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standard of the word choice in academic writing suggested by O’Hare and Gerson. One of the most likely reasons is that the students have a limited range of effective
diction. In other words, they are unable to choose appropriate words for academic writing.
Therefore, the students are not only compelled to have knowledge of the ideas in their writing but also mastery of linguistic items such as the structure and
the diction. Diction, as Michael Agnes 1999: 400 points out, is a manner of expression in words or choice of word. Anne Ruggles 1988: 301 further states
that finding exactly the “right” word for what the writer wants to say can be difficult. As O’Hare 1984: 317 and Gerson 2003: 27 stated that appropriate
diction in academic writing must comprise formality, accuracy, clarity, and concision.
Since the academic writing is significantly related with working world, the researcher will investigate the students’ academic writing especially the students’
diction employed in academic writing covering four features suggested by O’Hare and Gerson.
C. Problem Limitation
The researcher limits the word choice in the category of formality, accuracy, clarity, and concision. Grammar does not have to do with word choice
but with word form and word order. Choosing the proper word form is a matter of grammar but not of diction Willis, 1966: 190. As the area of the research is
diction features, the grammatical awareness will be excluded in the process of PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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analyzing the diction of students’ academic writing. The subjects of this study are the sixth semester students of Writing VI course of the English Education Study
Program, particularly class E.
D. Problem Formulation
Focusing on the background, problem identification, and problem limitation above; there are three questions in the research:
1. What diction do the sixth semester students of English Education Study Program produce in their academic writing?
2. What diction errors do the sixth semester students of English Education Study Program produce in their academic writing?
3. What are the likely sources of the diction errors?
E. Objectives
Relating to the problems mentioned; this study has three objectives that are to find out the formality, accuracy, clarity, and concision of the diction that the
students mostly produce, to describe the diction errors that the students produce in academic writing, and to reveal the likely sources of the diction errors.
F. Benefits
This study is expected to be advantageous and could give some inputs and contribution for students to be more critical and selective in applying diction in
academic writing. Teachers are expected to pay more attention to the categories PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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that weaken the students’ diction. Besides, the researcher posits that the research may assist the students in minimizing error in the diction of academic writing.
G. Definition of Terms
