THE COMMA ERROR IN STUDENTS' WRITING: A CASE STUDY OF EIGHT GRADE STUDENTS AT SMPN 25 SURABAYA.

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THE COMMA ERROR IN STUDENTS’ WRITING:

A CASE STUDY OF EIGHT GRADE STUDENTS

AT SMPN 25 SURABAYA

THESIS

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of

Sarjana Pendidikan (S.Pd) in Teaching English

By:

Alif Mufida Ulya

D75211065

ENGLISH TEACHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND TEACHER TRAINING

SUNAN AMPEL STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY

SURABAYA

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ABSTRACT

Ulya, Alif Mufida. (2016). The Comma Error in Students’ Writing: A Case Study of Eight Grade Students at SMPN 25 Surabaya. A Thesis. English Teacher Education Department, Faculty of Education and Teacher Training. Sunan Ampel State Islamic University, Surabaya. Advisors: Sigit Pramono Jati, M.Pd., Rachmat Efendi, M.A.

Key Words: comma, error, comma error, students’ writing

In writing activity, there are a lot of things need to be considered. Punctuation, however, takes an important role in connecting sentences when somebody is creating paragraphs. When writer writes, then he fails putting the comma into the appropriate placement, the content of the sentences cannot be well-conveyed to the readers. Then, misunderstanding may appear between the writer and the readers. In this case, students find it difficult to come up with this. It is reflected on the errors they make. They frequently ignored the existence of the comma. Then, a research to discover the most comma error students made while writing paragraph is required. This fact encouraged the researcher to conduct a study of the comma error made by students. By the thesis, there were two problems would be discussed, they were: (1) In what category comma error mostly occurs in students’ writing?, and (2) What are factors driving students to put comma incorrectly? To answer those problems, it was used the descriptive qualitative method to obtain the data in-depth and a theory as the researcher’s guidance in analyzing the error. The subject of the study was the students of Class VIII-G at SMPN 25 Surabaya. Meanwhile, the sources of the data were the students’ work in writing short texts through odd semester examination (document study) and through tests which was held by the researcher. Thus, the comma error could be found and soon to be analyzed through three types of different text. The result of the research showed that: (1) In each type of text, it was found the comma error occurred in different place. In invitation card, the most comma error occurred between the dates and after the year; in narrative text, the most error occurred in the use of comma for clarity; and in descriptive text was around the non-restrictive elements. (2) The error, however, was caused by the teacher that did not explain the material about punctuation, including comma in-depth. Finally, it was expected that the finding of this study will be beneficial for both the teacher and the further researchers.

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TITLE SHEET ... i

ADVISOR APPROVAL SHEET ... ii

EXAMINER APPROVAL SHEET ... iii

MOTTO AND DEDICATION SHEET ... iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ... v

ABSTRACT ... vii

PERNYATAAN KEASLIAN TULISAN ... viii

LIST OF CONTENT ... ix

LIST OF TABLE ... xi

LIST OF CHART ... xii

LIST OF APPENDIX ... xiii

CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION A. Research Background... 1

B. Research Questions ... 6

C. Objective of The Study ... 6

D. Significance of The Study ... 7

E. Scope and Limitation ... 8

F. Definition of Key Term ... 8

CHAPTER II : REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Theoretical Framework ... 10

1. The Nature of Writing ... 11

2. Punctuation of English ... 12

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B. Review of Previous Study ... 29

CHAPTER III : RESEARCH METHOD A. Research Design ... 34

B. Researcher Presence ... 35

C. Research Location ... 37

D. Data and Source of Data ... 38

E. Research Instrument ... 40

F. Data Collection Technique ... 45

G. Data Analysis Technique ... 48

H. Checking Validity of Findings ... 50

I. Research Stages ... 51

CHAPTER IV : RESEARCH FINDING AND DISCUSSION A. Finding ... 55

B. Discussion ... 82

CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION A. Conclusion ... 87

B. Suggestion ... 88

REFERENCES APPENDICES

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents about the background of the study, statement of the problems, scope and limitation of the study, objectives of the study, significance of the study, and definition of key terms.

A. Research Background

Speech and writing are two different activities. The distinction between both of them can be seen transparently. When a speaker speaks, people can only rely on gestures, tone of voice, and body language to make people who are listening understood. The speech is rarely in complete sentences, and if the meaning is unclear, it can be immediately clarified. Writers, of course, do not have the same opportunity to change what they have written, unless they are publishing on the web. Once a piece of writing is printed, there is little opportunity for revision.

In writing activity, generally, there are a lot of things need to be paid attention. It is started from the grammatical issue, the unity and coherence within sentences, up to the punctuation marks. When a person is writing paragraphs, his mind needs to be in accordance with all of the items that support the establishment of the product of his writing.

Speaking of writing activity, it is connected with texts or paragraphs. Paragraphs itself are made up from one or more sentences which all relate to one

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topic or theme. People may not produce a paragraph by only arranging sentence by sentence into a good order. Punctuation marks, however, do contribute a lot in writing activity. Punctuation marks take an important role in connecting sentence to sentence when somebody is creating a paragraph. When one sentence has been written, to be continued to another new sentence that correlates each other, it needs a full stop between them, for instance. The other example of the use of punctuation mark that the writer is not aware of may damage the paragraphs he writes. Thus, the existence of punctuation mark in writing activity cannot just be skipped.

As David Waugh’s opinion stated through his book1, “Within two years of publication, Lynne Truss’s (2003) book about punctuation, Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, had sold three million copies. Even though the book you are reading covers spelling and grammar too, we would not dare to dream of selling even 5 per cent of that figure! But why should a book about commas, colons, and apostrophes attract such interest? One reason was that the title held an appeal, being based upon a misunderstanding caused by a missing comma”. It can be interpreted that it is like his wander on how could a book with straight topic sold by so many copies that he writes on his own book discussing the similar topic with once book he was curious with.

That punctuation should be such a topic for discussion and debate is interesting, particularly it is seen that people managed well without it for several

David Waugh, Claire Warner, and Rosemary Waugh, Transforming QTS: Teaching Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling in Primary Schools (London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2013), 95.

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times. The word punctuation derives from the Latin word pungere, that is ‘to prick’ (think of ‘puncture’); this gives punctus – ‘pierced’ – as the participle2.

Choosing punctuation well is about communicating the meaning properly. The careful of punctuation is one of many skills that writers need if they are about to communicate clearly in writing. The use of punctuation is more than memorising and applying a set of rules within writing activity. Punctuation allows certain words, phrases and clauses to be emphasized and can make major changes towards meaning. Thus, the same words may show up different meanings through giving the various punctuation marks. Furthermore, punctuation can be a very powerful tool when the writer writes, enabling the writer to express ideas in different ways.

There are number features of punctuation mark, and one of them is comma. Commas are probably the most punctuation marks used, and comma errors come up frequently in students’ writing. Citing Brien (2012) through his book3, he writes, “This is one of the most difficult pieces of punctuation to teach, because writers need to make judgment about when it is helpful”. Truss in her book4 suggests that the comma, more than any other mark, requires the writer to use intelligent discretion. When writers, in the case are students, fail putting the comma into the appropriate placement, the content of the sentences cannot be well-conveyed to the readers. Then, the effect like misunderstanding may appear between the writer and the readers. If it

David Waugh, Claire Warner, and Rosemary Waugh, Transforming QTS … 96. 3

J. Brien, Teaching Primary English (London: SAGE, 2012), 78. 4

L. Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (London: Profile Books, 2003), 96.

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occurs continuously, where writers or students do not come into a realization that comma is an important issue, for sure, the communication goal built between writer and readers in written will not be achieved.

The difficulties of the students in writing English text sometimes bring errors. Errors indicate that the learners construct their own rules on the basis of input data which is different from the target language. As Julian Edge stated in Jeremy Harmer’s book5, errors cannot correct themselves, so they need explanation about the reasons they happen.

In language learning, the study of learner’s errors is needed because the result of the study gives some contributions on attempts to deal with the students’ difficulties. The teacher can infer the nature of the students’ knowledge and find what they still have to learn by analyzing the students’ errors. Moreover, the result of the study focusing on students’ errors can be used as a means to measure whether the students have mastered the language taught by the teacher. It is also as a means to measure the teacher’s success in teaching a language.

This study was conducted at SMPN 25 Surabaya. There were some underlying points of why researcher chose the school to do the research rather than the other schools. It was also based on some considerations. The main reason was that the school gets “A” accreditation which indicates that the school has predicate as a good quality school in society. The next reason was according to the result of preliminary research in the form of asking and giving question undertaken by the

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researcher to one of English teachers at SMPN 25 Surabaya, it was known that the teacher asked students to write paragraphs regularly andsoon to be marked6. Besides, it was also because of the ease of the access; both the access to get to the school and the access to get the data. Firstly, the school is located close to the main street. It only needs to get into an aisle and the school can be seen. In addition, it is now standing a caution which is written “SMPN 25 Surabaya” that everyone is able to see easily at the bank of the main street. Secondly, researcher had already experienced teaching there when having internship about two months. And during the months, it was such enough time for researcher to know about the school; the teachers, the students, the lessons taught at the school, and so on. The researcher did find a number of mistakes when teaching a certain class dealing with students’ written work, moreover in the case of punctuation marks. Thus, based on the reasons above, the researcher conducted the research at SMPN 25 Surabaya.

The researcher gave concern on the comma error since it happened dominantly to all of students and quite destroyed the meaning of each sentence, so that the things that the students would like to convey through paragraphs cannot be understood by the readers because of the mistakes in the placement of the comma. For instance, one of comma theory that stated by Language Portal of Canada7, it is said that comma should be put after an introductory clause, phrase or adverb. One of

A result of Short Interview which was conducted on Thursday, 3th of December 2015 at 10.30 am.

Government of Canada. “Comma” Language Portal of Canada, (http://www.ourlanguages.gc.ca, accessed on December 14th, 2014).

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students’ writing once wrote “Tough the farmer has made a trap the clever animal doesn’t trap in.” There must be a comma after the word ‘trap’, but there was no comma put inside the sentence.

Moreover, the researcher tended to choose eight grade students rather than the seventh and ninth grade students. It was based on the consideration that eight grade students have more vocabularies and experiences in writing English texts if they are compared to the seventh grade students. Besides, ninth grade students were not allowed to be research subject since they were now prepared to do a National Examination.

According to the explanation that was elaborated by the researcher previously, then the researcher was interested in conducting a research dealing with the problem, under the following title: “The Comma Error in Students’ Writing: A Case Study of Eight Grade Students at SMPN 25 Surabaya.”

B. Research Questions

This study was aimed to answer these questions:

1. In what category comma error mostly occurs in students’ writing? 2. What are factors driving students to put comma incorrectly?

C. Objective of The Study

Considering the statements of the things which were being asked throughout this study, the objectives of the study were then:

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1. To find out the comma error mostly occurs in the written work of the eight grade students at SMPN 25 Surabaya.

2. To find out and describe the factors driving the eight grade students at SMPN 25 Surabaya to put comma incorrectly.

D. Significance of The Study

By the end of this study, it was expected to be able to give significant contribution for the sake of quality improvement of the language teaching and learning. Those benefits are mainly addressed to teachers and further researchers as follows:

1. Teachers

It will give teachers a detail description about the students’ error in putting comma within students’ written work. It is expected that teachers provide the information of using comma correctly when learning about writing English skill since it is the basic material usually ignored to be taught. Thus, teachers will not be stuck only in some particular teaching writing strategies, but also deals with the term punctuation marks in writing activity.

2. Further Researchers

This study is also addressed to the further researchers who are going to discuss similar topic. Researcher realizes that the study is imperfect without any other real action like the technique to overcome the students’ problems in the case of giving punctuation. So that, it is expected for further researchers being able to apply a

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number of significant techniques to cope with that problem to get better research result completing the one that researcher worked on.

E. Scope and Limitation of the Study

The researcher limited this study by the following limitation:

1. The scope of this study was analyzing technique through document study and tests. Of the data obtained, researcher analyzed the errors by identifying and classifying them based on the theory used. Besides, this study was the process tracing root of factors on what makes students put comma incorrectly within texts.

2. This study was limited on the eighth grade students at SMPN 25 Surabaya, more specifically the students of Class VIII-G. It was undertaken in the first semester students of SMPN 25 Surabaya. The result of this study would be elaborated in descriptive way.

F. The Definition of Key Term

In order to clarify what the meaning of key terms involved in this study, some definitions are put as presented below:

1. Comma : the use of spacing to the understanding and correct reading, in this case are handwriting and typed texts. 2. Error : misuse/incorrect use of comma placement.

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4. Writing : the result of students’ work in certain text, in this case is invitation card, narrative and descriptive text.

Each of key term listed above may have some other definitions if it is looked for the meaning in the dictionary. By showing the definition of each key term, it is expected to avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation between the researcher and the readers. Thus, both of them will have the same understanding and interpretation of what the researcher tries to discuss on this study through, firstly, the key terms used.

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Theoretical Framework

Communication can be done either spoken or written. To have communication orally, by only speaking while making use of mouth with clear sound and intonation, people will easily understand what the speaker’s say. While to communicate in written, one of the most important things to help people or specifically here are the learners or the readers, to communicate successfully is that the knowledge of using punctuation marks correctly, moreover the comma. The richer information dealing with how and where to put commas we have, the better we can communicate in written. Hence, in order not to fail on the way of teaching and learning writing, both the teacher and the students must know first to what extend the errors in using comma mostly found in writing then there will be no more errors occur.

Speaking of punctuation marks of English, there are lots of aspects available, such as apostrophe, brackets, dashes, hyphens, commas, and many more. This chapter is aimed at providing some theoretical background of the study.

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1. The Nature of Writing

Writing is one way to express human’s feeling, experiences, ideas and thoughts. People can express their feeling, experiences, ideas and thoughts by the help of writing, wherever people want. As mentioned by Nunan that “Writing is the physical act of committing words or ideas to some medium”1.

Writing is an action time for a writer to reflect, play around with their ideas, to obtain new and deeper insights into what he feels and believes. It is time for writer to polish the things about which he wishes to write until they become clear and understandable communication2.

Writing is a physical act. It requires materials and energy. Furthermore, it must be performed skilfully to bring pleasure for both the writer and the readers as physical act, it requires practices regularly. Some people, however, are able to be a good writer because of the talent, just like somebody born with a talent to be a great athlete the next day.

Writing in English is not only a key of academic success but also an outlet for self-expression. Through writing, people can communicate with one another across distance and time. It also allows people to give information to others abroad about their intentions, and permit them to express their feelings and emotions. It creates something that cannot be produced by spoken. Besides, it can help students in learning process. Creative writing is a

David Nunan, Language Teaching Method: A Text Book for Teacher (UK: Prentice Hall Inc., 1991), 88.

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wonderful tool for providing opportunities that has a meaningful impact on the life of students.

2.

Punctuation of English

Based on Language Portal of Canada3, it is mentioned basic punctuation of English that helps to clarify the sense of what is going to be written or has been written. The researcher summarizes there are a lot of punctuation mark need to notice writing paragraphs, they are:

a.

Apostrophe

The apostrophe ( ’ ' ) is used to mark possession as in "John's book", and to mark letters omitted in contractions, such as you're for you are. It is tiny marks on the page but probably cause more problems than the rest of punctuation put together. According to Ann’s book4, they perform two functions as stated below:

1) To show possession 2) To indicate missing letters b. Brackets

Brackets ( [ ], ( ), { }, ⟨ ⟩ ) are used for parenthesis, explanation or comment: such as "John Smith (the elder, not his son)..." These are used on either additional information, where they can have the effect of

Government of Canada. “Comma” Language Portal of Canada

(http://www.ourlanguages.gc.ca, accessed on December 14th, 2014). 4

Ann Gawthrope, How to Write Your Life Story (UK: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009), 160.

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diminishing the impact. Another example may show the better understanding about this punctuation.

The director (a tall, handsome man) sat down beside me.

c. Colon and Semicolon

The colon ( : ) is used to explain or start an enumeration. There are certain time to use this punctuation in writing activity, they are:

1) Before the lists 2) Before explanation

The semicolon ( ; ) is often used to break up listings with commas, as seen in: "She saw three men: Jamie, who came from New Zealand; John, the milkman's son; and George, a gaunt kind of man." As well as joining statements, semicolon can also be used to separate lists, particularly where the lists are complicated by additional descriptions. d. Comma

The comma ( , ) is used to disambiguate the meaning of sentences. For example, "Man, without his cell phone, is nothing" (emphasizing the importance of cell phone) and "Man: without it, is nothing" (emphasizing the importance of men) have greatly different meanings, as do "eats shoots and leaves" (to mean "consumes plant growths") and “eats, shoots and leaves” (to mean "eats firstly, fires a weapon secondly, and leaves the scene thirdly").

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Taken from Language Portal of Canada5 providing theory dealing with comma mark, as commas are the most punctuation used in the English language, people need to use them correctly. The following is a list of basic comma rules to help people out.

1) Use Commas

Table 2.1

The Categories of the Correct Placement of Commas

No. Categories Examples

a) After an introductory clause, phrase or adverb

When choosing between two products, we need to consider both quality and cost.

To sum up, the fundraiser was a success.

Unfortunately, the report was late for the second week in a row.

Between two independent clauses joined by a

coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)

The manager requested a two-page summary, but the trainee prepared a ten-page report.

c) Around parenthetic expressions Management was, on the whole, supportive of the suggestions. d) Between items in a series Ted bought paper, pens, a computer

and a printer.

Government of Canada. “Comma” Language Portal of Canada,

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Around non-restrictive elements (i.e. elements not essential to the meaning of the sentence)

The CEO, Pam, represented her company at the conference.

f) Before direct quotations

Lester Pearson said, "Under this Flag may our youth find new

inspiration for loyalty to Canada…."

Between a place name and a province, territory or its abbreviation (also add a comma after the name of the province, territory, etc., if it is not the last word in the sentence)

I enjoy going to Gimli, Manitoba, for my holidays.

This parcel is being sent to Brandon, Man.

h) Between parts of dates and after the year

April 1, 1999, is an important date for many Nunavummiut.

Jack's son was born on Friday, February 13, 2009.

i) Between names and titles or degrees

Elizabeth II, Queen of England Charles Peabody, MD

j) For clarity

We left the crew members, convinced of their dedication.(Those leaving were convinced of the crew

members' dedication.)

We left the crew members convinced of their dedication. (The crew members were convinced of their own dedication.)

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The English language is full of ambiguities, but one way of ensuring that the reader understands what you are writing is by the correct use of commas. Comma has several important uses which include:6

(1) Separating words in lists

This is one of the most common uses. They are also used to separate a list of phrases.

For example as follows:

What I like the most is sitting in a hot tub, drinking champagne, eating strawberries and reading my diary.

(2) Separating extra information

Using a comma either side of an additional piece of information. For example as follows:

The stagehand, who had only recently joined the company, helped me carry my shopping up to the dressing room.

The sentence, however, would still make sense if the additional information is left out, as stated:

The stagehand helped me carry my shopping up to the dressing room. So, the existence of the comma within the sentence is to give more information about the subject or to give clarity about the subject.

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(3) Marking additions

These includes phrases such as ‘I believe’ and ‘thank you’, linking phrases such as ‘however’ and ‘on the other hand’, and people’s names. For example as follows:

The leading man, John Smith, played his part to perfection. The same, however, could not be said for the leading lady.

The use of comma in this case, marking addition, is quite similar with the previous comma use that is separating extra information. Dealing with the example provided above, for the writer do not forget the second comma when putting additional information in a sentence. (4) Indicating a brief pause

When a person is talking to someone, he naturally adds pause to his speech patterns. This is also occurred in writing activity. An individual wants someone to read what he writes. To come up with the long sentence, by using commas, he breaks up the long sentences into smaller segments. The reason is that the person makes someone who reads his writing, easier to read, and he also indicates where to take a brief pause. To notice where to put comma appropriately is to read the writing aloud and where should be paused naturally, put in a comma. (5) Affecting the meaning

Since language is dynamic, it may provide any ambiguities when a person’s writing is not well-conveyed. The effect is that the readers do

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not understand what the person is writing. To make sure that the readers accept and catch what the person is trying to convey through his writing is by putting the punctuation, more specifically the comma, in each appropriate place.

For example as follows: Let’s eat, grandpa!

But if the comma after the word ‘eat’ is omitted, the meaning is completely changed into: Let’s eat, grandpa!

(6) Marking dialogue

The use of comma for this case is to distinguish between the direct speech and the usual wiring. Generally, it most common use in the form of text emphasizing on the power of the story, like narrative or non-fiction. Putting a comma after the person speaking and inside the speech marks only if the speech is broken, is required.

For example as follows:

“Rain before seven” said my mother, “dry before eleven.”

2) Do NOT Use Commas

Table 2.2

The Categories of the Incorrect Placement of Commas

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a) Between the month and the year

WRONG: Treasury Board approved the submission in February, 2008.

REVISED: Treasury Board approved the submission in February 2008.

Between words that share a close grammatical bond (e.g. a verb or preposition and its complement)

WRONG: Francine carefully unwrapped, the silver candlestick and placed it gently on, the table in front of her.

REVISED: Francine carefully unwrapped the silver candlestick and placed it gently on the table in front of her.

c) After a coordinating

conjunction instead of before it

WRONG:You can work now or, you can work overtime on the weekend. REVISED:You can work now, or you can work overtime on the weekend.

With restrictive elements (i.e. elements essential to the meaning of the sentence)

WRONG: Any person, who is lazy, will fail.

REVISED: Any person who is lazy will fail.

e) In a series of non-coordinate adjectives

WRONG: Old, stone fences remind me of home.

REVISED: Old stone fences remind me of home.

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e. Dash and Hyphen

The dashes ( – , —, ― ) can be used in some position in writing7: 1) Dashes can be used instead of colons and semi colons to make a

sentence more dramatic.

For example: Furious, I raised myself up to my full height and looked the director in the eye – this time I was going to speak my mind.

2) Dashes can be used to indicate that what follows will be unexpected or surprising in some way.

For example: Furious, I raised up to my full height and looked the director in the eye – or rather his chest.

3) Dashes can also be used instead of commas either side of a piece of additional information to give it more impact.

For example: The director – he of the lime green kimono and jodhpurs – sat down beside me in the stalls and commiserated. The hyphens ( - ),or commonly called as the little dashes, are generally used between numbers such as thirty-three, 40-years-old man, then in compound adjectives such as shop-made, and also in phrases such as world-war-one veteran.

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Yet, hyphens which join prefixes to words or words together in a group can cause the readers’ confusion since the words which were once hyphenated, now they do not use hyphen mark again. Like in the word: co-operative is now usually just written cooperative. The hyphen mark is not inserted in the word anymore. It means most of words that use hyphen mark inside the word itself is now omitted.

f. Ellipsis

An ellipsis ( … ) is a row of three dots. It is mostly used in quotes to indicate that not all the quote has been used. It is only the relevant parts used. It simply means, ellipsis is used to mark omitted text. It is, however, people should not use this to distort the writer’s meaning.

g. Exclamation Mark

The exclamation mark ( ! ) is used to mark an exclamation. It is used at the end of a sentence. Exclamation mark is used instead of full stop to indicate:

1) Strong emotions, e.g. I couldn’t believe my ears! 2) Exclamatory phrases, e.g. How stupid you can get!

As writing development nowadays, some writers develop the habit of using them to signal a joke or light-hearted remark8. As stated in: I feel off the stage, twisted my ankle, dropped my script and broke my phone. It just wasn’t my day! While some may use exclamation mark to signal to

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the reader that a remark is not meant to be taken seriously. Like an example shown through the sentence: The director singled me out for praise. I was so embarrassed I could have murdered him!

Despite the exclamation mark is now being transformed, where it can be added into any kind of writing to colour it, writers need to keep using the exclamation mark wisely.

h. Full stop (British), or Period (American)

The full stop or period ( . ) is firstly used to mark the end of a sentence. They are easy – they come at the end of a sentence.

The full stop or period is also used to mark abbreviation of names as initials. For instance: Dwight D. Eisenhower's home in Gettysburg, Pa., was not very far from Washington, D.C.

i. Guillements

Guillements ( « » ), sometimes called French quotation marks, are relatively uncommon in English, but are sometimes used as a form of quotation mark.

j. Question Mark

The question mark ( ? ) has the same placement of putting with full stop and exclamation mark, that is at the end of sentence. It is used to mark the end of a sentence which is in the form of question. So that to end up a sentence with a question mark, it should be ensured that the sentence must begin with 5W/1H question or Yes/No question.

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k. Quotation Mark

Quotation marks ( ‘ ’, “ ”, ' ', " " ) are used to mark quotation. The existence of quotation mark cannot be separated from the dialogue. The use of quotation mark is to indicate a quote within a direct speech. In another word, it is to show that there is someone’s talk that needs to be quoted by quotation mark and distinguishes it from the usual writing.

Quotation mark is also known as inverted comma and speech mark which is used to enclose: direct speech, quotation, and book or song title.

Meanwhile, the placement of inverted commas when writing dialogue demands a lot of writers9:

1) Placing speech marks around the word being said;

2) Starting each piece of speech with a capital letter except when the speech is broken up: ‘If you think I’ve forgotten,’ said Suzy firmly, ‘you are very much mistaken.’ Direct speech which is split into parts may only require a single capital letter (think of the direct speech as a sentence within a sentence);

3) Punctuating the speech before closing it; 4) Starting a new line for each new speaker.

David Waugh, Claire Warner, and Rosemary Waugh, Transforming QTS: Teaching Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling in Primary Schools (London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2013), 105.

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l. Slash

The slash or stroke or solidus ( /, ⁄ ) is often used to indicate alternatives, such as "his/her", or two equivalent meanings or spellings, such as ""grey/gray".

3. The Error in Using Comma

a. The Definition of Error

Making error happens when someone learns either native language or foreign language. Actually, making errors is a part of language. Brown points out that human learning are fundamentally a process that involves the making mistakes. It means that people cannot learn a language without first systematically committing errors10.

In accordance with the term of error, there are some definitions given by linguists. Brown defines error is a noticeable deviation from the native speakers’ grammar, reflecting the Interlingua competence of the learners11.

Error is thing done wrongly or the state of being wrong in belief or behaviour and scope to make any mistakes without serious consequences. However, mistake is an action or opinion that is foolish or wrong of a word, figure, sum, and so on that is not correct. In other word, error is a

H. Douglas Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall Inc., 1980), 164.

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mistake that was done by the language user because he did not know the correct use of the native language pattern. While mistake is the language user’s behaviour caused by the factor of forgetting on something. Thus, it makes the pattern of the target language seems incomplete.

In fiction, misuse of commas may create humor where none was intended or cause the reader to stop and have to reread for clarity. Each time a reader stops because of confusion, he is pulled out of the fiction that the writer worked so carefully to create.12

Breaking the rules of comma usage is acceptable in order to avoid confusion, of course, followed by always rewriting the sentence to avoid ambiguity. There are plenty of rules for when to use and when not to use commas. When you stick to the rules, your readers will be able to follow your meaning and you won’t give them a reason to be pulled from your fiction and your imaginary world.

b. The Error Analysis

Error Analysis (EA) is the study and analysis of the errors made by the second language learners13. Error analysis may be carried out in order to identify strategies which learners use in language learning. It tries to identify the causes of learners’ errors. In language learning, error analysis

Bett Hill. “Finding Commas in All the Wrong Places” The Editor’s Blog, (http://heeditorsblog.net, accessed on February 18, 2016).

Jack C. Richard, Focus on the Learner: Pragmatic Perspectives for the Language Teacher

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is also used to obtain the information and common difficulties students’ face. It can be transformed into an aid to teach or a preparation of teaching materials.

The study of error analysis (EA) proceeds further than merely predicts errors by our contrastive analysis (CA). The error analysis studies the native of errors and presents confirmation of prediction made by constructive analysis. It deals with collecting samples of learners’ language identifying the errors according to their hypothesized causes and evaluating seriousness of the errors14. It begins from the examination of learners’ learning problems can be inferred. Errors are attributable to all possible sources, not only those resulting from the native language transfer, as mentioned by Brown where errors can arise from possible sources such as Interlingua transfer, Intralingua transfer, context of learning, and communication strategies15.

The aim of error is normally pedagogic. Errors provide information which can be used to sequence items for teaching or to devise remedial lesson16. By analyzing students’ error, teacher cannot only detect the students’ difficulty in learning the target language, but they also can determine the effectiveness of the teaching methods. In the other hands,

R. Ellis, Second Language Acquisition in Context (New York Cambridge: The University Press Prentice Hill Inc., 1987), 127.

H. Douglas Brown, Principles of Language… 171. 16

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teacher considers that knowing the students’ error is helpful since teacher will recognize the learners’ problems on how far they have learned and what remains for them to learn, by error analysis.

c. The Cause of Error

Contrary to popular belief, commas don't just signify pauses in a sentence. In fact, precise rules govern when to use this punctuation mark. When followed, they lay the groundwork for clear written communication. Commas, in fact, are some of the most often misused punctuation marks, and with good reason. The rules that guide when and when not to insert a comma can be a bit clouded in terminology and exceptions. Because of that a lot of different uses, it drives confusing and leads to errors. So often, though, it comes down to one question whether it is essential.

Learning language like any other human being is fundamentally a process that involves the making mistakes. In fact, those second language learners’ errors are important for understanding the process of second language acquisition. The cause is mainly:

1) Interlingua

It is a system that has structurally intermediate status between the native language and the target language. In addition, errors that happened caused the interference mother tongue. Errors, which occur

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in learning foreign language, are caused by the interference of mother tongue.

It happens because the features of the two languages are different. To identify inter language error, the learners usually look for the easiest way by translating the sentence form from the learners’ target language into the form of sentence in the learners’ first language to see if similarities exist without thinking whether the other aspects are also affected (in this case is commas), because of the translating activity. For instance, people are about to make sentences in English. They dominantly will prepare sentence in Indonesian first that soon to be translated word by word into English. Take a look on the example below:

Buku itu ditulis saat musim panas, 4 Juli 2004. (Indonesian)

When the sentence above is translated into English, it will be:

The book was created in the summer of July 4, 2004. (English)

Otherwise, people tend to put them according to the sentence order, write them into:

The book was created in the summer, 4 July 2004. (English)

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Thus, the comma placement becomes error. They put the comma incorrectly and for further case that is not corrected, it may affect the meaning.

B. Review of Previous Study

After doing searching in-depth, it is found some previous studies which are similar with this study. They are:

1. A thesis entitled “A Study of Error Analysis of Second Class of Muhammadiyah 2 Pucang Surabaya in Writing Paragraph” by Anisa Herawati.17 This previous study and this study, however, have similarities in certain aspect. Both of them discuss the same base theme; that is the error. Furthermore, the next statement problem is that asking about the possible causes of errors may happen. Eventhough, still, it is found some particular things that distinguish one another. Firstly, although the base theme is the same, both have their own term for error; the previous study is about the error in general (errors on transitional signal, punctuation rules, capitalization rules, and grammar in paragraph writing ), while this study is about the error in specific way, that is punctuation mark, more on the comma. Secondly, it is about the research subject. This previous study chooses students of Senior High School as the research subject, while this

Anisa Herawati, S-1 Unpublished Thesis: “A Study of Error Analysis of Second Class of Muhammadiyah 2 Pucang Surabaya inWriting Paragraph” (Surabaya: IAIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya, 2009).

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study uses students of Junior High School as the research subject. Thirdly, this previous study is based on the triangulation research design in which the method explained briefly as follows: the researcher chose some students by sampling technique to write a recountcomposition. Thus, the researcher focused only on those selected students. Meanwhile this study uses descriptive qualitative reserach as the research design where at the end of the study is ended by elaborating the error evaluation after all stages are completely done.

2. A thesis entitled “The Analysis of Grammatical Errors in Recount Text” undertaken by Jannatul Laily Novia Bahari.18 Within two of this previous study’s research questions, it is found similarities, in which it is being questioned the types of errors and the possible causes of those errors. She described the error students produce where there were 336 grammatical errors finding. In this study the researcher teaches the recount text by herself to get the data and the researcher also researches about the strategy of the teacher to solve the students’ grammatical errors and emphasizes on errors using past tense in the recount writing which is completely different from the this study. This study gives concern on the comma aspect through students’ written work, instead of the grammatical term. Then, the

Jannatul Laily Novia Bahari, S-1 Unpublished Thesis: “The Analysis of Grammatical Errors in Recount Text” (Surabaya: State Institute for Islamic Studies Sunan Ampel Surabaya, 2010).

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result of this study is in descriptive way elaborating the overall error found and being evaluated at the end.

3. A thesis entitled “Error Analysis On The Use Of Simple Present Tense In Paper Assignment Of Writing Subject Made By The Fourth Semester Students Of English Department At Stain Salatiga in The Academic Year Of 2011/2012” conducted by Risti Yani Rahmawati.19 There are several points of similarities between this previous study and this study. Firstly, it discusses about the error which is discussed a lot as the theme, then the use of descriptive qualitative research as the research design, and the why factor of making error as the statement of the problem. Meanwhile the differences between both of them are firstly, the research subject where this previous study uses students of university as the research subject. Secondly, it observes students’ error by their paper assignment. Thirdly, throughout her research, she found out that the problem majority happened in the grammatical aspect on the use of simple present tense when students write their paper assignment. The study, however, is also intended to give some contributions concerning the factors that influence the grammatical errors on the use of simple present tense in students’ paper assignment. So that it is quite clear that the researcher on the

Risti Yani Rahmawati, S-1 Unpublished Thesis: “Error Analysis On The Use Of Simple Present Tense In Paper Assignment Of Writing Subject Made By The Fourth Semester Students Of English Department at STAIN Salatiga in The Academic Year Of 2011/2012” (Salatiga: STAIN Salatiga, 2012).

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previous study was concerning dominantly on the grammatical issues. Nevertheless, this study, firstly, picks students of Junior High School as the research subject. Secondly, it observes the error by students’ written work regularly. Thirdly, it focuses only on the punctuation mark: comma. 4. A thesis entitled “Informal Language in Academic Writing: A Case Study

at English Education Department, IAIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya” written by Anang Rifa’uddin.20 It is found some similarities between this previous study and the study that is now researcher working on. Firstly, it is about the research design used. Both the study which is done by Anang Rifa’uddin and the study which is done by the researcher use descriptive qualitative design, in which they end up the study by drawing conclusion of the findings they obtain while doing research and discover a new finding. Secondly, it is about the statement of the problem; asking about the factor affecting the subject to do it. However, in his research, he conducted it because of his anxiety to the informal English language that is carried out in real life up to thesis writing project that should be written in the form of academic writing; the most formal one. It means it is not allowed to use any kind of slank language while the process of writing thesis. Hence, he takes this problem into his discussion while focusing on what features and the factors affecting students to use informal language

Anang Rifa’uddin, S-1 Unpublished Thesis: “Informal Language in Academic Writing: A Case Study at English Education Department, IAIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya” (Surabaya: State Institute for Islamic Studies Sunan Ampel Surabaya, 2012).

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within their thesis. Whereas, this study departs from a number of errors that the researcher found in the use of punctuation placement, more specifically on the comma, in the research subjects’ written work which encourages the researcher to analyze them and find out the possible factor of why they happens.

5. A thesis entitled “Error Analysis in Students’ Proposal Writing of English Education Department of Tarbiyah Faculty of IAIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya” arranged by Mohammad Isnaini.21 There are a number of similarities between this previous study and this study are about the error which is discussed a lot as the theme, then the use of descriptive qualitative research as the research design, and the why factor of making error as the second research question. Meanwhile the differences between both of them are firstly, the research subject where this previous study uses students of university as the research subject. Secondly, it observes students’ error by their proposal. Thirdly, throughout his research, he found out that the problem majority happened in the sentence devices when students write proposal. While this study, firstly, uses students of Junior High School as the research subject. Secondly, it observes the error by students’ regularly written work. Thirdly, it focuses only on the punctuation mark: comma.

Moh. Isnaini, S-1 Unpublished Thesis: “Error Analysis in Students’ Proposal Writing of English Education Department of Tarbiyah Faculty of IAIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya” (Surabaya: State Institute for Islamic Studies Sunan Ampel Surabaya, 2011).

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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD

The method used by the researcher is very important in every research as a guideline to attain the objective of the study. Chapter three elaborates information dealing with the procedure of the research that the researcher applies while conducting this study. It covers approach and research design, researcher presence, research location, data and source of the data, research instrument, method of data collection and data analysis, checking validity of findings, and research stages.

A. Research Design

According to Hornby, method is the way of doing something1. Research design in this study is to seek the data needed and to be able to answer the question of the study. This study is designed to examine punctuation error in detailed is comma aspects.

In doing so, the researcher tended to use qualitative research, in this case was case study to complete this study. Descriptive qualitative research is a research that describes a natural phenomenon. In line with that definition, the researcher would observe and describe the real situation and condition that the researcher faced in the field.

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Qualitative description is based on some quality or characteristic rather than on some quantity or measured value. The objective of quantitative research is to gather an in-depth understanding of human behaviour and the reasons that govern such behaviour. The qualitative method investigates the why and how of decision making, not just what, where, when. Hence, smaller but focused sample are more often used than large samples.

Dealing with the objective previously stated, the aim of this study itself was to find out not only the part of comma error mostly occurs in students’writing that repesentatived the ‘where’ term, but also the reason of those errors happened in which it representatived the ‘why’ term. This was the process of tracing root. Moreover, there were no treatments and no numeric data within this study. In qualitative research, the reseacher generally used written coclusion in dominant to accomplish the report of the study based on the whole process of data collection technique and data analysis2.

B. Researcher Presence

In this research, which is planned to use qualitative method, researcher plays a role as the primary instrument of the research3. Speaking of it, actually, besides the researcher itself, there were a number of instruments that can be used while the research was running, but the researcher presence in this case was the most essential

John W. Cresswell, Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research (Boston: Pearson, 2012), 9.

Donald Ary, et. al., Introduction to Research in Education (Canada: Wadsworth, 2006), 421.

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part in collecting the data. It was because the rest of instruments have limited function to support the researcher’s duty as instrument. Therefore, the researcher presence became complement of other instruments to collect the data needed and soon to be analyzed.

After all the data obtained by the researcher were collected, then they were expected to answer the research question which had stated previously in the Chapter I. In addition, in this research, the researcher took role as an observer of participant. It is because the research subject known about the presence and the role of the researcher4 within their room, in this case was the research subject’s class to have teaching-learning activity. Moreover, the research subject welcomed the researcher to do a research. Thus, it got easier for the researcher to obtain much information from the research subject.

C. Research Location

The researcher conducted the study in SMPN 25 Surabaya. The researcher made the decision to hold the study in this school because of some considerations. First of all was that the school gets “A” accreditation which indicated that the school had predicate as a good quality school in society. Secondly, according to the result of preliminary research in the form of asking and giving question undertaken by the researcher to one of English teachers at SMPN 25 Surabaya, it was known that the teacher asked students to write paragraphs regularly and soon to be marked. Thirdly,

Lexy A. Moleong, Metodologi Penelitian Kualitatif (Bandung: PT. Remaja Rosdakarya, 2005), 177.

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it was empowered by the researcher’s experience when having internship there for two months. And during the months, the researcher figured out a number of mistakes when teaching a certain class dealing with students’ written work, moreover in the case of punctuation marks.

SMPN 25 Surabaya is located in Jalan Simomulyo No. 25 Sukomanunggal, Surabaya. The school has its vision distinguishing from the other schools. The vision of the school is “Creating Schools that Have Excellent Quality in the Standard of National Education Based on Faith and Taqwa and Educated Environmentally”

(Membentuk Sekolah yang Berkualitas Unggul Dalam Standar Nasional Pendidikan,

Berdasarkan Iman dan Taqwa serta Berwawasan Lingkungan).

The geographical location of the school is quite strategies. It is found no difficulties to get to the school location as the caution which is written “SMPN 25 Surabaya” is now everyone able to see easily standing at the bank of the main street before the aisle as the access to get to the school. The school is not too far to the main street. Furthermore, public transportations, like lyn, are easily found around the school that indicates both the teachers and the students can use them and there is no need to feel worried about how to go to and from the school. The other aspect to elaborate is that the safety of the school. It is good to know that there are three security guards who are available to keep the school, so that the school’s safety can be guaranteed.

SMPN 25 Surabaya is supported by many facilities to improve the students’ comfort, interest and motivation in learning at school. First, there are several good

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buildings in the school, it is counted 26 (twenty six) classes: 8 classes for seventh grade, 10 classes for eight grade, and 8 classes for ninth grade which are completed by a number of fans available in each of classroom; laboratory: one language laboratory, one science laboratory, one computer laboratory, two multimedia laboratories; a football and basket-ball field at once; students’ cooperation; mosque, etc. Next, there are also various extracurricular available at school, such as computer course, football, basket-ball, badminton, traditional dancing, etc. which are expected to be able to develop the students’ competence, interests, and talents. In addition, SMPN 25 Surabaya is supported by Wi-Fi access.

According to the statements elaborated above, the researcher inferred that SMPN 25 Surabaya was categorized as a good school with complete facilities to support the teaching-learning process. It indicated that the school do not want to leave behind compared to the other schools. The school tries to be balance between the development of science and technology.

D. Data and Source of Data

The first data of the study was the result of document study and the tests in which both of them were based on students’ work. Those result of students’ work answered the first research question. It dealt with in which part comma error mostly occurs in students’ writing. Furthermore, the second data was the result of questionnaire which was given by the researcher to all of students of Class VIII-G. As the follow-up, or the secondary instrument, interview was also conducted by the

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researcher and the English teacher of the class. The aim was to match the students’ answers through questionnaire with teachers’ answer through interview. The second data answered the second research question. It was about the students’ difficulties in putting comma that would be elaborated in detail by the researcher on the following chapter.

Meanwhile, based on the research questions that were stated previously in Chapter I, the data sources of the research were a teacher and the students of eight grade at SMPN 25 Surabaya. A teacher that the researcher took for the study was a female English teacher who taught the class and it was found that she often held writing activity to drill students’ writing skill in the class. In this case, the researcher expected that the teacher might assist the researcher by providing information that was required by the researcher about students’ error in putting comma and the factors of why it happened.

After determining the setting or research location, then the researcher obtained the subject for the research, which was obviously important step in conducting a qualitative research. The researcher took eight grade students of SMPN 25 Surabaya as the subject and source of the data. There are 10 (ten) classes in the school for eight grade. The researcher took ascertain class, Class VIII-G, as the subject of the study. The numbers of the students in Class VIII-G were 37 students. The process of deciding which class to be researched is after an interview with a number of teachers at the school, and the researcher found out that Class VIII-G was well-known of students with average ability; neither high nor low. Average ability meant the class

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was not dominated by smart students or stupid students. In choosing the class, again, the researcher was assisted by the English teacher of the selected class since the teacher knew perfectly about the students’ ability in the class.

E. Research Instrument

According to Arikunto, “Research instrument is a device used by the research while collecting the data to make his work becomes easier and to get the better result, complete and systematic in order to make the data easy to process”5.

To get empirical data and draw conclusion for the research, the researcher used a number of instruments. Instrument means the measurement tool that potentially makes the researcher easier in collecting the data. And soon the data which had been collected would be analyzed by the research. Instruments which were used by the researcher in doing the research are document study in the form of students’ handwritten in order to identify to what extend comma errors found within students’ writing; tests in the form of passage with no commas on it; questionnaire and interview in order to find out the factors affecting the students’ behaviour. The research instruments used by the researcher are discussed in detail as follows:

1. Document Study

Document is a written, drawn, presented or recorded representation of thoughts. Furthermore, the modern term ‘document’ can no longer be defined by its transmission medium (such as paper), following the existence of electronic

Suharsimi Arikunto, Prosedur Penelitian Suatu Pendekatan Praktik (Jakarta: Penerbit Rineka Cipta, 2010), 192.

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documents. Commonly, document study is one of instruments used in doing a research to collect data. Document study makes use of the result of work result which has been existed of the research subject.

In this study, document study was the result of the students’ handwritten in writing ascertain text in short. It was conducted through asking for the student’s written work immediately to the teacher. It was obtained from students’ own work on the odd semester examination.

The odd semester examination was divided into two sections. The first section was 40 questions in the form of multiple choices and second section was 5 questions in the form of instruction to create short texts in English. The researcher, for sure, took the second section because it dealt with students’ written work. It was taken only one number of those five that was number 1. It was an instruction to make an invitation card of two moment choices: happy birthday or graduation day.

2. Test

Secondly, the further data was conducted through tests. Test is an assessment intended to measure the respondents’ knowledge or other abilities. Tests were given in the form of typed/printed passages. It was held by the researcher twice.

Test in this study was to assess deeper the students’ error in the placement of comma. The tests were in the form of passages that had typed and printed on paper with blank commas on it. The researcher used tests twice in the research

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that both of them required the students to put the lost commas in the correct place. So, it simply meant, all of students got the same printed passage and what they had to do with the passage they had gotten was to put commas in the place of where the commas should be. The first test was narrative text entitled “SURABAYA” and the second test was descriptive text entitled “MONAS”.

The tests in the form of passages were validated by an expert. She is a lecturer of English Teacher Education Department at State Islamic University of Sunan Ampel Surabaya. (See appendix 1)

3. Questionnaire

Questionnaire was usually conducted for the purpose of asking questions to certain people’s thought about, and feeling toward issue, behaviour, and so on. Oxford University Press (2007) in its article said that a questionnaire was a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents6. Although they were often designed for statistical analysis of the responses, in which this was not always the case.

Citing Bryman through Tharenou’s book7, “Questionnaires are the instrument completed by the respondents themselves”. They are the most frequently used method of data collection in a research. According to Moorman

Small Arms Survey, Small Arms Survey: Profiling The Problems (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).

Phyllis Tharenou, Ross Donohue, Brian Cooper, Management Research Methods (UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 102.

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and Podsakoff through Tharenou’s book8, it is because they are relatively easy to use, inexpensive, and are often the most plausible alternative for measuring unobservable constructs, such as attitudes, values and preferences, intentions, and personalities.

Furthermore, Arikunto states “Questionnaire could be in the form of multiple choice, essay, check-list and rating-scale so respondents would only select one of the provided answers in it9”. In conducting this study, the researcher used multiple-choice questionnaire, in which, the respondents only selected one of the provided answers (by crossing {A, B, C or D} in each question) and a few number of open question, in which it enabled the respondents to fill in the blank by their own answer. This was used to answer the second research question.

In the questionnaire, there provided 15 questions; 13 multiple choice or questions with optional answers and 2 open questions. The 13 multiple choices were the introductory questions in which the students needed to choose the possible answer according to their own feeling (no cheating) by crossing one of the available answers. Meanwhile, the rest two questions explored more the students’ answers. The question number 14, for sure, was the core question on the questionnaire to figure out the second research question that required the students to answer it as honest as possible. The questionnaire was in Bahasa because the

Phyllis Tharenou, Ross Donohue, Brian Cooper, Management Research…. 9

Suharsimi Arikunto, Prosedur Penelitian Suatu Pendekatan Praktik (Jakarta: Penerbit Rineka Cipta, 2010), 195.

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respondent was the students of Junior High School. The use of Bahasa was aimed to get the students easier to fill all of the questions in questionnaire sheet.

The questionnaire was validated by an expert. She is a lecturer of English Teacher Education Department at State Islamic University of Sunan Ampel Surabaya. (See appendix 2)

4. Interview Guideline

Interview guideline was data collection technique that followed questionnaire which had stated previously. The data gathered from interviews were usually qualitative (data in the form of words). According to King’s statement which was written in Tharenou’s book10, “They are suited to research questions where a descriptive account of a topic is required, without formal hypothesis-testing”.

Interview guideline in this study was designed as the secondary instrument of previous instrument, questionnaire. In another word, interview meant the follow-up activity after questionnaire was completely done. In this study, interview was addressed only for the teacher. The interview was used to find out teacher’s response toward students’ phenomenon in writing activity, especially students’ error in the term of punctuation mark, more specifically the comma aspect.

Interview guideline was created to give informant chance to express meaning by teacher’s word as a verbal data for the researcher. There provided 10

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questions to be asked to the teacher. Most of the questions were in the form of Yes/No questions followed by the reason of why they did both for yes and no answers. Meanwhile, for the rest questions, they were in the form of 5W questions, like what and why that explored more the teacher’s answer. Those 10 questions were being asked to the teacher based on the theory employed and dealt with the issue discussed.

Of those questions, one question was the core to ensure the students’ answers through questionnaire were correct. The teacher’s answer through interview would be matched with students’ answers through questionnaire. Thus, it could be drawn a conclusion on the factors that affected students to put comma incorrectly, which became the second research question to be answered in the study.

The interview was validated by an expert. She is a lecturer of English Teacher Education Department at State Islamic University of Sunan Ampel Surabaya. (See appendix 3)

F. Data Collection Technique

Data collection technique was the way the researcher collected the data empirically and objectively. To answer two research questions, the researcher used two techniques of data collection for each question. The first research question, it was used the document study and test. Meanwhile, the second research question, it was used the questionnaire and the interview. Therefore, this

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study was undertaken through four main activities. To give a clear understanding, the four steps of the activities will be explained as follows:

1. Document Study

The document study meant researcher got students’ written work from the teacher after the teacher marked those 37 papers. Then, they needed to be analyzed for the other aspect researcher was focusing on, that was comma errors. The aim of the document study technique was to know whether students are successful in the use of correct comma. To be more specific, it was used to identify in what part comma often goes fail in students’ writing. 2. Test

As stated previously, this study used two ways in obtaining the data to answer the first research question. After the data from the document study obtained, it was conducted the tests to the students. Test can be used to measure humans’ ability and achievement11. Test in this study was to assess deeper the students’ error in the placement of comma. The tests were in the form of passages with blank commas. The researcher used tests twice in the research. In these tests, the teacher would become a tester who gave the passages that the researcher has made and validated by an expert, while the researcher joined the class as an observer in the process of collecting data. So that, the teacher in this step took a role as a mean to execute what the

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researcher had designed for the research. From those tests, the researcher expected to figure out the most comma error occurred in passages.

3. Questionnaire

Questionnaire is a technique intended to get the inverbal data. The purpose of giving questionnaire to students is to obtain the data from students on what factors affecting students in using the comma incorrectly. The questionnaire consisted of fifteen questions and most of them were in the form of multiple choices, while the rest of them were in the form of open question.

The questionnaire was conducted after the document study activities were completely done. It was undertaken in the school area, inside a certain room, Class VIII-G. Meanwhile, the time used by the researcher to do the research was on school hour, more specifically after school’s odd semester examination. Conducting questionnaire on school hour where students had no more teaching-learning processes to be joined made the researcher easy to execute the research planning and automatically it meant the researcher did not disturb the class activity.

4. Interview

Interview used in the study was a technique to obtain the information or data which was conducted between the research and the informant in direct verbal interaction. In the study, the researcher conducted the interview only with the teacher to collect the data. In addition, the interview was made use of

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data collection technique as the follow-up step after the questionnaire. It was to match the students’ answer through questionnaire and the teacher’s answer through interview about the factors affecting students to put comma incorrectly within the students’ writing.

The interview was conducted after questionnaire done. It was undertaken in school area, inside a room, staff’s room. For the time used by the researcher to do the research was on school hour, more specifically after school’s odd semester examination. Undertaking the interview on school hour took for no additional time for the teacher to give his leisure time outside the school hour. Moreover, it did when there was no more teaching-learning process, so that it did not disturb the teachers’ teaching activity.

G. Data Analysis Technique

The data analysis technique was used to draw the conclusion of the research data. By this study, the researcher interpreted the data that has obtained descriptively, using descriptive qualitative analysis technique. Since the study dealt with the error analysis, so that to analyze students’ error in what part comma error commonly occurs in students’ writing, a formula was required to look for percentage to process the data was required. The procedures of analyzing the data were provided as mentioned:

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1. Identification the Errors

The research was done after the odd semester examination, so that the researcher got students’ written work from the teacher right after teacher marked the papers. That 37 papers would be needed to be analyzed for the other aspect researcher was focusing on, that was the comma error. Furthermore, the researcher identified the more errors done by the students through test which was held twice.

2. Classification the Errors

To classify the students’ error in putting comma, during the classifying work, the researcher was based on the comma theory provided (see sub-sub Chapter II). It was mentioned the criteria on using comma properly; when to use comma and when not to use comma.

3. Tabulation of Error

The researcher counted the percentage to know in what category comma errors mostly occur in students’ written work using the following formula to get the valid result of the errors percentage:

= %

Note:

P = Percentage

f = Data frequency

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with the right separations, or pauses. When commas are misused, whether it is overuse or under use, you run the risk of confusing, irritating and frustrating the writers’ readers because their sentences are chopped into too many pieces. In some cases, they are unintentionally misinforming readers as well.

As was mentioned in the introduction to this series of guides, overuse of commas is one of the most common grammatical mistakes. Using too many commas results in stilted, disjointed sentences that are difficult, if not impossible, to read. Avoid the following common mistakes in comma usage, and writers’ words are sure to make more sense to those who read them. Why do intelligent people make the error? I think people worry about the situation where they will come across too informally or too plainly if they use such short sentences. They believe using 4-to-6 words sentences, especially in two of them in a row, can’t be professional.

Speaking of all the comma rules presented in this series of guides, for sure, it may seem confusing. It is important to avoid breaking them, whether people generally and the students specifically tend to overuse or under use commas. The best ways to master commas is through learning the individual rules as the students go and through reading what they write out loud, inserting pauses in the words they speak to replace the commas. If the students cannot imagine using the pause at a location within a sentence to provide clarity, omit the comma. If the sentence is confusing or a pause seems natural, include the comma. As the students gain knowledge, practice applying rules and proofread the students’ works thoroughly, the mastering of comma

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

This chapter is aimed to provide the final result of the research which had

drawn through data analysis and discussion by the researcher. It covers the conclusion

and suggestion for the readers.

A. Conclusion

Based on the data which are collected and analyzed by the researcher, it could

be drawn conclusion as mentioned:

1. In each type of text, it shows that the comma error occurred in different places.

Firstly, in invitation card, the most comma error occurred between parts of dates

and after the year. Secondly, in narrative text, the most comma error occurred in

the use of comma for clarity. Thirdly, in descriptive text, the most comma error

occurred around the non-restrictive elements. They answer the first research

question in this study: “In what category comma error mostly occurs in students’

writing?”

2. Generally, there are a number of reasons on making error. It is what happened to

the students. The comma error occurred mostly in students’ writing because of 6

different factors, they are the unimportance use of comma, the low

comprehension about English, the unawareness of comma placement, the

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comma, the unknown placement of the correct comma, and the untold material by

the teacher. The factor written by the amount of huge number of students than the

other factors is the last factor mentioned. In addition, it is empowered by the

teacher’s statement through the interview that the teacher, indeed, tends to skip

the punctuation, including comma to be taught to the students and conveys it

when the material of the lesson dealsa lot with punctuation. Thus, it answers the

second research question: “What are factors driving students to put comma

incorrectly?”

B. Suggestion

By this study, it is expected to be beneficial for the sake of quality

improvement of the language teaching and learning. Those benefits are mainly

addressed to teachers and further researchers as follows:

1. Teachers

This study gives teachers a detailed description about the students’ error in using

commas. Through the research findings had been discussed (see Chapter IV), it

was found a number of errors in putting commas into the correct place in each

type of text. Teaching writing skill in English to students is not merely about

vocabularies, grammar/structure, or the sentence itself, but also dealt with

punctuation. Even if it is simple, it may damage students’ ability in writing

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re-teaching about punctuation in-depth and emphasize the use of comma in

paragraphs to students and stop skipping this basic material within lesson.

2. Further Researchers

This study is also intended to give suggestion for further researchers who are

going to discuss the similar topic. The way to overcome the students’ problems in

the case of giving punctuation, moreover the commas, for instance, has not been

included in this study. The researcher is aware enough of the imperfection of the

study, so that it is expected for further researchers to be able to implement a

number of significant techniques to cope with that problem to get the better

research result completing the previous study which was undertaken by the

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THE COMMA ERROR IN STUDENTS' WRITING: A CASE STUDY OF EIGHT GRADE STUDENTS AT SMPN 25 SURABAYA.