Written Text of Selected Students: What It Tells about Their English Proficiency

Abstract

The aim of this study was to find out the students’ proficiency in writing and the specific weaknesses in grammar committed by the students. Ten selected students from English Department, Universitas Muhammadiyah Purwokerto were selected as the sample for the study. Analytical scoring device was used to conclude the students’ proficiency in writing. The analytical device has five subcategories: ideas, organization, grammar, punctuation, spelling and mechanics. Each subcategory was counted and described in the number of quantity to tell about the students’ proficiency in writing. Contrastive analysis was used as part of the procedure to explain the occurrences of grammatical weaknesses. The results showed that 75% of students have fulfilled the standard minimum of essay and only 25% of them couldn’t explore their ideas of the task give. 50% of students (5 students) have meet the expectation or they are proficient enough in exploring their ideas of writing, 20% of them were still need improvements and 30% of them were bellow the expectations.The students who met the expectation of writing organization share the same number (50%) with the students who below expectation (50%). No one of them has to exceed the expectation and need improvement in their organization. Fifty percent of students’ essay have met the expectations in vocabulary, and this number is similar with those who still need improvement in vocabulary. The total number of errors made by ten freshman writing composition is 60. The subject verb agreement and preposition contribute the most number of errors.