A RESEARCH PROPOSAL

AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ ERRORS IN USING DEGREES OF

COMPARISON ON WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT AMONG THE
EIGHTH GRADE AT MTS RIYADLATUL ULUM BATANGHARI

By:
ALIFA ANGGIARKHARAJMA PUTRI
STUDENT NUMBER 1701070002

TARBIYAH AND TEACHERS TRAINING FACULTY

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTEMENT

STATE INSTITUTE FOR ISLAMIC STUDIES OF METRO

1443 H/2022 M
AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ ERRORS IN USING DEGREES OF
COMPARISON ON WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT AMONG THE
EIGHTH GRADE AT MTS RIYADLATUL ULUM BATANGHARI

Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement

for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikn (S.Pd)
in English Education Department

By:
ALIFA ANGGIARKHARAJMA PUTRI
STUDENT NUMBER 1701070002

Tarbiyah and Teacher Training Faculty

English Education Department

Sponsor : Dr. Widhiya Ninsiana, M.Hum

STATE INSTITUTEFOR ISLAMIC STUDIES OF METRO

1443 H/ 2022 M

ii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. First of all,

the researcher would like to praise to Allah SWT for His blessing so that I can

finished this proposal. This title of this proposal is AN ANALYSIS OF

STUDENTS’ ERRORS IN USING DEGREES OF COMPARISON ON

WRITING DSCRIPTIVE TEXT AMONG THE EIGHTH GRADE AT MTS

RIYADLATUL ULUM BATAGHARI. Thanks also to our prophet Muhammad

SAW, His families and companion.

Regarding to this proposal, the researcher offers her big thanks to the Dr.

Widhiya Ninsiana, M. Hum as the sponsor. May Allah SWT give her His better

reward for her spending time to support and guide during the proposal writing

process.

This concept still has a number of flaws, according to the researcher. The

researcher expresses her regret for any errors she made in her writing and

presentations. All constructive feedback and recommendations are very

appreciated in order to assess the quality of this proposal research, which can be

beneficial to the writer in particular, as well as our school and all readers in

general.

Metro, 4 February 2022

The Writer.

Alifa Anggiarkharajma P

iii
 NPM:1701070002
TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER............................................................................................................ i

APPROVAL PAGE........................................................................................ ii

NOTA DINAS................................................................................................. iii

NOTIFICATION LETTER .......................................................................... iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT............................................................................. v

TABLE OF CONTENT................................................................................. vi

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Study....................................................... 1

B. Research Questions.......................................................... 4

C. Objectives and Benefits of the Study............................... 4

D. Prior Research.................................................................. 5

CHAPTER II THEORITICAL REVIEW

A. The Concept of Writing................................................... 8

B. Types of Writing.............................................................. 9

C. The Purpose of Writing................................................... 10

D. The Process of Writing.................................................... 12

E. The Concept of Descriptive Text..................................... 13

F. The Concept of Degrees of Comparison......................... 20

G. Errors Analysis................................................................ 24

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

iv
 A. Type and Characteristic Research................................... 29

B. Data Resources................................................................ 30

C. Data Collecting Technique.............................................. 30

D. Data Analysis Technique................................................. 32

E. Approach.......................................................................... 33

BIBLIOGRAPHY

v
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Study

Language is tool to communicate among people in the world. All the

countries have their own language, for that reason, it needs one language to

act as international language which is used to communicate others around the

world. English is chosen to become an international language. As

international language, many people learn to master English in this

globalization era. Because of that, many schools have their students to learn

English. In order to make the students to understand an English language, the

students have to learn English first.

Many people learn English to catch up to the development of the

world, especially in education, science and technology In Indonesia, English

as foreign language is implemented as one of educational field This is taught

to pupils starting in elementary school and continuing until university.

Therefore, it is very important to master English well. In English, there are

four basic skills which are important in learning English, namely: listening,

speaking, reading and writing. The skills which need a habit to be mastered

are listening and speaking. While, reading and writing are productive skills.

The most complicated skill is writing. Writing is generally known as the most

difficult of the four skills. The difficulty can be seen in organizing the ideas
 2

and the aspects of writing such as grammar, spelling, word choice, and

punctuation.

Charles and Paul stated that writing is a process of inscription, of

inscribing text onto or into some medium. The medium can be on paper, t-

shirts, on electronic, on stone and so on 1. It means that writing can be done

not only on paper but also on other mediums which have been mentioned

before. Writing is also a very important that must be mastered by the students.

Writing performance is to be able to help them to think critically and to

clarify their thoughts. They can discover what they think about people, things,

ideas, issues, and events only in the actual process of writing.

Students must know how to write a text that is both communicative

and correct in order to improve their writing skills. However, numerous

recent studies have discovered that students frequently write incorrectly,

resulting in ambiguity, misinterpretation, and incomprehensible meaning for

the reader. However, in order to create a correct paper, students must grasp

language, one of which is grammar. It can be stated that grammar is useful in

generating precise sentences in order to avoid misunderstandings, confusing

messages, and ambiguity.

Degrees of Comparison is one of the linguistic factors of grammar.

Degrees of Comparison refers to grammatical elements that are used to

compare individuals, things, or places using adjectives or adverbs. In addition

to the vocabulary of adjective and adverb, the exercise of Degrees of

1
Charles Bazerman & Paul Prior. What Writing Does ad How It Does It “An Introduction
to analyzing Texts and Textual Practices”. (London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associaties).
 3

Comparison necessitates unusual concern. Degrees of comparison have

distinguishing characteristics that distinguish them from comparisons

involving an adjective or adverb. Degrees of Comparison are a type of

grammatical variation that is made with adjectives. The different qualities of

thing are generally expressed by the Degrees of Comparison 2. Degrees of

Comparison are depictions of items, animals, or humans at various levels

based on the characters owned.

Based on the results of a pre-survey done at MTs Riyadlatul Ulum's

eighth grade, on 4th October 2021,it can be seen that many students are still

confuse when using degrees of comparison on students’ descriptive writing

and even they don't know what degrees comparison is. There are several

factors that affect why the students still confuse, one of them is the student

don't understand well about how to use degrees comparison. A brief

description of student errors is illustrated as follows:: 1) Lala is more lazy

than Rani; 2) Tomorrow will be more busy than today; 3) Witan’s

pronunciation is badder than Reta’s; 4) Wahyu’s violin playing is gooder

than Rama’s.

The sentences above are all mistakes. Overgeneralization is the term

for these errors. The errors 1 and 2 are seen in italicized words, and they

occur when pupils believe that all adjectives with two syllables should be

prefixed with more and suffixed with than. Other students believe that

adjectives with one syllable have the comparative form by adding the suffix -

2
Hallock, E. J. A grammar of the English Language: For the Use of Common Schools,
Academics and Seminaries. (Madison; Newman & Ivison2010).p.59.
 4

er than in examples 3 and 4. They are unaware that certain words have a

unique comparative form. Those errors should be revised into 1) Lala is

lazier than Rani; 2) Tomorrow will be busier than today; 3) Witan’s

pronunciation is worse than Reta’s; 4) Wahyu’s violin better than Rama’s

Referring from the problem above, so that assumed is they are many

errors. The researcher wants to conduct a research under a title “An Analysis

of Students’ Errors in Using Degrees of Comparison on Writing Descriptive

text Among the Eighth Grade MTs Riyadlatul Ulum Batanghari”.

B. Research Questions

Based on the research background, the problem are formulated as

follows:

1. What are the types of errors made by eighth-grade students at MTs

Riyadlatul Ulum Batangahari when writing descriptive texts utilizing

degrees of comparison?

2. Why the students make errors in degrees of comparison on their writing

descriptive text of at MTs Riyadlatul Ulum Batanghari?

3. How can eighth-grade students at MTs Riyadlatul Ulum Batanghari

reduce their errors in degrees of comparison when writing descriptive

text?

C. Objectives and Benefit of the Study

1. The objective of the Study

 5

The goal of this study is to discover how eighth-graders at MTs

Riyadlatul Ulum Batanghari make mistakes when writing descriptive

texts utilizing degrees of comparison.

2. Benefit of the Study

a. For the student :

1) To know what kinds of problem that he students have.

2) To motivate the students to practice their writing skill.

3) To know what kinds the influence that make the student cannot

use the degrees of comparison

b. For the teacher

1) As information for the English teacher, to know the errors that

the students always make.

2) As information for the English teacher on how to increase the

students ability in writing.

D. Prior Research

There are many research which relevant with this research. The first

researcher is Methania Aris Shusantie with the title “ An Analysis on The

Students’ Mastery of Degrees of Comparison (A Case Study at Second Grade

Students (VIII.10) of SMPN3 Tangerang Selatan)” the aim of this study is to

get a clear information about the students’ mastery of degrees of comparison

at the second grade students of SMPN3 Tangerang Selatan in this

undergraduate thesis, as well as to discuss it. The mastery analysis method

 6

was used in this study. The data was gathered and analyzed using two

methods: a test and an interview.

According to the findings of this study, pupils in class VIII had a low

knowledge of grammar, particularly when using degrees of comparison.

According to the test results, 16.66 percent of students had mastery of

comparative form questions, 33.77 percent of students had mastery of

superlative form items, and 42.105 percent of students had mastery of

discriminating usage of both comparative and superlative degree items. Based

on the findings, it can be concluded that students' motivation, learning styles,

and interests should be increased and altered, and teachers should focus more

on teaching degrees of comparison.

The equation is to analyze the degree of comparison but, in the

research of Methania Aris Shusantie, her research focused on analyzing

comparison of adjective, but in this research focused on analyzing the degrees

of comparison in descriptive text, at eighth grade of MTs Riyadlatul Ulum.

The second research is the research of Ira Ihsanudin with the title

“Improving Students’ Understanding on Degree of Comparison of Adjective

Through Contextual Teaching and Learning (Classroom Action Research in

the second year of MTs Daarul Hikmah Pamulang)”. The purpose of this

study was to increase students' comprehension of degree of comparison of

adjectives using Contextual Teaching and Learning at MTs Daarul Hikmah

Pamulang's second year. The 28 pupils that took part in this study were all in

the eighth grade. Classroom Action Research was the method used in this
 7

study. The research revealed that the students' capacity to compare adjectives

improved as a result of the study. At the end of each cycle, the majority of

pupils had improved their scores. In the first cycle, the average score was

61.75 percent. In the second cycle, the average score was 72.85%.

Furthermore, it was discovered that 39.28% of students actively participated

in the first cycle and 89.28% of students happily participated in the second

cycle. The classroom environment was also quite pleasant during the teaching

learning process. Additionally, the kids and English teacher both expressed

satisfaction with the implementation activity. Finally, contextual teaching and

learning can improve students' grasp of adjective degrees of comparison as

well as their engagement.

This study's equation is to talk about degrees of comparison. The

difference is in the method used; in Ira Ihsanudin's research, he focused on

improving students' understanding of degree of comparison of adjectives

through contextual teaching and learning, whereas this study focused on

analyzing degrees of comparison in descriptive text, at MTs Riyadlatul

Ulum's eighth grade.

The relevan research above stimulates the writer to conduct the

research to analyze the degrees of comparison in writing descriptive text. This

research is done in the eighth grade of MTs Riyadlatul Ulum.

 CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL REVIEW

This chapter will discuss some relevant theories which are relevant to the

research. The researcher presents an overview of the concept of writing, the

rationale for writing,

A. The Concept of Writing

There are four main abilities that pupils must learn when studying

English. One of them is working on a piece of writing. Students must acquire

the talent of writing since it is a productive skill. According to Richard and

Renandya, writing requires a wide range of skills, including spelling,

grammar, and word choice. Simply said, writing is a skill that combines a

variety of abilities, including spelling, grammar, and word choice.

Vicki and Monette stated that writing is about expressing knowledge,

you want your students to express their knowledge as thoughtfully and clearly

as they can3. It means that writing can be used for the students to express

their feeling freely.

According to Key, writing is an interaction between writers and

readers adds a communicative dimension to writing 4. It means that writing

can be used as a communication tool between the writer and the reader.

3
Vicki Urquhart & Monette Mciver. Teaching Writing in the Content Areas. (USA:
ASCD.20005)p.23
4
Ken Hyland. Teaching and Researching Writing. (London: Person Education. 2002)p.30
 30

Oshima and Hogue, argued that writing is usually to explain or to

persuade5 In other words, writing has a function in order to explain or

persuade the reader about something that the writer's write.

Based on statement above, it can be inferred that in writing a person

can arrange letters, words, sentences, and paragraph by using the knowledge

of structure systematically in written forms and hopes the reader understand

what he means. In general, the purpose of all writing are to communicate

information or ideas and provide details about a certain subject or topic.

B. Types of Writing

There are four different sorts of writing styles:

1. Narrative

The styles of writing that tell a story are known as narrative

writing. A narrative is a written account or description of previous events

that follows a chronological or cronological order. In other words, a

narrative text is one that takes place in the past. Fictional novels, plays,

and even narrative summaries can all benefit from this style of

writing.Narrative writing is the types of writing that tell a story.

2. Descriptive

Descriptive writing is used to describe people, places, and things.

It concentrates on a single topic and describes it in great depth. It

signifies that a descriptive text is one in which the contents describe the

items being shown or given information about.

5
Oshima, Alice & Hogue, Ann. Writing Academic English. (New York: Addison Wesley
Longman. 1999)p.15
 31

3. Exposition

Expository writing is the paragraphs that based on fact and

argument of expert. Expository writing lacks descriptive information and

personal perspective. In other words, exposition is the text that the

contents based on the fact or opinion.

4. Argumentative

Argumentative is vital form of human cognition. Argumentative

normally involves identifying relevant assumptions and conclusions for a

given problem being analyzed. Furthermore, it often involves identifying

conflict, resulting in the need to look for pros and cons for particular

conclusions. The argumentative gives the information about conflicts,

and the people or the reader are forced to deal with the resulting

inconsistencies6.

C. The Purpose of Writing

Penny Ur. Said that the purpose of writing in principle is the

expression of ideas and the conveying of messages to the reader. So the ideas

themselves should arguably be seen as the most important writing aspect 7. It

means that the purpose of writing is an activity to share the information of

thoughts to other people.

6
Besnard Philippe and Anthony Hunter. Elements of Argumentation, (USA: Library of
CongresCataloging-in-Publication Data,2008),p.1
7
Penny Ur. A Course in Language Teaching : Practice and Theory.London : Cambridge
University Press. 1996).p.163
 32

Whitaker also explain the purpose of writing are to persuade, analyze/

synthesize and inform8, as follows :

1. Persuasive Purpose

The goal of persuasive writing is to persuade readers to accept the

ideas presented. The writer poses a question that must be answered in this

piece of writing. The writer then responds with compelling reasons to

persuade the readers to rethink their minds. This persuasive writing

includes argumentative.

2. Analytical Purpose

This type of writing frequently entails investigating causes,

examining effects, evaluating effectiveness, evaluating solutions to

issues, determining the relationships between diverse concepts, or

analyzing the arguments of others. The goal of analytical writing is to

explain and assess viable solutions depending on the writer's criteria. Put

together all the part and come up with the writer answer.

3. Informative Purpose

The writer of informative writing seeks to clarify possible

answers while also providing the reader with new facts and ideas about

the issue being discussed. It is different with analytical writing because

the informative writing tries to enlarge the readers' view.

8
Anne Whitaker. AcademicWriting Guide: A Step-by Step Guide to Writing Academic
Papers. (Slovik: City University of Seattle.200) p.2
 33

D. The Process of Writing

Writing is a process of transferring ideas in written form. According

to Kate, there are six stages in process of writing9 as follows:

1. Getting ideas In order to write something, people need an ideas. The

ideas can come from many ways. It can come from experiances, books,

internets, and so on. Because ideas come from human's mind, it means

that ideas cannot be restricted

2. Choosing ideas

After getting ideas, a person needs to choose the ideas Usually,

someone is able to write something because he or she writes the things

that he or she likes. And after that the person makes a list of the things

that he wanted to write and choose the best one.

3. Outlining

Outline is a general description which involves primary points

or even notion about something. Outline is able to make one possible to

see whether all the ideas which will be included are complex enough.

4. Drafting

In drafting process, one should concentrate on getting his ideas on

paper, organizing his information logically and developing his topic for

the reader and purpose

5. Revising

9
Kate Grenville. Writing from Start to Finish (a step-step guide). (Australia: Allen &
Unwin: 20110.p.11
 34

Revising involves several activities that have to do in one time,

such as: adding few words, moving things around, or cutting things that

do not belong. Revising can fix spelling, grammar and sentence

6. Editing Revising focuses mainly on making one's content clear for the

readers while editing focuses on making his documents meet the

conventions of stands written English, so that one should check about

grammar, sentence structure, word choice, punctuation, capitalization,

spelling, citation, and document format.

E. The Concept of Descriptive Text

1. The Definition of Descriptive Text

One of the text types or genres is descriptive text. According to

Anderson, a factual description identifies a specific person, location, or

thing. In other words, in this composition, a specific person, place, or

item is described in great detail 10. Descriptive text is a text that describes

the characteristics of an item, an animal, or a person. Its goal is to explain

and expose anything, a people, or a place.

Moreover, descriptive writing, according to Corder, is a tactic for

providing a linguistic portrait of a person. A thing or a location. It can be

used as a supplement to other types of writing or as the primary tactic for

forming an image of what something looks like11. As a result, descriptive

10
Mark Anderson. Text Types In English (New York ; Macmillan Education. 2003) p.26
11
S. P Corder. Error Analysis Interlanguage. (London; Oxford University Press. 1990).
p. 163
 35

text is a sort of writing that incorporates the description, feature, and

description of a location, object, or people.

Furthermore, Wishon defines descriptive words as a type of

writing that is used to describe a tale, acts, or occurrences. It will be used

to construct a visual imagination of people, places, and events that occur

inside a unit of time, day, and reason. It could also be used to indicate

something other than a person's outward appearance. It could reveal

information about their personality or character qualities 12. Writing

descriptive text entails composing text that describes persons, places,

objects, or things.

A descriptive text describes a person, place, or thing. Its objective

is to reveal and describe a certain person, place, or item. 13. The goal of

writing is to paint a picture or provide a description of something. By

putting the anything's felt, voice, flavor, sight, and look into words,

description recreates the sensory impression. Emotion could also be used

to describe "feelings as happiness, fear, loneliness, gloo, and joy."

2. The Purpose of Descriptive Text

The goal of descriptive prose is to provide the reader a vivid

picture of a person, place, item, or event. Description is used by the

authors to influence others to feel or act in certain ways. As seen in the

12
Wishon. Writing for Teacher . (London: Oxford University Press 1980). p. 33
13
Boardman Cynthia Jia Frydenberg. Writing toCommunicate. (New York: Prantice
Hall. 2001) p. 19
 36

examples below, description allows us to entertain, transmit feelings,

retell events, inform, and persuade.

Purpose
To entertain
To express feeling
To relate experience
To inform (for a reader
unfamiliar with the subject)
To inform (to create a fresh the
appreciation for familiar)
To persuade (to convince the
A description of a decaying
reader that some music videos
musical composition.
degrade woman)
Table 2.1 Purposes for Description14
Description
A hilarious portrayal of a teen's
room
A characterization of your
greatest outside refuge, along
with an explanation of why you
adore it.
A description of your childhood
house to emphasize the hardship
you experienced as a youngster
For a reader who has never seen
a newborn calf, a description of
one is provided.
An apple is described to help
readers rediscover the pleasures
of this simple fruit.

Although it can be used for Although description can be used for

a variety of objectives, it is most commonly utilized to describe feelings,

so it is frequently used to help writers share their thoughts. As humans,

we are driven by a deep desire to share our experiences and connect with

others.

3. Kinds of Descriptive Text

14
Barbara Fine Clouse. Patterns for a Purpose. (NewYork : McGraw - Hill Companies,
Ic, 2003).p102-103.
 37

Descriptive text, as we all know, is a text that is used to describe

something, such as people, places, or things. The following are some

quick explanations:

a. Description of person

Every person is one-of-a-kind, and as a result, they are all

different. When characterizing someone, you might inquire "how or

what they look like." Identification, impression, and character sketch

are three various ways to describe someone depending on the

situation.

1) Identification

Only certain statistical information (length, weight, and

year), physical traits (hair, skin, and eyes), and distinctive

markers are used to identify someone (scars. birthmark)15.

2) Impression

The impression, unlike the identification, does not define

personhood but does offer an overall impression of him or her.

Many information may be lacking, despite the fact that an

impression is usually less thorough and informative than an

identification. effective in capturing an individual’s striking or

distinctive trait.16

3) Character sketch
15
Michael E Adelstein Jean G Pival. The Writing Commitment. (Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, Inc. 1976)p. 149
16
Michael E Adelstein and Jean G Pival The Writing Commitment (Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, Inc. 1976).p.150
 38

Character sketches are more detailed portrayals of

persons; they are also known as biographical sketches, artistic

portrayals, and profiles. A character sketch, as the name implies,

depicts a person's character, or at the very least his or her key

personality features. Identification and an impression may be

part of the procedure.

b. Description of a Place

In describing In a descriptive paragraph, there is no pattern

for grouping phrases. This is not necessary to begin with one region

and then go on to another. The description must be structured in such

a way that the reader can visualize the scenario being described.

According to Smalley and Ruetten, you can include a governing

notion that expresses an attitude or feeling about the areas being

described to make the paragraph more engaging, and the order in

which you describe the facts is determined by your topic and

purpose.

c. Description of a Things

A good imagination is required to describe something.

Furthermore, proper nouns and effective verbs can be used to make

our subjects more attractive to our readers:

 39

1) Using proper noun

To add precise specifics to our descriptive writing, we

may wish to use a number of proper nouns, such as the names of

specific people, places, and things that the readers are familiar

with and can recognize easily, such as Arizona and the

University of Tennessee.

2) Using effective verb

We all know how crucial verbs are in narration, but they

can also add a lot to a description piece. To make descriptions

more specific, accurate, and intriguing, writers employ. "The

wind chiseled deep grooves into the sides of the cliffs," for

example, is more precise than "the wind produced deep

grooves." The verb chiseled also provides a more accurate

image of the wind's movement than the verb created.

4. Generic Structure of Descriptive Text

General formula is something that should be included in any text

genre. It separates one text from another. Identification and description

are important aspects of descriptive text's generic structure.17. The basic

structure of a descriptive text is the following elements:

a. Identification

The term "identification" refers to the process of identifying

the phenomena that will be explained. It establishes who or what

17
Mark Anderson. Text Types In English. (New York; .Macmillan Education. 2003). p.62
 needs to be described18. The identification is frequently presented in

the first paragraph to introduce the reader to the topic that will be

discussed in the next paragraph. It can also be a term or a form.

b. Description

Description's purpose is to describe parts, attributes, and

characteristics. The writer goes into great detail regarding the issue

in this section. It's used to back up identification. A description is a

sequence of paragraphs on a subject, each of which usually starts

with a topic phrase that highlights the information that will be

delivered in the following paragraph.

5. Language Features

Aside from the generic structure, genre has language qualities that

serve as a guideline in composing every aspect of the text's generic

structure. It is concerned with grammatical properties.

a. Concentrate on specific individuals, such as my English instructor,

Andini's pet, or my favorite location.

b. Use of simple present tense

c. Verbs of being and having relational processes for example: my

mom is really cool, she has long black hair.

18
Sarie D, Journal of English Language Teaching, Vol. I no 2, Maret
2013.
 d. Use of descriptive adjective, functioning to provide more

information to a noun by describing or modifying it. For example:

strong legs, white fangs.

e. Use of a specific noun phrase to provide details about a subject, such

as "extremely lovely scenery," "a nice young woman," and "very

thick fur."

f. Use of action verbs to describe "material processes," such as "it

consumes grass" and "it runs swiftly."

g. The use of adverbial phrases to provide more information about the

subject's trait. An adverbial phrase is a phrase that starts with a

preposition and ends with another phrase that shows place, time,

purpose, and so on. For instance, if you're in a tree house and you're

in a hurry

h. Use of figurative Language, for example: John is as white as chalk.19

An example of descriptive text can be found here.

My Favorite Cafe

A modest cafe down the street from where I live is my favorite place

to unwind. This cafe is located on a quiet side street, and it entices

you to enter as soon as you notice it. On either side of the door, there

are three windows, each with a little table that runs the length of the

room. Despite the fact that it is a small room, it is warm and inviting.

I always sit at a little table in the corner near the front windows.

19
Peter Knap,. Megan Watkins. Genre. Tex., and Grammar; technologies. and Teaching
Assesing. (Australia; University of New Wales Press. 2005)p.98.
 From here, I can see the beautiful trees suspended from the ceiling

and the paintings on the pillars. In my favorite cafe, I feel quite

relaxed and joyful with a good cup of coffee and a good book.

F. The Concept of Degrees of Comparison

It's crucial to grasp what degrees of comparison are before diving into

the various sorts and forms of degrees of comparison. There are some

definitions for degrees of comparison, according to various English language

experts.

1. Definition of Degrees of Comparison

It is preferable to define comparison in order to gain a general

idea of degrees of comparison. The ability to perceive and articulate the

idea that two things are similar or distinct is one of the most basic and

powerful human cognitive processes. The degree, extent, or quantity of

such similarity or difference is frequently represented in terms of degree,

extent, or quantity. As a result, comparison is the most common English

construction for expressing degree or amount of similarity or difference.

Various levels of The relationship adjective or adverb describes

the value of one thing to another in another sentence of a phrase. An

adjective may adequately label the same characteristic as a noun (the

positive), compare it to another of its kind (comparative degree), or

compare it to many or all others (comparative degree) (superlative

degree).
 Comparatives are adjectives and adverbs that end in -er (e.g.

bigger, richer, faster) while superlatives are adjectives and adverbs that

end in est (e.g. biggest, richest, fastest), according to Martin Parrot in

Grammar for English Language Teachers.

The positive, comparative, the positive, comparative, and

superlative degrees of comparison are referred to as positive,

comparative, and superlative. (On this page, only comparative and

superlative degrees are displayed.) When comparing two things, we use

the comparative, and when comparing three or more things, we use the

superlative.

According to the preceding definitions, comparison is the practice

of comparing people, objects, locations on basis of quality, quantity,

relationship. Its made up of adjectives and adverbs. However, this

research is limited to comparisons in descriptive text.

2. Kinds and the Usage of Degrees of Comparison

Positive, comparative, and superlative adjective comparisons are

the three types of adjective comparisons.

a. Positive

Positive is now the most basic form of the adjective degree,

which is positive because it has nothing to do with the superior or

inferior attributes of other things. The quality of a person or object is

referred to as positive. It's just the adverbial form. Positive can also
 be used to compare two nouns or verbs that are equal or nearly

equal. On the other hand, when comparing two people or things who

are similar in quality or quantity, we can use as + adjective + as. For

example:

1) Nayla is cliver.

2) My nephew is as old as my brother.

To make a negative comparison, consider two objects

that are dissimilar in some manner. 'Not + as + adjective + as' is

what we use. As an example:

a) Her pencil is not as long as mine.

b. Comparative.

In comparison to anything else, the comparative degree

suggests a higher level of quality. The statement "Anna is taller than

her father" refers to Anna's height being higher than her father's. The

comparative is used when one object or group is compared to

another and separate object or group, according to RW Zandvoort

and J. A. Van Ek in their book. When comparing two people,

locations, or things, the comparative degree is used. Example:

1) Reka is taller than Mela.

2) Vita is less talkative than Kira

3) This book is more interesting than that one

c. Superlative
 When comparing more than two objects, the superlative

degree is employed to emphasize the highest level of quality. When

more than two people or objects are compared, it is the highest or

lowest degree of quality. When one member of a group is compared

to the entire group, the superlative is used (including that member) 20.

For example:

1) Beni is the tallest boy in the class.

2) These wallets are the most expensive of all.

G. Error Analysis

1. Definition of Error Analysis

The fact that "learners can make mistakes and that these errors

may be observed, evaluated, and classed to reveal something about the

system operating within the learner" prompted a spike in "error analysis"

research.21

Furthermore, Brown defined error analysis as "the act of seeing,

analyzing, and classifying violations from the rules of the second

language and subsequently revealing the learner's systems”. 22 "He

described mistake analysis as a strategy for finding, classifying, and

systematically interpreting the undesirable forms produced by someone

learning a foreign language, utilizing any of the ideas and techniques

supplied by linguistics," according to Crystal”.23

20
Michael Swan. Practica. English Usage. (Oxford; Oxford University Press 1980) p144.
21
Brown, 206
22
Ibid.
23
Ibid.
 " Error theory is the review of a driver's licence mistakes in order

to learn about the most prevalent problems that people confront when

speaking or writing English sentences." the writer concludes based on the

definitions above. Another point worth mentioning is the technique for

mistake analysis.

2. The Procedure of Error Analysis

The technique for corrective feedback is quite important. Errors

in analysis wouldn't be accurate and obvious if processes are not

followed. As a result, a student must be familiar with the error analyzis

technique. So kids understand the best way to phrase properly. linguistics

experts have recommended some error analysis approaches. Ellis is one

of them who comes from the linguistics. In his work "Second Language

Acquisition," he discusses error analysis processes such as finding,

characterizing, explaining, and rating errors”.24 In the error analysis, there

were four methods that were extremely significant and required. The

analysis will be less accurate if one of the procedures is missing. Because

these procedures are intertwined, in error analysis, Following the

identification of an error, the writer should first describe the general error

in detail. This enables the readers to see how often pupils make mistakes

with adjectives in descriptive text writing, as well as how far they've

progressed in the target language. After describing the error, the writer

must explain and evaluate it. This shows that the author must be aware of

24
Rod Ellis. Second Language Acquisition. (Oxford: Oxford University Press,1997).p.
15-20
the variety of mistakes learners construct when using adjectives in

descriptive text writing, as well as the reasons why they make them.

Finally, examining the error allows the writer to determine what should

be emphasized or corrected in order to evaluate the students' abilities to

employ adjectives in descriptive text writing. The four approaches are

evidently important and essential in error analysis in order for the data to

be true and valid in the analysis.

As a preliminary step in assessing learners' errors, the researcher

should compare the learner's sentence to what is now the right word in

the speaking skill. If the statement is determined to be erroneous in the

target language or inappropriate for a given situation, the error is

displayed.

The second stage is to describe errors. the errors that have been

found are defined and classified in a table of errors to determine the

frequency of error kinds. Classifying errors in this way might aid the

teacher in analyzing the challenges that students are having with their

target language development.

The third stage is to explain or interpret. It tackles the error types

listed in the column explanation, but identifying the sources of error will

be more challenging because errors can be caused by a variety of factors,

including interference from the mother tongue, overgeneralization, and

error fostered by training resources or techniques.

 Its final phase, which is equally essential, is to evaluate the error.

The educator can select what can be emphasised or viewed unfairly with

their students.

Teachers must examine the faults created by students in their

writing during the fourth step of Ellis' approach. There will very certainly

be many errors in the writing of the students that the teacher will be

unaware of because there are no methods for mistake analysis. As a

result, this process is critical for teachers to understand the errors that

students make in their writing.

In a second language, Corder gives a suitable paradigm for

spotting or unusual utterances. The first step is to recognize and describe

the error. Any statement stated by the learners and afterwards transcribed

can be evaluated for peculiarities, according to Corder's approach. At the

onset, a significant distinction is drawn between "overt" and "covert"

faults. According to the approach, if a credible interpretation of the

sentence can be found in both circumstances, one should develop a

reconstruction of the sentence in the target language, compare it to the

original idiosyncratic sentence, and then analyze the differences. If the

learners' native language is known, the model suggests that translation

could be a sign of native language interference as a source of inaccuracy.

In some cases, however, no plausible explanation is possible, and the

researcher is left with the duty of mistake analysis.25

25
H. D. Brown. Principle. Learning.and Teaching. (New Jersey, Prentice -Hall. 1993)
p.208
 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOLOGY
 This chapter focuses on the research method that will be performed in the

research. There will be the type and characteristic of the research, data collecting

techniques, data analysis technique and approach.

A. Type and Characteristic of the Research

Qualitative research is used in this research. Qualitative is an official

process to find out the cause of something or find out the information in order

to be understood based on the distinct methodological tradition of inquiry that

analyze social and human problem. It means that qualitative is a process to

figure out the information based on the analyzing in social and human

problem in society.

According to Donald Ary, qualitative research focuses on

understanding social phenomena and providing rich verbal descriptions of

settings, situation, and participant26. Based on the description above, it can be

concluded that qualitative research is type research that collects and works

with non-numerical data and that interpret meaning from these data.

Based on Gary Anderson, qualitative research is divided into five

method, those are: Applied, Case Study, Ethnography, Grounded Theory, and

Phenomenology27. The research design is a case study. According to

Cresswell, A context study is a detailed examination of a contained

environment (e.g., an event, an event, a process, or a person) based on

significant data gathering. Generally, case study is useful way to

26
Donald Ary et. al. Introduction to Research in Education 8th Edition. (Canada:
Wadsworth Cengage Learning. 2010).p39.
27
Gary Anderson. Fundametals of Educational Research. (USA: Falmer Press. 1998)
p128
 systematically look at a specific case, collect data, analyze, and interpret

findings within their context and report result.

B. Data Resources

An accurate data is gathered by researcher from qualified sources.

Primary and secondary data are two different types of data resources. Primary

source is data that is gotten directly from the students’ descriptive writing

documents. Secondary source is data that is collected from everything that is

related to this study which can support the research such as: books, articles,

journals, and some relevant documents. One example of a book title related to

this research is The Grammar Book An ESL / EFL Teacher’s Course by

Marianne Celce-Murcia and Dianne Larsen-Freeman.

C. Data Collecting Technique

The researcher uses four collection techniques in collecting the data,

those are:

1. Observation

Observation is an activity that uses the five senses in the form

ofsight, smell and hearing to make observations so the researcher can

obtain the information needed by researchers. Space (location), actors,

activities, objects, actions, occurrences or happenings, time, and feelings

are some of the data gathered by observations. Observations are carried

out by researchers in order to provide a realistic account of behavior or

occurrences, to answer questions, and to assist. Understanding human

behavior and evaluating it, i.e. measuring particular elements and

 providing feedback on the results. In this research uses the overt

observation for data collection technique. The observation is focused on

the application of degrees of comparison in writing class for their writing

task. The observation involves 30 students. During the observation, the

researcher made field notes, video, and picture to be used in analyzing

data phase.

2. Interview

Interview is the meeting of two persons to exchange information

and idea through question and responses, resulting in communication and

joint construction of meaning about a particular topic. It can be

concluded that, interview is a process in order to gain information and

idea from the question and responses by two persons. An interview is

employed in this study to obtain information regarding the students'

blunders in degrees of comparison and also, it will act as secondary

sources. In this research the researcher will interview the English Teacher

and Students.

In this research uses the semi-structured interview. In conducting

the interview process researchers needed the English Teacher and some

students data generated from interviews are for re-checking or evidence

of information and information from the results obtained previously.

Interviews will use to determine the factors of difficulty in using degrees

of comparison on writing descriptive text . Researchers may not only

focus on interview guidelines but focus more on statements or answers

 from students so that the information disclosed by students is easier to

understand and also allows researchers to dig deeper into what is

conveyed by students.

3. Documentation

The researcher can use written documents or other objects to get

an understanding of the phenomenon that will study. In this case, the

researcher uses document techniques in collect the data. Documents can

be an important source of information in qualitative research. Documents

can represent public and private documents.Documentation that is the

researcher get from process of observation, interviews, field notes andfile

from instution.

D. Data Analysis Techniques

In this research, the researcher uses some steps according Johun

Creswell28, those are:

1. Organize and prepare the data for analysis.

This step involves transcribing the interviews, scanning the

materials, and sorting all the materials into different types depending on

the information.

2. Read or look at all the data.

28
John W. Creswell. Research Design 4th Edition. (USA: Sage Publication , Inc. 2014)
p.247-249
 In this step, the researcher reads all the necessaries data, get the

general sense of the information and write the overall meaning.

3. Start coding all of the data.

The researcher in this step starts to process the data by giving the

code that represent the data.

4. Use the coding.

The researcher used the coding process to describe the setting or

people for analysis. The description involves detail information about

people, places, or events.

5. Advanced description.

Apply the narrative passage to convey the findings of the

analysis. It presented a process model, advance a drawing of the specific

research, or convey descriptive information in a table.

6. Making interpretation.

The final step is making an interpretation of the finding result.

These finding results can be based on the researcher interpretation.

E. Approach

Approach is used to solve the problem in this research which is done

in order to arrange the field fact and field summary. In this research, the

researcher used case study. Case study is used to clearly describe a

phenomenon.

Case study has some research procedures, as follows:

1. Determine focused the research and formulating the questions.

The questions must be collected to focus the research. Determining case

and arranging question of the research are the basic of the research.

2. Determining case, collecting and analyzing the data.

After arranging the questions, the writer would determine the case to

research.

3. Supplying collecting data instrument.

Preparing the suitable research instruments was one of the factors that

determine the accuracy of research data.

4. Collecting the data.

After choosing the instruments, the researcher collected the data needed

by the research.

5. Evaluating and analyzing the data.

This is the important process. It is success depends on researcher ability.

There are some techniques to analyze the data. They will pattern-

matching, explanation building and time series analysis.

6. Making report.

To make a research related to a foreign languagea; it is more suitable to

use formal report.

The subject for this research are the student at eighth grade of MTs

Riyadlatul Ulum Batanghari. Case study basically observe the subject

and describe the in narrative form.

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