Analysis of Writing Mistakes in University Student’s Essay

Abstract

This research aimed to know about writing mistakes involving capital and italic letters in university students’ essay, especially capital and italic letters. The method of this research was qualitative descriptive. The data collected for this research consisted of writing mistakes involving capital and italic letters in university students’ essay. The technique of data analysis adopted in this study was a constant comparison. This study found that of 62 essay students analyzed, there were 132 capital letter writing mistakes that were divided into seven types: 1) incorrect capitalization in the first letter of sentences; 2) in writing someone’s name; 3) in writing the name of a lesson; 4) in writing title; 5) in the middle of sentences; 6) in writing abbreviation and acronym; and 7) in writing words that stand for abbreviation. Meanwhile, in italic writing, mistakes occurred only when students were writing foreign terms that remain written with an upright letter. This numbered to 123 mistakes. The results of this analysis indicated that there were still many common mistakes made by students, so in the future, there should be a follow-up so that similar mistakes do not