Common Errors in Writing Among First Year College Students

Abstract

This study is anchored on the premise that everyone has the capacity to write, teaching can be taught, and teachers can help students become better writers by addressing the errors they commit in conventions important to the readers. It identifies and analyzes the common errors in writing of the first year college students of Philippine Normal University-Agusan Campus in relation to their first language (L1), the type of high school from where they graduated, and their exposure to media and technology in order to streamline English instruction, making it more attuned to the students’ needs in acquiring proficiency in writing. It also determines which categories the errors are commonly committed (content, organization/discourse, vocabulary, mechanics, or syntax) and whether there is a significant difference in the percentage of errors committed by the students according to the categories.