays and to write good academic essays. The topics of the students’ writing are comparison and contrast, cause and effect, argumentation,
and book or article review. The competence standard expected by the students after completing this class are they would be able to understand academic writing
conventions and to write academic essays on language, language teaching, and literature. The procedure of writing process in this class includes exploring ideas,
prewriting, organizing, writing first drafts, revising the drafts, and producing the final copy.
B. Theoretical Framework
This section discusses the synthesis of the theories discussed in the previous subchapter as well as their relationship in supporting this research. Principally,
prepositional verbs in this research are categorized as the combinations of a lexical verb and a preposition which is semantically associated Downing and Locke, 2002:
334. Prepositions involved in prepositional verbs are in the form of simple prepositions. Furthermore, prepositional verbs are also parts of grammatical
collocation, and are specifically included into 19 collocational verb patterns. To achieve the first objective of this research, the prepositional verb errors in
students’ Academic Essay Writing class assignments, the writer needs to understand the underlying principle of errors. The writer agrees with Gass and Selinker 2001:
453, who stated that error is the incorrect form of target language produced by learners. This means that although errors and mistakes are distinct based on their
causes, errors in this research are seen as the incorrect forms of prepositional verbs as found in students’ writing assignments. In the other words, errors and mistakes in this
research are considered to be the same. In this research, the writer uses a framework proposed by Dulay et al. 1982:
150 as stated by Ellis and Barkhuizen 2005:61 to mainly answer the first research question. Based on Dulay’s surface structure taxonomy, the errors related to
prepositional verbs are omission, addition, misinformation, misordering, and blends. Then, based on their occurrence in levels of language, they are categorized as lexical
errors. In addition, Corder 1971, as stated by Ellis and Barkhuizen 2005, said that prepositional verb errors are included into overt error, which could be detected by
confirming the sentence in which they occur. In analyzing prepositional verb errors, the writer needs to be aware of the appropriateness of the forms and meaning in
sentences. Specifically, the writer needs to pay attention to the function of the prepositions, whether they attach to the verbs or they precede noun or noun phrase.
The prepositional verb errors could be evidently found in written form. Therefore, this research uses writing assignments written by ELESP students taking
Academic Essay Writing class. The assignments correspond with the level of the fifth semester students. The assignments are used as documents, in which the prepositional
verb errors are analyzed. Furthermore, to achieve the second objective of this research, the efforts
should be done to minimize the students’ prepositional verbs errors in their production, the writer employs supporting references and theories and carries out an
interview with three ELESP lecturers teaching Academic Essay Writing class in academic year 20092010.
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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
This chapter discusses the research methodology employed in this research. It consists of six parts: a research method, b research participants, c research
instrument, d data gathering technique, e data analysis technique, and f research procedure.
A. Research Method
This research applied qualitative method with the purpose of solving the two research problems stated earlier in the first chapter: 1 What are prepositional verb
errors in students’ Academic Essay Writing class assignments? and 2 What efforts should be done to minimize the students’ prepositional verb errors in their writing?
According to Taylor 1988: 162, as stated by Ellis and Barkhuizen 2005: 53, analyzing errors are not only proven quantitatively. Instead, he suggested that a new
qualitative approach be used to analyze errors based on interpretative traditions of humanistic discipline. For this reason, this research applied qualitative method as the
basic principle. The nature of this research was descriptive qualitative. As Hyland 2002: 152
said, researching text could be descriptive or revealing what occurs, analytical or interpreting why it occurs, and critical or questioning the social relations which
