Arguments used by Bishop Jose R. Hernandez in The Text of Sermons

Argument is the defense of an opinion or of a position on an issue that is supported by concrete evidence and that is presented logically. Concerning with argument, this research attempts to look at the arguments used in the text of sermons as a prototypical example of a religious genre. The analysis was carried out using two theories of argument, namely Toulmin model and Aristotle’s three appeals. The object of this research is sermons by Bishop Jose R. Hernandez.

This research used descriptive qualitative method in analyzing the data since the data are in the form of words rather than numbers. Moreover, in this research, the key instrument is human instrument. The researcher has spent a great deal of time by understanding, discussing, and interpreting the data.

The results show that Bishop makes an argument using both theories of argument: Toulmin’s model and Aristotle’s three appeals in all of his sermons. The texts of sermons are characterized by various elements of argument and appeals. They are also characterized by a heavy use of quotation from Bible as a strategy for effective argument and persuasion used by the Bishop. However, this research is only an attempt to look at the arguments used in one of religious genre (sermon).

The findings of this study are expected to be able to give valuable contribution for English students, English lecturers, language users, and the next researchers. The next researchers may analyze argument using different theory and at different genre, such as sport columns, research articles, speech, advertising, and etc.