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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses about the background of the research. It consists of six parts. They are background of the study, problem formulation, problem
limitation, objectives of the study, benefits of the study, and definition of terms.
A. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In today’s era, mastering English is one of the important skills that people need to achieve a better life. English is also used in many aspects of life such as
politics, economics, commercial and trade, culture, and many more. By mastering English, people can have a better job than people who do not master English.
Seeing the benefits of English, Indonesian government in their educational regulations had made a decision to make English as a compulsory subject in
junior high schools. Therefore, all of the junior high school students have to learn English whether they like it or not. English also becomes one of the subjects that
is tested in the final examination. In real life, people are forced to be able to describe anything. It can be
about people, things, or places. The description requires detail information and here involves the five senses such as touch, taste, listen, see, smell. Students in
their real life need to have the ability to describe, to give information as detail as possible; so that the other people can know the picture of the description only by
imagining in their mind. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
2 In learning English there are four language skills that need to be learned.
They are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. All those skills are very important and supporting each other. However, this research gives more emphasis
on writing skill. Writing, according to Iris Tiedt 1989: 1 in his book Writing: From Topic to Evaluation
, said that writing is a method of expressing ideas about any subject content; it appears in classrooms everywhere and, therefore, must be
the concern of every teacher. Still according to Iris Tiedt, there are certain basic understandings about
writing process. The first is students learn to write by writing. It means that students have to write many writings in order to be able to write good texts. The
source of the ideas can come from their own experiences. Second, writing expresses thinking. A teacher’s role is as a guide to see the relationship between
thinking and writing process. Third, students learn to write by reading. It is important for the students to read and understand model text before they write
specific form of writing so that they know what features to include in the text. Students also learn to write by reading written works done by other students.
Students are taught by what they read, not by dictionaries and handbooks Roberts, Paul, 1958: 82. Forth, writing is not easy. Writing is hard work;
problems arise when the students have to deal with the written language, spelling, punctuation, et cetera. Fifth, writing can be taught. Teacher provides a model of
writing to the students, gives examples, and then has them compose their own writing. The last, writing is a way of learning in all classrooms. Teacher needs to
3 see writing as a way of communicating thought in any subject area; the emphasis
should be on the ideas expressed through writing. Writing ability, in relation, follows reading ability. Therefore, writing skill
and reading skill cannot be separated. Students cannot write if they cannot read, and they cannot make a good writing if they make a lot of errors. Even so, this
research gives more specification in writing; and the research will focus on descriptive text. This type of text consists of three major components; those are
describing people, describing things, and describing places. According to the Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan KTSP Sekolah Menengah Pertama
, the basic competence of writing skill of the seventh grade students in the second
semester is that the students are able to express meaning and rhetoric steps on a simple short essay using accurate types of written language to interact with the
nearest environment in descriptive and procedure texts. That is why descriptive text is chosen to be the object of this study. Students in the future will have an
ability to describe someone, something, or place accurately. Students in their writing often make some errors, including when they
have to write about descriptive composition. It could happen because the students do not give attention to the writing elements. Two of the important elements of
writing are about the grammar and the composition itself; it includes the task fulfillmentcontent, organization, vocabulary, language, and mechanics. Those
two elements are not only important and exist in descriptive writing but also in every kind of writing. Besides having to pay attention to the grammatical errors
4 and written assessment, students also have to pay attention to the features or
characteristics of a descriptive text. The aim of this research is to discover the grammatical errors commonly
made by the students’ and their level of mastery in the five aspects of a descriptive writing, namely task fulfillmentcontent, organization, vocabulary, language, and
mechanics, and also to find out what can the teachers do to improve the students’ descriptive writing.
B. PROBLEM FORMULATION
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