Writing is a productive skill that requires grammatical accuracy, particularly in syntactic construction. Despite prior exposure to grammar and writing courses, many EFL students still make syntactic errors in academic texts. This study aims to identify and classify the types of syntactic errors found in English essays written by third-semester students in the English Education Study Program at Universitas Mahasaraswati Denpasar. A qualitative descriptive method was implemented to analyze 32 essays produced. The study applied the Surface Strategy Taxonomy by Dulay et al. (1982), which categorizes errors into omission, addition, misformation, and misordering. To determine syntactic structures, theories from Crystal and McLachlan (2002), Finch (2003), and Morley (2010) were used. The findings reveal that syntactic errors occurred at the word, phrase, clause, and sentence levels. misformation and omission were the most frequent types across all levels. These results highlight the need for improved grammar instruction focused on syntactic function and sentence construction.
Dewi et al. (Wed,) studied this question.