Rhetorical pattern as reflected in The Papers written by The Students of Religion Program of Nurul Jadid Senior High School (Mak-Nj), Paiton

ABSTRACT

The ideas of the relationship between language, thought and culture have been becoming a central topic which most psycholinguists and linguists have discussed since many years ago. Sapir (1974) perceives language as ،،a tyrant that not only reflects experiences, but defines it, imposing upon particular and ideas about the world”. Meanwhile, according to Benedict (1983) culture not only provides a lens through which individuals perceive the world but also guides people in responding to what they perceive. Furthermore, Franz Boas (1974) explains that “the conciseness and clearness of thought of people depend on a great extent upon their language”. Therefore, language, thought and culture are interrelated.

This study intends to analyze and describe how the student of MAK Nurul Jadid organized their paragraphs within composition and between paragraphs, and the kinds of rhetorical patterns reflected in their paper.

This is a Qualitative study. The data of this study are introduction section of the papers published during three periods 1995-1997.

The findings of this study reveal that the students of MAK Nurul Jadid who write their papers tend to formulate their thesis statement in four ways, i.e. 1) deductive-pattern, 2) inductive-pattern, 3) mid-position thesis statement, 4) unclearly-stated thesis statement. At the paragraph levels they tend to formulate their topic sentence in various ways, i.e. 1) initial-position topic sentence, 2) final¬position topic sentence, 3) middle-position topic sentence, 4) implied-topic sentence. This study also reveals that there are two kinds of rhetorical patterns used by the student of MAK Nurul Jadid who write their papers, i.e. 1) linear pattern with variations of deductive and inductive, and 2) non-linear pattern with circular variation.

Based or the findings several conclusions are drawn. First, the student of MAK Nurul Jadid who write their papers tend to formulate their thesis statement in four ways, i.e. 1) deductive-pattern, 2) inductive-pattern, 3) mid-position thesis statement, 4) unclearly-stated thesis statement. At the paragraph levels they tend to formulate their topic sentence in various ways, i.e. 1) initial-position topic sentence, 2) final-position topic sentence, 3) middle-position topic sentence, 4) implied-topic sentence. Seconه the student of MAK Nurul Jadid who write their paper have their own variations of rhetorical patterns. Those are linear with the deductive and inductive pattern, and the non-linear pattern with circular pattern.

Finally, some suggestions are offered. First, English teacher should anticipate the problem that will appear when they are teaching. Second, the student learning English should be aware of the different rhetorical pattern. Third, future researchers who are interested in the same concerns are suggested to use a larger number of data sources.