INTRODUCTION
Successful academic writing in each discipline is greatly valued as a measure of preparation for professional world after graduation. However, in the contrary, academic writing is also considered as the most challenging task for second language learners. It is because the problems one may face in academic writing in second language are more complicated than skills tasks of other skills (listening, reading, and speaking). In second language writing, the problems are but also caused by the lack of language knowledge. Language is the arch that carries meaning, without knowing how to build the arch nothing can be delivered.
One of the problems that are regarded as the most stressful problem in academic writing for both students and teachers is grammatical errors. Many types of grammatical errors abound in college student writing; therefore, it is a usual but crucial problem. Teachers effort many ways to help the underprepared students to eliminate the grammatical errors in their writing like by giving some correctness, editing, and comments. But, it seemed ineffective due to it would be an extremely time-consuming task. Then, teachers hope that students would read these comments and went back to learn from the correctness. However, the question is, was the time well spent? Was this really effective?
In this case, teachers feel obligated beginning from correcting every sentence-level they see to make an effective program to revitalize students’ capability in producing their paper. There is an answer towards such program. Much research has argued that remedial teaching is benevolent for helping students’ disabilities including becoming effective self-editors and reducing grammatical errors. This program have some and particular steps, methods, alternative actions, special strategies to revitalize students’ writing and help them to get higher achievement. Thus, in this position paper, the writer would like to introduce, analyze, and reflect on such issue, problems and debates in this topic. In other words, responding and examining the position of many authors and researches arguments are the objectives of the writer.

CONTENT
This section elaborates the literatures that are related to the topic of the study. The discussion focuses on several aspects such as Definitions of Grammatical Errors, Some Types of Common Students’ Grammatical Errors, An Overview of Academic Writing, An Overview of Remedial Teaching, and Some findings of the previous studies on Remedial Teaching in Academic Writing.

A. Definitions of Grammatical Errors

Corder (1967) states that making the clear differences between error and mistake is important in order to understand students’ inter-language and their learning process. So, teachers should analyze the errors and its roots to be rectified. The theory of Behaviorism believes that the first language competency will influence the learning process of second language one (psychology as transfer). By that, students are always affected by their first language which make the writing are filled with errors and poor.
According to Brown (2000), a “mistake” belongs to an action of errors which come from stress and doesn’t show in pattern, while “error” is a randomly pattern. Errors can’t be revitalized by mistakes can be by changing the environment of learning. He also argues that “the study of speech of learner is largely the study of errors of learner”. In short, error is regarded as a natural human behavior. Recently, it is also considered as a disease that requires a treatment to solve the failure of competence.

B. Some Types of Common Students’ Grammatical Errors

As James (1998) has pointed out, he identifies errors to Modality, Medium, and Level. Modality occurs when student’s behavior is productive or receptive. Medium shows written or spoken language which is produced by students while Level has three criteria:
1) Substantial errors: misspelling which indicates mechanical errors including punctuation errors.
2) Text errors.
3) Lexical errors that directly different to grammar and cannot be generalized into rules

According to a research of The Grammatical Morphemes Errors produced by the students of English Department, states that the most often error occurs is “addition”. Then “omission, misformation, misordering and blends”. In analyzing and classifying the types of errors, the author of the research used a theory of English Grammatical morphemes related to function words by Lesley Jeffries (2006) and Target Modification Taxonomy by Carl James (1998).
Bryan Clark has also written five grammatical errors that make students dumb to realize us some usual but chronic grammatical errors. In order to build an effective communication from the writing we made, the five mistakes that should be aware:
1. Your Vs you’re
2. It’s Vs Its
3. There Vs Their
4. Affect Vs Effect
5. The dangling participle
It might be exceptional writing because it will damage the writing’s structure and produce misunderstanding.

C. An Overview of Academic Writing

Academic writing is highly different to Senior High School one. However, a good competence in High School writing will be benevolent for students in college writing. (Writing for College).It is a written educational context, made of academic community, and also produced with academic ways. So, what are the ways that make our writing becomes academic? Having a great attention to the lecturer’s guidelines will position students about relevant study and observation required. Next, understanding the aim that the paper will be delivered to those reads or applies the study. It gives the readers a well-informed opinion about a subject.
As Naning Pranoto states in Academic writing Vs Creative Writing, academic writing is a writing activity to meet academic or study’s needs in educational institutions where the writer are studying. The forms of academic writing can be a paper (long essay), paper-works, minithesis to fulfill a partial requirement to bachelor degree, thesis (for getting a higher degree above bachelor one. All of them have the same methodology in the process of writing. The characteristics of academic writing are: a) it is a non-fiction based paper, b) made to academic purposes, c) supported by research and references, d) written in formal style, d) using many terminologies, whereas “Creative Writing” are: a) based on fiction or imagination, b) made for entertainment, c) it is optional whether supported by research and references or not, d) written in informal language.
In Brown (2001), it is said that writing is like swimming. He states that psycholinguistic Eric Lenneberg (1967) once noted in a discussion of “species specific” human behavior that human beings universally learn to walk and to talk, but that swimming and writing are culturally specific, learned behaviors. We learn to swim if there is a body of water available and usually if someone teaches us. As to write, we learn if we belong to a literate society, and usually if someone teaches us. Just like in swimming, there are also non-writers, poor-writers and excellent writers in writing. How good a person can write depends on how good he is in performing every step during the process of writing. Hedge (2000) stated that the process view of writing sees it as thinking, as discovery. Writing is the result of using strategies to manage the composing process, which leads to the development of text.
Writing involves a number of activities: setting goals, generating ideas, organizing information, selecting appropriate language, making a draft, reading and reviewing it, then revising and editing it. For many second language writers, the process of writing is not easy. Not only they have to think about the content of their writing, they also have to consider the language aspect like vocabulary and proper grammar to use in their writing. The process of writing is not just lengthy it is also very complex job.
The article titled Argument for Implementing Remedial Teaching of Writing Ability to Freshmen of Senior High Schools, Vocational Schools and Five-Year Junior Colleges covers the aspects that beginning from the basic ideals, teaching objectives, principles for implementation to the steps. Firstly, the basic ideals tell the characteristics and importance of writing ability. Those are:
1. Writing ability is the principal idea to meet all the modern life requirements related to proficient and indicating a special extent national’s and education quality.
2. Writing ability is the main qualified tool to express every aspect of subject ideally.
3. Writing ability is the national language teaching in every education level as teacher’s duty.
4. Reading and Writing guidance will develop writing ability.
5. Students’ individual variety is teacher’s important attention.
6. Every education level has different characteristic of writing’s exams nature.
D. An Overview of Remedial Teaching

The significance of error analysis becomes highly useful due to teachers will get proper information from list of items for constructing remedial teaching. Remedial teaching itself is not a new issue in teaching-learning. It is designed based on the lower-marked students needs using alternative strategies so grammatical errors in students’ writing can be exploited and rectified.
It is a requirement to consider and meet the students’ need, abilities, and weaknesses as the basis of remedial teaching. Implementing remedial teaching also would be effective to solve the problem of students beginning from the root level.
Both students and teachers should aware of the crucial role of remedial teaching to reach a higher achievement. A great attention and hard efforts are demanded to encourage students in increasing their performance. Giving much more chances and practicing a lot are also very useful to help them to be the effective self-editors to errors they produce.

E. Some Findings of the Previous Studies on Remedial Teaching in Academic Writing
Moses (2001) in The Structural Drill in remedial Teaching proposes “the best solution” is to exploit the grammatical errors that often occur, find out alternative tasks, and drill the students in appropriate ways.
To resolve this problem, teachers should be focus on the students who will be given a remedial teaching these steps: 1) Asking the students to repeat the main and important materials by guiding and motivating them to practice a lot, 2) Providing and making other materials which easier also clearer to be understand by the students, 3) Providing more time to discuss and answer the students’ disabilities individually or in a group, 4) Asking the students to try alternative strategies in learning which make them feel comfort, 5) Using some other methods like discussing, doing tasks, models or working in a group. In the end of remedial program, it is aimed that students will get higher achievement in academic writing which are grammatically acceptable and accurate especially filled with minimum success, for example 75% or 80%.
Some steps of developing remedial teaching program which is adopted by M.Enteng titled Langkah Penyusunan Program Remedial suggests teachers to have these sequent planning:
a. Identifying students who will be given remedial program to have more definite data about student’s problem, their weaknesses, and also the factors. The students are required to repeat main materials with teacher’s guidelines and try to get another alternative activity. Basically, problem’s factors can be divided into 2 sides, internal factor like student’s difficulty in learning, and external factor such as negative attitude towards teachers or parents. Thus, each of them has own solution to be solved.
b. Making appropriate alternative action based on characteristic of student’s difficulty.
c. Evaluation of remedial teaching to measure how far remedial program improves student’s achievement and fulfills minimum success level on grammatical correctness. However, diagnosis, prognosis and next remedial teaching will be held if the target failed.
Then, the steps of remedial teaching are making some components:
• The objectives of remedial program.
• Decision of remedial main materials.
• Effective strategies by teachers. These can be tasks given, discussion, working in groups, etc.
• Time, place, and frequency of remedial teaching.
• Medium and tools which are used in the process of remedial teaching.
• Evaluation of remedial teaching success.
• Analysis towards the students’ achievement
.
CLOSING

English is regarded as the most popular foreign language even second language in many countries. In order to be a successful writers, hard efforts and special strategies are required both students and teachers. Due to the fact that academic writing is also considered as the most stressful task, and students’ paper are filled with grammatical errors teachers are obligated to help them rectifying the errors as effective as possible. Many researches have been conducted to find out the success of remedial teaching. As a result, remedial teaching has a high standard of success and proves that students’ grammatical errors can be revitalized. The treatments to grammatical errors made by students probably take many different forms. However, remedial teaching is the most effective and largely applied treatment to rectify the grammatical errors.

By: Rini