CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

English is now become a global language and an international language for

human communication. This is meant that English is the language communication

used by all humans in the world. It can be seen especially in the context of English

language teaching as a foreign language taught in Indonesia, started from

elementary school up to university, they study English. Listening, reading, writing,

and speaking are the four importance skills in English teaching and learning. From

the fourth language skills, writing is one of the language skills which is important

in our life. Through writing, the writers can inform others, carry out transactions,

persuade, infuriate, and tell what we feel. However, the writers know that writing

or learning to write especially in a second language is not simply a matter of

“writing things down”. It is one of the four basic skills that are very complex and

difficult to learn.

For the students of universities at English Department, writing has

significant purpose as the main tool for learning and it is generally assumed to be

the most essential for a successful study. This is because the university students are

expected to be able to express their ideas both in non-academic and academic

writing such as writing a text, an article, and a thesis as their final project.

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 Writing at first comes from an idea in the head, then the person who has the

idea reveals and expresses it in the form of written language. However, writing is

not simply a matter of expressing the ideas in good language and using a good

grammar on a piece of paper. Writing will not be easy to understand if the relation

among parts is not tightly related. Therefore, writing is not just a matter of using

good language, but also a matter of using ability to create unity in a text. It can be

concluded that to create a good writing, students have to combine their skill of using

a well-patterned language and their ability to relate sentences and paragraphs to

become a united text.

Writing a text as a kind of discourse, should have a good construction and

need the cohesion and coherence to be unified. As Halliday and Hasan (1989:2)

explain that “a text or a paragraph which use cohesion and coherence it must be a

good writing”. This can be meant that to build a good writing, the writers have to

use cohesion and coherence at their writing paragraph or text. Cohesion and

coherence are important properties in the writing text because it will complete the

sentences among the paragraph. According to them, cohesion is internal property,

while coherence is contextual properties of paragraph. Furthermore, Halliday

(1994:309) notes that “in writing a text, it is required to use a connection that

involve the elements both within clause and beyond it which can make the text flow

smoothly. The connection which used within the text are cohesion and coherence.

It can be meant that cohesion and coherence are the tools which used in the writing

text, and those function as the connection among the sentences to make the text

stream smoothly.. This statement is exactly true because the cohesive devices in a

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text can be only fit together through coherence devices that will link them to be one

unity.

Cohesion and coherence mean that all of the parts of the sentences are

connected logically and linguistically to form a whole. It is an important factor

which is necessary to convey the exact information that the author wishes. In

coherent writing the writers make connection between sentences, paragraphs, and

texts, so that it will be clear to the reader. The writers are not only making

connection for themselves but also to their reader. Also in cohesion the property of

flow and connection in a written text that stems from the linguistics links among its

surface elements. Thus the reader will understand the plot of the text.

Halliday and Hasan, who in 1976 introduced the concept of cohesion in his

book Cohesion in English, which the main explanation is to examine carefully how

sentences are related in a text. Cohesion is the use of cohesive ties to sequence and

connect sentences together, and facilitate text to be understood as connected

discourse. As Halliday & Hasan (1976:4) sensibly point out:

The concept of cohesion is a semantic one; it refers to relations of meaning

that exist within the text and that define it as a text. It happens where the
interpretation of some element in the discourse is dependent on that of
another.
Cohesion is expressed partly through grammar and vocabulary. Halliday and

Hasan (1976:6) divide cohesion into grammatical and lexical cohesion.

Grammatical cohesion includes devices such as reference, substitution, ellipsis and

conjunction, while lexical cohesion is divided into reiteration (repetition,

synonymy, etc.) and collocation (co-occurrence of lexical items). Furthermore,

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Halliday and Hasan (1976:31–33) emphasize that “grammatical and lexical

elements are interpreted through their relation to other elements in the text, a

cohesive tie is formed. There is no single element can be cohesive by itself except

if it is related to another”. It can be informed that the text will form cohesive if the

unit of the sentences are related each other.

Based on the explanation above, it can realize that it is not an easy step to

make a good writing. To be a good writer, the writers must apply the theory of

writing they have learned at class into an actual and continuous practice. One of the

ways to do it is by practicing the cohesion and coherence principle appropriately in

writing. Conscious of its function, the researcher observes that writing has become

one of the basic English language subjects at schools beside the other language

skills. It is proven by the fact that at the Pekalongan University (UNIKAL), for

instance, Writing subject is one of the basic compulsory subjects besides Listening,

Reading, and Speaking. Basically, what is taught in Writing classes is how to get

the skill of Writing, both practically and theoretically. By doing so, it is hoped that

the students are not only able to understand the theory, but also able to apply it in a

good writing.

However, not all texts written by students of English Education Department

of IAIN Salatiga have fulfilled the requirements of a good writing which applies

cohesive and coherent such those proposed by Halliday and Hassan (1976) and

Oshima and Hogue (2006). That conclusion is drawn from the pre-survey in

International Class Program of State Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN) Salatiga in

the academic year 2014/2015. The researcher used observation and interview one

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of Writing lecturer when the researcher studied Writing in fourth semester. The

result showed that the students were actually able to write with good idea and good

grammar, but unfortunately, they were lack of paying attention to the cohesion and

coherence that construct unity of the complete writing. For this reason, the

researcher desires to analyze the cohesion and coherence in students‟ writing texts

of fourth semester students of English Education Department of IAIN Salatiga.

B. Problems of the Study

This study particularly aimed at finding the answers to the following research

questions:

1. What are cohesive devices use in explanation text written by the students of

Pekalongan University?

2. What are the dominant type of cohesive devices in explanation text written

by the students of Pekalongan University?

C. Objectives of the Study

From this study the researcher wants to achieve some objectives:

1. To describe the cohesive devices use in explanation text written by the

students of Pekalongan University.

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2. To reveal the dominant cohesive devices use in explanation text written by

the students of Pekalongan University.

D. Limitation of the Study

In line with the topic, this study focuses on analyzing cohesion in the

students‟ writing explanation texts and this study is not discuss about the

grammatical error of the text. Furthermore, the researcher is only adopt the correct

sentences and reduce the wrong sentences which involve the grammatical error.

E. Significance of the Study

The result of the research is expected to give some useful benefits as follows:

1. Theoretical benefit

The result of this study is expected to be encouragement in teaching learning

process especially for teaching cohesion in writing subject.

2. Practical benefits

a. The result of this study is intended to be one consideration for English

lecturers in applying any strategy or increasing any technique of teaching English,

especially cohesion in writing subject.

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b. The result of this study can help writers understanding about cohesion so

that they are able to compose a good writing.

c. The result of this study can be used as a reference, and give additional

information for other researchers who want to conduct research about cohesion.

F. Definition of the Key Terms

1. Explanation text

Explanation text is a non-fiction text which describes a process. Based on Barwick

(1999:50) “explanation text is written to explain how and why something in the

world happens. It is about actions rather than about things. Explanation plays a

valuable role in building and storing our knowledge. Technical and scientific

writing are often expressed in this form”. This is meant that explanation text is a

text which contains the processes associated with natural phenomena, social,

science, culture, and more.

2. Cohesion

“Cohesion is a surface phenomenon, it concerns the grammatical and lexical

features that create ties between sentences, most importantly lexical repetition, use

of pronouns and link words. A lack of cohesion results in a choppy and unconnected

style” (Blanpain, 2006:25). It can be informed that cohesion is used to connect the

sentences together, so that the text should not in a wavy and it can be understood

for the readers.

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 CHAPTER II

THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Previous Studies

The analysis of cohesion has been conducted previously by some researchers. The

related researchers are the following:

Hidayanto (2015) investigates the types of cohesive device used by the third

semester students of English Literature Universitas Brawijaya, and the dominant

types of cohesive device used by the third semester students of English Literature

in 7 expository essays. Rahman (2013) examines the use of cohesive devices in

descriptive text by Omani students-teachers, the frequency of cohesive devices used

by Arabic L1 student-teachers in their written discourse, the extent the student-

teachers differ from native English speakers in the use of cohesive devices, the

problems they face in using cohesive devices to achieve cohesion.

Ayub, Seken, K., and Suarnajaya, W. (2013) analyzes the types of cohesion

and coherence in 30 students’ English writings at the second grade of SMAN 1

Labuapi West Lombok using qualitative method. In line with that research,

Andayani, P.A., Seken, I.K., Marjohan, A. (2014) analyzes the cohesion and

coherence of students' narrative writings of 30 students of the ninth grade in SMP

Negeri 2 Banjar.

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 Elawita (2012) investigates the appropriateness of using cohesive devices

of students’ writing of 33 students of English study program in STKIP-PGRI in the

third semester in the course of writing III. Swastami (2014) investigates the

cohesion found and also the most frequently of correctly and incorrectly used in

recount text that written by second semester students IAIN Tulungagung.

Abdurahman (2013) analyzed types of grammatical cohesive devices students in 10

students’ their thesis writing and how these devices create cohesive discourse.

Xuefan (2007) analyzes the use of lexical cohesive devices in narration and

argumentation text in quantitative study with participants of 30 English majors from

Wuyi University in China Students. Ghasemi (2013) reviewed some studies

focusing on the use of cohesive devices and the relationship between the number of

cohesive devices and writing quality.

The last is a research report from Kuncahya in the year of 2015 from State

University of Yogyakarta. She analyzed 16 narrative texts presented in electronic

textbook of senior high school grade x entitled “Developing English Competence”.

This research applied qualitative method, and the data were in the form of sentences

and were collected by note taking. She found that reiteration appeared to be the

most frequent types of all subcategories of cohesion, and the narrative texts

analyzed in this research contain dense lexical cohesion.

The three previous researches above were analyze about cohesion and

coherence in writing text. On the contrary, the results of the research are different

each other. In this study, I investigate cohesion and coherence in the students‟

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explanation text in different framework. First, I use documentation for collecting

the data. Then, the source of data for my study is from the students‟ writing task in

form of explanation text. Thus, it is clear that this study is different from Bae (2001),

Astuti, Suryani, and Kurniati (2010), and Kuncahya (2015) work. In this study, I

identify the students‟ competence in producing cohesion at their writing texts. In

line with them, this study focusses on the use of cohesive devices in students’

recount text that was also done by Swastami (2014). However, this study wants to

investigate it in different proficiency level.

B. Cohesion

The connection between sentences may play a role in connected discourse.

To connect the sentences together, a writers need cohesion. “Cohesion is all about

the relation of meaning in a text. It defines something as a text because a text is a

unit of meaning, not a form. It is the source of the text that has a range of meanings

related to what is being spoken and written to its semantic environment”. (Jabeen,

et al. (2013:139) cited in Kuncahya (2015:16). It is meant that cohesion is clarified

through ties in which every one of the text refers to a single instance of cohesion

and expressed partly through grammar and partly through vocabulary. That is why

there are grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion

According to Halliday & Hasan (1976:5) as defined earlier, “cohesion is a

set of linguistics devices which connect ideas making explicit the semantic relations

underlying them”. It means that the tool for relating the ideas in the text explicitly

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through cohesive elements. Moreover, “cohesion refers to the range of grammatical

and lexical possibilities that exist for linking an element of language with what has

gone before or what follows in a text. This linking is achieved through relations in

meaning that exist within and across the sentences” (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:10).

Therefore, cohesion utilizes cohesive ties to sequence and connect sentences

together causing a text to be in one piece, not a group of unrelated sentences.

Halliday & Hasan (1976:6) in the book of Cohesion in English, classify

cohesion into grammatical and lexical cohesion. The grammatical cohesion

includes reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction. Meanwhile, lexical cohesion

includes reiteration and collocation. This is because both of them are determined

by two different elements. They are grammar and words. In the lexico-grammatical

level, the distinction can absolutely be drawn. The concept of each types of

cohesion and its subtypes are as follows:

1. Grammatical Cohesion

The grammatical cohesion is established by use of the grammatical elements of the

text that expresses the semantic links within and between the sentences. It includes

reference, substitution, ellipsis, and conjunction.

a. Reference

Based on Halliday & Hasan (1976:31) explanation that “reference is the use

of a word to refer to an item in the real world or in a text”. This can be meant that

reference is used to indicate the signaling items which represent in the text.

Furthermore, Halliday & Hasan (1976:33) state that “when a reference is pointing

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to an item outside the text, it is define as exophoric reference. But when it is pointing

to an item within the text, it is define as endorphoric reference”. It can be conclude

that there are two reference items which are exophoric and endophoric reference.

Nevertheless, according to Halliday & Hasan (1976)‟s definition, cohesion is the

connection of sentences in a text. Therefore, exophoric reference is out of the

cohesion framework, because exophoric reference pints to items outside the text, to

the items in the real world. Only endorphoric reference shows cohesive property.

Endorphoric reference consists of two subtypes which are anaphoric and

cataphoric reference. Anaphoric reference is the referring to an item in the

preceding sentence and cataphoric reference is the referring to an item in the

following sentence.

A reference items is an item that has a potential reference and a systematic

account on the different types of reference, and their place has to be based on

generalized concept of reference (not particular form). In addition, “English

reference cohesion is categorized into three subtypes which are personals,

demonstratives, and comparatives” (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:37). Their concepts

are as follow.

1) Personal reference

“Personal reference is reference by means of function in the speech situation,

through the category of person” (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:37). This is meant that

personal reference represents person by specifying its role in the speech situation.

A lexical item can be referred by a pronoun, a possessive determiner, or a possessive

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pronoun. Such references are define as personal reference, they can be either

exophoric or endophoric. For example, item “I” in example (1) is exophoric,

because it refers to the speaker which resides in the real world, while item “He” in

example (2) is endophoric, because it refers to John in the text and also person could

notice that “He” is also anaphoric, because “John” is in the preceding sentence.

However, only endophoric personal reference such as “He” in example (2)

corresponds to the definition of cohesion defined by Halliday & Hasan (1976). The

analysis of cohesion in the present study will not determine exophoric reference

such as “I” in example (1) as it refers to the item in the real world, and it does not

contain cohesive property which connects the sentences together.

(1) I had a cat

(2) John has just bought a car. He loves it very much. (Halliday & Hasan,

1976:45)

2) Demonstrative reference

“Demonstrative reference is used to identify an item relates to location

through the scale of proximity” (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:37). It can be informed

that demonstrative reference is essentially a form of verbal pointing, which

identifies the referent by locating it on a scale of proximity. Furthermore, the usage

proximity of demonstrative reference such as this, these, that, those, here, there, and

the. Similarly to personal reference, demonstrative reference can be exophoric and

endophoric. For example:

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(1) Leave that there and come here!

(2) John has gone to Thailand. This time he will be there for a year. (Halliday

& Hasan, 1976:58)

In example (1) the speaker and the listener both implicitly know that “there”

is a place around the listener and “here” is a place around the speaker. These two

demonstrative references are exophoric and they are not considered to have

cohesive property. In example (2) “there” refers to “Thailand” and is endophoric,

because it refers to an item in the text. Also “there” in example (2) is anaphoric

reference, because it refers to “Thailand” which is in the preceding sentence.

3) Comparative reference

“Comparative reference is used to refer to an item via identity and

similarity” (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:37). It means that comparative reference is

based on the thing in terms of likeness and unlikeness. The usage adopts adjectives

such as same, equal, similar, different, else, better, more, etc., and adverbs such as

so, such, similarly, otherwise, so, more, etc. to signal the reference. For example:

(1) It is the same cat as we saw yesterday.

(2) The distance of the earth from the sun makes it suitable to sustain life.

Searching for the other planets with the same distance from their mother stars is to

search for an extra-terrestrial life.

(3) The blue t-shirt has the same size as the green one. (Halliday & Hasan,

1976:70)

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 From example (1) and (2), the item “same” is used as comparative

references. In example (1) the item “same” help referring to a cat, which both

persons have seen the other day in their real world situation. Therefore, item “same”

in (1) is exophoric and does not have cohesive property. In example (2) the item

“same” refers to the specific distance between the earth and the sun. The reference

endophoric because it points to an item within a text, therefore, it has cohesive

property and it is anaphoric, because it points to the preceding sentence. In sentence

(3), the word “same” is used to show both t-shirt share a character, the size in this

case. The item “same” in example (3) does not refer to any items in the text;

therefore it is a reference and does not have cohesive property.

b. Substitution

“Substitution is a replacement of an item by a general word to avoid

repetition” (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:88). This is meant that substitution is the

replacement of one item by another. “There are three types of substitution which

are nominal substitution, verbal substitution, and clausal substitution” (Halliday &

Hasan, 1976:90).

1) Nominal substitution

According to Halliday and Hasan (1976:90) “nominal substitution is a replacement

of one or ones instead of repeating the same word in nominal group”. It means that

the item that substituted with one or ones always functions as head of a nominal

group. In example (1), item “ones” is used to replace item “biscuits” in the

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preceding sentence and it is head of the nominal group “fresh ones”. The

replacement avoid the repetition of item “biscuits”, however if item “biscuits” is

repeated in example (1), the sentences could still be meaningful.

(1) These biscuits are stale. Get some fresh ones. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:92)

2) Verbal substitution

“Verbal substitution is a replacement of an element in verbal group and its

position is always final in the group. In English, the device used as verbal

substitution is do” (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:112). It can be informed that verbal

substitution operates as head of a verbal group, and “do” is the item used to

substitute either a verb or other element which represents an action, event, or

relation. This is mostly used in spoke language. It can expressed by “do”, “do so”,

“can do”, “does”, “did”, and “done”. For example, “do” in example (1) is used to

substitute “come” and item “do” in example (2) is used to substitute “like to go to

Bangkok”.

(1) ….the words did not come the same as they use to do.

(2) Do you like to go to Bangkok? – Yes, I do. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:112)

3) Clausal Substitution

Based on Halliday & Hasan (1976:130), “clausal substitution is a

replacement of an entire clause. It‟s the substitution of elements in both nominal

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and verbal group. The items to be used to substitute are so and not”. It can be

conclude that clausal substitution substitutes an entire clause instead of within the

clause, and it may take either positive or negative form which expressed by “so”

and “not”. Item “so” in example (1) substitute the clause “he‟s guilty” in the

preceding sentence. In example (2) “not” replace the clause “recognize him”. It is

worth nothing that and and but are used here to merge the preceding and the

following sentence in the example

(1) and (2). They are conjunction, another type of cohesion which will

discussed later in this chapter.

(1) Everyone seems to think he’s guilty. If so, no doubt he’ll offer to resign.

(2) We should recognize him when we see him.

Yes, but supposing not. What do we do? (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:134)

c. Ellipsis

Ellipsis determining semantic relation by using grammatical elements. “The

function of ellipsis is the same as substitution but the item is replace by nothing, in

other word, it is omitted. Although it is the same with substitution, it has different

structure and pattern. In ellipsis, something is understood without saying” (Halliday

& Hasan, 1976:142). This is meant that ellipsis is simply “substitution by zero”, the

omission of an item is to avoid the item repetition. The omission would not ruin the

quality of the text if the context is obvious for the readers to comprehend. “As

ellipsis and substitute are similar, so the subtypes of ellipsis are classified

17
identically to substitution, they are nominal, verbal, and clausal” (Halliday &

Hasan, 1976:146).

1) Nominal ellipsis

Halliday & Hasan (1976:147) state that “nominal ellipsis is the ellipsis of an item

in nominal group, which generally is the subject of the sentence”. It means that

nominal group is used to replace the element in the nominal group. In example (1),

“student” is omitted in the second sentence, but a reader could assume that it is

“Indonesian student…” from the preceding sentence.

(1) There are two English students and one Indonesian student in the class. The

Indonesian has been here for one year

2) Verbal ellipsis

Verbal ellipsis according to Halliday & Hasan (1976:167) is “the omission of an

item in verbal group, which is a group of verbs in a sentence. An elliptical verbal

group presuppose one or more words from a previous verbal group, which is not

fully express in its systemic features”. This can be meant that verbal ellipsis refers

to ellipsis within the verbal group. In example (1)

the sentence “Yes, I have” is the shortened form of “Yes, I have been swimming”.

Most readers can guess the full form of the sentence from the question sentence of

example (1).

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(1) Have you been swimming?

Yes, I have. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:167)

In example (2), the item “might”, “was to”, “may not”, and “should” indicate that

there is an omission of items in verbal groups. A reader could predict that verb “do”

is omitted.

(2) Is Jane going to do this? She might,

She was to, She may not,

She should if she wants her homework done. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:170)

3) Clausal ellipsis

The clause in English have two parts structure which contain of modal and

propositional element. The modal element consists of subject and finite element in

the verbal group. While the propositional element consists of the reminder of the

verbal group and any complements or adjunct that may be appear. “Clausal ellipsis

is the omission of items both in nominal and verbal group” (Halliday & Hasan,

1976:197). It can be informed that clausal ellipsis includes the omission in the

modal an prepositional elements. Generally, would be looked like the whole clause

is omitted but leave some elements for the reader to recognize the omitted items. In

example (1), the modal element is omitted in the answer, whereas in the example

(2), the prepositional element is omitted.

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(1) What was Duke going to do? Plant a row of poplars in the park.

(2) Who was going to plant a row of poplars in the park? The Duke was.

(Halliday & Hasan, 1976:197-198)

d. Conjunction

A conjunction can be used as cohesive tie. Conjunctive elements are primarily

devices to create cohesion by the virtue of their specific meanings. It means that

they by themselves express certain meanings and their meanings enable them to

presuppose the presence of the other elements. They can relate to the preceding or

following text. By specifying the way that is the next is semantically connected to

what has gone before, conjunction can establish the semantic relation. “A

conjunction is not used to refer any particular items in the text, but it is used to

connect sentences in terms of meanings” (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:226). Therefore,

the conjunction is not only a matter of connecting two sentences, but also relating

two events semantically. “Conjunction ties are categorized into additive,

adversative, causal, and temporal” (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:238).

1) Additive

Halliday & Hasan (1976:224) explain that “additive refers to a type of cohesion that

structurally appears and coordinates each other. “The function of additive

conjunction is to add information to a sentence using the ties such as and, also, too,

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additionally, furthermore, etc. the tie can negate the sentence using the ties such as

nor, and…not, and…not…either, neither, and…neither, etc. it means that additive

depends on the structure of the sentence, and it functions to add the existing

information by the virtue of coordination. For example:

(1) For the whole day he climbed up the steep mountainside, almost without

stopping. And in all this time he met no one. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:238)

(2) Camp meals are not great problem. Neither are beds, thanks to air mattresses

and sleeping bags.

Item “And” in example (1), adds information about the loneliness of the climber

climbing up the hill. In example (2), the item “Neither” is a negated additive

conjunction. It signals that the beds are also not a problem like the camps meals.

2) Adversative

“Adversative refers to the contrary of expectation. The function of adversative

conjunction is to indicate a contrary to a reader‟s and listener‟s expectation, which

derived from what is mentioned before” (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:250). It can be

meant that adversative is gained by contrasting expectation which come from the

content of what is being said or from the

speaker-hearer situation. The advertise ties such as yet, though, only, but, in fact,

rather, etc. for example:

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(1) For the whole day he climbed up the steep mountainside, almost without

stopping. Yet he was hardly aware of being tired. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976: 239)

Item “Yet” in the second sentence of example (1) is used to give information which

is contents contradicts to the expectation of the reader reading the first sentence in

example (1).

3) Causal

Based on Halliday & Hasan (1976:256) “the function of causal conjunction is to

express the sentences‟ relationship between the cause and the result. The causal

relation includes result, reason, and purpose to form a cohesive chain”. It means

that causal conjunction represents one of clause becomes the cause and the rest is

becomes the result. The ties such as so, the, for, because, for this reason, as a result,

in this respect, etc., are used to perform this function. For example:

(1) For the whole day he climbed up the steep mountainside, almost without

stopping. So by night time the valley was far below him. (Halliday & Hasan,

1976:239)

The second sentence in example (1) is the result of the first sentence and the device

“So” is used to signal this cause and result relationship

3) Temporal.

The last type of conjunction is temporal conjunction. As Halliday & Hasan

(1976:261) declare that “the function of temporal conjunction is to signal the

22
sequence of events and time. It exist when the events in the text are related in terms

of timing of their occurrence”. This is meant that temporal conjunction represents

the sequence of time. The ties such then, next, after that, next day, until then, at the

same time, at this point, etc., are used for temporal conjunction. For example:

(1) For the whole day he climbed up the steep mountainside, almost without

stopping. Then, as duck fell, he sat down to rest. (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:239)

Item “Then” in example (1) is a temporal tie used to signal the sequence of events

related to the climber in example (1).

2. Lexical cohesion

Lexical cohesion is different from the previous types of cohesion because lexical

cohesion is non-grammatical. “It is constructed from the selection of vocabulary.

This type of cohesion is achieved by the selection of vocabulary” (Halliday &

Hasan, 1976:276). It means that lexical cohesion refers to the cohesive effect by

non-grammatical elements or the selections of vocabulary. There are two types of

lexical cohesion which are reiteration and collocation.

a. Reiteration.

Reiteration according to Halliday & Hasan (1976:278) is “the repetition of a

presupposed item. It is a form of lexical cohesion which involves the repetition of

lexical item, the use of general word to refer back to lexical item, and a number of

things in between the use of synonym, near-synonym, or superordinate”. In

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conclusion, the words used to establishes the semantic links by means of using

repetition, synonym, superordinate, and general word. In most case, reiteration is

accompanied by demonstrative reference “the”. For example:

(1) I saw a small dog in the kitchen again.

The dog (repetition) was very dirty.

I was thinking to keep that animal (superordinate) out.

The puppy (synonym) was obviously not up to it.

The kitchen is for us not for the four legs (general word).

(Researcher’s Documentation)

From the examples above, the word “the dog” is the repetition of “a small

dog” in the previous sentence. Then, the word “animal” is the superordinate of the

word “a small dog” in the previous sentence. Next, “the puppy” is name of the small

dog. It is exemplifies synonym. And the last is the word “the four legs”, which

expresses the general word of “a small dog”.

b. Collocation.

“Collocation is achieved through the association of lexical items that regularly co-

occur. It is not depend on any semantic relationships. Collocation is the use of words

that are commonly found together. This group of words work as a network

conveying meanings from a text”. The words could be words with opposite meaning

(e.g. love/hate, man/woman, tall/short), pairs of words from the same other series

(e.g. days of the week, months, etc.), pairs of words from unordered lexical sets e.g.

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metonym (e.g. body/arm, car/wheel, hand/fingers, mouth/chin), co-hyponyms (e.g.

black/white, chair/table) or association based on history of co-occurrence (e.g. rain,

pouring, torrential) (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:294-285). The above explanation

clearly stated that collocation refers to tendencies of common occurrence. The

tendency is derived from the same lexical environment. When lexical cohesion

occurs in a text, it occurs in a series. Example (1) shows a use of lexical cohesion.

(1) My neighbor has just let one of his trees fall into my garden. And the

scoundrel refuses to pay for the damage he has caused. (Nunan, 1993: 29)

In example (1), the words my neighbor and the scoundrel refer to the same context

which is the person who treats others badly. Out of this context, it is widely known

that neighbor and scoundrel are not related at all.

Analyzing lexical cohesion is obviously more difficult than other cohesive

type because there is no exact keyword to look for. Halliday and Hasan (1976:290)

suggested that “when analyzing lexical cohesion in a text, it is important thing to

use common sense on the nature and the structure of the language vocabulary”. It

means that the use of common sense, the nature, and the structure of vocabulary

will help the writers in analyzing the lexical cohesion.

Halliday and Hasan (1976)‟s cohesion has potential to connect sentence

together to generate the continuity of text. However, solely cohesion is inadequate

to make a text make sense. It is because cohesion is just the surface connection of

a text. In order to make a text make sense, the text needs coherence, which does not

equate to cohesion

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D. Explanation Text

1. Definition and Purpose

Stubbs (2000:76) argued that “explanation text account for

phenomena that occur in the world. They explain how and

why something happens. It is about actions rather than about things”. It means that

explanation text is written to explain how and why something happens in the

world. Explanations are important, because they help make sense of the world we

live in and allow us to store this knowledge for future use. In addition, “explanation

also play a valuable role in building and storing our knowledge. Technical and

scientific waiting are often expressed in this form” (Barwick, 1999:50).

2. Types of Explanation

According to Stubbs (2000:76), “explanation text types occur in a variety of

places. The most common explanation texts are found in textbooks and lectures”.

It informed that explanation text mostly presented in the textbooks and lectures.

Sometimes, the explanation may be part of a larger text, it may be found in an

information report or in a procedural text. When writing explanation, the writers

establish that the phenomenon exist and then explain why or how this came about.

The writers should acquire a great deal of content knowledge before beginning the

explanation. There are different types of explanation:

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a. Explaining an occurrence or how something works. For example, how a

television works or a plant grows or a computer functions.

b. Describing why things happen. For example, why volcanoes erupt or why

our breath becomes misty in the cold.

c. Comparing the similarities and differences between objects. For example,

compare the performance of detergent in hot or cold water.

d. Explaining how to approach a problem that has to be resolved. For example,

how to approach a problem could be one which details the precautions that could

be taken to survive a nuclear attack or natural disaster.

3. Structure of Explanation Text

Based on Barwick (1999:50), explanation text have the following structures:

a. Title.

b. General statement introducing or identifying the phenomenon.

c. Series of sequenced paragraphs.

d. Labelled diagrams and flow charts.

4. Language Feature of Explanation Text

Barwick (1999:50) divides explanation text to the following language features:

a. Use of present tense.

b. Use of complex noun groups to build detailed descriptions, e.g. the

enormous expanse of arid land; the rampaging; threatening river.

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c. Use of abstract nouns, e.g. heat, earthquakes.

d. Use of pronoun for words already introduced in the text.

e. Usually the subject is not human, e.g. mountains, rain, video.

f. Use of sentences that have a clear subject and verb agreement.

g. Use of action verbs to explain clause, e.g. from, started from.

h. Use of adverbial phrases of time and place to tell where and when actions

occurred, e.g. it is to be found in North America.

i. Use of connectives to link time sequences in a cause and effect sequence,

e.g. first, then, after, finally, so, as a sequence.

j. Use of passive voice and nominalization to link the event through cause and

effect.

k. Use of time conjunctions, e.g. when, as, to sequence and link events and to

keep the text flowing. Placing of these conjunctions first in the sentence in order to

focus the reader‟s attention, e.g. when he reached the summit of the mountain, he

felt exhilarated.

l. Use of technical terms or word chains about a subject, e.g. a spider falls into

the family of arachnids.

CHAPTER III

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 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Research Design

Research methodology is an important part in conducting a research. The

study is used descriptive qualitative study because it needs data, analysis, and

interpretation of the meaning. According to Denzin & Lincoln (1994:2) as quoted

by Benz & Newman (1998:14) that “qualitative research is multi method in focus,

involving as interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject matter”. It is meant that

qualitative research studies thing in natural setting, attempts to make sense, or

interprets the phenomena in term of the meaning. Meanwhile, this study deals with

a research procedure that generates descriptive data in words and linguistic form.

As Moleong (2009:6) states that “qualitative research is a study to assimilate the

phenomena in relation to what the subjects are experienced. This method interprets

the research by using words in a certain natural context, and uses several scientific

methods”. This is meant that qualitative research uses words to show the result of

the research, and this method has various methods to analyze the research.

In addition, Creswell (1994:145) explains that “qualitative research is

descriptive in which the researcher is interested in process, meaning and

understanding gained through words or picture. The data of the study are collected

in the form of the words rather than the numbers”. This can be concluded that

qualitative research uses words to present the result instead of numbers.

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B. Object of the Study

The object of this study is texts which consist of 30 explanation texts. Those texts

are written by the 4th semester students at English Education Department of IAIN

Salatiga who were taking Writing 3 subject.

C. Data Source

Arikunto (2006:129), states that “the data resource is the subject from which

the data can be found”. It can be meant that the data which used or found by the

researcher is called data source. In this study, the researcher gained the data from

writing assignments of Writing class at English Department of IAIN Salatiga in the

academic year of 2015/2016 that consist of 200 students who were taking Writing

3 at English Education Department. However, the researcher used random sampling

to gain the sample. According to Arikunto (2006:139) “random sampling is a

method used for selecting the sample based on the number of research subject which

are not the same”. It is meant that the sample taken based on the total of the research

subject. “If the subject less than 100, then it better to take all the subjects, so the

research is called as population research. And if the subject more than 100, then it

can take 10% - 15% or 20% - 25% or more than 25% of the existing populations”

(Arikunto, 2006:112). This can be meant that the population research is used if the

subject is less than 100, and the sample research is used if the subject more than

30
100. Based on the explanation above, the researcher took 15% of the number of the

students. Then, the corpus of this study was 30 students‟ texts.

D. Technique of Data Collection

Data collection is considered as the most prominent step in a research due

to the fact that main purpose of conducting a research is to obtain needed data. To

achieve the research purposes the writer needs to collect the data through the

informants of this research. Thus, the technique that were utilized in the process of

gathering the research is:

Documentation, the researcher used documentation (the students‟ paper

assignment) for collecting the data. Arikunto (2006:231) states that “documentation

is a number of data that presents the verbal data such as correspondence, journal,

memory, report, and others‟ written text that can be mutually responsible”. This is

meant that documentation is in the form of written data. This kind of documentation

is used to know students‟ writing performance and competence. Meanwhile, for

collecting the data to this research, the researcher had to make an appointment with

the Writing 3 lecturers and had to ask them for permission to borrow the students‟

assignment texts, and then make the copies of the texts later on.

E. Technique of Data Analysis

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 In this study, to analyze the data, the writer used qualitative content analysis

method. The qualitative content analysis is a methodology for determining the

content of written, or published communications via a systematic, objective, and

quantitative procedure. Cole (1988:53) as quoted in Elo & Kyngas (2008:107)

argue that “content analysis is a method of analyzing written, verbal, or visual

communication messages”. It can be meant that content analysis is the study which

emphasizes an integrated view of speech/ texts and their specific contexts. In

addition, “content analysis is a procedure for the categorization of verbal or

behavioral data, for purposes of classification, summarization, and tabulation. It can

be analyzed in two levels. The basic level of analysis is descriptive account of the

data and the higher level of analysis is interpretative” (Hancock, 1998:17). It can

be concluded that content analysis is a quantitative method for analyzing qualitative

data.

According to Mayring (2014:82) the steps of content analysis are listed below:

1. Categorization

Categorization is the process of selecting each unit which have the similarities to

determine the relevant material from the texts, it has to be an explicit definition, and

theoretical references can be useful. Hence, the data is categorized into: cohesion

and coherence

2. Abstraction

32
Abstraction means formulating a general description of the research topic through

generating the categories. It shows how specific or general the categories have to

be formulated. The abstraction of the data are as in the table below:

3. Coding the text

To begin the coding, the researcher read the texts from the beginning, line by line,

and check if material occurs that is related to the category definition. All other

materials are ignored within this procedure. The researcher had to code the passage

which fits with the categorization. It is aimed to facilitate the researcher in looking

for the needed data.

The researcher made some codes in relation to this research. The codes are as in the

following table:

4. Results

This step involves making sense of the themes or categories identified, and their

properties. In this stage, the researcher made the inferences and presented the

reconstructions of meanings derived from the data. The researcher describe the

results of the properties and dimension of categories and abstraction. Then, identify

the results based on the research questions.

5. In addition, the researcher found the wrong sentences which involve the

grammatical errors in each texts. Then, the researcher reduced it, and only took the

33
correct sentences. Even so, the full texts are used or there is no reduction especially

for logical order, because the reduction of the wrong sentences would decrease the

interpretation of the text.

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Creswell, W John. 1994. Research Design: Qualitative and Quantitative

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