AN ANALYSIS OF SENTENCE FRAGMENT IN

JUNIOR SECONDARY STUDENTS’ DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Submitted as a Partial Requirements for the Final Semester of Writing VI

by:
Indah Setia Ningrum
Stu. ID C1.17180009

ENGLISH LITERATURE PROGRAM

STBA SEBELAS APRIL SUMEDANG
2020
 RESEARCH PROPOSAL

A. Background of The Study

Barnet and Stubbs (1990) stated that writing is an activity which

provides learning and practicing for its learner. Besides, it can be a media to
pour the ideas, and also to produce the ideas (Ramdani & Saun, 2013).
Writing is one of English language skills that should be mastered. Usually,
in Indonesian formal school, English writing is introduced start from junior
secondary level. Therefore, it is very important for students to develop the
ability in writing skills, first, because it is one of the basics learning at
school, second, because it is used for communication, and the last it will
help to get a future job.

School is a facility to conduct learning the basis of writing skills.

There, students will be taught about the type of writing. Harmer (2010)
argued that there are two main categories of writing, writing-for-learning
and writing-for-writing. Writing-for-learning aims to give the ability of
practicing and working the language which have been learnt by the students
at class, such as grammar, text structure, and writing process. In writing-for-
writing, students will be able to apply the language written in all genre of
texts in order to develop their skills.

English is one of international languages so that people all over the

world can communicate using English. Certainly, in communication, people
need media to convey ideas and needs. One of media used for
communication is in the form of written. It can be a letter, memo, or social
media. The information given in the written communication must be clear,
uncomplicated and precise to make the reader catch it. It is also must be
written in detail because the reader may not give the feedback directly
(Prabavathi & Nagasubramani, 2018).

Developing English writing in early level will also make people

sharpen the skills. Nowadays, there are a lot of job which need good English
writing candidates so that writing skill will be helpful for making references
which must be presented in a composed format. There are also many
professions in writing field which can be a chance to get future job, such as
writer, journalist, media marketing and so on. Therefore, it will bring more
benefits if the students at the early or secondary level have already
mastering English writing skills.

English writing is a good learning for students. It is useful to be

sharpened at school because students need the basic of writing which is
given by the teachers. It is also good for communication which can unite the
differences among countries in this globalisation era. Finally, it will make
future life easier because the students will be able to compete in the
international level of job field.

The first way for students, especially at the secondary level, to get the
benefits of English writing mentioned above is to keep follow learning the
basic at class. Teacher will give several texts that have to be learnt by
students as the basic of writing. It can be in a form of functional and
monologue texts. The form of functional texts are notice, greeting card,
short message, invitation, announcement, and advertisement. Whereas,
monologue texts can be in a form of procedure, descriptive, narrative,
recount, and report (Ramdani & Saun, 2013).

Usually, the first text introduced to the students is descriptive text.

According to Keraf (1981) in Hambali (2016), descriptive text defined as
telling the characteristics of an object in form of written base on the
observation of writer to help readers image the reality of the object. The
other definition of descriptive text is a text in which the content provides a
describing of a person, place or thing. The structure consists of
identification and description (Siahaan, 2013). Identification aims to
introduce the readers the object that will be disscused which, usually, puts in
the first paragraph. Description is a section to describe the properties or
characteristics of the object introduced in previous paragraphs.

Descriptive text is a simple written for students to increase both the

writing skill and sharpness of describing something. Students will be able to
pour the ideas into simple sentences. Students are also taught to use the
senses, such as what shape, sound, and taste it. Most of descriptive text is
about visual experience so that students also can sharpen the sense of sight.

However, the students often find difficulties in writing an English

descriptive text. There are several factors that occur the difficulties, such as
lack of vocabulary, problems in grammars, and developing ideas.

Vocabulary is all words used by a person which have already be in a

language and has meanings in a book for learning a foreign language
(Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary, 2008). The lack of vocabulary caused
by the lack of knowledge. The students have to increase the knowledge
frequently, for instance, by reading a book, article, newspaper, and so on so
that they will collect more vocabularies that can be applied in the written.

Grammar is a set of rules which used to construct words to be a

sentence (Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary, 2008). There is no grammar
in Bahasa so that the students may feel confused when they have to catch all
of the sentence rules in English. Sometimes, it found on students’ work in
simple sentence, such as She have long hair or It do not have fur.
 In describing object, students need ideas to make the description clear
and rich of information. It is hard to be done if the students do not know the
object or it is strange for them. It is the same case as the lack of vocabulary
so that they have to collect a lot of information in order to increase the
description of the object.

Thus, because of various factors mentioned above, the students may

also make various errors in writing texts, includes writing a descriptive text.
The most common errors in students’ writing are sentence fragments,
apostrophes, comma splice, fused sentences, and lack of parallel structure.

Sentence fragment can be defined as an error which formed by an

incomplete sentence and actually it consists of dependent clause. It may lack
of a subject, verb, or both. Sometimes, the meaning can be related to the
previous sentence.

The second error is in using apostrophes. Sometimes, the students or

the other non-native English make an error in apostrophes. For example, to
make a pronoun referring to the subject of a sentence, the writer do not put
an apostrophe like this sentence I don’t believe its finally Monday. Without
the apostrophe, it means belonging to it (Davenport, 2016).

Comma splice is an error of using comma which connected two

independent clauses to be one sentence. Independents clause is a clause
which can stand alone. For example, there is a one sentence with incorrect
comma splice like this ‘She has brown eyes, she is beautiful’. It can be
corrected by subordinating one of the main clauses ‘Because she has brown
eyes, she is beautiful’,or by making each main clause into a sentence ‘She
has brown eyes. She is beautiful’, or by joining the main clauses with a
semicolon ‘She has brown eyes; she is beautiful’, or by joining the main
clauses with a comm plus a coordinating conjunction ‘She has brown eyes,
and she is beautiful’ (Comma Splice and Fused Sentences, 2018, A
Handout).

Another common error is fused sentence. It is a sentence which

consists of two main clauses but has no punctuation. The way to correct it is
same with the correction of comma splice (Comma Splice and Fused
Sentences, 2018, A Handout).

The last common error is lack of parallel structure. It occurs when two
or more parts of a sentence has similar meaning but are not put in parallel
(Davenport, 2016). For example, the incorrect sentence is ‘His hobbies are
swim, jogging, read a book and watching TV’. It must be ‘His hobbies are
swimming, jogging, reading a book and watching TV’.

By knowing the difficulties and errors in writing text above, the

researcher is interesting to make research in one of common errors of
writing in order to analyse the writing ability of the students. Therefore, the
researcher takes a title of this research: The Analysis of Sentence Fragment
in Junior Secondary Students’ Descriptive Text.

B. Scope of Study

In this research, the researcher focuses on identifying one of the most

common errors of students’ writing, that is sentence fragment. By
identifying sentence fragment, the researcher tries to prove that making a
good English sentence must not be carelessly. There are basic rules that
students have to comprehend. To write a good complete sentence is one of
ways the students improving the writing skills earlier. The researcher also
tries to give the correction of the sentence fragment found in the texts so
that the students will be able to write the better sentences in the future.
C. Research Question

According to the scope of study, researcher arranges research

questions as follows:

1. What are sentence fragments found in the descriptive text by the junior
secondary students?

2. What are the type of each sentence fragment found in the descriptive
text by the junior secondary students?

3. How do to correct the sentence fragments found in the descriptive text

by the junior secondary students so that it becomes complete sentences?

D. Purpose of Study

According to the research questions, researcher arranges porpose of

study as follows:

1. To identify sentence fragments found in descriptive text by the junior

secondary students.

2. To identify the type of each sentence fragment found in descriptive text

by the junior secondary students.

3. To know the correction of each sentence fragment found in descriptive

text by the junior secondary students.
E. Benefits of Study

The researcher serves several benefits that can be useful through this
study. First, the reader will know the advantages of writing skills so that it
will be motivated to keep develop the skills. Second, the reader can
understand the promblems and erros in writing served by the reader in the
background section, as a reference to avoid the mistaken in the next writing.
Third, by this paper, the readers will consider that fragment and sentence are
totally different so that it will be useful to help them to practice with a
complete sentence in academic writing. Finally, it will help the reader to
correct the sentence fragment to be a good and complete sentence by the
theory given in this paper. It will provide the readers to be a better writer.
Therefore, by this paper, the researcher hopes that it will bring both
theoritical and practical benefits for the reader.

F. Theoritical Foundation

In this paper, the researcher serves the theories that are related to the
research. Also, the researcher uses several theories to support the research.
The theories used by the researcher are theories of sentence, theories of
sentence fragment, and theories of correcting the sentence fragment.

1. Sentence

a. Definition of Sentence

Hanks (2006) stated that a sentence consists of words which

begin with a capital letters and end with a full stop, question mark, or
exclamation mark when it in a form of written.
 Barkho also (2016) defined an English sentence as a written
which started by a capital letter and ended by a full stop, question
mark, or an exclamatory mark. It consists of subject and predicate. A
predicate constructed by a verb. The sentence may also have an
object, a complement, or an adverb. The whole of a sentence must
produce a complete thought even it in the form of simple, compound
or complex.

Sentence is devided into simple, compound and complex

sentence. A simple sentence consists only one clause which expresses
one complete thought. A compound sentence consists of two
independent clauses which expresses one complete thought. A
complex sentence consists of two or more clauses with one clause
stands as an independent clause which expresses one complete
thought (Barkho, 2016).

b. Structure of A Sentence

Aarts and Aarts (1982) stated that the structure of a sentence is a

network of relation between the words of a sentence. A sentence
consists of constituents which build up a construction. That are two
factors which determine the structure of a sentence, word order and
the individual meanings of the word or word-group.

Word order refers to the way words are arranged in a sentence, it

entails the differences of the structure and the meanings, for example
(1) He wanted to marry Jane, (2) He wanted Jane to marry. In (1) the
sentence constructed by the subject He, the predicate wanted to
marry and the predicator Jane, whereas in the (2) the sentence
constructed by the subject He, the predicate wanted, and the
predicator Jane to marry. They also have different meaning, the (1)
 means that the subject wanted himself to marry Jane, whereas in (2)
the subject wanted Jane marry other person.

The second factor is individual meanings of the word or word-group,

for example, (a) She was waiting for two friends, and (b) She was
waiting fot two minutes. Both last words are different and contribute
different meaning. that the structure of the sentences are different can
be seen from the fact that there is a close relation between waiting
and for in (a), but in (b), there is a relation for and two minutes.

2. Sentence Fragment

a. Definition of Sentence Fragment

According to Linebarger et al. (n.d), a fragment is the basic structure

which syntactically has no an obligatory elements like a complete
statement. The other definition of sentence fragment is an incorrectly
punctuated word group which written as a complete sentence, starting
with a capital letter and ending with a period or the other puntuation.
When a complete sentence containts a subject, a predicate and
functions as an independent clause, a sentence fragment lacks one or
more of these elements so that it functions as a dependent sentence
(Murray & C, Anna, n.d)

According to the handout entitled Sentence Fragment (2018), the

sentence fragment can be in a form of phrases, subordinate clause, an
appositive, compound predicate.
b. Phrase

Phrase is a group of words which combine and make a unity (Newson

et al., 2006). Matthews (2007) also defined a phrase as a ayntactic
unit which functions as a larger construction of a sentence.

As a fragment, a phrase can be found in this following example:

Squinting her eyes. The gossip leaned forward. (Sentence Fragment,

2018)

c. Subordinate Clause

Muray and C. Anna (n.d) stated that a dependent or subordinate

clause has a subject an predicate but different from a complete
sentence, that cannot stand alone. Because it has subordination, it
cannot be an independent clause. It can be in a form of adverb clause,
adjective clause, and noun clause.

In an adverb clause, the fragment is introduced by subordinating

conjunctions, such as before, after, because, and so on. For example:
After the final performance. The company celebrated with their
families.

d. An Appositive

According to Longman Dictionary (2002) appositive can be defined

as a noun or noun phrase which occur when two words, phrases or
clauses have the same reference (Satriawan, 2014).

As a fragment, an appositive can be found in this following example:

My father was born in Catarsville. A little country town where

everyone knows everyone else. (Sentence Fragment, 2018)
e. A member ompound Predicate

Compound Predicate is a clause which has two main verb (Sentence

Fragment, 2018). For example: I love and like you.

As a fragment, compound predicate only contist of a part (only a

member of a compound predicate). It can be found in this following
example:

William was elected president of his class. And was made a member
of the National Honor Society. (Sentence Fragment, 2018)

f. Correcting Sentence Fragment

In a handout entitled Sentence Fragment (2018), there are some

techniques to correct the sentence fragment which have been
concluded by the researcher as follows:

1) Eliminating the fragment by making it into a sentence.

Incorret: We had a wonderful time at the lake. Swimming near the

dock and fishing on the barge.

Correct: We had a wonderful time at the lake. We went swimming

near the dock and went fishing on the barge.

2) Including fragment in the sentence.

Incorrect: A railway control board should be constructed with

eare. Because from this broad trains are move through the
system of tracks and switches.
 Correct: A railway control board should be constructed with eare
because from this broad trains are move through the system of
tracks and switches.

Incorrect: I had some definite ideas about college. Although I had

never before been on a college campus.

Correct: I had some definite ideas about college although I had

never before been on a college campus.

Incorrect: My father was born in Catarsville. A little country town

where everyone knows everyone else.

Correct: My father was born in Catarsville, a little country town

where everyone knows everyone else.

Incorrect: William was elected president of his class. And was

made a member of the National Honor Society.

Correct: William was elected president of his class and was made
a member of the National Honor Society.

G. Bibliography

Barkho, L. (2016). Where You May Get It Wrong When Writing English: A
Practical Guide for Students, Teacher and Profesionals. 1st Edition.
Sweden: Jonkoping University.

Barnet, S., Stubbs, M. (1990). Ramdani, V., Saun, S. (2013). Helping

Junior High School Sudents to Write A Descriptive Text Through
Draw-label-caption Strategy. A Journal. Padang: FBS Universitas
Negeri Padang.
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Sebelas April Sumedang.

Davenport, B. (2016). 15 Common Grammar Mistakes That Kill Your

Writing Credibility. Authority Pub. Retrieved July, 3 2020 from
https://authority.pub/common-grammar-mistakes/

Hanks, P. (2006). Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary.

Glasgow: Harper Collins Publisher.

Harmer, J. (2010). How to Teach English. 6th Edition. England: Pearson

Education Limited.

Keraf, G. (1981). Hambali, K. U. (2016). Peningkatan Keterampilan

Menulis Bahasa Inggris Siswa pada Teks Deskripsi dengan
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Linebarger, M. C., Dahl, D. A., Hirschman, L., and Passonnaeu, R. J. (n.d).

Sentence Fragments Regular Structures. Paoli: Paoli Research Center.

Matthews, P. (2007). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics.

London: Oxford University Press.

Muray., and C, Anna. (n.d). GRAMMAR AND MECHANICS Sentence

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Newson, M., Herdy’s, M., Pup, D., Szecsenyi, K., Toth, G., and Vincze, V.
(2006). Basic English Syntax with Exercise. Boksesz Konzorcium:
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Prabavathi, R., Nagasubramani, P. C. (2018). Effective oral and written

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Satriawan, D. (2014). APPOSITIVE FOUND IN THE SHORT STORY

“CLOCHETTE” BY GUY DE MAUPASSANT AND ITS
CONTRIBUTION IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING. A Thesis.
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Writing Descriptive Text. A Journal. Bandung: Universitas Pendidikan
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