Abstract
Those responsible for guiding business students in their learning experiences find themselves vitally interested in focusing attention upon those particular areas in which students are generally the least competent and in which they are likely to encounter the greatest difficulties when they find themselves put to the production test in their first vocational opportunity. By analyzing the specific errors made by students terminating their business training, business educators can isolate sane of the critical areas of learning. In this way some of the major incompetencies of students in typewriting production work, involving tasks which would be similar to those confronting an office worker on his initial assignment as atypist, can be pointed out. The technique of isolating critical areas of learning in a skill subject through error analysis was employed in this study. The value of not limiting the study to particular geographical area factors or influences was recognized and a test of national over-all coverage was selected for the error analysis. The National Business Entrance Typewriting Tests given in the spring of 1952 were selected for this study. Although a number of studies have been made using the NBE tests as a basis, little research has been done on the specific phase of error analysis to determine areas of weakness in students' competencies which might be of special significance to those responsible for guiding studentsin their educational experiences. It is with this educational emphasis that this study is concerned.