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The majority of the students’ composition 60.71 contained correct use of pronoun. This was a good result since correct use of pronouns, either
possessive, sexist or addressing in academic writing, would persist formal.
Avoiding expressions such as slang, colloquialism, cliché, jargon, idiom, and neologism could be more beneficial in order to avoid the use of informal
words, for example crystallize. Crystallize would be less well understood than create or form. The writer used fancy elevated words because he or she might be
writing carelessly or trying to show off. A number of compositions 53.57 avoided these expressions. Employing such expressions would be considered as
poor academic writing because the audience would judge the writer as incompetent. Using personal language or subjective words will also be considered
as poor writing. Most of the compositions 64.29 avoided personal language such as actually, usually, and basically. Detailed error analysis of the students’
diction in terms of formality category will be revealed in the second section.
2. Accuracy of the Students’ Writing
Accuracy category of students’ diction covers certain features, namely ungrammatical form and errors in meaning. However, the research excluded
grammatical feature see p.3. The result of accuracy analysis was presented in Table 4.2:
Table 4.2 The Students’ Diction on Accuracy Category No.
Accuracy Features
1. No errors in meaning
75 2.
No Exaggerated expression 50
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Diction that contains errors in meaning will be regarded as inaccurate as it does not convey the message precisely. Nearly all of the students’ compositions
75 were able to convey correct meaning. Consequently, only a small number of the compositions still remained inaccurate.
Example: In Total Physical Response, the students are given oral commands. Oral was correctly employed in the sentence rather than verbal. This sentence
carried an accurate meaning since verbal commands opposed to pictures or physical action. Therefore, if the writer used verbal in this sentence, it would
consequently carry an inaccurate meaning. On the other hand, half of the students’ compositions 50 already
avoided exaggerated expression such as extremely, definitely, and very.
3. Clarity of the Students’ Writing
Concision category includes two features namely correct words or synonyms and general term. The results of the clarity analysis of students’ diction
in their academic writing were presented in Table 4.3:
Table 4.3 The Students’ Diction on Clarity Category No.
Clarity features
1. Use correct words synonym
57.14 2.
Avoid general term 75
Table 4.3 shows that most of the compositions 57.14 used correct words. It means that only some students were aware of selecting the correct
synonym to convey the intended meaning. Consider this example: PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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To really understand whether a work of literature portrays the real world, we need to see what is behind the work itself.
In this example, the underlined word was employed to show the function of a work literature. Portray has exact and specific meaning that is to depict
something such a character or a scene. If the writer employed show, he or she might fail to convey the exact meaning, as show has various different shades of
meaning. Specific terms express meaning more vividly and more precisely than
general ones. Most of the compositions 75 avoided general terms. It means that most of the students were implied that they were definite of themselves. If the
writer employed a general word such as things, the audience would probably consider the writer as indefinite writer. For example: Some of these perennial
undesirable behaviors are: talking out of turn, getting out of a seat without asking permission, using dirty language, and fighting with other children. Perennial
undesirable behaviors in this sentence conveyed a more precise and clear meaning than if the writer employed things.
4. Concision of the Students’ Writing
