3

ERROR ANALYSIS ON THE USE OF PASSIVE VOICE

IN STUDENTS’THESIS PROPOSAL

Ratmo, S.Pd., M.MPd

ABSTRACT

This study is aimed at analyzing types and causes of the students’ errors in the use of passive
voice in their thesis proposals. The study used document analysis, by analyzing sentences
taken from 30 selected thesis proposals of three different interest: literature, lingusitics, and
teaching. The collected data were classified based on the types of errors using Dulay’s
Theory, and were analyzed to discover the causes of the errors using theory from Norrish
(1983). From the 30 selected proposals, there were fourty-three sentences found to have
errors in using passive with different types. Eight sentences are identified as having addition
errors, 16 sentences are marked to contain omission error, 17 sentences have misformation
error, and two sentences contain (2) misordering errors. The most errors occured were
misformation types, followed by omission, and addition. Regarding to the causes of errors,
the addition errors were mostly caused by translation and first language interference. These
occured when the students tried to translate their L1 into L2. The omission errors, on the
other hand, were caused mostly by students’ carelessness. Fourteen out of sixteen errors of
this type occured because the students forgot to include ‘to be’ in their passive sentences.
Most of the misformation errors were caused by the use of the wrong form of structure.
Meanwhile, misordering errors were mainly caused by translation when students tried to
transfer their L1 into L2. Some students misused the order of a statement to a question.

Key words: Error analysis, passive voice, types and causes, descriptive qualitative

I. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the Research

Among the four English skills namely ; listening, reading, speaking and
writing, the latest mentioned is sometimes considered as the hardest task for some
college students as it demands them more thinking and carefulness for language
processing. Some difficulties may be caused either by lack of expereience and
writing paractice or insufficient language knowledge such as grammar and
vocabulary. In their previous schools, the art of writing was not the first thing to be
seriously taught. Some English teachers might think that writing is only possible to
 4

be given to upper level students or after they have sufficient exposure to other
language skills and knowledge. Writing in school classrooms, if given, focuses on
giving reinforcement to students’ knowledge in structure and vocabulary. This phase
of writing is called writing for learning. Harmer ,(2007: 112) states that writing for
learning is used as a practice tool to help students practice and work with language
they have been studying. It is, therefore, not sufficient to be the basis for writing
process in universities that demands more techniques and various genres.
In higher education or universities, especially for English department students,
writing is an inportant skill that every student should be able to deal with in order to
be successful in preparing their final project. Writing well means conveying thoughts,
ideas, and facts in simple and clear language. (David, 2014). Good writing skills are
expected to have been achieved by sixth or seventh semester students who are
required to write research papers in English. For this purpose, it is necessary that they
be able to put forth

the right facts and information. Also, the research papers should be free from spelling
and grammar errors.
The main purpose for giving students writing tasks in higher education is
writing for writing which means allowing students to develop their skills to be good
writers. As Harmer (2007:112) emphasizes that the main purpose for activities of
writing for writing is that students should become better at writing, whatever kind of
writing that might be. This means that in this phase of writing, students should be
directed at developing their writing skills to produce well-organized writings such as
reports and research papers.
Thesis proposal is a partial requirement for English department students that
has to be prepared and presented before they conduct their complete research. It gives
them opportunity not only to explore their knowledge in their field of study but also to
produce sentences using all grammar knowledge and writing skills they have learnt.
So, it is their responsibility to write well organized sentences with minimum
grammatical errors.
Writing thesis proposal requires specific knowledge and techniques as it is a
kind of scientific writing. In scientific writing, passive sentences are preferable than
 5

the active sentences for some cases. This is because the object, that is the main issue
being discussed, should be given more emphasis than the agent or person doing it. For
example, instead of writing ‘ The writer took the data from a novel’ it is preferable to
write ‘ The data were taken from a novel.’ The idea of using passive among others is
to avoid saying ‘the writer’ too many times throughout the paragraph.

Whether to use passive or active voice in research papers have become a

controversial debate in the web among writers. For example, the American Medical
Association's AMA Manual of Style (2007) recommends " ...in general, authors
should use the active voice, except in instances in which the author is unknown or the
interest focuses on what is acted upon." The Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association (APA) has similar advice: " ...prefer the active voice....The
passive voice is acceptable in expository writing and when you want to focus on the
object or recipient of the action rather than on the actor." Meanwhile, other writers
claim that passive voice is inherently more scientific than active voice: “The use of
the passive voice encourages precision and probity” (Leather, 2013). This controversy
may bring about confusion for students. So, it is important to decide when or in which
part of research papers should passive or active voice be used.
The rules for using passive voice in writing research papers should have been
learnt by seventh semester students of English Department when they had scientific or
academic writing. However, as they are writing their thesis proposal, the rules tend to
be disobeyed. This research is concerned about this phenomenon and is intended to
find out types of errors that the students made and what caused them. For this reason,
some students’ thesis proposals are taken as the object of this research.

1.2. Statements of the Problems

Regarding to the issues being discussed, the problems to be analyzed in this

research are formulated as follows:
 6

1. What types of errors are made by the students in using passive sentences of
their
thesis proposal?
.2. What are the causes of errors in using passive sentences in the students’
thesis proposal?

1.3. Scope and Limitation of the Research

Writing thesis proposal requires specific knowledge and skills. Grammar is

knowledge about rules and usage of tenses and other aspects that plays important role
in helping students to write good sentences. This research, however, focuses only on
analyzing students’ errors in using passive sentence in writing thesis proposal by
seventh semester students of English Department, Faculty of Letters, Pamulang
University. The data were collected from three research methodology classes that
were preparing thesis proposals as their final projects.

1.4. Goals of the Research

The goals of this research are:
1. To identify types of errors that are found in the use of passive sentences of
students’
thesis proposal.
2. To analyze the causes of errors in using passive sentences of students’ thesis
Proposal.

1.5. Functions of the Research

This research is expected to have the following functions:
1. To diagnose the problems in writing thesis proposal and to fix the students’ errors
especially in using passive in scientific writing.
2. To be a guide for students in writing their thesis proposal as well as a reference for
advisors in guiding their students’ thesis writing
3. To give better insight for students in the use of passive in writing thesis proposal.
 7

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Error Analysis

According to Richard (1985:96) error analysis is the study and analysis of the errors
made by second and foreign language learners. Based on the statement, error analysis may be
carried out in order to find out how a student learns a language and to find out how well he or
she knows a language. Furthermore, Richard et. al.(1985:95) mention that an error is a
noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflects the competence of
the learner. An error is the use of a linguistic item (e.g. a word, a grammatical item, a speech,
etc.) in a way which a fluent or native speaker of the language regards as showing faulty or
incomplete learning.

2.2. The Difference between Errors and Mistakes

In order to analyze learner language in an appropriate perspective, it is crucial to
make a distinction between mistakes and errors, which are technically two very different
phenomena.

According to Ellis (1994), mistake –refers to a performance error that is either a random
guess or a “slip”, in that is a failure to utilize a known system correctly. Native speakers
make mistakes. When attention is called to them, they can be self-corrected. While error is a
noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflects the competence of
the learner (Does John can sing?). In addition, Corder (1974) mentions that the distinction
between errors and mistakes are: error takes place when the deviation arises as a result of lack
of knowledge (lack of competence) while mistake occurs when learners fail to perform their
competence Feature of native speaker speech: Competing plans, Memory limitations, Lack of
automaticity.
Language learning is like any other human learning. L2 learning is a process that is
clearly not unlike L1 learning in its trial-and-error nature. Inevitably, learners will make
mistakes in the process of acquisition, and that process will be impeded if they do not commit
errors and then benefit from various forms of feedback on those errors. Corder (1974) noted:
“a learner’s errors are significant in that they provide to the researcher evidence of how
language is learned or acquired, what strategies or procedures the learner is employing in the
discovery of the language.” It means that learners may take advantages from making errors as
they get experience in learning.
 8

2.3 Types of Errors

Types of errors, according to Corder (1974) are classified into three:1) Pre-systematic
errors which occur when the learner is unaware of the existence of a particular rule in the
target language. These are random, the learner cannot give any account of why a particular
form is chosen; 2) Systematic errors that occur when the learner has discovered a rule but it is
the wrong one. The learner is unable to correct the errors but can explain the mistaken rule
used and type; 3) Post-systematic errors which occurs when the learner knows the correct
target language rule but uses it inconsistently (makes a mistake) the learner can explain the
target-language rule that is normally used.
Dulay in Kaswan (2010:50-52) divide errors into the following categories: (1)
omission, (2) additions, (3) misformation, and (4) misordering.
1. Omission
Omission errors are characterized by the absence of an item that must appear in a well-
formed utterance. Although any particle or word in a sentence is a potential candidate for
omission, some types of items are omitted more than others. Language learners omit
grammatical items or function words (e.g. is, the, of, an, etc.) much more frequently than
content words (e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs).
2. Addition
Addition errors are the opposite of omissions. They are characterized by the presence of
an item which must not appear in a well-formed utterance. Addition errors usually occur
in the later stages of SLA, when the learner has already acquired some target language
rules. In fact, addition errors result from the all-too-faithful use of certain rules.
3. Misformation
Misformation refers to “the use of the wrong form of structure”.
4. Misordering
As the label suggests, misordering errors are characterized by the incorrect placement of
a morpheme or group of morphemes in an utterance. For example, in the utterance: ’He
is all the time late’.

2.4 Causes of Errors

Errors may be caused by several factors. According to Norrish (1983:21-26) the
causes of errors can be classified into three types namely carelessness, first language
interference, and translation.
 9

1. Carelessness
Carelessness is related to lack of motivation. If students are lack of motivation in
learning or writing assignments, it will be easier for them to make errors. Norrish (1983:
21) mentions, “ It is not always the students’ fault if he loses interest; perhaps the
materials and/or the style of presentation do not suit him” It means that students could
be bored by the materials themselves because of the contents or the way they are written
or presented.
5. First Language Interference
First language interference may lead to errors in students’ language learning. Norish
(1983: 22) states, “ It was commonly believed until fairly recently that learning a
language ( a mother tongue or a foreign language) was a matter of habit formation.” It
means that first language intereference occurs when old habits (in mother tongue)
interfere new habits in the target language.The learner’s utterances were thought to be
gradually ‘shaped’ towards those of the language he was learning. With the mother
tongue, for example, sounds were uttered by the young child which was resembled by
approval of his parents. It was this rewarding , either by increased attention from his
parents or the child’s wants being satisfied, which led in turn to repetition of the
utterance and the subsequent formation of linguistic habit.

6. Translation
The most common errors occur when learners try to translate his first language (mother
tongue) sentences into the target language. As Norrish (1983: 26) states that translating
word by word especially of idiomatic expression can produce classic howlers.

2.5 Reasons for Using Passive and Active Sentences

The idea of choosing a passive rather than an active sentence is to emphasize that an
object is more important than the agent or the person doing an action or an activity. In some
situations a passive rather than an active sentence is typically chosen. Azar (2006:211)
suggests, “The passive is most frequently used when it is not known or not important to know
exactly who performs an action.” It means if the doer is not very important or unknown, a
passive is preferred. For instances, when the agent is not known as in : “My office was
broken into when I was on holiday”, or when the agent is people in general as in : An ATM
 10

machine can be found in some supermarket. Another example can be observed in “ He is

thought to be somewhere in Australia. In this sentence the agent is not important. Hewings
(2005:48) proposes the clearest example that gives reason for using passive, that is, when the
agent is obvious, such as: She is being treated in hospital (The agent is clearly ‘ medical
staff’).
In some sentences, passive voice can be perfectly acceptable. Corson and Smollett
(2014) suggest that passive might be used in the following cases:
1. The actor is unknown:
The cave paintings of Lascaux were made in the Upper Old Stone Age. [We
don't know who made them.]

2. The actor is irrelevant:

An experimental solar power plant will be built in the Australian desert. [We
are not interested in who is building it.]
3. You want to be vague about who is responsible:
Mistakes were made. [Common in bureaucratic writing!]
4. You are talking about a general truth:
Rules are made to be broken. [By whomever, whenever.]
5. You want to emphasize the person or thing acted on. For example, it may be your
main topic:
Insulin was first discovered in 1921 by researchers at the University of
Toronto. It is still the only treatment available for diabetes.
6. You are writing in a scientific genre that traditionally relies on passive voice. Passive
voice is often preferred in lab reports and scientific research papers, most notably in
the Materials and Methods section:
The sodium hydroxide was dissolved in water. This solution was then titrated
with hydrochloric acid.
In these sentences you can count on your readers to know that you are the one who
did the dissolving and the titrating. The passive voice places the emphasis on your
experiment rather than on you.
 11

2.6. Using Passive in Scientific Writing

Scientific writing (or writing a research paper) requires not only correctness in
paragraphing, spelling, and punctuation, but also appropriateness in using grammar. A good
scientific writing must contain quotations from some experts, the theories of whom are used
in analyzing data. The more the writer quote, the more scientific the writing will be.
Quotations in
research paper can be either directly or indirectly. Indirect quotation means reporting what
an
expert has said or defined in indirect statement. In this case, passive verbs are often used to
show that the information is empasized or more important. Hewings (2005: 50) states,”
Another common way of reporting what is said by an unspecified group of people is to use ‘
it+passive verb+that clause’. Using this pattern can allow us to put important information at
the end of the sentence.” The statement means that the important information is still
emphasized although it is given at the second part of the sentence. For instances:
It is reported that the damage is extensive.
It has been acknowledged that underfunding contributed to the problem.
In 1981 it was believed that there were only two experts on the disease in the country.
Other verbs that can be used in this pattern include: allege, announce, assume, calculate,
claim, consider, demonstrate, discover, establish, estimate, expect, find, know, mention,
recommend, reveal, say, show, suggest, suppose, think, understand.
Careful writer should know where to put the important issue. In English we usually
prefer to put the topic ( what is already being talked about) at the beginning of a sentence (or
clause) and

a comment on that topic at the end. For this purpose, the pasive is used. (Hewings, 2005:48).
Compare these two texts and notice where the topic (underlined) is placed in the second
sentence of each. The second sentence uses a passive where the emphasis is on the
equipment.
1) The three machines tested for the report contained different types of safety valve.
The Boron Group in Germany manufactured all the equipment.
2) The three machines tested for the report contained different types of safety valve.
All the equipment was manufactured by Boron Group in Germany.
Jagtenberg and D'Alton (1989) give some reasons for using passive in academic
writing, that we very often don't want to focus on who is doing an action, but on who is
 12

receiving or experiencing the action. The passive voice is thus extremely useful in academic
writing because it allows writers to highlight the most important participants or events within
sentences by placing them at the beginning of the sentence. In the following sentences, the
passive construction is preferable because you want readers to focus on the result of an action
rather than the person doing the action.
Active: Scientists classify glass as a solid.
Passive: Glass is classified as a solid.
The passive sentence focuses on how glass is classified, rather than on who classifies
glass.
In addition, in academic writing sometimes it is obvious, irrelevant or repetitive to
state who the 'doer' of the sentence is: thus the passive voice is a useful way to construct these
types of sentences. It is also a way that the use of informal personal pronouns can be avoided;
for example,

One type of work group, the semi-autonomous work group, is discussed in a section
later in this chapter.
From the sentence, it is obvious that it is the author who will be doing the discussing.
The passive is used to avoid repeated reference to the known doer of the action (ie.
the observers):
The handwashing practices of staff were observed by 4 members of the nursing staff
during rostered shifts. Handwashing, or failure to handwash, following patient contact
was recorded. Leaving the area without handwashing was considered failure to
wash.
The passive allows you to avoid using a personal pronoun (...by us), for instance :
“The number of seeds found in ant nests were counted.”
Sometimes in academic writing it might be expedient to use the passive voice in order
to avoid naming the 'doer' of an action so that the message of your text is less inflammatory;
for example, read the following excerpt:
In this ideology the argument used to sustain the subjugation of women has largely
rested on premises about biological difference - the biological differences between
men and women have been used to legitimate hierarchical structures of social
inequality. Women, because of their biological function as child bearers, have been
 13

traditionally confined to the domestic sphere and excluded from the world 'out
there'.
The identity of the 'doer' in this text could be interpreted as society, the dominant
social paradigm or males.
Most scientists use passive voice either out of habit or to make themselves seem
scholarly, objective, or sophisticated. Scientists have not always written in passive voice.
First-person

pronouns such as I and we began to disappear from scientific writing in the United States in
the 1920s when active voice was replaced by today's inflexible, impersonal and often boring
style of scientific writing. (Moore in
htpps://cgi.duke.edu/web/sciwriting/index.php?action=passsive voice, 2014)

III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Descriptive qualitative approach is used in this research as it is based on the

phenomena found in students’ process of writing thesis proposals. Besides, the data were
collected by documenting sentences of students’thesis proposals from reseach methodology
class of seven semester academic year 2014/2015. The collected data were then analysed
based on the theory of error analysis by Dulay (2010), Corder (1974), and Norrish (1983).
Crowl (1996:10) states that qualitative research methods are used to examine questions that
can best be answered by verbally describing how participants in a study perceive and
interpret various aspects of their environment. In addition, qualitative research is a research
that intends to understand the phenomenon or what is experienced by the subject of the
research such as behaviour, perceptions, motivations, actions, and other holistically and by
means of a description in the form of words and language in a special context as well as to
take advantage of variety of natural methods of natural causes (Tohirin, 2012:3).
 14

IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The data which were collected from students’ thesis proposals in research
methodology class of different interest are classified based on their types. There are 43 data
of students’ errors found which are divided into four types based on Dulay Theory (2010),
namely addition, omission, misformation, and misordering. While the causes of errors for
each type are analyzed using theory from Norrish (1983:21-26) who divides the causes of
errors into three: carelessness, first language interference, and translation.

4.1 Addition Errrors

No Students’ Errors Corrections
1 What kinds of conversational maxims What kinds of conversational maxims
violations that are found in violations are found in “Underground”
“Underground” Novel written by Ika Novel written by Ika Natassa?
Natassa?
2 The novel being chosen as the data The novel chosen as the data source is
source is “Underground” written by Ika “Underground” written by Ika Natassa.
Natassa.
3 The Direct Method of teachig is often The Direct Method of teachig is often
to used in teaching foreign languages, .. used in teaching foreign languages, ...
4 Pictures as the media it was Pictures as the media are called”Audio-
called”Audio-Visual Aids” Visual Aids”
5 The film that analyzed in this study is a The film analyzed in this study is a
contemporary film, ... contemporary film, ...
6 The film which chosen here is The film chosen here is “Perfume”.
“Perfume”.
7 The methodology that used in this The methodology used in this study
study is CLT is CLT
8 English is more used as a medium ... English is used (is commonly used) as a
medium ...

Out of fourty-three (43) data found, there are 8 identified as addition errors. These
errors are mostly caused by translation and first language interference. These occur when
 15

learners try to translate their first language (mother tongue) sentences into the target
language.

In sentence 1 the word ‘that’ in ‘that are found’ is not necessary because it is a question. So,
it is better to write: ‘What .... are found in...?’ In sentence 2 the word ’being’ is not relevant
as the novel has already been chosen, and is a form of a participial phrase that does not
require to be. This error happens to sentence 5, 6, and 7. In Sentence 3, the verb used in
correct (past participle), but the addition ‘to’ is not clear because ‘to’ is used with infinitive.
In sentence 4, the addition ‘it’ is overwhelming since the sentence already has a subject.
While in sentence 8, the addition ‘more’ is not relevant because ‘more’ is used to intensify
adjectives not verbs.
4.2.2 Omission Errors
No Students’ Errors Corrections
1 Psychoanalysis is one of the literary Psychoanalysis is one of the literary
criticisms that usually used to describe criticisms that is usually used to
conscious and unconscious elements of describe conscious and unconscious
mind... elements of
mind...
2 Qualitative research is use to help us ... Qualitative research is used to help us ...
3 Children’s literature divided into Children’s literature is divided into
several types. several types.
4 ... context is a background knowledge ... context is a background knowledge
that shared by speaker and hearer ... that is shared by speaker and hearer ...
5 English particularly is the most dominat English particularly is the most dominat
language that spoken around the world. language that is spoken around the
world.
6 Many literary works often associated Many literary works are often associated
with culture, art, and history. with culture, art, and history.
7 When it shown on a screen, it creates When it is shown on a screen, it creates
the illussion of moving images. the illussion of moving images.
8 Language variation can be focus on two Language variation can be focused on
aspects, ... two aspects, ...
9 All the data that have been collected are All the data that have been collected are
 16

classify and analyze ... classified and analyzed ...

10 Minor character also known as Minor character is also known as
supporting character. supporting character.
11 Songs composed of various stanzas that Songs are composed of various stanzas
express ideas, ... that express ideas, ...
12 Metaphore classified into three, they Metaphore is classified into three, they
are ... are ...
13 The important things to analyzed from The important things to be analyzed
the intrinsic elements ... from the intrinsic elements ...
14 In this study the writer interested in In this study the writer is interested in
analyzing plots and moral values. analyzing plots and moral values.
15 Psychoanalysis is a branch of science Psychoanalysis is a branch of science
which has developed by Sigmund which has been developed by Sigmund
Freud. Freud.
16 There are two approaches that can used There are two approaches that can be
to analyze a film. used to analyze a film.

Sixteen out of forty-three data are marked as Omission Error. This type of errors
occur mostly because of students’ carelessness. Most of the omission errors (14 out of 16)
occur because students forget to include to be in their passive sentences. Two of them
(sentence 2 and 8) happens because they forget to add ‘-ed’ in the verb. In passive, the verb
used must be verb III (past participle).
4.3. Misformation Errors
No Students’ Errors Corrections
1 Film genre divide into three parts ... Film genre is divided into three parts ...
2 Animated films is produced by creating Animated films are produced by
images ... creating images ...
3 Jargons that use in BCA EDC is Jargons that are used in BCA EDC are
interesting interesting
4 ...the data is taken from the content of ...the data were taken from the content
ilook TV Program. of ilook TV Program.
5 Clouds picture book which can analyze Clouds picture book which can be
through two aspects ... analyzed through two aspects ...
 17

6 ...to find out the Existentialist Feminism ...to find out the Existentialist Feminism
that represent in this film. that is represented in this film.
7 Language is the most important of Language is the most important of
human’s component life and its existence human’s component life and its existence
is complemented the process of complemented the process of
communication communication (or= The process of
communication is complemented by its
existence)
8 ...although telling stories can be uses for ...although telling stories can be used for
teaching tenses, ... teaching tenses, ...
9 ...this study was hold at Kindergarten ... ...this study was held at Kindergarten ...
10 Today, literary works not only can enjoy Today, literary works not only can be
by reading it, but also... enjoyed by reading it, but also...
11 This research uses theories of Theories of O’Grady are used in this
O’Grady... research /Instead of: The writer uses
theories of O’Grady... (active voice)
12 ... inflection is expresses primarily by ... inflection is expressed primarily by
means of affixes. means of affixes.
13 This study used descriptive qualitative in Descriptive qualitative is used in
analyzing semiotics ... analyzing semiotics ...
14 The approach uses in this study is The approach used in this study is
descriptive qualitative descriptive qualitative
15 The primary data in this study take The primary data in this study were
from the Dark Field novel by alan Glynn taken from the Dark Field novel by alan
Glynn
16 The data was collected by using some The data were collected by using some
ways, such as interview, observation, and ways, such as interview, observation, and
test. test.
17 All data which is analyzed in this study is All of the data (which are) analyzed (or
classified based on Freud’s Theory = to be analyzed) in this study are
classified based on Freud’s Theory

Discussion
 18

There are 17 data of misformation errors. As the theory suggests, misformation refers
to “the use of the wrong form of structure”. Most of this type of errors found were caused by
students’ lacking in grammar knowledge. Seven out of seventeen errors (sentence 1, 3, 5, 6,
10, 11, 13) were caused by students’ misunderstanding about passive or active sentence.
They still cannot see clearly the different between them. In those sentences, they have put the
important part - the issue being discussed, at the beginning of a sentence to be a subject;
however, the sentences were still in active forms. They failed to use the passive construction
that is (be+past participles). Five sentences (sentence 8, 9, 12, 14, 15) were identified to have
errors in using verb forms. Four sentences (2, 4, 16, 17) contain errors in subject-verb
agreement, that is, in using singular or plural forms of verb ‘be’. In sentence 7, the phrase’ its
existence’ is the agent of active sentence. The object has not been reversed into subject. It
should be: The process of communication is complemented by its existence. Misformation
errors are also caused by students’ first language interference and translation. There are some
items such as ‘to be ‘(is, am, are, was, were, been, be) and auxiliary ‘do, does, did’ that do
not exist in students’ native language.
4.4 Misordering Errors
No Students’ Errors Corrections
1 How the main character is described in How is the main character described in
the Importance of Being Earnest Film? the Importance of Being Earnest Film?
2 How is the writer developed plot in How is plot developed in Devergent
Devergent Film? Film?

Discussion :
The least errors made by the students were misordering type. Misordering errors are
mainly caused by translation, that is, when students try to transfer their L1 into L2 they are
likely to make errors. In sentence 1, students misunderstand between the order of a question
and a statement. In questions, the verb’be’ must come just after question words. If it is placed
after the subject, it become a noun clause, and it sounds statement .In sentence 2, the subject
should be ‘plot’ and the word’ the writer’ is not necesarilly included as it is clear that it is the
writer who developed the plot.

V. CONCLUSION
 19

Writing thesis proposal as one of the scientific writing genre requires not only
correctness in paragraphing, spelling, and punctuation, but also appropriateness in using
grammar. Using passive are often prefered in scientific writing to show that the information
is empasized or more important. Based on the collected data from students’ thesis proposals
in research methodology class of different interest , most students have used passive
sentences in writing their thesis proposal. However, they still made errors which can be
classified into addition, omission, misformation, and misordering. There are 43 data of
students’ errors found with the four different types. Eight sentences are identified as having
addition errors, 16 are marked to contain omission error, 17 misformation error, and two (2)
misordering errors. The most errors occured are misformation types, followed by omission,
and addition. This means that the students need to learn more about the rules and the
construction of passive sentences.
Regarding to the causes of errors, the addition errors are mostly caused by translation
and first language interference. These occured when students tried to translate their L1 into
L2. The omission errors, on the other hand, are caused mostly by students’ carelessness.
Fourteen out of sixteen errors of this type occured because the students forgot to include ‘to
be’ in their passive sentences. While misformation errors , most of them were caused by the
use of the wrong form of structure. The last type, misordering errors were mainly caused by
translation when students tried to transfer their L1 into L2. Some students misused the order
of a statement to a question.

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