A study on common errors in writing paragraphs of english majored freshmen at tay do university

TAY DO UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF LINGUISTIC AND LITERATURE

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

A STUDY ON COMMON ERRORS
IN WRITING PARAGRAPHS
OF ENGLISH- MAJORED FRESHMEN
AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY
Supervisor: Dang Thi Hanh,M.A Student’s name: Vo Nguyen Phuong Linh
Student’s Code: 1652220201028
Class: English 11A

Can Tho, MAY 2020


A Study on Common Errors in Writing Paragraphs of English- Majored Freshmen
at Tay Do University

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
To complete this report, the reporter would like to send the sincere thanks to
all instructors of the English Faculty at Tay Do University.
In particular, the reporter would like to send it to the instructor –Miss. Dang
Thi Hanh, who has devotedly guided to complete the internship with the deepest
sincere thanks.
Because of the limited knowledge, in the process of completing this report, the
reporter cannot avoid mistakes; the reporter hopes to receive comments from
instructors.

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A Study on Common Errors in Writing Paragraphs of English- Majored Freshmen
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................... i
COMMENTS .................................................................................................. ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................... iii
ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................v
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................1
1.1. Rationale ...............................................................................................1
1.2. The significance of study ......................................................................2
1.3. The organization of study .....................................................................2
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW .........................................................3
2.1. Definition of writing .............................................................................3
2.2. The importance of writing skill ............................................................4
2.3. Difficulties in writing skill ...................................................................5
Perception of Difficulties in Writing .............................................5
Behaviour (Perceived Difficulties)................................................5
Environment ..................................................................................5
2.4. Definition of a paragraph ......................................................................6
2.5. Definition of paragraph writing ............................................................6
2.6. Definition of error .................................................................................7
2.7. Definition of error in writing ................................................................7
2.8. Classification of errors..........................................................................8
Word Choice................................................................................10
Spelling ........................................................................................10
Grammar ......................................................................................10

Repetition ....................................................................................11
Subject-verb agreement ...............................................................11
Lack of article..............................................................................11
Verb form ....................................................................................11
Comparative adjective .................................................................11
Demonstrative adjective ..............................................................12
Possessive noun .........................................................................12
Parallelism .................................................................................12
Preposition .................................................................................12
Run-on sentences.......................................................................12
Sentences fragments ..................................................................13
2.9. Previous studies ..................................................................................13

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CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH AIMS – RESEARCH QUESTION HYPOTHESIS ..........................................................................................................15
3.1. Research aims .....................................................................................15
3.2. Research Question ..............................................................................15
3.3. Hypothesis ..........................................................................................15
CHAPTER 4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...........................................16
4.1. Design .................................................................................................16
4.2. Participants .........................................................................................16
4.3. Instrument ...........................................................................................16
4.4. Questionnaire ......................................................................................16
4.5. Interview .............................................................................................17
4.6. Procedure ............................................................................................17
CHAPTER 5. EXPECTED OUTCOME .......................................................18

REFERENCE .................................................................................................20
APPENDIX A ................................................................................................23
APPENDIX B ................................................................................................26

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A Study on Common Errors in Writing Paragraphs of English- Majored Freshmen
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ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to analyze and understand common errors in
writing paragraphs of English- majored freshmen at Tay Do University. The subjects
used for this study are 30 students of English-majored at Tay Do University. This
research is done using a survey to conduct research. The study design was done by
collecting and analyzing data through the analysis of the samples. After the
investigation, the results indicated that errors in writing paragraphs of Englishmajored freshmen at Tay Do Univerisity are various, such as: Errors of using tense,
passive voice, active voice, Errors of using preposition, Errors of using article, Errors
of using adjective and adverb, Errors of misplacing adjective and adverb, etc.,
After collecting the errors based on these findings, therefore, the following
recommendations are forwarded. The freshmen of Tay Do Univerist should pay full
attention to grammar as they develop their paragraphs, and teachers need to focus on
grammar when they teach students to write articles and give feedback on students.

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A Study on Common Errors in Writing Paragraphs of English- Majored Freshmen
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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
In recent years, learning English has been more concerned by many people
such as young people, parents, and educators, students, kids, etc, They are well aware
of the importance of practicing English in writing skills in their life. Similarly, Tay
Do University also has activities to train and practise the English writing skills for
English- majored freshmen. Practicing English writing skills is also one of the main
activities of Tay Do University because of the increasing demand for English skills
of the university and businesses after students graduate.
In the process of writing English, English- majored freshmen are aware of the
importance of learning how to write, how to choose the proper word base on the
circumstance, the grammar, etc., from which their writing skills are gradually
improved. However, in this process, especially when writing paragraphs, Englishmajored freshmen cannot avoid making mistakes while practicing writing English
skill. In this paper, I would like to mention about common mistakes in the process of
learning to write English paragraphs by students at universities in general and at Tay
Do University in particular.
Besides, when researching on the topic, I found that English- majored
freshmen of Tay Do University made some mistakes when writing English such as
singular and plural errors; words; verb and subject compatibility; error of harmony
between the subject and the sentence completion component; error of word order;
errors of articles; error of word type; typos; error in verb form; capitalization errors;
error in missing word; preposition errors and punctuation errors, etc.,
For this reason, I choose to do research on the topic “A study on common
errors in writing paragraphs of English- majored freshmen at Tay Do University”.
This research is carried out with the hope that the research results will provide certain
linguistically useful practical knowledge for teachers and students who are dealing

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A Study on Common Errors in Writing Paragraphs of English- Majored Freshmen
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with the English writing skill at Tay Do University. Through this study, I hope it is
helpful for these people to improve skill in writing an English paragraph.
1.2. The significance of study
As mentioned above, English is a significant subject for students at
universities today. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills are essential
requirement of English learners. Of the four skills above, writing is considered one
of the required and most demanding skills. As stated above, the careful study of things
requires students to practice continuously, fix their mistakes, or mistakes in the
writing process, and students must always be aware of common mistakes when they
write their paragraph to improve the writing skills. This paper will help students learn
about the common mistakes they made while practicing writing paragraphs. I think
when students identify these mistakes, they become more aware of them and improve
their writing skills.
This study also helps the majored freshmen of Tay Do University understand
the difficulties in writing paragraphs. Beside the teacher understand these mistakes
and they can guide students to focus on the mistakes that are often mad and helps
students to improve their skills. This research paper can also be one of the references
for more intensive courses.
1.3. The organization of study
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Literature review
Chapter 3: Research aims – Research question – Hypothesis
Chapter 4: Research methodology
Chapter 5- Expected outcome

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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Definition of writing
There are various opinions of writing given by different researchers. Each one
has their own idea about writing.
Tribble (1996, p.3) considers writing as a language skill involving not just a
graphic representation of speech, but the development and presentation of thought in
a structured way.
Byrne (1988, p.1) considers writing as the act of forming graphic symbol only
such as letters or combination of letters. Writing is coding a particular message or
idea by writing it in the form of a systematic series of sentences.
Besides, Sokolik (2003, p.88) defined writing as a physical and mental act. It
means that writing requires writers to commit words or ideas and to convent ideas,
think about how to express them, and organize them into statements and paragraphs.
She also considers writing is a process and product, and writing aims at expressing
and impressing. The writers have to generate ideas, organize, draft, edit, read, re-read
to produce a product- a paragraph, an essay or a report and writers try to express their
ideas, feeling to impress their readers in certain ways.
Writing involves many different aspects. According to Roger, G, D. Phillips,
and S. Walters (1995, p.113), writing involves seven aspects. They are handwriting,
spelling, punctuation, sentence construction, organizing a text and paragraphing, text
cohesion and style. All aspects are carefully considered by any writers.
As White and Arndt (1991) defines, writing is a form of problem-solving. It is
a process that involves creating ideas, discovering ideas based on plans for writing,
planning, setting goals, tracking. Evaluating what will be written and finding ways of
writing that language to express the exact meaning.
Based on the definitions mentioned above, we can understand that writing is a

process that involves generating ideas, writing ideas in the order of a sentence, and
modifying these ideas for one's own purposes. A person with excellent writing skills

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must include such factors as a writer who must have adequate knowledge of grammar
rules, vocabulary items, and logical connections.
2.2. The importance of writing skill
Writing is essential. It brings about a lot of advantages for the writter to
express one’s personality; foster communication; develop thinking skills; make
logical and persuasive arguments; give a person a chance to re-evaluate them later;
provide and receive feedback and prepare for school and employment.
According to As Way (2010), he says writing is important because it is used
extensively in higher education and in the workplace. If students don’t know how to
express themselves in writing, they won’ be able to communicate well with
professors, employers, peers, or just about anyone else. Much of professional
communication is done in writing: proposals, memos, reports, applications,
preliminary interviews, e-mails, and more are part of the daily life of a college student
or successful graduate. Writing has a unique position in language teaching since its
acquisition involves a practice and knowledge of other three language skills, such as
listening, reading and speaking. Moreover, it requires mastering of other skills, such
as metacognitive skills.
Learners need to set an objective for their writing, plan it carefully, think over
its layout and logical structure, revise it …..In the process of writing they have to use
cognitive skills; they have to analyze their sources and then synthesize them in a
compact piece of writing. One of the best ways to attract students to writing is to let
them write at the beginning of the learning process as freely as possible and evoke in

them the feeling of creativity. Creative writing obviously can play a crucial role in
the development of writing skills
Maley (2009), emphasizes the following benefits of writing, that is: it aids
language development at all levels: grammar, vocabulary, phonology and discourse;
it requires learners to manipulate the language in interesting and demanding ways as
they attempt to express uniquely personal meanings. It requires a willingness to play
with the language and it concentrates more on the right side of the brain, with a focus

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on feelings, physical sensations, intuition and musicality; it also affords scope for
learners who in the usual processes of formal instruction are therefore often at a
disadvantage.
2.3. Difficulties in writing skill
As the author mentions about the writing brings a lot of advantages for people.
Nevetherless, learners are often overwhelmed when asked to complete a writing task.
Even at the beginning, some learners will have difficulty getting started. We find
down some reasons why the writing is difficult for them.
Perception of Difficulties in Writing
Among some of the top reasons why students hate writing are they have
insufficient groundwork and this can develop into insecurity and frustration.
Secondly, students often feel that essay writing is a subject that has “no answers.”
This is true because there can be answer keys to essay questions but the actual
marking scheme of the essay can only be done by the writing teacher. Next, due to
the uncertainty, some learners hate writing because they have a fear of failure.
Contrary to popular belief, a piece of good writing needs not have high number of
vocabulary words nor is time consuming.

Behaviour (Perceived Difficulties)
According to Petersen (2015), perceived difficulties can stem from difficulties
in perceived difficulties in punctuation, language use and also writing skills.
Problems in punctuation include problems in using full-stops, question marks,
exclamation marks, comma, colon, semi-colons and many more. Problems in
language use include problems in using appropriate type and style of language in
writing, use of synonyms/antonyms, use of tense, word order and many more. Finally,
problems in writing skills include problems in spelling, summarizing, paraphrasing,
using in-text citation, and many more.
Environment
Often, the learners’ like or dislike towards a learning process in the classroom
would depend on factors like teachers’ language proficiency, and methods of

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teaching, medium of instruction. According to Solagha (2013), learners are also
affected by lack of interest (or vice versa) towards the subject.
2.4. Definition of a paragraph
There are various definitions of a paragraph but in general a paragraph can be
understood including topic sentence and supporting sentences (if necessary) to make
the main idea clearer.
According to Oxford Advanced Genie (2002), a paragraph is “a section of a
piece of writing, usually consisting of several sentences dealing with a single subject.
The first sentence of a paragraph starts on a new line”.
But Alice & H. Ann (1996, p.2) think that “A paragraph is basic unit of
organization in writing in which a group of some related sentences develop one main
idea. A paragraph can be as short as one sentence or as long as ten sentences. The

number of sentences is unimportant. However, the paragraph should be long enough
to develop the main idea clearly”.
Besides, Feist (1996, p.6) reckons that “A paragraph as a group of sentences
that develop a single idea. We write in paragraphs to make the organization of our
ideas clear to our reader. If you think about paragraph writing as a step-by-step
process, it will help you sort through the confusion. The first step of the writing
process is to gather your ideas and facts”.
2.5. Definition of paragraph writing
The fundamental unit of compositions is paragraphs and it plays a vital role in
learning an language. Many researchers have given out definitions of a paragraph
with different points of view. According to Al- Hamash and Younis (1985), “A
paragraph is a group of sentences concerned with one idea”. In other words, Oshima
and Hague (1999) further indicated that “A paragraph is basic unit of organization
Journal of Education in writing in which a group of some related sentences develop
one main idea. A paragraph can be as short as one sentence or as long as ten
sentences. The number of sentences is unimportant. However, the paragraph should
be long enough to develop the main idea clearly”. It was also supported by Langan’s

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A Study on Common Errors in Writing Paragraphs of English- Majored Freshmen
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theory (2000, p.5), “A paragraph is a short paper of around 150-200 words. It
usually consists of an opening point called a topic sentence followed by a series of
sentences which support that point”. In academic English, besides the elements of
unity and coherence, a paragraph has three principal parts. These three parts are the
topic sentence, the body sentences, and the concluding sentence. One can see this
structure in paragraphs whether they are narrating, describing, and comparing,
contrasting, or analyzing information. The researcher will talk briefly about details in

paragraphs below. A well-organized paragraph supports or develops a single
controlling idea, which is expressed in a sentence called the topic sentence.
Generally, paragraph will be related to the specific topic of the paragraph and
help explain it more clearly. Feist (1996, p.23) also stated that the supporting
sentences were the sentences, phrases, and these included the ideas related to the
topic. Therefore, it is important that these sentences should be organized in the best
possible order.
2.6. Definition of error
Error is the state or condition of being wrong in conduct or judgement.
(www.oxforddictionaries.com)
According to Merriam Webster, error is the amount of deviation from a
standard or specification. Error means an act involving an unintentional deviation
from truth or accuracy. In fact, errors in language learners’ performance including
writing process have long become the subject of interest among teachers, linguists
and syllabus planners. The linguists particularly are preoccupied in finding
reasonable explanations for occurrence of errors and their implication towards the
learning and teaching of a language. Brown (1980) argues that making errors in
learning is unavoidable.
2.7. Definition of error in writing
Many previous studies give different definitions of error in writing. As Crystal
(1999, p.108) defines, error in writing is the writing of an unacceptable form, created
by someone who is learning the language, especially the foreign language.

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Moreover, James (2001, p.62) points out that error in writing refers to the
study of linguistic errors, researches on what people do not know, and how they try

to cope with their ignorance.
For AbiSamra (2003), error in writing is defined as a type of linguistic
focusing on errors made by language learners. Ridha (2012, p.26) views error in
writing as “the process of observing, and analyzing deviations of the rules of
language and writing systems operated by learners”.
Finding and analazing the errors is also very important. It helps the learners to
avoid the mistake again and agian. According to Hasyim (2002), he says to find down
the errors is to obtain information on common language learning difficulties, such as
a teaching aid or preparation of instructional materials next time.
2.8. Classification of errors
Similarity, there are many studies and arguments about the erros. Below are
some arguments about the errors and the clasification of errors.
Brown (1994) and Connor (1996) group errors into two categories. They are
those errors that result from the mother language interference which are external, and
those which result from interference from the second language system itself. The first
category is caused by inter-lingual transfer. Inter-lingual transfer errors are errors
caused by the interference of the learners’ mother language. Brown (1994, p.224)
states that especially in the early stages of learning a second language, before the
system of the second anguage is familiar; the mother language is the only previous
linguistic system upon which the learner can draw. The error occurs as a result of
familiarity with the mother language. Therefore, there is a transfer effect whether
directly or indirectly of the mother language to the new language. When parallel
features of the two languages correspond exactly, there is a positive transfer from
mother language to second language. When they do not correspond exactly, there is
a negative transfer, that is, interference (Ho, 1973)
According to Richard and Schmidt (2002), errors can be classified into the
main parts of learners as follows: vocabulary errors, grammatical errors, format type,

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etc., or Ellis (1996) says errors are caused when learners provide irregular structures
which is not the same as the target language structure, while not being aware of the
rule restrictions involved in an inappropriate context.
According to research results of some foreign authors such as Darus &
Subramaniam (2006); Bitchener, Young & Cameron (2005), there are many types of
errors that students often make in English writing skills. They are: singular and plural
errors; words; verb and subject compatibility; error of harmony between the subject
and the sentence completion component; error of word order; errors of articles; error
of word type; typos; error in verb form; capitalization errors; error missing word;
preposition errors and punctuation errors.
In particular, the authors also pointed out the six most common errors in
learners' posts: errors of singular and plural; error of using articles; error of using
words order; errors of verb and subject compatibility; preposition errors and sentence
structure errors.
In another study by Hengwichitkul (2006) and Runkati (2013), errors were
classified at the sentence level, such as errors of subject-verb compatibility, verb
tenses, errors of sentence structure, and expressions. verbs, relative clauses, passive
sentences, parallel architectures, punctuation, or errors about convictions that are
incomplete or sentences that are too long. The second error is a word-level error, such
as a mistake in articles, prepositions, inappropriate word selection, or noun and
number errors.
According to Huynh Minh Hien and Trinh Quoc Lap, the errors that amateur
students often make in writing skills are errors at the sentence level such as errors
using the wrong, errors using the wrong sentence structure, failures of not expressing
ideas clearly, word-to-word error, repeated word error in a short paragraph,
punctuation error. Error at word level is error of using words with similar meanings,
errors of word types, spelling errors (word spelling).

Errors are categorized according to their features by Dulay, Burt and Krashen
(1982) into six different categories: omission of grammatical morphemes, double

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A Study on Common Errors in Writing Paragraphs of English- Majored Freshmen
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marking of semantic features, use of irregular rules, use of wrong word forms,
alternating use of two or more forms, and misordering.
Ellis (1996) also added that imperfect rule implementation occurs when
learners fail to develop fully structured, while misconceptions appear when learners
misunderstand differences in target language.
To understand the errors, it is conluded the classification as follow:
Word Choice
Word choice is most frequently simply embarrassing for the writer, as in the
common confusion of affect. To avoid this error, the learners have to use the
dictionary every time they write.
Example:
Error: Today fast food is popularized all over the world.
Correction: Today fast food is consumed/enjoyed/sold all over the world.
Spelling
Spelling is irregular and even many native-speaker adults have difficulties
with it. Spelling mistakes do not usually prevent the reader from understanding what
the writer is trying to say, but they can create a negative impression.
Example 1:
Error: acommodation
Correction: accommodation
Example 2:
Error: acheive

Correction: achieve
Grammar
The next type of error commonly made by students. Learners do not often
choose the correct English verb tense for expressing an idea or do not use it in its
proper form. They may fail to use the articles (a/the) correctly or place words in the
wrong order in a sentence.

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Repetition
Repetition is the act of repeating or restating something more than once. In
writing, recurrence can occur at many levels: with individual letters and sounds,
single words, phrases, or even ideas. Repetition can be problematic in writing if it
leads to dull work and make the sentence sound not nice.
Subject-verb agreement
The verb does not agree with the subject. Subject omission: The subject is
missing in the sentence.
Example:
Error: We was best friends.
Correction: We were best friends.
Lack of article
It is happen in writting many times.
Example:
Error: For example: someone has a disease. They search for it on Internet.
Correction: For example, someone has a disease. They search for it on the
Internet.
Verb form

An incorrect form of the verb has been used.
Example:
Error: I go to the office yesterday
Correction: I went to the office yesterday.
Comparative adjective
The comparative form is not correct; the students did not use a comparative
form where it was required.
Example:
Error: If I learn a second language, finding a job will become more easy for
me.

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Correction: If I learn a second language, finding a job will become easier for
me.
Demonstrative adjective
The wrong demonstrative adjective was used ( this/that, these/those).
Example:
Error: Do you see these books over there?
Correction: Do you see those books over there?
Possessive noun
The apostrophe + s (,s or s‟) was misplaced or omitted.
Example:
Error: My two sister's cars had been stolen.
Correction: My two sisters' cars had been stolen
Parallelism
In a series of elements, these are not presented in a parallel form.

Example:
Error: He enjoys playing football, to swim, and visit his friends.
Correction: He enjoys playing game, swimming, and visiting his friends.
Preposition
Prepositions are often one of the most difficult aspects of English for speakers
of other languages to learn. It is rarely to have a sentence without one preposition.
Kreidler (1966, p.119) emphasized the significance of this word class since "every
elementary course in English makes provision for teaching the common
prepositions…"
Example:
Error: The flight will depart in 8:00 am.
Correction: The flight will depart at 8:00 am.
Run-on sentences
Two independent clauses that have been run together without an appropriate
conjunction and/or mark of punctuation between them.

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Example:
Error: She tried to sneak out of the house her mother saw her leaving.
Correction: She tried to sneak out of the house, but her mother saw her leaving.
Sentences fragments
Sentence fragments are incomplete sentences that do not have one independent
clause.
There are three common types of errors with incomplete sentences:
Sentence lacks subject:
Example 1: With one dollar can buy a bowl of pho in Vietnam

The Sentence requires both the main words and verbs:
Example 2: After listening to his joke, she laughing out loud
The Sentence requires main clauses:
Example 3: Going out with my friends and feeling happy
2.9. Previous studies
A number of studies have been conducted to investigate on common errors in
writing paragraphs of English.
Zawaherh (2012) investigated the writing errors committed by tenth-grade
students who were studying at Ajloun governorate schools-Jordan. The sample of the
study consisted of 350 students selected randomly from a group of schools in Ajloun.
They were asked to write an essay about “a journey to the ancient city of Jerash in
Jordan” in an ordinary English-language exercise in the class. The results of the study
showed that the most dominant error among tenth-grade students in Ajloun schools
was lack of agreement between the subject and the main verb. Also, the results of the
study suggested that the cause of students’ writing errors might be attributed to Arabic
interference.
Crystal (2016) defines discourse as “a continuous stretch of language larger
than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit”. Error offered as an alternative to
Contrastive Analysis, has its value in classroom research. Dulay and Burt [25]
proposed the three categories of errors: developmental, interference and unique.

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Simbwa (1987) investigated the causes of syntactic errors in the English essays
among Taiwan university students. The sample of the study contained 94 males and
14 females’ students of the academic year 1985. The participants were chosen
randomly from four schools in Kambala (the capital city of Uganda). The results of

the study showed that the predominant errors among male students were prepositions,
pronouns and tense. The most predominant error type for females was prepositions.
Salebi (2004) investigated Saudi college students’ perception of their errors in
written English. They had attended an error analysis course where they were taught
how to identify, classify, and describe errors in English committed by secondlanguage learners. The result showed that most of the learners made the errors during
learning process and that is a part of learning and students can avoid.

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CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH AIMS – RESEARCH QUESTION - HYPOTHESIS
In this chapter, I introduce the purpose of this research, the question is
designed to conduct this research and hypothesis.
3.1. Research aims
During studying at Tay Do University, English majored freshmen and I have
faced many difficulties in practicing the writing skills of English paragraphs.
Therefore, the goal of this research is to understand and investigate the common
mistakes in writing English paragraphs encountered by English freshmen. After
finding out the common mistakes of writing English paragraph, the interview will
help to find out some suggestions to improve English writing skills.
3.2. Research Question
The research is conducted to deal with following questions
Which common mistakes have been made by students when writing English
paragraphs?
Which suggestions can help them to improve their writing?
3.3. Hypothesis

Based on the literature review and the research questions above, it is
hypothesized that these students have a lot of difficulties during writing the
paragraphs. From the hypothesis, some suggestions are made for the English-majored
freshmen of Tay Do University to improve their writing skills.

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CHAPTER 4
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter will describe the design of this research paper, the participants
of the research paper, and the instruments to carry out this research paper.
4.1. Design
The research is performed to find out the common errors that English-majored
freshmen have faced in writing paragraphs. The reliability and validity of the research
are based on the instruments. To achieve the above mentioned purpose, the Englishmajored freshmen were chosen the sample to the survey. The data from the
participants would be collected through the questionnaire and interview for students.
The collected information of these two instruments would be analyzed to show the
common errors in writing paragraphs.
4.2. Participants
In this study, 30 freshmen of Tay Do University majoring in English course
14 are chosen. Of the 30 freshmen, majoring in English there were 20 female students
and ten male students. The age of the students is from 19 to 21 years old. They have
been learning English more than 7 years. Students speak Vietnamese as their mother
tongue and English as a foreign language. They had been learning to write paragraphs
at the university.
4.3. Instrument

In order for this survey to proceed well, questionnaire and interview were used
to collect participants’ ideas about common mistakes in writing English paragraphs.
The reason the author chose the questionnaire were because the questionnaire can
provide the fastest answers for students as well as the author about the problems
encountered by these students. Besides, the author also had a quick interview with
students to test the solutions to improve their English writing ability.
4.4. Questionnaire
Before conducting the survey, the author explored the common mistakes
students made during writing student passages. The references to create this survey

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A Study on Common Errors in Writing Paragraphs of English- Majored Freshmen
at Tay Do University
were taken from books, previous studies by scholars. After identifying common
mistakes, the author set up a questionnaire in 13 questions. The structure of the table
is implemented as follows:
Group

Question

Questions from 1 to 5

Background of participants.

Questions from 6 to 9

Importance of writing skills.

Questions from 7 to 18

Catergory of common errors in writing.

4.5. Interview
In the process of collecting information using the already created
questionnaire, the author asked some questions to interview these students. The main
questions is to get advice on how to improve common mistakes in learning English
writing. According to this student's method, which method is best for them.
4.6. Procedure
Regarding the procedure of this research, I divide the procedure of the work
within 12 weeks as follows:
Week
Week 1 – 2
Week 3 – 5

Week 6 – 9

Week 10 – 12

Activities
Designing the framework of the research.
Designing the questionaire and some questions for the
interview.
Make the survey by 2 instruments.
Collect the information from these 2 instruments.
Analyze the data based on the collected information.
Completed the paper.

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A Study on Common Errors in Writing Paragraphs of English- Majored Freshmen
at Tay Do University

CHAPTER 5
EXPECTED OUTCOME
After surveying the topic "A study on common errors in writing paragraphs
of English- majored freshmen at Tay Do University," the researcher collected a lot of
relevant information from English- majored freshmen at Tay Do University. The
researcher learns about how problems are encountered while learning to write in
English. Some difficulties encountered were discussed and produced results. Firstly,
the study reveals the most frequent error types the students made. The greatest
number of errors that occurred in this study belong to four categories: Errors made
by using tense, Errors made by Passive voice, Errors is made by active voice, Errors
is made by using preposition, Errors is made by using article, Errors is made by
misplacing adjective and adverb, etc., .
The research is made help the researcher have the overall of common errors
that students made. It helps the researcher understand the students’ overall
performance, the specific errors the participants made frequently make help to clarify
what the students’ learning difficulties are.
Besides, when the researcher interviews the English- majored freshmen at Tay
Do University, these students said their writing may have been related to the language
structures of the students’ first language: Vietnamese. They also said regarding the
errors of paragraph organization, the students are lack access to the theory of building
a paragraph such as building a topic sentence, developing supporting ideas, especially
making a concluding sentence so that the paragraph loses coherence. During the
interview with them, they also suggest some solution to deal with the these errrors,
some solutions are suggested for students such as the teachers should should be
flexible and effective techniques of error correction and pay much attention to their

students’ errors. Besides, there should be more practical writing tasks for students in
order to reduce errors in their writing.
In conclusion, making common in writting errors is inevitable in language
learning process. Errors provide feedback about the effectiveness of techniques and

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A Study on Common Errors in Writing Paragraphs of English- Majored Freshmen
at Tay Do University
show that the student needs further attention. Therefore, students are also expected to
take responsibility for their own learning and become aware of their own strategies.
They are also often encouraged to carry out self-evaluation in order to further their
learning and regulate their language learning and language using skill.
To sum up, knowledge of error analysis is helpful for language performance.
It also improves a process of learning writing. It is clear that students’ ability to
communicate in writing will be better if they recognize how to avoid errors
effectively and how to arrange information logically. It is hoped that the results can
be of some help not only for students to be aware of the importance of writing in
English so that they can improve their writing skills.

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