Grammatical and Mechanical Error Patterns in Investigative Reports of Criminology Students

This study examined the grammatical and mechanical error patterns in investigative reports written by third-year criminology students at North Eastern Mindanao State University – Cantilan Campus during the second semester of Academic Year 2025–2026. It specifically identified the morphological, syntactic, lexical, and mechanical errors present in students’ spot and progress reports and determined the most frequently occurring category of errors. A descriptive quantitative research design was employed using error analysis to evaluate students’ written outputs. The investigative reports were systematically analyzed, and frequency counts and percentages were used to determine the distribution of errors. Findings revealed that mechanical errors, particularly punctuation and capitalization, were the most frequently occurring errors, followed by lexical errors related to word choice and word form, while morphological and syntactic errors occurred less frequently. The results suggest that students experienced greater difficulty in applying formal writing conventions and selecting appropriate discipline-specific vocabulary rather than in constructing basic grammatical structures. The study concludes that targeted instructional interventions are needed to improve students’ writing accuracy, especially in mechanics and vocabulary use, and recommends the integration of contextualized and ESP-based writing activities to enhance competence in producing clear and professional investigative reports.