A study on the language used in advertisements in The Jakarta Post.

A STUDY ON THE LANGUAGE USED IN ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE JAKARTA POST

A THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By

Rufina Andang Paskaningsih Student Number: 061214024

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

A STUDY ON THE LANGUAGE USED IN ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE JAKARTA POST

A THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By

Rufina Andang Paskaningsih Student Number: 061214024

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop. Confucius Philosopher (551 BC – 479 BC)  

       

Dedicated to my beloved parents:

...

Bapak Michael Sugita

and Ibu Bernadeta Sarjinem ...

 

   

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY

I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the references, as a scientific paper should.

Yogyakarta, December 3, 2010 The Writer

Rufina Andang Paskaningsih 061214024

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama : Rufina Andang Paskaningsih

Nomor Mahasiswa : 061214024

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaanan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

A STUDY ON THE LANGUAGE USED IN ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE JAKARTA POST

Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta,

Pada tanggal: 3 Desember 2010 Yang menyatakan

ABSTRACT

Paskaningsih, Rufina Andang. 2010. A Study on the Language Used in the Advertisements in The Jakarta Post. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.

Communication is a process to deliver a message through a medium in order to make a change in people’s behavior. Communication process occurs in advertising. Since it promotes a product and persuades people to purchase the product, advertising is considered as a commercial communication. This research aimed at analyzing the English language used in the advertisements in The Jakarta Post. In general, the researcher wanted to know how English was used in the advertisements. There were two questions that would be answered through this research. They were: 1) How is the English language used in the advertisements in The Jakarta Post?; 2) What are the possible reasons for the use of such language in the advertisements in The Jakarta Post?

Qualitative research was the method that was used in this research. The advertisements taken as the data were limited only to the ones sized 2 columns x 100mm. They were taken from the advertising pages named Clads. The researcher was the instrument employed in carrying out the research. The researcher collected seven editions of The Jakarta Post and sorted out the advertisements with the required size. In order to answer the first question as well as to analyze the data, the researcher has conducted several steps that were proposed by Creswell (1998) as cited by Leedy and Ormrod (2005: 151). They were: 1) organizing the data, 2) perusing the data, 3) identifying the data, and 4) synthesizing. To answer the second question, the researcher conducted a library study to gain enough understanding of the problem to interpret the possible reasons of the existing phenomenon.

In analyzing the data, the researcher focused on the texts employing English language. The texts, then, were broken down into elements they belonged. The researcher found that the texts were richly used in the four format elements. They were the headlines, subheads, body copy, and slogans. Next, the researcher focused on analyzing the features in each format element.

The researcher has identified that there were many variations in using the English language in the advertisements taken from The Jakarta Post. These variations mostly occurred in the choice of words, words combinations, pronouns, and type of texts. The researcher has identified two possible reasons of the existence of the variations as well. The first reason is the nature of advertising as something persuasive and commercial. The second is the ability of the advertising world to adapt to the always changing environment of both media and customers. Additionally, advertisements in The Jakarta Post could be one of the authentic material sources to be used in English teaching and learning process. They provided the examples on how English was used in the society as a means of communication.

ABSTRAK

Paskaningsih, Rufina Andang. 2010. A Study on the Language Used in the Advertisements in The Jakarta Post. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Komunikasi adalah sebuah proses penyampaian pesan melalui sebuah medium yang bertujuan untuk mempengaruhi perilaku seseorang. Proses komunikasi tersebut terjadi dalam periklanan. Iklan adalah sebuah bentuk komunikasi komersial yang bertujuan untuk mempromosikan sebuah produk dan mempengaruhi masyarakat untuk membeli produk tersebut. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis pemakaian Bahasa Inggris dalam iklan yang dimuat dalam koran The Jakarta Post. Secara umum, peneliti ingin mengetahui bagaimana Bahasa Inggris dipakai dalam iklan-iklan tersebut. Terdapat dua pertanyaan yang akan dijawab dalam penelitian ini, yaitu: 1) Bagaimanakah Bahasa Inggris dipakai dalam iklan yang dimuat di koran The Jakarta Post?; 2) Apa sajakah yang mungkin menjadi alasan penggunaan Bahasa Inggris dalam iklan-iklan tersebut?

Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif. Iklan yang diambil sebagai data dalam penelitian ini adalah iklan yang berukuran 2 kolom x 100mm. Iklan-iklan ini diambil dari kolom khusus Iklan-iklan bernama Clads. Dalam hal ini, peneliti berperan sebagai intrumen yang digunakan dalam proses pengambilan data. Peneliti mengumpulkan tujuh edisi The Jakarta Post dan menentukan iklan-iklan yang akan diambil sebagai data. Untuk menjawab pertanyaan pertama, peneliti telah menerapkan beberapa langkah yang diperkenalkan oleh Cresswell (1998) sebagaimana dikutip oleh Leedy & Ormrod (2005: 151). Langkah-langkah tersebut adalah: 1) mengorganisir data, 2) mengkaji data, 3) mengidentifikasi data, dan 4) sintesis. Kemudian untuk menjawab pertanyaan kedua, peneliti telah melakukan studi pustaka untuk mendapatkan pemahaman yang mendalam yang akan digunakan untuk mengurai permasalahan yang ada.

Dalam menganalisis data, peneliti berfokus pada teks tertulis dalam iklan yang menggunakan Bahasa Inggris. Teks-teks yang terdapat dalam iklan tersebut kemudian dipecah menjadi elemen-elemen sesuai dengan fungsinya dalam iklan. Peneliti menemukan bahwa terdapat empat elemen yang banyak menggunakan teks-teks tersebut, yaitu: headlines, subheads, body copy, dan slogans. Dalam langkah selanjutnya, peneliti mengidentifikasi karakteristik dan penggunaan Bahasa Inggris dalam setiap kelompok elemen.

Peneliti menemukan bahwa terdapat berbagai macam variasi penggunaan Bahasa Inggris dalam iklan-iklan yang diambil sebagai data. Variasi-variasi ini banyak terdapat dalam pemilihan kosa kata, penyusunan kata, penggunaan kata ganti, dan jenis teks. Peneliti menyebutkan bahwa variasi-variasi penggunaan bahasa ini disebabkan oleh dua hal. Pertama, iklan merupakan suatu bentuk ajakan yang mempengaruhi masyarakat, sehingga bahasa yang digunakan dalam iklan tersebut harus mampu menimbulkan reaksi pada pembacanya. Kedua, iklan harus mampu menyesuaikan diri terhadap perubahan yang senantiasa terjadi di dalam media dan masyarakat. Peneliti berpendapat bahwa iklan yang terdapat dalam The

Jakarta Post dapat digunakan sebagai salah satu materi autentik dalam proses pengajaran Bahasa Inggris. Iklan-iklan yang dimuat dalam The Jakarta Post dapat digunakan sebagai contoh penerapan dan penggunaan Bahasa Inggris di dalam media komunikasi.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to praise Jesus Christ, the One I have put my trust on, for giving me so much love and strength that I could finally accomplish this wonderful project. I thank Him for lots of His invisible guidance through my beloved family, friends, boyfriend, and the people around me. All I could say is that I have given my best and God has done the rest. I also would like to express my gratitude to those who have supported me.

First, I would like to thank Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd., my sponsor, for her guidance and advice in the completion of my thesis. I am grateful to her for giving me the meaningful improvements for my thesis. I was always helped by her carefulness and kindness in checking my work.

Second, I also thank all the lecturers and the staff of English Language Education Study Program for their participation in my “journey.” I thank them for the knowledge and experiences they have shared. I believed that the knowledge and experiences will be so much useful for me in the future.

Third, my deepest gratitude goes to my beloved parents, Bapak Michael Sugita and Ibu Bernadeta Sarjinem. Their love shines on me like the sun. Their hopes and prayer are my strength to go through and do all I have to do. My sincere thanks also go to my sisters, Kristina Andang Wijayanti and Adriana Andang Gitasari, and my brothers, Constantius Damar Wicaksono and Nicholas Dian Wikananta. They have made a colorful rainbow in my life.

Fourth, I thank Stanislaus Risadi Apresian for so much love and affection he has given. I also thank him for the never-ending support and patience that he gives in my every single day. Finally, he and I could win the battle.

Fifth, I would like to appreciate all the precious moments I have shared with all my friends in PBI, especially for Eva Kristina, Elisabet Kurnia W., Rani Perwita Sari, Maria Heni Krisnasari a.k.a Sarce, Agatha Wikan Adhisti and all my friends in 3G Group, my Play Performance group. I thank them for their never-ending support that keeps me strong to move on. This friendship will never end and the memories will remain.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to those whom I cannot mention here by name. I thank them for their direct and indirect participation so that I could accomplish this project.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page TITLE PAGE ………

APPROVAL PAGES………. DEDICATION PAGE……… STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ………... LEMBAR PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS... ABSTRACT……… ABSTRAK ………... ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……… TABLE OF CONTENTS………... LIST OF TABLES……….. LIST OF FIGURES………

i ii iv v vi vii viii x xii xv xvi

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION……… A. Research Background………. B. Problem Formulation……….. C. Problem Limitation………. D. Research Objectives……….. E. Research Benefits………... F. Definition of Terms………

CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE……….. A. Theoretical Description………...

1. Communication………..

2. Advertising……….

a. The Nature of Advertising……….. b. Advertising Media………..

1 1 4 4 5 5 6 8 8 8 11 11 12

c. The Types of Advertisements……… d. The Format of Advertisements……….. 3. Advertising Language……… 4. Marketing Process and Advertising………... 5. Writing Styles and Purposes………..

a. Description……….

b. Narration……….

c. Exposition………...

d. Persuasion………...

e. Argumentation………

B. Theoretical Framework………...

CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY……… A. Research Method……… B. Research Subjects………... C. Research Instruments……….. D. Data Gathering Technique……….. E. Data Analysis Techniques……….. F. Research Procedure……….

CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION………… A. The Language of Advertising………. 1. The Analysis of the Language Used in the Advertisements….. a. Organizing the Data………... b. Perusing the Data………... c. Identifying the Characteristics and Features of the Language... 2. Identifying the Possible Reasons of the Language Use……….

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND

SUGGESTIONS ………..……... A. Conclusions………. 14 15 18 21 23 23 23 24 24 25 25 27 27 29 30 31 32 33 36 36 36 37 39 41 61 64 64

1. The Use of English Language in the Advertisements of The Jakarta Post Newspaper... 2. The Possible Reasons of the Language Use in the

Advertisements in The Jakarta Post Newspapers……….. B. Implications……… C. Suggestions……….

REFERENCES………...

APPENDICES

Appendix 1: The List of the Advertisement’s Headlines ……….. Appendix 2: Noun Phrase Headlines ………. Appendix 3: The List of the Advertisement’s Subheads ………... Appendix 4: The List of the Advertisement’s Body Copy………. Appendix 5: The List of the Advertisement’s Slogans ……….. Appendix 6: Sample Advertisements from The Jakarta Post

Newspapers... 64

66 66 67

69

71 72 73 74 83

LIST OF TABLES

Table

4.1 The Advertisements Classification by the Products……….. 4.2 The Number of the Advertisements in Every Edition of The Jakarta Post Newspapers ………....

Page 38

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure

2.1 Communication Diagram by Shannon & Weaver………. 2.2 Human Communication Process by Peter & Olsen………... 3.1 The Data Analysis Spiral by Cresswell………...

Page 9 10 32

1  CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION  

This chapter contains six points that describe the researcher’s ideas and thoughts about the research. The six points that help the researcher describe the nature and content of the research are research background, problem formulation, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits, and definition of terms.

A. Research Background

Littlejohn (2002: 3) mentions that “communication is one of the most pervasive, important, and complex aspects of human life.” People communicate with each other in their lives for various aims every day. They use symbols, signs and language to communicate their thoughts and feelings. Good communication will build good relationship in the society and vice versa. According to Hovland, Janis & Kelley (1953) as cited by Miller (2002: 3), “communication is the process by which an individual (the communicator) transmits stimuli (usually verbal) to modify the behavior of other individuals (the audience).” Miller (2002: 8) also mentions that “communication is a social activity that communication involves two people or more or communication can occur within one individual.” Additionally, Littlefield & Kirkpatrick (1970: 27) mention that “communication takes one of two forms; simple person-to-person communication or; mass communication between a person and a group (or organization) and vice versa.” Littlefield & Kirkpatrick (1970: 28) explain that “the purpose of mass

      2   

communication is simply to change or to reinforce the attitudes of the many individuals and, if possible, to cause them to take action favorable to the communicator.”

Advertisement is a mass communication. It can be found everywhere in the streets, newspapers, magazines, television, radio in the form of written, oral or audio visual advertisements. Advertisements are made by the companies to communicate their products to the large group of people. The role of advertisements in the industrial and commercial society is very much important. It promotes messages or products to the wide range of society to gain further feedback toward what is being promoted. Littlefield & Kirkpatrick (1964: 28) mention that “advertisement is a commercial communication which has the basic function as the means to change a person’s attitude toward a subject or object.” Companies make advertisements and place them in the place where many people can see and watch their advertisements. Littlefield & Kirkpatrick (1964: 100) say that “advertising is mass communication of information intended to persuade buyers so as to maximize dollar profits.” The goal of all advertising is to influence and persuade the public to buy products or do an expected action from the company. Every advertisement has a message to convey. This message is conveyed through language. Goddard (2002: 5) mentions that the nature of advertising is as a form of discourse, as a system of language use whereby. Thus, it can be inferred that advertising uses language as the main weapon to deliver its message in the both oral and written forms.

Burridge (2002: 10) says that humans are unique in their ability to use language. They use it to convey what is in their mind. They have the authority to choose what kind of language they want to use. English language has the standard form which is considered as the “correct” one in terms of grammar. It usually used in formal situation. The phenomenon happens between English language and advertising is that the language used in the advertisement sometimes ignores the standard forms in terms of the grammatical rules. An advertisement has to be able to attract people’s attention. The copywriters as the ones who create the advertisements intentionally do that for the sake of the advertisement’s goal. Copywriters have to create such eye-catching expressions that are able to attract the people’s attention. The message conveyed in advertisements should be clear, brief and straight to the point. Sheperd (1994) explains that copywriters consider themselves as word mechanics-skilled professionals with a fondness for words. Through these people English language has evolved. In addition, it is said by Stansfield (1969: 355) as cited by Sheperd (1994) that copywriters must be imaginative, and still, their writing must be succinct and eye-catching. Sheperd (1994) also adds that copywriters are good writers, even though some of their vocabulary and structures may be somewhat unconventional. He (1994) concludes that if their copy is grammatically perfect but lacks fire and vitality, readers will not be interested. The readers must find something attractive in the advertisement. As a result, advertisement is allowed to use special features and language. It is expected that the use of the special features will lead the advertisement to reach its goal, which is to persuade the people. Some advertisements, for example,

      4   

often employ English language without paying attention to the grammatical rules. The researcher is interested in the existence of these features and special language within the advertisement. Therefore, this research is going to analyze the advertising language in the advertisements published in The Jakarta Post issued on April 11, 2010 - April 17, 2010. The research is intended to see the variation of English language use in print advertising.

B. Problem Formulation

There are two problems that are going to be discussed in this research. The problems are formulated as follows.

1. How is the English language used in the advertisements in The Jakarta Post? 2. What are the possible reasons for the use of such language in the

advertisements in The Jakarta Post?

C. Problem Limitation

This research is going to analyze the English language that is used in the advertisements taken from The Jakarta Post. The sample advertisements were taken from the editions issued on April 11, 2010 - April 17, 2010. The advertisements taken as the samples are the ones with certain size which are published in the advertisements pages in The Jakarta Post named Clads. They are 2 columns x 100 mm advertisements (about 105 mm x 100 mm in size). The advertisements possess the size that allows people to pay more attention to the advertisements. The bigger the advertisements, the more people will notice them.

Thus, the elements used to create these advertisements should be able to catch the attention of the readers both visually and verbally. In this research, the discussion is limited only to the English language used and the possible reasons of the language use in the advertisements taken as the data.

D. Research Objectives

The objectives of the research are to answer the questions stated in the problem formulation. This study aims to:

1. analyze the language use in the advertisements in The Jakarta Post

2. identify the possible reasons for the language use in the advertisements in The Jakarta Post

E. Research Benefits

The benefits of this research are specified for two groups; they are English language learners and the other researchers of English language. The benefits for English language learners are formulated as follows.

1. The learners of English will have the broader knowledge of the advertising language and perceive it as the language phenomenon happens in the society. 2. The learners will be able to use appropriate language in certain situation. If

they want to make an advertisement, they know how to use the English language into it.

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The benefit for other researchers of English language is that the research could be the reference to conduct similar research and the source for reading and broadening the view about English language especially in the linguistics fields.

F. Definitions of Terms 1. Advertising

Bovee & Arens (1986: 5) state that “advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services, or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media.” Goddard (2002: 5) defines advertising as the act of communication. Printed advertisements found in newspaper are the means of communication between companies and readers. The researcher employed some advertisements published in certain newspaper as the research subject. This research analyzed how English language was used to communicate the message in the advertisements.

2. Advertisement

Goddard (2002: 9) points out that the terms ‘advertisement’ and ‘advertising’ have, at their root a Latin word, ‘advertere’, meaning ‘turn toward’. White (1988: 2) explains that “advertisement is any piece of material produced by a company and it is all part of the way in which a company presents itself to the public and calls attention to what has to sell.” This study analyzed the language in the printed advertisements that were published in The Jakarta Post. The advertisements were written in English and they advertised various products, such

as apartments, restaurants, furniture, hospital, and other services. The sample advertisements were limited only to which were sized 2 columns x 100 mm and were published on April 11, 2010 - April 17, 2010. These advertisements were taken from the advertising pages named Clads.

3. The Jakarta Post

The Jakarta Post is a local daily English written newspaper that is published in Indonesia. There are about 50-60 local editors and reporters, nine foreign language staff (copy editors) and about 20 supporting staff. English language maybe its primary medium, but The Jakarta Post is a truly Indonesian media. It serves news both within and outside the country. Although it is written in English, the newspaper is addressed to the local readers. The editorial mission is to create a humane civil society (Careers in Journalism Seminar, Friday, October 16, 2009). The newspaper is selected as the source of the data since it employs English as the main language. It contains advertisements that are also written in English. They are placed in advertising pages named Clads. These advertisements, then, are used as the subject of the research.

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter is divided into two main parts namely theoretical description and theoretical framework. Theoretical description presents the theories related to this research. Meanwhile, the theoretical framework explains procedures organized to accomplish this study.

A. Theoretical Description

In order to obtain good understanding of advertising language, this theoretical description is presented. This section consists of the discussion about communication, advertising, and the advertising language.

1. Communication

The researcher presents some definitions of communication from some scholars and linguists. “Communication is any means by which one person or creature brings about a change in the knowledge or behavior of another person or creature. Communication is part of the behavior of living together; it is part of social behavior (Purba, n.d).” Littlejohn (2002: 3) mentions that “communication is one of the most pervasive, important, and complex aspects of human life.” Both definitions give the idea that communication is done by everyone every day in his life. According to Hovland, Janis & Kelley (1953) as cited by Miller (2002: 3), “communication is the process by which an individual (the communicator) transmits stimuli (usually verbal) to modify the behavior of other individuals (the

 

audience).” Miller (2002: 8) also mentions that “communication is a social activity that communication involves two people or more or communication can occur within one individual.” Thus, it can be concluded that communication is our everyday action to convey some information to people around us. The information is created for various intentions such as to persuade, to ask, to invite, or to inform. Shannon and Weaver (1949: 98) as cited by Severin & Tankard (2007: 57) explain communication process through a communication diagram as it is shown in Figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1: Communication Diagram by Shannon and Weaver (in Severin & Tankard, 2007: 57)

Communication process could be interpreted in various ways. Arens (2006: 8) adds that all the process takes place in an environment characterized by noise – the distracting cacophony of many other messages being sent at the same time by other source. Peter and Olsen (1994: 184) as cited by Arens (2006: 9)

   

source  transmitter

message 

 noise transmitted 

signal

received 

signal  message  receiver

information  destination 

10   

mention similar thing about communication process through a brief explanation and a diagram shown in Figure 2.2.

The process begins when one party, called the source, formulates an idea, encodes it as a message, and sends it via some channel to another party, called the receiver. The receiver must decode the message in order to understand it. To respond, the receiver formulates a new idea, encodes it, and then sends the new message back through some channel. A message that acknowledges or responds to the original message constitute feedback, which also affects the encoding of a new message.

“Most often, the purpose of communication is that the creature receiving the message does something; the message has an effect on the behavior of the creature receiving it. When this happens, the message is a stimulus and the behavior of the other creature is a response to this stimulus (Purba, n.d).” As it is stated before, communication is always done without no intention. The main purpose of human communication, then, is to obtain the expected behavior from the one whom they communicate with.

Figure 2.2: Human Communication Process by Peter & Olsen (in Arens, 2006: 9)

Taylor, Meyer, Rosegrant & Samples (1986: 22) classify types of communication into four. The first one is intrapersonal communication. In intrapersonal communication, the received stimuli are internal, for example: a

noise

Source  Encoding   Message  Channel  Decoding   Receiver  noise 

 

person hears him/herself speak or feels him/herself move. The second is interpersonal communication. It occurs when a person communicates directly with another person in a one-to-one relationship. The third is called public communication. It takes place in situations where many people receive messages largely from one source, for example: a movie, a TV and political speech. The last type is mass communication. It is also public communication that is transmitted electronically or mechanically such as via television, a radio, and a newspaper. In addition to mass communication, Littlefield & Kirkpatrick (1970: 28) state that “the purpose of mass communication is simply to change or to reinforce the attitudes of the many individuals and, if possible, to cause them to take action favorable to the communicator.”

2. Advertising

a. The Nature of Advertising

“Advertising is the structured and composed communication of information, usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature, about products (goods, services and ideas) by identified sponsors through various media (Arens, 2006: 7).” Another linguist, Weilbacher (1984: 9), mentions that “advertising is a social tool that encourages public support of various governmental and other non-profit institutions by conveying accurate and compelling information to consumers about the needs and goals of these institution and entities.” Thus, it can be inferred from the two definitions that advertising can be both persuasive and informative.

12   

According to Bovee and Arens (1986: 8), there are five basic functions of advertisements. The first is to identify products and differentiate them from others. The second is to communicate information about a product, its features and its sale location. The third is to induce consumers to try new products and to suggest reuse. The fourth is to increase product usage. The fifth is to build brand preference and loyalty.

b. Advertising Media

Advertising is always delivered to the public through a medium. Arens (2006: 127) mentions “the medium that carries the advertiser’s message is the vital connection between the company that manufactures a product or offers a service and the customer who may wish to buy it.” Subsequently, he classifies advertising media into six major categories: print, electronic, digital interactive, out-of-home, direct mail, and other media.

1) Print Media

The term print media refers to any commercial published, printed medium - such as newspaper and magazines - that sells advertising space to a variety of advertisers. Printed media also includes directories such as the Yellow Pages; school or church newspaper and yearbooks; and program used at sporting events and theatrical performances.

2) Electronic Media

The electronic media of radio and television used to be called the broadcast media. With the advent of cable TV, many programs are now transmitted electronically through wires rather than broadcast through the air.

 

3) Digital Interactive Media

It allows the audience to participate actively and immediately. The internet for example, suddenly gives tiny companies with scant resources instant access to customers worldwide by creating marketplace in which they can swap advertising space on their own sites for space on others.

4) Out-of-Home Media

The major categories of out-of-home media are outdoor advertising and transit advertising. Outdoor advertising includes billboard and transit advertising includes bus, taxi and subway advertising. Out-of-home media also include posters in the bus shelters and train stations, billboard in airport terminals, stadium scoreboards, flying banners and lights, skywriting, and kiosk posters.

5) Direct Mail

When companies mail or e-mail their advertising directly to the prospective customers without using one of the commercial media forms, it is called direct-mail advertising. The ad may be a simple sales letter, or it may be a complex package with coupons, brochures, samples, or other devices designed to stimulate a response.

6) Other Media

Technology has spawned a host of new advertising media that can confound even the most knowledgeable media planner and buyer. Advertising appears on videocassettes and computer disks. Computer dials telephones and deliver message by stimulating speech or playing a prerecorded message.

14   

Computer can also put callers on hold and play prerecorded sales messages until a customer service replies answers.

c. The Types of Advertisements

Based on the medium, Arens (2006: 15) classifies the types of advertising into five categories.

1) Print advertising: Newspaper, magazines. 2) Broadcast (electronic) advertising: Radio, TV. 3) Out-of-home advertising: Outdoor, transit.

4) Direct-mail advertising: Advertising sent through the Postal Service and by e-mail.

5) Interactive advertising: Internet, kiosks, etc.

Furthermore, Bovee and Arens (1986: 408) classify the advertisements in newspaper and magazine into four major classifications. They are display advertisements, classified advertisements, small display, public notice, and preprinted insert.

1) Display Advertisements

Display advertisements appear in different sizes, from small boxes to one-paged advertisements. They have three main elements, such as headlines, body copies or texts, pictures or images, and typographies. There are local and national display advertisements. A common variation is the reading notice.

2) Classified Advertisements

Classified advertisements do not have display. It has no special layout, headline, or image. It is arranged in small sizes and under general headings. The

 

heading describes the class of goods or the needs to be offered, such as “Business for Sale”, “Help Wanted”. Classified advertisements consist of some commercial messages of articles, services and opportunities of every type that are related to the advertisers. The advertisers are not mainly big companies but mostly they are individuals.

3) Small Display

Like display, small displays are characterized by large size type, photos, art borders, white space, and sometimes color. What makes them different from display advertisements is that the uses of those devices are simpler and in small size. If small displays are run in the classified section on news, they are called display advertisements.

4) Public Notices

Public notices or public announcements can be legal notices of changes in business or personal relationship, or public governmental reports. Sometimes they are treated similarly to a small display that they require little creativity in designing.

5) Preprinted Inserts

Magazines and newspapers usually issue preprinted inserts or supplement, although they are still rare. The inserts can be printed by the publishers.

d. The Format of Advertisements

This part is related to the design of the advertisements. Arens (2006: 417) mentions that “in print advertising, the key format elements are the visual(s), headlines, subhead, body copy, slogans, seals, logos, and signatures.” Further,

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Arens (2006: 417-424) explains profoundly about the key format elements in print advertising.

1) Headlines

The headline contains the words in the leading position in the advertisement – the words that will be read first and are situated to draw the most attention. Effective headlines attract attention, engage the audience, explain the visual, lead the audience into the body of the ad, and present the selling message. If they have not been overused in a category, “power” words that suggest newness can increase readership and improve the broom factor of an advertisement. They should be employed whenever honestly applicable. Examples include free, now, amazing, suddenly, announcing, introducing, it’s here, improved, at last, revolutionary, just arrived, new, important development. Copywriters use many variations of headlines depending on the advertising strategy. Headlines may be classified by the type of information they carry. Benefit headlines are to promise the audience that experiencing the utility of the product or service will be rewarding. The news/information headline announces news or promises information. Provocative headlines are used to provoke the reader’s curiosity – to stimulate questions and thoughts. A question headline asks a question, encouraging readers to search for the answer in the body of the advertisement. A command headline orders the reader to do something, so it might seem negative. 2) Subheads

The subhead is an additional smaller headline that may appear above the headline or below it. A subhead above the headline is called a kicker or an

 

overline and may be underlined. Subheads may also appear in body copy. Subheads are usually set smaller that the headline but larger than the body copy or text. Subheads generally appear in boldface or italic type or a different color. Like a headline, the subhead transmits key sales points fast. Subheads are important for two reasons: most people read only the headline and subheads, and subheads usually support the interest step best. Subheads are longer and more like sentences than headlines.

3) Body Copy

The advertiser tells the complete sales story in the body copy or text. The body copy comprises the interest, credibility, desire, and often even the action steps. Body copy covers the features, benefits, and utility of the product or service. There are six common copy styles. Straight-sell copy is where the writers immediately explain or develop the headline and visual in a straightforward, factual presentation. Institutional copy is to promote a philosophy or extol the merits of an organization rather than product features. Narrative copy is to tell a story. Ideal for the creative writer, narrative copy sets up a situation and then resolves it at the last minute by having the product or service come to the rescue. Dialogue/monologue copy is when the advertiser can add the believability that narrative copy sometimes lacks. Picture caption copy is especially useful for products that have a number of different uses or come in a variety of styles and designs. Device copy uses figures of speech such as puns, alliteration, assonance, and rhymes as well as humor and exaggeration.

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4) Slogans

Slogans are also called as themelines or taglines. Slogans have two basic purposes: to provide continuity to a series of ads in a campaign and to reduce an advertising message strategy to brief, repeatable, and memorable positioning statement.

5) Seals, Logos, and Signatures

A seal is awarded only when a product meets standard established by a particular organization. Logotypes or logos and signature cuts or sig cuts are special design of the advertiser’s company or product name. They appear in all company ads and, like trademarks, give the product individuality and provide quick recognition at the point of purchase.

3. Advertising Language

In printed advertising, language is the powerful gun to shoot the target of the advertisements. “Advertising is a business in which language is to persuade people to do things and/or believe things. Language plays a crucial role in advertising. In the case of print advertising, we find both graphic and linguistic messages (Mc Manis, Stollenwerk, & Zheng-Sheng, 1988: 209).” In order to shoot its target, the copywriters use their creativity and imagination to create the message with the language.

Graydon (2003: 41) mentions that language can be very persuasive. He (2003: 41) also says that “when commercials or advertisements do use words, they’re carefully chosen.” He mentions that based on a research, advertisements

 

featuring words such as New, Quick, Improved, Now, Amazing, Suddenly, Easy, Introducing are especially effective at attracting our attention and selling us products. Goddard (2002: 74) adds that “vocabulary is carefully chosen to promote positive association in the minds of the target audience.”

There are some other important points in writing effective copy for print advertising that are offered by Arens (2006: 422).

a. Write short sentences. Use easy, familiar words and themes people understand.

b. Avoiding bragging and boasting. Write from the reader’s point of view, not your own. Avoid “we,” “us,” and “our.”

c. Use vivid language. Use lots of verbs and adverbs.

d. Stick to the present tense and active voice. It is crisper. Avoid the past tense and passive voice. Exceptions should be deliberate, for special effect.

e. Use personal pronouns. Remember, you are talking to just one person, so talk as you would to a friend. Use “you” and “your” whenever appropriate.

f. Use contractions. They are fast, personal, and natural. People talk in contractions.

g. Do not over punctuate. It kills copy flow. Excessive commas are the chief culprits.

Another linguist, White (1988: 79-81), mentions some rules in writing a copy in print advertising that could support Arens’ strategies. First, copywriters should put “key” words in headlines. Some words appeared more often than any others in ad headlines. Those words are new, save, win, best, gain, buy, now, try.

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Second, we should keep the headline short. A headline is largely a device to put part of the message across and lure the reader into reading the rest.

Goddard (2002: 5) calls advertising as the act of communication. Additionally, he (2005: 9) mentions that “the whole aim of the copywriters is to get us to register their communication either for purpose of immediate action or to make us more favourably disposed in general terms to the advertised product or service.” Print advertising always contains written texts. Goddard (2002: 37) argues that written text is more impersonal, less expressive emotionally and less individualized. He (2002: 24-127) points out some features of the language in advertising. They are:

a. Narrative point of view

The way in which the language of a text sets up a relationship between the person who appears to be addressing us (the narrator) and the person being addressed (the narratee). The narrator may use first person pronouns ‘I’ or ‘we’, in which case the relationship may appear close and more personal than if third person address is used (the pronouns ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’), which can often sound more removed and distant.

b. Intertextuality

It refers to the way one text can point to or base itself on another. For example, an advertisement which stated ‘To be in Florida in winter, or not to be in Florida in winter’ would contain an intertextual reference to a key speech in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

 

c. Deictics

Deictics are reference terms such as ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘those’, ‘it’, ‘here’, and ‘there’, which indicate items in the immediate context.

d. Comparative reference

Comparative reference establishes a reference which is about making a comparison of some sort. For example, ‘Her car is newer than yours’ links the two cars on the comparative basis of ‘newness’. Comparative reference can also feature in expressions of superlative excellence.

e. Pun

Pun is a comic play on words as a result of a word having more than one meaning or two words with different meanings have the same sound.

4. Marketing Process and Advertising

Arens (2006: 6) mentions that advertising is one type of marketing communications. Stern (1994: 5-15) as cited by Arens (2006: 9) calls advertising as composed commercial text. Littlefield & Kirkpatrick (1970: 99) explain that “advertising helps to achieve mass marketing while aiding consumer in choosing among the almost infinite variety of products offered for his selection.” Thus, it can be drawn a conclusion that advertising is very important in marketing process. Littlefield & Kirkpatrick (1970: 100) add that “advertising is a commercial communication because it is used to help assure the advertiser of a long business life with profitable sales.” They (1970: 107) explain that “manufactures use advertising for three purposes.” One is to create customers for the products they

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manufacture. The second purpose of advertising is the creation of good will, the primary impact of which is upon sales volume. The third purpose of advertising is to reduce marketing costs, particularly product selling costs.

As one of marketing communications, advertising will always encounter what is called as ‘noise’ during the transmitting process to the customers. Graydon (2003: 35) explains that advertisers are keenly aware of the mountain of noise that prevents their message from being received. Graydon (2003: 35) adds that the advertisers’ job is to climb that mountain to overcome the distractions that are constantly competing for the people’s eyes, ears, and wallets. Thus, he (2003: 35) argues that advertisers have to engage the people’s interest long enough for the message to be delivered.

Graydon (2003: 39) says that adaptation is very important in advertising. The advertisers have to be able to adapt to rapidly changing environment of both media and customers. He (2003: 39) mentions that every time a new form of media has been introduced, advertisers have been quick to figure out the best way of using the new media to promote their products. Additionally, Graydon (2003: 39) says that the advertisers have also had to adapt to other changes in the way people respond to media. Goddard (2003: 9) also states that written advertisements have to compete each other and with all sorts of other texts in our richly literature culture. Therefore, copywriters have to find ways to shout at us from the page.

 

5. Writing Styles and Purposes

There is always a reason for a writer to write a text. As the copywriters do, they write the advertisements in order to persuade the people. Persuading the readers, then, is the purpose of their writing. Podis & Podis (1984: 16) elaborate that “in composition, purpose is defined as the practical aim of your writing. By writing, you hope to accomplish a goal – whether to inform, to persuade, to explain, to recommend, to motivate, to warn, to inspire, and so on.” There are some styles in writing a text or a composition.

a. Description

Baker (1985: 59) argues that “description is essentially spatial.” It is supported by Scholes & Comley (1985: 11) that “work in description is practice in the organization of space.” They also add that in description, a scene or an object is taken and captured in language. Langan (1996: 128) says that when a writer describe someone or something, he gives the readers a picture in words by observing and record specific details that appeal to your readers’ senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch). Trimmer & Sommers (1984: 163) say that when describing something, the writer needs to capture both details and wholeness. He must select specific, vivid details so that he can make the readers see what he sees. b. Narration

Trimmer & Sommers (1984: 159) point out that “narration is a story to make a point.” Baker (1985: 62) mentions that in contrast with description, narration is essentially temporal. Scholes & Comley (1985: 11) say that “a narrative is a report on an event, a happening that unfolds time. Narration is a

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form of writing shared by the creative writer, who invents the events to be narrated, and the reporter or researcher who seeks to record or recover some actual sequence of events.” Langan (1996: 136) says that in writing narrative text, the writer must present the details in order in which they happened.

c. Exposition

Baker (1985: 65) says that “exposition is a setting forth, an explaining, which naturally may include both description and narration. It also includes some essential modes of thought: comparison and contrast, cause and effect, classification, and definition. Good exposition depends on specific details to illustrate its general point.”

d. Persuasion

Trimmer & Sommers (1984: 329) mention “persuasion is verbal communication that attempts to bring about a voluntary change in judgment so that the readers or listeners will accept a belief they did not hold before. The purpose of persuasion is to cause a change in thinking.” Scholes & Comley (1985: 10) say that in persuasion, the reader is the prime consideration, but instead of giving directions for something the reader is assumed to want already, persuasive writing is designed to create want or motivate an action. They also explain that persuasion relies heavily on appeals to emotion. It often uses vivid images, careful control of connotations, repetition, rhythm, even rhyme. Furthermore, Trimmer & Sommers (1984: 333) point out three means of being persuasive: winning the trust of the readers (ethical appeal), appealing to their emotion (emotional appeal), and convincing them through the logic of argument (logical appeal).

 

e. Argumentation

Scholes & Comley (1985: 12) argue that argumentation is different from persuasion by being more rational. Subsequently, they (1985: 12) also say that persuation is aimed at clarifying a topic rather than at moving a reader. Its function is to make the reader see things in a particular way rather than to make the reader do something. The basic structure of (1) a thesis to be argued, and (2) the evidence to support the thesis and certain very specific ways of reasoning from evidence – especially the logic of cause and effect – is at the heart of all research in the humanities, the social studies, and the sciences.

B. Theoretical Framework

In order to conduct a systematic study, the researcher organized this theoretical framework to explain the procedures in accomplishing this research. In this section, the researcher synthesizes all the related theories to be the grounds in analyzing and discussing the data. Based on some definitions about communication and advertising, the researcher could conclude that an advertisement is a form of communication to persuade people to do something or to inform people about something. It is strengthened by Goddard (2002: 5) who calls advertising as the act of communication. In this research, the researcher employed print advertising taken from The Jakarta Post newspapers. Newspaper is included in print media where the print advertising is usually placed. Print advertising in the newspapers contains written texts. These texts, then, were what the researcher would analyze.

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Arens (2006: 417) mentions the key format elements in print advertising are the visual(s), headlines, subhead, body copy, slogans, seals, logos, and signatures. Therefore, the texts in each advertisement will be broken down into elements that there will be groups of headlines, subheads, body copy, slogans, etc. Next, the researcher identifies the occurrence of the features in each element. In identifying the features, the researcher refers to the theories suggested by Arens (2006: 422), Goddard (2002: 24-127), Graydon (2003: 41), and White (1988: 79-81). Besides that, the researcher identifies the writing style of the texts. After analyzing the language in the advertisement texts, the researcher figures out the possible reasons of the occurring of the features by reviewing some related references, and contributes some ideas to elaborate the results.

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

In conducting this research, the researcher applied certain methodology. This chapter discusses the systematic process of the methodology that was used in this research. The discussion includes research method, research subject, research instrument, data gathering technique, data analysis technique, and research procedure.

A. Research Method

Qualitative research is the method that was used in this research. Leedy & Ormrod (2005: 133) state that “qualitative research focuses on phenomena that occur in natural setting – that is, in the “real world” and involves studying those phenomena in all their complexity.” Among the types of qualitative research, this research is included in content analysis study. Leedy & Ormrod (2005: 142) mention that it typically performed on form of communication, including books, newspaper, films, televisions, art, music, videotapes of human interactions, and transcripts of conversations. Advertisements exist in the society as the media to communicate a product, a message or an idea to large group of people. Since advertisements are addressed to large group of people, they are considered as one of the mass media communication. Advertisements found in the newspapers use the written language as the tool to communicate their message. The language should be able to persuade the readers to give a response or do something toward

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what is being advertised. Through their creative copywriters, the advertising companies explore their creativity to make the language interesting to attract the readers’ attention. In this process, the language evolves and adjusts its rules to the nature of advertising.

The Jakarta Post, a local daily newspaper in Indonesia, is written in English. The advertisements published in this newspaper are also written in English. For the sake of advertisements’ goal, English language may evolve when it is used in the advertisements. Some incorrect structures and grammatical rules might be found. However, this incorrectness is excused. Sheperd (1994) mentions copywriters have vocabulary and structures which may be somewhat unconventional. This kind of language, then, is powerful to draw the images in people’s mind.

Bungin (2007: 98) explains that in advertising copywriter and visualizer possess the ability to build the realities in the media. Both copywriter and visualizer are the creative team who work every day to build various realities based on the demanded world about a product being advertised. In this process, copywriters use the language as an important ingredient; in this case the language is English. They manipulate the words to manipulate people’s behavior toward the products. The goal is reached when the product is bought. The researcher considered this situation a phenomenon of changing language. Though English has grammatical rules and patterns, copywriter may ignore them. This language changing occurs within the society through the existence of the advertisements in the newspapers. Qualitative research was considered to be the appropriate method

to analyze this phenomenon. In addition, Leedy & Ormrod (2005: 133) say that “qualitative research approaches involve studying the phenomenon in all its complexity.” Therefore, the researcher also discussed the possible reasons why the phenomenon exists in the society.

The research is a descriptive research. Bungin (2007: 68-69) explains that descriptive study involved an in-depth exploration of the object being studied. This research presented the analysis and description of the advertising language as the language phenomenon that exists in the society. This research is a descriptive research because it is an in-depth study of the advertising language in The Jakarta Post newspapers. In conducting the research, the researcher also applied library study. Library study is included in the secondary research. Library study is based on the secondary sources, especially other researchers’ books and articles. The researcher required some theories and references from other researchers and experts to analyze and describe the data.

B. Research Subjects

The Jakarta Post newspapers issued on April 11, 2010 - April 17, 2010 were the research subjects. As it has been mentioned in the previous chapter, the subjects in this research were the 2 columns x 100 mm advertisements that were placed in advertising pages named Clads. This research focused on the English language that was used in the advertisements. Advertisement is designed to promote a product, a service or an idea. It gives images and descriptions about them. Bogdan & Biklen (2003: 129) mention that “advertisements are included in

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the popular culture documents that have been studied in two ways: first, as a text where the transcripts of the show, lyrics and films are treated as field notes; and second, as part of studies where the interpretations of the viewers are a central part of the project.”

C. Research Instruments

The researcher was considered as the research instrument of this research. It was supported by Merriam (2005: 5) who explains that “a second characteristic of all forms of qualitative research is that the researcher is the primary instrument for the collection and data analysis. Since understanding is the goal of this research, the human instrument, which is able to immediately responsive and adaptive, would seem to be the ideal means of collecting and analyzing data.”

Leedy and Ormrod (2005: 133) also mention about human instrument. They mention that “qualitative researchers believe that the researcher’s ability to interpret and make sense of what he or she sees is critical for understanding any social phenomenon.” They also say that “in this sense, the researcher is an instrument in much the same way that a sociogram, rating scale, or intelligence test is an instrument.” The researcher collected the advertisements using his senses and ability to collect the data. The researcher would use her eyes, ears and hands to differentiate, select, and collect the ads.

Merriam (2009: 86) says collecting data could be done through interviews, observation and documents. The advertisements taken from The Jakarta Post newspaper were the documents considered as the instruments to this research. The

advertisements provided the source of English language which would be observed and analyzed. In the next step, these documents then became the data being analyzed and discussed.

D. Data Gathering Technique

In the previous chapter, it has been mentioned that the data was the advertisements in The Jakarta Post. To gather the data, the researcher employed a certain method. The method is called participant observer. Bungin (2007: 115) states that this method is a data gathering method which collects the data through observation and sensory perceptions. The researcher used the ability to see, watch, feel and touch to obtain the advertisements. In obtaining the advertisements, the researcher employed some steps.

The first step was collecting The Jakarta Post newspapers. The researcher collected some editions that were issued in April 2010. After that, the researcher focused on seven editions of The Jakarta Post that were issued on April 11, 2010 – April 17, 2010. The researcher looked into the advertising pages named Clads in each edition. In the next step, the researcher observed and examined the advertisements found in Clads. In this process, the researcher decided on which advertisements sized 2 columns x 10mm. After that, the researcher collected the advertisements by cutting them out from the newspapers and placing them in a folder.

After being collected and grouped, then, the advertisements were analyzed to answer the two research questions. The researcher would apply library study to

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analyze the data. The researcher would require some theories and references about advertising and advertising language. The researcher collected the theories and references about advertising and advertising language from books and journals written by some linguists and other researchers.

E. Data Analysis Techniques

Holliday (2002: 99) defines “data analysis as the process of making sense, sifting, organizing, cataloguing, selecting, determining themes – processing the data.” In analyzing the data the researcher followed the steps created by Creswell (1998) as cited by Leedy and Ormrod (2005: 151). He created seven steps named data analysis spiral. The steps diagram of data analysis spiral is presented in Figure 3.1.

Raw Data Organization

Perusal Classification

Synthesis The Final Report

Figure 3.1: The Data Analysis Spiral by Cresswell (1998)as cited by Leedy and Ormrod (2005: 151) 

In the data gathering, the researcher has done the step to collect raw data. The raw data were the advertisements taken from the newspapers. The next step after collecting the raw data was organizing the data. The advertisements collected were categorized based on the products being advertised. There would be some advertisement categories. Those were advertisements of apartments, hotels, hospital, furniture, restaurant, housing, service and invitations. The second step was perusing the data. The researcher needed to examine the advertisements in order to obtain the overview for analyzing and describing the data. In this process, the researcher read the English language in each advertisement carefully and paid attention to the details. The third step was identifying the characteristics and features of the language of the advertisements. The researcher identified how the language was used in the advertisements by paying attention to the characteristics, and other features. The researcher would also relate the theories and references about advertising language with the language used in the advertisements. The fifth step was identifying the possible reasons of the use of the language within the texts by reviewing some theories related and elaborating them with the researcher’s ideas.

F. Research Procedure

This section summarizes the procedure taken in conducting the research. Merriam (2002: 14) mentions that “there is no standard format for reporting qualitative research.” The researcher followed seven steps to conduct the research comprehensively.

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1. Selecting the source of data

The first step was selecting the source of data. The Jakarta Post was the selected source. It is a local daily newspaper in Indonesia that is written in English. Seven editions of The Jakarta Post newspaper issued on April 11, 2010 – April 17, 2010 were employed as the source where the advertisements were taken. 2. Collecting the data

The second step was collecting the data. The researcher read and examined the advertisements found in Clads. The researcher only selected the advertisements which have certain size as mentioned in the previous chapter. The size of the advertisements was 2 columns x 100 mm. The advertisements were cut out from the newspapers and they were placed in a folder to be organized.

3. Organizing the data

The third step was organizing the data. The advertisements would be grouped into some categories. The categorization was based on the things or products that were advertised. This categorization would help the researcher to analyze the advertisements in the next step.

4. Analyzing the data

The fourth step was analyzing the data. The advertisements were examined carefully. The researcher, then, focused on the English language in the advertisements. Then, the language was analyzed based on the theories and other literature references. Having done the analysis, the researcher described the features and characteristics of the English language that was used in the advertisements.

5. Identifying the possible reasons

The fifth step was identifying the possible reasons of the existing phenomenon. The reasons would be obtained from the study of the related literatures and other similar researches written by the linguistics experts. The researcher’s interpretations in the phenomenon were also taken into account in this part.

6. Reporting the research

The sixth step was reporting the research. The overall process and procedure that were conducted in the research would be reported in the form of a thesis. The report would be systematically written according to the guidelines.

       

CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the data and findings which have been analyzed by the researcher. This chapter is aimed to answer the two research questions presented in the previous chapter. They are: 1) How is the English language used in the advertisements in The Jakarta Post?; 2) What are the possible reasons for the use of such language in the advertisements in The Jakarta Post issued?

A. The Language of Advertising

Advertising exists in the society as a part of communication. The nature of advertising as something attractive and persuasive causes the occurrence of some features. The features could appear in the choice of words, words arrangement, pronouns, punctuation, or in the types of the texts. According to Arens (2006: 417), there are some elements that usually appear in the print advertisements. Those elements were headlines, subheads, body copy, slogans, seals, logos, and signatures.

1. Analysis of the Language Used in the Advertisements

In the process of analyzing the language used in the advertisements in The Jakarta Post newspapers, the researcher employed the steps offered by Creswell (1998) as cited by Leedy and Ormrod (2005: 151). There were four steps that the researcher conducted. The steps were organizing the data, perusing the data, identifying characteristics and features of the language in the advertisements, and

integrating and summarizing the data. Further explanation and discussion of the four steps are presented in the next sections.

a. Organizing the Data

The data of this research were the advertisements in The Jakarta Post newspapers issued on April 11, 2010 - April 17, 2010. There were seven editions of The Jakarta Post newspapers that the writer employed. They were as follows.

1. Sunday, April 11, 2010 2. Monday, April 12, 2010 3. Tuesday, April 13, 2010 4. Wednesday, April 14, 2010 5. Thursday, April 15, 2010 6. Friday, April 16, 2010 7. Saturday, April 17, 2010

The researcher limited the specification of the data. The advertisements taken as the data were required to be in 2 columns x 100mm in size. This size allowed the readers to pay more attention to the advertisements because the bigger the advertisements, the more people would notice them. Thus, the elements used to create the advertisements should have been able to catch the attention of the readers both visually and verbally.

The advertisements were taken from the advertising pages named Clads. The advertisements, then, were cut off from the newspapers and were organized in a folder. During the data gathering process, the researcher found 30 advertisements with the required size which were taken as the data of this

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research. The advertisements advertised various kinds of products. According to the variety of the products being advertised, the advertisements could be classified into several groups. The classification could be seen in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1 The Advertisements Classification by the Products

No. Types Numbers Percentage

1. Hotel/Resorts/Villas 13 43,3%

2. Apartments & Residences 11 36,7%

3. Invitations 2 6,7%

4. Furniture 1 3,3%

5. Restaurant & Bakery 2 6,7%

6. Hospital 1 3,3%

TOTAL 30 100%

From the various advertisements found in the newspapers, it could be seen that most advertisements advertised hotels, resorts, and villas. There were 13 hotel and resort advertisements. The second place was the apartment and residence advertisements which consisted of 11 advertisements. Other categories only had one advertisement or two advertisements. Advertisements sized 2 columns x 100mm were not always published in every edition of The Jakarta Post newspapers. Based on the number of the advertisements in each edition, it could be seen that most of the advertisements taken as the data were published on Friday and Saturday. The number of the advertisements taken in each edition of The Jakarta Post could be seen in Table 4.2.

Table 4.2 The Number of Advertisements in Every Edition of The Jakarta Post

Newspapers

No. Day & Date Numbers Percentage

1. Sunday, April 11, 2010 3 10%

2. Monday, April 12, 2010 - 0%

3. Tuesday, April 13, 2010 - 0%

4. Wednesday, April 14, 2010 2 6,7%

5. Thursday, April 15, 2010 4 13,3%

6. Friday, April 16, 2010 7 23,3%

7. Saturday, April 17, 2010 14 46,7%

TOTAL 30 100%

The researcher could categorize the 30 advertisements as print advertising since they were published in the print media, newspapers. Furthermore, 28 advertisements taken as the data could be categorized in the display advertisements. The advertisements possessed three elements. They were headlines, body copies or texts, pictures or images. The other two advertisements could be categorized as public notices. The advertisements announced an event to some groups of businessmen. The sample advertisements could be seen in Appendix 6.

b. Perusing the Data

This section was done to obtain the overview of the data being collected. The researcher read the texts in each advertisement carefully and identified the features found in it. In this research, the researcher used the term feature to call the variation of how the copywriters used the language within the texts. In

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conducting the data perusal, the researcher focused on the language that was used in each of the advertisements. There are some key format elements of print advertising that Arens (2006: 417) mentions. They are the visual(s), headlines, subhead, body copy, slogans, seals, logos, and signatures. Throughout the data observation, the researcher found that in the advertisements, the words and the language were richly used in the headlines, subheads, body copy, and slogans.

Arens (2006: 417) mentioned that a headline contains the words that will be read first and the words are situated to draw the most attention of the readers. The headline was supposed to be the first thing the readers read within an advertisement. As a result, copywriters had to put much of their efforts to create a powerful words combination to attract readership. The researcher has listed the headlines from each advertisement. The list is presented in Appendix 1.

A subhead could be the second thing the readers would notice within an advertisement. Arens (2006: 421) mentions that “subheads are usually set smaller that the headline but larger than the body copy or text.” It is placed under the headline, bolded and slanted. Though the subhead seemed important, not all of the advertisements put the subhead in their formats. A subhead was optional because in display advertisements subhead was not included in the main elements that must appear within an advertisement format. There were 18 out of 30 advertisements having the subheads. The list of the advertisements’ subheads is presented in Appendix 3.

According to Arens (2006: 421), body copy covers the features, benefits, and utility of the product or service. Each of the advertisements had body copy

within its format. For display advertisements, this element was very important and essential because it was one of the main elements in the format. From the data observation, the researcher found that this element used longer texts than the other elements. In writing the copy, the copywriters usually used more words and longer texts. The list of the advertisements’ body copy is presented in Appendix 4. Another element that contained words was the slogans. As a subhead, a slogan was not included in the main elements in display advertisements. It was optional that not every advertisement in the data had a slogan. Arens (2006: 424) adds that a slogan is a brief, repeatable, and memorable statement. Some advertisements employed slogans in their formats. The list of the advertisements’ slogans is presented in Appendix 5.

In the following section, the researcher would focus on analyzing the texts in the elements. Before that, the texts in each advertisement were sorted out based on its positions whether it was a headline, subhead, body copy or slogan. Then, the researcher would have the lists of the advertisements’ headlines, subheads, body copy, and slogans. After that, the researcher would identify how the language was used in the texts.

c. Identifying the Characteristics and Features of the Language

In this section, the researcher presented the analysis of the language used in the advertisements. Through the analysis, the researcher would be able to identify the characteristics and features of the language that existed in the advertisements. As it has been mentioned in the previous section, the texts were broken down into elements. Based on the physiological characteristics and

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urgency of each element, the researcher has found out that most of the texts functioned as headlines, subheads, body copy, and slogans.

After examining the 30 advertisements taken from The Jakarta Post newspapers, the researcher found several variations in using English language within the advertisement texts. The researcher identified that there were many features found within the texts. These features were employed in the headlines, subheads, body copy and in the slogans of the advertisements. However, they could be categorized into five categories. The five categories are stated as follows. 1) Choice of Words

The choice of words was really paid attention to when writing the advertisement text. The words should be able to make the readers notice the advertisement. The features belonged to this group were the key words and comparative references. Some key words that were employed in the advertisements were new, free, exclusive, now, and special. The researcher discovered that these words could occur in the headlines, subheads, or body copy. While the some words showing comparative or superlative references used in the advertisement were newest, higher, and best. Comparative reference was found in the headlines and body copy.

2) Word Combinations

The words could be combined or arranged into a phrase, clause, or a simple combination to express certain meaning. The features belonged to this group were noun combination, adjective combination, noun phrases, modifying phrases, and sentences. As for example, noun and adjective combinations were

used in the slogans to create brief, repeatable, and memorable statements. The data revealed that the words found in the advertisement texts were arranged as brief and short as possible to get to the point to the main idea of the message. That was why the use of phrases was more likely to occur than the sentences.

3) Pronouns

Building a close and personal relationship between the advertisers and customers was important to promote the product. Some advertisements tried to build such kind of relationship by employing personal pronouns such as you and your. The advertisers called the readers with the pronoun you as they spoke to a friend. These pronouns were found in the subheads and body copy.

4) Type of Text

The data showed that body copy contained longer texts than did the other elements. It was because body copy explained the features, benefits, and utility of the product being advertised. The researcher found that many apartment advertisements employed descriptive text within the copy. The apartment that they promoted was something spatial. The texts mostly described the scene and objects of the apartments in details in order to draw the vivid image in the readers’ mind. 5) Other Features

There were some other features such as brand names, the types of products, the expert’ name, and the classification and price of the products. These features occurred in the subheads. These features had specific purpose of what they were intended to.

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Subsequently, the researcher would present the analysis of the features in each element more profoundly by providing some examples.

1) Headlines

Most of the advertisements had the headlines in their formats. The headlines were placed in the leading position or were typed in the biggest size among the other elements. Headlines’ leading position and bigger size allowed the readers to read them first. Thus, the words in the headlines should have been carefully chosen and arranged by the copywriters. There were some features that the researcher found in the headlines.

a) Choice of Words (1) Key Words

White (1988: 79), Graddon (2003: 41), and Arens (2006: 419) agree that using some ‘powerful’ words within the advertisement would help to attract the readership. Some words such as new, save, win, best, now, try, quick, improved, amazing, and easy could be used in the headlines to give strength and a sense of fine quality to the product. This strategy was used by the copywriters in creating the headlines in some advertisements taken. There were four advertisements that applied these kinds of words in its headlines.

[1] Best Price – Every Day at Kokonut Suites [2] SPECIALS

[3] SINGAPORE EXCELLENT INVESTMENT [4] EXCLUSIVE

The four headlines employed the words best, special, excellent, and exclusive. By using these words, Graydon (2003: 41) argues that the headlines are expected to be able to attract the readers’ attention. Further, according to Goddard (2002: 74), those words are chosen to promote positive association in the minds of the target audience. The words best in example [1], special in example [2], and excellent in example [3], for examples, implied positive meaning. Thus, it could create positive images about the product. It was a general truth that customers always preferred a good and qualified product. Similarly, the word exclusive in example [4] gave images of limited and private product which is usually preferred by the readers.

(2) Comparative Reference

Using comparative reference in an advertisement implied that one product was being compared to other similar products. It is supported by Goddard (2002: 24-127) that argues “comparative reference establishes a reference which is about making a comparison of some sort.” Superlative forms could also appear as the alternative to the comparative ones. One of the advertisements’ headlines employed comparative reference in its headline. Example [5] was the headline taken from the advertisement of Kokonut Suites.

[5] Best Price – Every Day at Kokonut Suites

Through the headline, the advertisement claimed that the product had the best price among the other similar products. It could also be interpreted that the price was the best price that the hotel have ever given to the customers. Even, it claimed that the best price would be given every day. However, the advertisement

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No. Ad #, Edition Advertisement 5. 18

Saturday, April 17, 2010

6. 22 Saturday, April 17, 2010

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No. Ad #, Edition Advertisement 7. 23

Saturday, April 17, 2010

8. 25 Wednesday, April 14, 2010

    88  

No. Ad #, Edition Advertisement 9. 27

Thursday, April 15, 2010

10. 30 Friday, April 16, 2010

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ABSTRACT

Paskaningsih, Rufina Andang. 2010. A Study on the Language Used in the

Advertisements in The Jakarta Post. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.

Communication is a process to deliver a message through a medium in order to make a change in people’s behavior. Communication process occurs in advertising. Since it promotes a product and persuades people to purchase the product, advertising is considered as a commercial communication. This research aimed at analyzing the English language used in the advertisements in The

Jakarta Post. In general, the researcher wanted to know how English was used in

the advertisements. There were two questions that would be answered through this research. They were: 1) How is the English language used in the advertisements in

The Jakarta Post?; 2) What are the possible reasons for the use of such language

in the advertisements in The Jakarta Post?

Qualitative research was the method that was used in this research. The advertisements taken as the data were limited only to the ones sized 2 columns x 100mm. They were taken from the advertising pages named Clads. The researcher was the instrument employed in carrying out the research. The researcher collected seven editions of The Jakarta Post and sorted out the advertisements with the required size. In order to answer the first question as well as to analyze the data, the researcher has conducted several steps that were proposed by Creswell (1998) as cited by Leedy and Ormrod (2005: 151). They were: 1) organizing the data, 2) perusing the data, 3) identifying the data, and 4) synthesizing. To answer the second question, the researcher conducted a library study to gain enough understanding of the problem to interpret the possible reasons of the existing phenomenon.

In analyzing the data, the researcher focused on the texts employing English language. The texts, then, were broken down into elements they belonged. The researcher found that the texts were richly used in the four format elements. They were the headlines, subheads, body copy, and slogans. Next, the researcher focused on analyzing the features in each format element.

The researcher has identified that there were many variations in using the English language in the advertisements taken from The Jakarta Post. These variations mostly occurred in the choice of words, words combinations, pronouns, and type of texts. The researcher has identified two possible reasons of the existence of the variations as well. The first reason is the nature of advertising as something persuasive and commercial. The second is the ability of the advertising world to adapt to the always changing environment of both media and customers. Additionally, advertisements in The Jakarta Post could be one of the authentic material sources to be used in English teaching and learning process. They provided the examples on how English was used in the society as a means of communication.

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ABSTRAK

Paskaningsih, Rufina Andang. 2010. A Study on the Language Used in the

Advertisements in The Jakarta Post. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Komunikasi adalah sebuah proses penyampaian pesan melalui sebuah medium yang bertujuan untuk mempengaruhi perilaku seseorang. Proses komunikasi tersebut terjadi dalam periklanan. Iklan adalah sebuah bentuk komunikasi komersial yang bertujuan untuk mempromosikan sebuah produk dan mempengaruhi masyarakat untuk membeli produk tersebut. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis pemakaian Bahasa Inggris dalam iklan yang dimuat dalam koran The Jakarta Post. Secara umum, peneliti ingin mengetahui bagaimana Bahasa Inggris dipakai dalam iklan-iklan tersebut. Terdapat dua pertanyaan yang akan dijawab dalam penelitian ini, yaitu: 1) Bagaimanakah Bahasa Inggris dipakai dalam iklan yang dimuat di koran The Jakarta Post?; 2) Apa sajakah yang mungkin menjadi alasan penggunaan Bahasa Inggris dalam iklan-iklan tersebut?

Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif. Iklan yang diambil sebagai data dalam penelitian ini adalah iklan yang berukuran 2 kolom x 100mm. Iklan-iklan ini diambil dari kolom khusus Iklan-iklan bernama Clads. Dalam hal ini, peneliti berperan sebagai intrumen yang digunakan dalam proses pengambilan data. Peneliti mengumpulkan tujuh edisi The Jakarta Post dan menentukan iklan-iklan yang akan diambil sebagai data. Untuk menjawab pertanyaan pertama, peneliti telah menerapkan beberapa langkah yang diperkenalkan oleh Cresswell (1998) sebagaimana dikutip oleh Leedy & Ormrod (2005: 151). Langkah-langkah tersebut adalah: 1) mengorganisir data, 2) mengkaji data, 3) mengidentifikasi data, dan 4) sintesis. Kemudian untuk menjawab pertanyaan kedua, peneliti telah melakukan studi pustaka untuk mendapatkan pemahaman yang mendalam yang akan digunakan untuk mengurai permasalahan yang ada.

Dalam menganalisis data, peneliti berfokus pada teks tertulis dalam iklan yang menggunakan Bahasa Inggris. Teks-teks yang terdapat dalam iklan tersebut kemudian dipecah menjadi elemen-elemen sesuai dengan fungsinya dalam iklan. Peneliti menemukan bahwa terdapat empat elemen yang banyak menggunakan teks-teks tersebut, yaitu: headlines, subheads, body copy, dan slogans. Dalam langkah selanjutnya, peneliti mengidentifikasi karakteristik dan penggunaan Bahasa Inggris dalam setiap kelompok elemen.

Peneliti menemukan bahwa terdapat berbagai macam variasi penggunaan Bahasa Inggris dalam iklan-iklan yang diambil sebagai data. Variasi-variasi ini banyak terdapat dalam pemilihan kosa kata, penyusunan kata, penggunaan kata ganti, dan jenis teks. Peneliti menyebutkan bahwa variasi-variasi penggunaan bahasa ini disebabkan oleh dua hal. Pertama, iklan merupakan suatu bentuk ajakan yang mempengaruhi masyarakat, sehingga bahasa yang digunakan dalam iklan tersebut harus mampu menimbulkan reaksi pada pembacanya. Kedua, iklan harus mampu menyesuaikan diri terhadap perubahan yang senantiasa terjadi di dalam media dan masyarakat. Peneliti berpendapat bahwa iklan yang terdapat dalam The

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Jakarta Post dapat digunakan sebagai salah satu materi autentik dalam proses

pengajaran Bahasa Inggris. Iklan-iklan yang dimuat dalam The Jakarta Post dapat digunakan sebagai contoh penerapan dan penggunaan Bahasa Inggris di dalam media komunikasi.