The Use of Grammatical and Mechanical Error Analysis Approach: Basis for a Writing Improvement Program for Student Journalists

This study aimed to develop a writing improvement program for student journalists in Doña Concepcion H. Umali Elementary School. It utilized a case study approach using errors analysis in English written tasks of the target participants. Written tasks were used as the main instrument in this study. A total of twelve (12) student journalists who were chosen purposively served as participants in this study.  Results show that subject-verb agreement is the most committed error by the participants; second is the usage of a preposition; third most committed grammatical error refers to tenses; fourth is word order, and the last on the ranks among the grammatical errors committed by the participants involved pronouns. Capitalization ranked first among the three common mechanical errors identified in this study; second on the list is punctuation; and last rank is spelling. Based on these results, a writing improvement program for student journalists was developed. The study mainly focused on analyzing the errors committed by the participants through the use of Grammatical and Mechanical Error Analysis (GMEA) Approach which served as the basis for the development of a writing improvement program for student journalists. Through this study, root causes of participants’ poor writing were analyzed. While through the study’s output, student-journalists may develop reasonably good writing skills in English language.