A STUDY ON ERRORS IN USING PUNCTUATION MADE BY STUDENTS OF SMAN 2 TAPUNG IN WRITING NARRATIVE TEXT

Abstract

Abstract: This study discusses student’s errors in using punctuation when writing
narrative text and analyzes what possible causes of errors in writing punctuation in
narrative text which made by the tenth year students of SMAN 2 Tapung. In this study,
30 students employed were taken as the sample of this research. These 30 students
consits of 3 classes, there for classes X1, X2, and X3, each class is taken 10 students.
This study used descriptive qualitative research. The descriptive qualitative data were
collected from the tests by filling the correct punctuation marks in the narrative text that
has been provided. The findings of this study indicate that students still do not
understand the use of punctuation in writing narrative text. The punctuation marks used
in this study are comma, period, capital letter, exclamation marks and question marks.
There are many errors in the use of capital letter. However, in the use of question
marks, students’ abilities can be categorized as good. This phenomena happened
because the students are lack of knowledge about punctuation, and the students still
confused to apply the type of punctuation.
Key Words: Errors, Punctuation, Narrative Text