Grammatical and Mechanical Error Analysis as Tool in Writing Improvement Program for Student Journalists

Abstract

This study aimed to develop a writing improvement program for student journalists in one elementary school in the Philippines. It utilized a case study approach using errors analysis in English written tasks of the target participants. Written tasks were used as main instrument in this study. A total of twelve (12) student journalists who were chosen purposively served as participants. Results show that subject-verb agreement is the most committed error followed by usage of a preposition, tenses, word order, and the last on the ranks involved pronouns. Capitalization ranked first among the three common mechanical errors identified in this study followed by punctuation and spelling Based on these results, a writing improvement program for student journalist was developed. Through this study, root causes of participants’ poor writing were analyzed. While through the study’s output, student-journalists may develop a reasonably good writing skill in English language.

Keywords

• error analysis
• grammatical errors
• mechanical errors
• writing improvement program