STUDENTS'ERRORS IN USING SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

Simple present tense is the most basic tense that should be mastered by the tenth grade student’s at SMAN 1 Baso. Moreover, descriptive text is one of text types which use present tense. Decriptive text is used by the researcher as the text that let the students apply their ability in using present tense. However, most students still face difficulties in using present tense in writing descriptive text Thus, the researcher conducted the study entitled "Students' Errors in Using Simple Present Tense in Writing Descriptive Text”. The aims of this research were to identify whether students make errors in writing descriptive text in using simple present tense. The study used quantitative as the research method. The population were the tenth grade students of SMAN 1 Baso. Fourteen students were selected from class X.2 as the sample. They were selected by using random sampling. To get the data the researcher used the students' writing test in using present tense in writing descriptive text.
The study was showed that there were still students who make errors when writing descriptive text using simple present tense. Based on the research findings showed that the students make omission errors 12 (23,07%), addition errors 10 (19,23%), misordering errors 5 (9,63%), and misformation errors 25 (48,07%).
Key Words: Error, present tense and descriptive text.