10 semester five at ELESP are required to write three different types of academic
essays. They are argumentative, comparison and contrast, and eventually problem and solution. In that case, I admitted that my position as a novice researcher as
well as the time limitation to conduct the research would not enable me to analyze those three types of essays. Therefore, this research would only analyze the
argumentative essay written by students in the Academic Essay Writing class. The essays were specifically in the form of analytical exposition. Besides, the essays
would be the final version of the students’ writing. In other words, the essays to analyze were those that have passed a drafting and revision process and have been
submitted to the lecturer in the writing class. The last aspect was concerned with numbers of academic essays to
analyze. In this research, only twenty argumentative essays were analyzed. The ground for the limitation was that the selected twenty essays were considered able
to provide rich data dealing with the coherence problems in the students’ essays.
D. Problem Formulation
This research aimed to analyze the students’ essays, specifically in the
form of analytical exposition. It also aimed to investigate the coherence problems in the essays. Therefore, the question addressed in this research was: what
coherence problems do the students’ analytical exposition essays contain?
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E. Research Goal
This research intended to investigate the coherence problems in the students’ essays. As the result of its investigation, this research would be able to
reveal the coherence problems in the essays. Specifically, the research would provide descriptive analysis toward the coherence problems. The analysis would
cover the real examples of the problems taken from the students’ essays and explanations dealing with why they could happen and why they were related to
coherence. The explanations were also supported by the related theories of coherence. The analysis would also discuss the relations of the problems revealed
by the current research to those revealed by previous related studies.
F. Research Benefits
The research, investigating the coherence problems in the students’ essays,
was expected to provide both scientific contributions to the development of theories in English education as well as practical contributions to the students in
the Academic Essay Writing class and me, as a student in the graduate level and as an English teacher. Scientifically, because the current research revealed
coherence problems in students’ academic essays, the findings of the research
would contribute to the development of theories dealing with the coherence problems especially in the context of academic essay writing. In that case, English
teachers were expected to be more aware of challenges, specifically toward coherence problems encountered by students when they write their academic
12 essays. The teachers were also expected to be able to take a role in helping their
students minimize the problems and produce a coherent academic essay. In practice, the findings of the research were expected to be beneficial to
students in the Academic Essay Writing class. The findings would show as well as explain the coherence problems found in their essays. This would possibly reveal
the pattern of the coherence problems encountered by the students. Therefore, the students were expected to see the problems in their essays, to recognize the
pattern of the problems, to realize the occurrence of the problems, to learn from them, and eventually to minimize them when they write their future academic
essays. When this research could help the students do all of those things, this research would significantly make an effort to help students make any positive
improvement in their writing, which is said to be “a means for self-actualization”
Hughey et al, 1983: 35. Moreover, writing also enables us “to continually grow
and develop because we can willfully project goals for ourselves and can more clearly define our expectations
” Hughey et al, 1983: 35. Therefore, by helping the students make the improvement in their writing, this research would also help
the students achieve their self-actualization and human progress. Additionally, the findings of the research were expected to enhance the
students ’ understanding on the concept of coherence in academic essay writing
and its related problems. It was because this research would possibly become one of many suggested models whose theories, findings, and discussion can be
adopted and regarded as a guide by the students when they write their academic essay, specifically their argumentative essay. The students, considered as English
13 language users in professional fields and future English teachers, were therefore
expected to be able to learn how to write a coherent academic essay, to teach and finally to guide their future students to do so.
This research was also expected to provide practical contributions for the lecturer at the writing class. In that case, this research would provide information
about coherence problems in his students’ written work. Accordingly, the lecturer
could possibly regard this research as a significant and constructive suggestion in developing the existing teaching materials, learning activities, and possibly the
existing writing assessment criteria in his writing class. Finally, this research, in practice, was expected to benefit me, as a student
in the graduate level who will possibly write a number of academic written works in which coherence becomes one of essential and emphasized requirements. It is
because this research has helped me, as the student, relearn and understand deeply the concept of coherence in a context of academic writing. As a result, I could
keep being aware of the coherence concept in my written work, so I could make an effort to keep producing a coherent academic writing. Then, the findings of the
research have provided me, as an English teacher, the information on what I should do in order to produce a coherent written work. This research also enables
me to explain, to transfer the information to my students, as well as to guide them in writing a coherent written work.
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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
