Problems in Writing English Business Letter: Errors and Factors

Abstract

This study is conducted to identify the problems of error found in English business letter writing and to explain the factors that caused the problems. This study used qualitative method. The data were collected from the English business letter written by third semester of Bina Bangsa Economics students majoring in Management and Accounting. The students were asked to respond a complaint letter from a customer of the given situation. The error category is based on Ferris and Hedgcock model (2005). The researcher identified the problems of error found in the letters and explained the factors that caused the problems to draw the conclusion. The result shows that there are four classifications of error: morphological, lexical, syntactic, and mechanical error. These four classification of errors are divided into eight types: verb, noun, article, word choice, sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. Word choice error was the highest frequency of error type (20.3%) followed by sentence structure error (18.3%), verb error (12.1%), punctuation error (11.3%), noun error (9.7%), spelling error (9.5%). Meanwhile, article and capitalization error shared the same percentage (9.4%). There were three major factors that caused the errors: language transfer, overgeneralization, and context of learning.