termed as mistake. In this research, the errors and mistakes are seen to be the ones which students make and which are revealed through their compositions.
7. Written Descriptive Texts
“A description is a form of writing or talking functions to create pictures, sounds, smells, taste, and touch sensations in the imagination of the reader or
listener” Kammer and Diebold, 1949:119. In this research, the definition of written descriptive text is referred to a kind of text which students write with the
purpose to describe particular person, place, or things.
B. Theoretical Framework
In accordance to the first research question, firstly this research is going to find out the distributions of the basic clause patterns and the patterns which are
commonly used within the distributions. There are theories which are used to know the distribution of the basic clause patterns and the common patterns used.
The first theory is the theory of types of sentences based on the relation between clauses. The theory of types of sentences based on the relation between clauses
aims to determine whether or not the sentence is simple, compound, complex, or compound complex.
The second theory which is used is the theory of clauses which provides information to determine the dependent and independent clause. The
determination of the sentence aims to break down the clauses within the sentence since there are sentences which can still be broken down into clauses such as,
compound sentence, complex sentence, and compound-complex sentence, regardless to the simple sentence which does not need any process of breaking
down on its clause. The determination should be done for a reason that the dependent clause has to be determined and separated from the independent clause
in order analyse the compound sentence, complex sentence, and compound complex sentence. After the dependent and independent clause have been
separated, then each of them is analysed based on the basic clause pattern. The third theory is the theory of clause element which consists of the
clause elements based on position and the clause element based on part of speech. The theory of clause element based on position is used to give information about
the basic clause patterns’ elements which consist of subject S, verb V, object O, adverb A, and complement C. On the other hand, the theory about clause
element based on parts of speech is used to give information about the basic clause patterns’ elements which consist of noun N, verb V, adjective Adj,
and preposition Prep. Furthermore, the theory of clause element which consists of the clause
elements based on position and the theory of clause element which is based on part of speech support each other in the determination of each element because of
the following process, for example, subjects S are formed by nouns N or noun phrases NP or the complement C can be formed by adjective Adj or noun
N. Related to the second research question, secondly, this research is going to
find out the clause patterns which are frequently used. The theory which is used is
the theory of the basic clause patterns. This theory functions to determine and to make categories of the clauses based on the patterns. Therefore, the pattern of
each clause can be found and the distribution of the clause patterns can be revealed as well as the commonly used patterns. The theory of the basic clause
patterns which will be used in this study is the one based on A University Grammar of English
written by Randolph and Sidney 1982: 167 since it gives more details related to the information about the subject S, verb V, object O,
adverb A, and complement C of the basic clause patterns which will be analysed. Meanwhile, the theory from John 1962 and Crystal 1991 is used as
the supporting theory to determine the clause patterns since they all have similarities.
In relation to the third research question, this research is going to find out students’ mastery over the basic clause patterns. The theory which is used to find
out students’ mastery is the theory about mastery. The theory of mastery proposed by Hagboldt 1935: 2 as cited by Suharyono 1997: 8 views that “someone is said
to have a mastery over a language if he or she has spontaneous comprehension by ear, effortless and affluent reading, and habitual and skillful use of words, idioms,
and sentences both oral and written.” Therefore, since the students’ mastery in this research is about the basic clause patterns which are used in their compositions,
the mastery is described to be the students’ comprehension and skill to use the basic clause patterns in their written compositions.
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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the researcher discusses the methodology which is used to conduct the research. The methodology covers the research methods, research
participants, research instruments, data gathering technique, data analysis technique, and the research procedures.
A. Research Method
This research was qualitative research. Brown and Rodgers 2002: 10-12 state that “a qualitative research is a research which is aimed to understand the
phenomenon by focusing on the total picture rather than breaking it down into variables”. Meanwhile, Best 1970: 117 says that “descriptive research is a kind
of research which estimates the degree of achievement of a large number of individuals involved in educational and environmental influences.” Therefore, it
was suitable if the research was defined as descriptive research since it describes students’ achievements and mastery over the basic clause patterns which are
reflected through their distributions. In addition, since the description was the basic clause patterns that
students used in their written compositions, this study used document. “Document analysis focuses on analyzing and interpreting recorded material within its own
context and the material may be public records, textbooks, letters, films, tapes, diaries, themes, reports, and so on” Ary, Jacobs, and Razavieh, 2002: 27. The
