Diction in academic writing of the sixth semeter students of the english education study program of Sanata Dharma University - USD Repository
DICTION IN ACADEMIC WRITING OF THE SIXTH SEMESTER
STUDENTS OF THE ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
OF SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
By Laurentia Lila Paramita
Student Number: 021214017
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
DICTION IN ACADEMIC WRITING OF THE SIXTH SEMESTER
STUDENTS OF THE ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
OF SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
By Laurentia Lila Paramita
Student Number: 021214017
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to commence by expressing my greatest and highest gratitude to Jesus Christ for His endless blessing, love, and inspiration.
I would like to thank Ouda Teda Ena, S.Pd., M.Pd., as my major sponsor for his invaluable guidance, comments, and suggestions in writing this thesis. I am also particularly grateful for Fidelis Chosa Kastuhandani, S.Pd., as my co- sponsor for his advice and precious time to revise my thesis.
I would like to sincerely thank to Dr. Philip Jenkins who always assisted and gave me valued comments, correction, suggestions, and encouragement. I would like also thank Drs. F.X. Mukarto, M.S., Ph.D., and Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd, M.Pd., for helping me when I remained uncertain about this thesis.
My sincerest gratitude goes to my parents for their financial, spiritual support, and encouragement during the accomplishment of this thesis.
My special gratitude goes to Wisma Bahasa for the chance to learn the priceless knowledge. I am grateful for these following Wisma Bahasa colleagues for welcoming, encouraging, and supporting me through the good and bad work days: mas Boel, Cici’e, Adrian, Tiwuk, Ete, Russy, Letyzia, mas Sute, mba’
Prima, Mawar, Fajar, Niken, Gelar, and mas Sugeng. They are huge assets to
have as friends. Besides, I am thankful for my wonderful students, Alfa, Josh, Akira, Danau, Rika, and Martin.
I also particularly thank the following people for being my friends and supporting me during my study and the completion of this study: mba’Santy, and Adjie ‘cepi peci’. I also greatly thank Sebastien Raimbert, Scott Hanna,
Frank Lea, Filipe Lancastre, and Pascal, for their support, valuable experiences
and memorable moments that inspire me to accomplish my thesis and learn the values of life.
My deep gratitude also goes to all my friends in PBI especially Titin,
Anissa, Haryana, Nathalie, Amrita, Amri, Binta, Ila, Ook, Andre, Rendy, and
mas Kaka, all secretarial and library staffs for their sincere help when I
conducted library study, LTI (Lembaga Toefl Indonesia) Jogjakarta branch,
Bantul Tourism Department, and The Amanjiwo hotel staffs for the precious
experiences. Words cannot express the gratitude I have for the experiences.Finally, I am grateful to all friends who gave contributions on the research and anyone who supported me to finish this thesis. Their efforts are very much appreciated.
Laurentia Lila
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page TITLE PAGE ………………………………………………………….…………. i APPROVAL PAGES …………………………………………………………….. ii STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY …………………………………... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………………………….... v TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………………… vii LIST OF TABLES ………………………………………………….……………. x LIST OF APPENDICES ………………………………………………................ xi ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………………… xii
ABSTRAK ………………………………………………………………………… xiii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study ……..……………………………….………….......
1 B. Problem Identification ………………………………………………………..
2 C. Problem Limitation ………………………….………………………………..
3 D. Problem Formulation …………………………………………………………
4 E. Research Objectives …….…………………………………………………….
4 F. Research Benefits …………………………………………………………….
4 G. Definition of Terms …….………………………………………………….....
5 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Theoretical Description ………………………………………………………
6 1. Academic Writing ……………………………………………………………...
6 a. The Concept of Writing ………………………………………………………..
6 b. An Overview of Academic Writing …….………………..……..……………...
8 c. Academic Writing Process ………………………………….…..…….……….
9
d. Academic Writing Rubric …….……………………………….……..………... 10 2. Diction …….…………………………………..……...…………………….....
12
1) Formality ……………………………………….………………..…………….
14 2) Accuracy …….………………………………..………………………….……. 20 3) Clarity …….……………………………..…………………………….……….
21 4) Concision …….…………………… ……….……………………….………… 23
b. Revising Diction ……………………………………………..…………...……
25 1) Eliminating Vague Words …………………………………..…………………
25 2) Being Economical in Using Words ………………………………..…………..
26 3) Using a Thesaurus ………………………………………………..……….…...
26 c. Developing Word Power …….………………………………….………....…..
27 1) The Use of Dictionaries …….……………………………….………...….…… 27 2) Regular Reading …………………………………………..……….…………..
28 3) Words Sheet …….…………………………………….……………….………. 28 4) Vocabulary Study Books …….……………………….……………….…….…
29 2. Error …………………………………………………………………….…..….
29
a. A Brief Definition of Errors …….…………………………………………...… 29
b. The Causes of Errors …….…………………………………………………….. 30 1) Interlingual Transfer …….……………………………………………………..
30 2) Intralingual Transfer …….………………………………………………..……
30 3) Context of Learning …….…………………………………………………....... 31 c. Error Analysis …………………………………………………………….........
31 B. Theoretical Framework …….……………………………...…………………. 32
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY A. Method of Research …….…...………..………………………………………
33 B. Research Participants …….………………………….……..………...………
34 C. Research Setting …….……………..………………………………..………..
34 D. Research Instruments …….…………….…………………………………….
34 E. Research Procedure …….…………………………………………………….
37 F. Data Analysis ………….……………………………………………………..
38
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS OF RESULT A. Diction Produced in Students’ Writing …….…………………………….…....
39
1. Formality of Students’ Writing …….…………………………….…….……. 42
2. Accuracy of Students’ Writing ……..……………………………….….……
43 3. Clarity of Students’ Writing …….………………………………………..….
45 4. Concision of Students’ Writing ………………………………….................
47 B. Diction Errors Produced in Students’ Writing …….…………………….…….
48
1. Formality Errors ………………………………….………...…………..……
49 2. Accuracy Errors …….…………………………………….……....………….
54
3. Clarity Errors …………………………………………………..…….………
55
4. Concision Errors …….……………………………………...……..…………
57 5. Other Findings ………………………..……………………….……………..
60 C. Sources of the Diction Error ……………….………………….………………
61 1. Laziness ……………………………………………………….……………..
61 2. Showing Off …………………………….…………………….……………..
62
3. Context Ignorance …….………………..…………………….……………… 63
4. Uncertainty …….…………………………………………………………….. 64
5. Target Language Rules …….…….…..………………………………………
64
6. Carelessness …….…………………………………………………..……….. 65
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions …….………………………………………………………..…… 66 B. Implications……………………………………………………….…….
68 C. Suggestions………………………………………………….….……….
70
1. Students………………………………………………….…….....…
70
2. Writing Instructors…………………………………………….....…
70
3. Further Researchers………………………………………...........…
71 REFERENCES……………………………………………………….……
72 APPENDICES………………………………………….……………......... 76
LIST OF TABLES
Page Table 2.1 Writing VI Rubric………………………………………...
11 Table 3.1 Formality Checklist……………………………………..... 35 Table 3.2 Accuracy Checklist……………………………………….
36 Table 3.3 Clarity Checklist………………………………………….
36 Table 3.4 Concision Checklist………………………………………. 37 Table 4.1 The Students’ Diction on Formality Category…………....
41 Table 4.2 The Students’ Diction on Accuracy Category……………
43 Table 4.3 The Students’ Diction on Clarity Category………………
43 Table 4.4 The Students’ Diction on Concision Category…………...
45 Table 4.5. The Number of Diction Errors in Each Category………………
46 Table 4.6 The Percentage of the Formality Errors………………...... 47
Table 4.7 The Percentage of the Accuracy Error…………………… 52Table 4.8 The Percentage of the Clarity Error………………………53 Table 4.9 The Percentage of the Concision Error…………………...
55
LIST OF APPENDICES
Page Appendix 1. The Detailed Recapitulation on Formality Features…….. 76 Appendix 2. The Detailed Recapitulation on Accuracy Features……... 77 Appendix 3. The Detailed Recapitulation on Clarity Features………... 78 Appendix 4. The Detailed Recapitulation on Concision Features…….. 79 Appendix 5. Examples of Formality Error …………………………
80 Appendix 6. Examples of Accuracy Error …………………………
85 Appendix 7. Examples of Clarity Error ……………………………
88 Appendix 8. Examples of Concision Error ………………………...
91 Appendix 9. Examples of Students’ Academic Writing………………. 98
ABSTRACT
Laurentia Lila Paramita. 2007. Diction in Academic Writing of the Sixth Semester
Students of the English Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University .
Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Department of Language and Arts Education, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University.This undergraduate thesis analyzed the diction in academic writing of the sixth semester students. There were three research problems in this study. The first problem dealt with the diction employed in the students’ writing. The second problem was concerned with the diction errors, and the last one was the likely source of the diction errors.
This study was conducted using descriptive qualitative method. It was intended to investigate the quality of the diction produced in students’ writing. The data were taken from the students’ final papers. There were 28 papers taken as the data in this study. To answer the research problems, those papers were analyzed. Each composition was evaluated based on theories of diction suggested by O’Hare (1984) and Gerson (2003).
The result of the data analysis showed that not all of the compositions implemented formal diction. Firstly, most of the compositions contained correct use of abbreviation. In more than half of the compositions, abbreviations were explained in plain words. This implied that most of the students did not meet difficulties in using shortening, initialism and contraction. The same result occurred with pronoun. Most of the compositions contained correct use of addressing and sexist pronoun. Yet, only half of the compositions contained correct use of expression. In fact, the wrong use of expression, such as the presence of colloquialisms, made the students’ compositions informal since they use conversational language. Besides, half of the compositions still contained exaggerated expression. This fact made the meaning less clear. The next one, nearly all of the compositions contained concise diction. They avoided ‘to be’ or ‘being’ forms, doubled words, redundancies, and negative forms. It implied that most of the students were aware of being concise. However, less than half of the compositions contained concise and straightforward phrases. Most of them still used long and devious phrases to convey ideas. This implied that most of the students lacked vocabulary as they mostly used longer phrases to state their ideas.
Concision error was statistically the most frequently encountered error in the students’ compositions, as it comprised 39.7% of the total errors in overall categories. The second rank was formality error (32.21%). It was followed by accuracy error in third place (14.23%), while clarity error ranked fourth (13.86%).
Finally, some implications and suggestions intended for teachers of English, the students, and for further researcher were put forward in the last chapter.
ABSTRAK
Laurentia Lila Paramita. 2007. Diction in Academic Writing of the Sixth Semester
Students of the English Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University .
Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidian, Universitas Sanata Dharma.Skripsi ini menganalisa diksi dalam karangan akademik pada mahasiswa semester enam. Ada tiga permasalahan dalam penelitian ini. Masalah pertama berkaitan dengan diksi yang dipakai dalam karangan mereka. Masalah kedua dipusatkan pada kesalahan-kesalahan diksi. Sedangkan yang ketiga berkaitan dengan hal-hal yang mungkin menjadi penyebab dari kesalahan-kesalahan diksi dalam menulis karangan akademik.
Penelitian ini dilaksanakan dengan menggunakan metode penelitian kualitatif yang bermaksud untuk menyelidiki kualitas diksi yang digunakan dalam karangan mahasiswa semester enam. Sebanyak 28 karangan dipakai sebagai data dalam penelitian ini. Untuk memecahkan permasalahan, karangan-karangan tersebut dianalisa. Setiap karangan dinilai berdasarkan teori diksi yang dikemukakan oleh O’Hare (1984) dan Gerson (2003).
Hasil dari analisa data menunjukkan bahwa tidak semua karangan menggunakan diksi yang formal. Pertama, sebagian besar dari karangan sudah benar dalam penulisan singkatan. Lebih dari separuh karangan, singkatan- singkatan sudah dijabarkan. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa sebagian besar mahasiswa tidak mengalami kesulitan dalam menggunakan shortening, initialism dan contraction. Hal yang sama juga terjadi pada penggunaan kata ganti. Sebagian besar karangan menggunakan addressing dan kata ganti sexist dengan benar. Akan tetapi, hanya sebagian dari karangan yang memakai expression dengan benar. Pada kenyataannya, penggunaan yang salah seperti pemakaian
colloquialism atau bahasa sehari-hari menyebabkan karangan menjadi informal.
Selain itu, sebagian karangan masih memakai exaggerated expression. Hal ini membuat arti kata menjadi kurang jelas. Selanjutnya, hampir semua karangan memakai pilihan kata yang singkat. Bentuk to be atau being, doubled words,
redundancies , dan bentuk negative mampu dihindari dalam karangan. Ini
menunjukkan bahwa hampir semua mahasiswa semester enam mengerti akan bagaimana menulis efektif. Tetapi, hanya kurang dari separuh karangan saja yang masih mengandung frasa atau kalimat yang singkat dan tidak bertele-tele. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa mahasiswa-mahasiswa tersebut memiliki kekurangan pada kosakata karena mereka masih memakai frasa yang panjang dalam mengungkapkan opini mereka.
Kesalahan concision secara statistik merupakan yang paling sering ditemukan dalam karangan-karangan para murid karena terdapat 39,7% kesalahan dari keseluruhan kesalahan diksi. Kedua adalah kesalahan formality (32,21%), diikuti dengan kesalahan accuracy (14,23%) dan clarity (13,86%).
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Writing is no longer a secondary skill but one with great significance. Students are called upon to use English writing skill in their careers or to
participate in conferences and workshops, both before and after graduation. As a fundamental element of all educational mainstreams and the central skill among the four language skills, English writing skill is important to be successful in almost any profession. The work of Odell (1985) states that no matter what profession a person is in or plans to enter, developing English writing skill will facilitate career advances. In other words, good English writing skill is an asset to professionals (Zimmerman & Rodriguez, 1992: 5). This is reflected in the fact that nearly all published articles require superior written communication in English.
Accordingly, professions that are either directly or indirectly associated with writing require people to have good English writing skill. Further, today’s technology makes it even more imperative to be able to write well. It has been clearly shown that there are a lot of companies which place great reliance on communicating through the internet. The easiest illustration is communicating via e-mail, instant messaging, or reporting and publishing articles, essays, term papers, contracts, business letters, professional journals, memos, and reports. The students are thus required to build up English academic writing skill if they are to
B. Problem Identification
The syllabus of the Writing VI course of English Study Program, Sanata Dharma University states that sixth semester students must have good command of English and be capable of composing well-organized academic writing.
Academic writing tends to be associated with hard work and difficulty, rarely with pleasure. Academic writing is complex and not merely based on guesswork, untested speculation, and received opinion (Swales, 1994: 2). Further, a good academic paper must demonstrate wide knowledge of a subject, be well- organized, and show effective use of sentence structure, word choice, and mastery of mechanics (Sanata Dharma English Education Writing VI Composition Profile, 2006).
Formal, clear, and concise language is the preferred language for academic writing as well (O’Hare, 1984: 317). Gerson (2003: 27) further affirms that to be effective academic writing, diction must be accurate. In summary, formal, clear, concise, and accurate language is appropriate for academic writing. However, the students of the English Education Department, particularly the students of Writing
VI course still produce informal, unclear, and inaccurate sentences. For example, “Students’ motivation and achievement got more and more dependent on each
other as the teacher puts a lot of support into making academic papers ” may be
better changed into “ The relationship between students’ motivation and
achievement grew rapidly as the teacher strongly encouraged in composing
academic papers ”. The example above states the same meaning but differ widely 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 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 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
1. Academic Writing
Wikipedia (2006) describes academic writing belongs in the structure of formal English. It is intended for a critical and informed audience, and based on closely investigated knowledge. Academic writing in this study refers to the most common pieces of writing in the academic world that are research papers.
2. Diction
According to Agnes (1999: 400), diction is a manner of expression in the word or choice of words. In this study, diction refers to the writer’s choice of words in academic writing which covers four above-stated features, namely formality, accuracy, clarity, and concision.
3. Writing VI
The researcher refers to the definition as it is stated in the Academic Guide of English Language Program (2005: 94) which clarifies that Writing VI is a course in which the goal is students are able to write academic writing such an interview report, a research paper and a survey report.
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter reviews all theories proposed by some experts which relate to
the research. There are two main parts in this chapter, namely theoretical description and theoretical framework. The theoretical description presents the discussion of any literature related to the academic writing, diction, and error. Theoretical framework summarizes all relevant theories, which helped the researcher solve the research problem.
A. Theoretical Description
1. Academic Writing
a. The Concept of Writing
There are some definitions of writing that can give a general understanding of what writing is. Writing according to Troyka (1987) is a way of communicating a message to a reader for a purpose. According to him, the purposes of writing are: (1) to express oneself, (2) to provide information, (3) to persuade one’s reader, and (4) to create a literary work. The first and the last purposes significantly contribute to human thought and culture while the second and the third purposes of writing above are most prominent and practical in academic life.
To produce a written form is a difficult task particularly for second language learners. Writing for the ESL students requires maturity in both complicated by the fact that he or she lacks an intuitive sense of English language conventions. For example, inadequate vocabulary and grammatical structure are too limited to convey what they know and want to say.
According to Ambruster (2002: 118), writing is a complex goal-directed, problem solving process that consists of a number of sub-processes. Further, Raimes as cited in Musthafa (1994: 5) defines writing specifically as a set of decision making process involving intricate choice of grammar, syntax, mechanics, organization, word choice, purpose, audience, content, and the writing procedure.
Writing is linked to language skills and elements such as reading, listening, vocabulary, structure, and spelling. To be able to write well, students must have extensive previous knowledge about orthography forms, lexicon, syntax, and morphemes. Besides, a great part of writing proficiency also results from prior knowledge. Vocabulary items, grammatical rules, and more generally, the knowledge of the world play important role in writing. Since linguistic proficiency is considered important, students need to learn the grammatical, lexical terms, styles and formats as well.
Writing is commonly difficult for most students, even in their first language. It is because writing is a complex process, and competent writing is frequently accepted as the last language skill to be acquired (Hamp-Lyons in Nunan, 1991: 91). Ball and Burnaby in Nunan (1989: 36) also reveal the complexity of writing that writing is an extremely complex cognitive activity that Asher, 1994: 375) also says that “ process of writing views writing as the result of employing cognitive strategies to manage the composing process that is a process of exploration and developing organization”. He adds that it is comprised of setting goals, generating ideas, organizing information, and selecting appropriate language, drafting, reviewing, revising, and editing. Therefore, writing is a complex activity, which for many foreign language writers is difficult.
b. An Overview of Academic Writing
As it was stated earlier, academic writing tends to be associated with hard work and difficulty, rarely with pleasure. Swales (1994: 2) states that academic writing is complex and not merely based on guesswork, untested speculation, and received opinion. Hodgson (2005) also states that academic writing is careful to include doubts. Essay, thesis, research article, book report are kinds of academic writing which closely related with university students.
Concerning on the purpose, according to Jones (2005), the general purpose of an academic writing is to present information that displays a clear understanding of a subject. Meanwhile, the specific purpose varies according to the assignment such as argumentation, persuasion, description, narration, and exposition. According to Gocsik (2005), the structure and organization in academic writing will be determined by the content itself. Further, he states that content of academic writing must have a declared and arguable thesis. In other words, in composing an academic writing, the writer must be able to present the her knowledge about the subject from his or her assumption about the subject. Gocsik (2005) further explains that an academic paper is considered failed to meet the expectation of the reader if it fails to argue or inform. Thus, in creating arguments in academic writing, the writer needs to rely on several strategies.
Knowing about the function and structure of academic writing is important. However, knowing about the appropriate style and conventions to use when composing academic writing is equally important. Compare to other kinds of writing, the style and convention of academic writing is obviously different.
Academic writing written in a university context tends to be structured, formal, objective, impersonal, complex and contain technical language. According to Hodgson (2005), the formal and impersonal nature of academic papers can be achieved by avoiding certain types of language, such as avoiding conventional language like a bit and maybe, contractions, abbreviation, and starting sentences with words such as but, again, and although. In addition, academic vocabulary is strongly recommended in composing academic writing, as it usually has more precise meanings than its less formal equivalents.
c. Academic Writing Process
Some writers find it harder to deal with their own thoughts, since they are fully responsible for generating the appropriate expression for good communication. Academic writing tends to provide someone’s idea and a kind of summary. In other words, academic writing is comprised of the small version of common techniques in providing someone’s idea in academic writing. Paraphrasing process is repeating and rewriting someone’s statement using the writer’s own word. It means that the writer may restate the idea in reduced form without mentioning the author by name. This gives prominence to the information itself, while the author is added simply as a reference, either by name, year and page. Quoting process means choosing a single sentence or phrasing from the original text that in itself, sums up the main point being made by the author.
Meanwhile, reporting means the writer reports the idea by describing indirectly what the original statement is about.
d. Academic Writing Rubric
As a general rule, papers are evaluated according to the quality of writing in several different elements such as argument or content, organization, and language use. The elements of writing proficiency are the criteria that a faculty uses to evaluate students’ proficiency in academic writing. Referring to Writing
VI Composition Profile, Sanata Dharma University (2006), the grading system is classified into six categories namely excellent, very good, good, average, fair, and poor. Specifically, to have the detailed frame of the grading system, the table of Writing VI Composition Profile is presented in Table 2.1 (see p.11).
From the rubric in Table 2.1, in the area of language, the grading system covers the sentence structure (preposition, articles, tense, compound and complex sentences), vocabulary (idiom, diction or word choice), and mechanics (spelling, grading system in the area of language, particularly vocabulary area that is word choice or diction.
Table 2.1 Writing VI Rubric, English Education, Sanata Dharma UniversityExcellent – very good Good – average Fair - poor Content Knowledgeable; substantive; thorough development of thesis
Some knowledge of subject; adequate range; limited development of thesis
Limited knowledge of subject; little substance; inadequate development of thesis
25-24-23-22 21-20-19-18 17-16-15-14-13-12-
11 Organization Fluent expression; ideas clearly stated/ supported; well- organized
Somewhat choppy main ideas; stand out; but organization
unclear
Ideas confused or disconnected; lacks logical sequencing 20-19-18 17-16-15-14 13-12-11-10