Abstract :
The objectives of this research were to investigate the kinds of errors and the most
dominant error on the use of simple present tense in descriptive writing made by the tenth grade
students of MA Muhammadyah 1 Palembang. This research is designed as qualitative in the
form of research. The subjects of this research were 27 tenth grade students which were chosen
by using purposive sampling. To analyze the data, the researcher collected the data from the
students first, and then identified the errors by circling them, after that the researcher classified
the errors by using surface strategy taxonomy by Dullay, Burth and Krashen (1982), calculated
the data taken, and the last made the percentage in each category. The result showed that there
were 103 items of errors found in student?s writing. The most dominant errors found in
omission with the percentage was 57.28% (59 errors). After that, misformation errors found in
students? writing was 25.24% (26 errors), addition errors found was 11.65% (12 errors), and
the last misordering was 5.82% (6 errors)