An Analysis of Students' Argumentative Texts Writing in EFL Classroom

Abstract

Writing skill is one of four English skills besides reading, listening, and speaking that should be mastered by the students of senior high school. The purpose of this research is to investigate how students’ argumentative texts are composed. The research participants were six eleventh grade students a senior high school in Cirebon who were selected based on their achievement in English. This research used a qualitative approach with a document analysis design involving students’ writing projects as a ample. The result shows that the number and types of errors found in the students’ argumentative essay included  4 errors in the aspect of content, 20 errors in  the aspect of vocabulary, 94 errors in the aspect of grammar, and 54 errors in the aspect of mechanics. It shows that the most number of errors found in students’ argumentative text is grammar with 94 errors in total. In addition, frequent errors were also found in the use of prepositions, where the student misplaced or misused prepositions so as to interfere with the meaning of the sentence. This research recommends that students engage more reading in order to develop knowledge of vocabulary and grammar which will better equip them in writing.