description. Since this study is descriptive, the aim of this research was describing the grammatical reasons of the tense choices in every finite clause, and the impact
toward the readers. This study also observed on how the pattern of language used in written and spoken language. The written language was observed through the
report written in the headline news, and the spoken language was represented by the direct speeches or the quotations which were recorded in the headline news.
In this study, the writer did a library research which is done by studying and analyzing some written sources. That was why, the writer needed to decide
any body of text as the corpus of the study. The corpus of the study was considered through samplings and representatives by constructing a smaller
sample of the whole variety. In other words the writer used a sample of a much larger population McEnery and Wilson, 2001: 78.
In this study, the population which was analyzed by the writer was all of the headline news. Because it was impossible to take all of the headline news as
the corpus of the study, the writer needed to decide the sampling frame. According to McEnery and Wilson 2001: 78, a sampling frame is the entire
population of text from which we will take our samples. Therefore, the writer decided The Jakarta Post headline news published in November 2007 as the
sampling frame. In this research, The Jakarta Post headline news published in November
2007 were used to represent all of the population of the headlines news. As mentioned in the object of the study, the writer took the November editions
because it was easier available during the research. The November editions were PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
also chosen because there was no holiday in November and it made the November editions were complete from 1
st
- 30
th
. After deciding the sampling frame, the writer started to gather the data by
collecting all of the headline news from The Jakarta Post which was published in November 2007. The writer took one headline news article in every edition and
the data were gathered from the headline and also the article, in spite of the caption which explains the illustration picture. Furthermore, this study included
two steps, the data collection and also the data analysis.
1. Data Collection
In the processing activities, there were four steps that were conducted by the writer in collecting the data collection. Firstly, the writer determined the
samples to be taken, that were the headline news of The Jakarta Post published in November 2007. Secondly, the writer collected all of the sentences from the
headlines and also from the articles. Since this study concerned mainly on the tense choices, the next step was identifying the finite clauses and separated the
finite clauses to be analyzed further. Then, related to the problems of this study, the finite clauses were classified and listed based on the tense choices. The writer
also concerned on the occurrence of the tense choices, the appearances of each tense were calculated to show the frequency of the tenses in the clauses. In this
study, the writer would not only give the description but also the interpretation of the data that was why the occurrence of every tense became so significant.
2. Data Analysis
The next step after collecting the data was starting to analyze them. There were some steps conducted by the writer to answer the two problems of this study.
The two problems of this research were the types of tense which were used in The Jakarta Post headline news and the grammatical reasons of choosing those tenses.
Before answering the first problem, the writer would discuss about the sentences and the finite clauses which appeared in The Jakarta Post Headline
news. The writer would show the occurrence of the sentences and also the finite clauses. Then, the writer moved to the first and second problems.
a. Identifying the Types of Tense
The first step which was conducted in analyzing the data was identifying the types of tense. The writer tried to identify the tense choices in every finite
clause that occurred in the headlines and also in the articles of The Jakarta Post headline news. Basically there are only two kinds of tense, present and past, but
both of those tenses can be combined with aspects and moods. There would be combinations of tenses and perfective aspect and progressive aspect and also with
mood to show the future possibilities. In identifying the types of tense, the writer began with identifying all of
the elements in the finite clause such as the subject, the verb, the object, and the adverbial. After that, the writer put the finite clause and its elements in the S-
Structure. By putting the finite clause in the S-Structure, the writer could identify the tense which was used by looking at the TNS or the inflection of the verb.
