CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents background
of the study, research problems, objectives
of the study, significance of the study, scope and limitations and definition of the key terms.
1.1 Background of the Study “O
ye who believe! Fear God, and (always) say A word directed to the Right!” (Al-Ahzab: 70) Saying something right is not only by speaking
but also writing, for example
argumentative writing in opinion sections of on-line newspaper. It is not simple as other language skills such as
listening, speaking, and reading because mastering writing requires mastering them. It
also needs critical thinking and good organization,
not only a matter of putting ideas into written form. Therefore, in the process of writing the writers not only
require having ideas and are able to write them down but also they require knowing how to
express those ideas using good grammar,
appropriate diction or style and also rhetoric (David:1999). As a result, writing can convey argument well without any
misunderstanding and misinterpreting
from the readers. It is not simple thing to do, particularly when it deals with economic issues since it is the
prominent issues explored in many discourse.
In written discourse we can find the discussion more interesting as argumentation is involved.
Argumentative writing is
rhetorical form that the intention is to influence someone’s attitude and opinion. To make
argumentative more convincing to the audience,
the writers have to formulate thesis statement well. Then they can believe and do as what the writer’s hope.
Through argumentation the writers try to link up the facts with the result that they
can show whether their argument is right or not. Argumentation is the fundamental thing
in science – it is the matter of presenting
evidences or possibilities to assert opinion or attitude about something (Keraf, 2004: 3) The basics of argumentative writing are
critical and logical thinking; it must
refer to the facts and evidences. For those reasons, it is important to examine
whether all of the facts that will be
used are right and how are the qualities of relevancy with the issues. By using right
facts, the writer can link up logic statement
toward guaranteed inference. The intended point of view is failed when the presentation is not systematic or well
organized. Rottenberg (1997) stated that claim as the proposition or as what the writer
is trying to prove has to be supported
by material used to convince that the claim is sound. Meanwhile, the warrant reflects the assumption taken for
granted.
As the essence of argumentation, claim is
specific term refers to the way of how a
writer proves his idea. It consists of three principal kinds namely claim of fact, value, and policy. Claim of fact is
chosen as it asserts the condition that has existed, exists, or will exist, it is
based on facts or data that the audience will accept as being objectively verifiable
(Rottenberg, 1997).
Claim of fact is important to
examine because it cannot fault the truth; it is supported by facts and objective data. Claim
of fact mostly used in mass media.
One of them is in The New York
Times on-line newspaper. It has won 104 Pulitzer
Prizes; a prize awarded for excellence in journalism high a range of categories. For example, The New York on-line
newspaper, special citation for its Review
of the Week section which has brought enlightenment and intelligent commentary to its readers. This is far more
than any other newspaper. And also it nicknames
as The Gray Lady because it is consider as newspaper which gives formal references sources of current issues.
Therefore, it is chosen as subject of this
research.
The New York Times on-line
newspaper is organized into sections: News, Opinions, and Features. In this on-line
newspaper, Opinion section is divided into several sections. One of them is
Opinion-Editorial Columnist section. It is a section for journalists who write for
publication in a series, creating copy that can be strongly opinionated. It also contains
interpretation which may give further information
of new events and criticism bound to current news topic or situation.
This research has relation with
the previous researchers on this field with different analysis. Etik (2007) focused on
Claims of Fact in Opinion Sections of The
Jakarta Post. Khairul (2007) focused on Claims of Policy in Opinion Sections of The Jakarta Post. Unun (2007) focused on
Claims of Fact in Opinion Sections of
Tempo Magazine (Unun, 2007). Nanik (2008) focused on The Analysis of Methods of Writing Introductory Paragraphsand
the Thesis Statement on English Articles
in Opinion Column of The Jakarta Post.
Based on the discussion above,
the current research takes the claim of fact in Opinion-Editorial Columnist sections on
economic issues as the subject of research.
This study is intended to providethe description of the way claim of fact are presented and defended in The New York
Times on-line newspaper.
1.2 Research Problems Based on the above description, the problems
proposed are: 1. How do the writers of Opinion-Editorial
Columnist sections in The New York Times
on-line newspaper present their claims of fact? 2. How
do they defend their claims of fact? 1.3 Objectives of the Study Concerning the problems mentioned above, the
objectives of this study are: 1. To
identify the method used by the writers of Opinion-Editorial Columnist section of The New York Times on-line
newspaper in presenting their claims of
fact 2.
To describe the ways the writers of Opinion-Editorial Columnist sections
of The New York Times on-line newspaper
defend their claim of fact 1.4 Significance of the Study Theoretically, the result of this research are
hoped to give contribution to the field
of argumentative writing and discourse analysis.
Practically, the finding of this
research expected as additional reference for writing lecturer to explain argumentative
writing which applying in writing course and for English Department student as example
of good argumentative writing to sharpen
their argumentative skill, in addition it can be used as a starting point for further researcher who willtake the same
research.
1.5 Scope and Limitations This research focuses on the linguistics
aspects of writing that is argumentative
writing proposed by Rottenberg's theory. In this research only discusses the appearance of claims of fact in
the Opinion-Editorial Columnist section,
it does not analyze claim of value or policy.
In terms of practicality, the
researcher analyzes claims of fact concern with economic issues on April 2010. This
publication is chosen because in this month there is important economic event that is
World Bank expands voting power of emerging
economies. “The change in voting power helps us better reflects the realities of a new multipolar global economy
where developing countries are now key
global players," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in a
post-meeting press conference. And the
economic issues in this month are strongly opinionated which can be seen in the claims of fact that
the writers presented.
1.6
Definition of the Key Terms To
avoid misinterpreting and misunderstanding, there are some key terms used in this research which are defined as
following: 1. Claim is the thesis statement refers to the way
of how the writer proves their ideas.
2. Claim of fact are the thesis statement that
answer the question of what the writer
is trying to prove, which asserts the condition that has existed, exists, or will exist, and it is based on facts or data
that the audience will accept as being objectively
verifiable.
3. Opinion-Editorial Columnist section is a part
of section that is available on The New
York Times on-line newspaper. It is a section for journalists who write for publication in a series, creating
copy that can be strongly opinionated.
4. The New York Times on-line newspaper is an
American daily on-line newspaper
published in New York City since 1851. It nicknames as The Gray Lady and it has won 104 Pulitzer Prizes, a
prize awarded for excellence in journalism
in a range of categories.
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE To support the analysis, this chapter covers
the review of the related literature
involving the discussion onessay writing, essay organization, argumentative writing, element of
argumentative, defending claim of fact, the history of The New York Times on-line
newspaper and previous studies.
2.1 Essay Writing Essay
writing is a group of paragraphs about a single idea. An essay is longer than a single paragraph because the
point it makes more complex. Each separate
paragraph of the essay explains some part of the essay’s overall point.
That is, the main idea of each
paragraph helps prove the point of the essay makes (Brereton: 1982).
According to Lorch effective essay writing
contains the points as the following: 1.
Reader- centered Any really
effective writing is characterized by its intent to communicate with the reader. A skillful writer thinks of the
audience before, during, and after the
process of putting words on paper. The skillful writer defines her audience, decides what effect she wishes to
have on them, and then writes in a style
appropriate to the people who will read work. She realizes constantly that may be clear to her is not necessarily
clear to others. During every stage of
the writing process she tries to
determine how a reader unfamiliar with what she is writing will react (Lorch, 1984: 27).
2. Purposeful Effective writing has a clear purpose. A
skillful writer knows precisely what he
is attempting to communicate to an audience about his subject. He writes to prove a point. A random collection of thoughts
on a topic does not communicate
effectively in a paragraph or essay. The reader does not know why the writer is writing all those statements
about death, guilt, and funerals, for
example. An effective paper begins with a clear statement of the single point the writer wants the reader to
understand: Guilt makes people spend too much on funerals. The writer must understand
exactly the points he wants to communicate,
and he must state it clearly for the reader (Lorch, 1984:27).
3. Ordered Effective writing is orderly. Paragraphs and
essays must be purposefully arranged in
an order that the reader can follow. We don’t always think in an orderly manner, so the effective writer is
prepared to impose an order on the material
her mind produces. Sometimes writing may follow the order of time or space. Sometimes papers are arranged by
ranking ideas in order of importance.
The subject and purpose of writing usually suggest an order to use. An effective writer also uses certain
words and phrases to point out the order
to readers (Lorch, 1984:27).
4.
Unified Effective writing is
unified. It contains no sentences or paragraphs that do not relate directly to the purpose of the writing.
An effective writer does not include
ideas that do not directly relate to the point that he’s making, no matter how interesting he may find them. He keeps his
purpose clearly in mind throughout the
writing, making sure that every sentence works in some way to support the main point (Lorch, 1984:27).
5. Coherent Effective writing exhibits coherence. It is
put together in a way that gives the reader
a sense of a smooth whole. The sentences follow each other in a reasonable and understandable way. Writing
that lacks coherence seems jumpy because
the writer has failed to provide the connecting steps between statements. Learning to write skillfully
involves learning to use transitional words
and phrases to employ techniques that give the reader a sense of wholeness (Lorch, 1984:28).
6. Correct Effective writing demonstrates an acceptable
command of the conventions of grammar,
punctuation, and spelling as they are used in the standard dialect.
Any written work that is
liberally sprinkled with mistakes won’t communicate effectively. Readers will become distracted by
all the unusual spellings or by the lack
of punctuation and soon will have completely lost sight of the idea the writer is trying to explain. This is not to
say that an effective communication cannot
have one misplaced comma or one misspelled word, but when the mistakes begin to be more noticeable than the
ideas, the writer is not succeeding at
his work (Lorch, 1984:28) 2.2 Essay
Organization Organizing an essay is
essentially the same as organizing paragraph. The writer should use the same patterns for essay
as used for paragraphs. It is done by deciding
what kind of information belongs in each paragraph and what the paragraph should be arranged.
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