An analysis on transitional words in essays written by the students of English Department of the State Islamic University of Malang

Writing is one way of communication that enables people to communicate with others through a written text. As a way of communication, writing must be effective; and one requirement of an effective writing is coherence. One way that can make a writing being coherent is by using transitional words that has a function to tie the ideas together. Dealing with the use of transitional words; this study tries analyzing the use of transitional words in five essays written by the students of English department of the state Islamic University of Malang and their contribution in achieving coherence within paragraph and between paragraphs.

This study uses descriptive qualitative research because the researcher discussed, analyzed and found the phenomena which occur naturally; it is not controlled or based on laboratory research. In this research, the researcher firstly analyzes transitional words used in those essays and then classified them based on their types. After finding the transitional words used, the researcher analyzes their contribution in making coherence within paragraph or between paragraphs on each essays. The finding of the analysis is then discussed and presented in the form of words and table.

After analyzing the data, it is found that there are seven types of transitional words used in the first essay. In the second essay, there are five types of transitional words. Moreover, the analysis on the third essay found that there are six types of transitional words and in the fourth essay, the writer uses five types of transitional words. Finally, the last essay uses five types of transitional words. Dealing with the second problem, it is found that, in the first essay, the transitional words used only contribute the achievement of coherence in the first paragraph. In addition, they do not support the achievement of coherence between paragraphs. In the second essay, the use of transitional word adds the achievement of coherence in the second paragraph only. They also assist coherence achievement of the whole essay. In the third essay, the use of transitional words supports the achievement of coherence in the first paragraph only and do not contribute coherence achievement of the whole essay. Furthermore, in the fourth essay, the use of transitional words contributes the achievement of coherence in the first and fourth paragraph only. Finally, the use of transitional words in the fifth essay only adds the achievement of coherence in the first, fourth, and fifth paragraph.

After doing the analysis and finding the answer of the formulated question, the suggestions are made for the next researcher, the writing lecturer and the students. For the next researchers it is expected to do better research than this research, for example by using new theories, and to choose another object for example in opinion column in a newspaper or journal. For the writing lecturers it is expected to give more attention to the appropriate use of transitional words by their students and finally, for the students it is suggested that they should give more attention to the appropriate use of transitional words in their essay.