Claims of fact in opinion sections of the Jakarta Post

ABSTRACT

Writing argument encourages the development of critical thinking either in doing close analysis or in using supporting material and logical organization. Argument is one of the text forms trying to influence hearers or readers to accept defended declaration, based on the issues the writers try to persuade and consider of the emotional and logical reasons. In providing argument we can get claim. Claim is defined as the thesis statement of which the writer is trying to improve. Basically, a claim can be divided into three different types, namely factual claim, value claim and policy claim. To identify claim of fact in opinion, we can find it out in a newspaper of the Jakarta Post. The Opinion section is a part of sections wh foh contains general description such as new events or criticism of actions and standards or problems in order to be constructive. Therefore, the writers use some evidences to defend their argumentation. Based on the background above the research problem of this study is “How do the writers ol'opinion sections of the Jakarta Post present the claim of fact?”

This research was conducted using descriptive qualitative method to get descriptive knowledge on how claims of facts are presented in ،،Opinion Sections” of the Jakarta Post based on Rottcnbcrg’s theory. The data of this research ١vere in the forms of utterances or words in the ،،Opinion Sections” of the Jakarta Post published from April! st to 3O؛h 2006. The whole contents of opinion sections of the Jakarta Post were classified and further analyzed using Rottenberg’s theory of claim. It focused on relational claim of fact. The data were explained descriptively.

The data analysis revealed the findings covering the proposed problem. The results of the research show that the writers of opinion sections of The Jakarta Post present their claims by stating the evidences or supporting sentences such as fact, example, inference, statistic, quotation and opinion. Tbe existence of the supporting sentences is clear to defend the claim or to influence the readers.

Based on the findings of the study, it is suggested that English department students use English newspaper as a valuable source of learning materials to develop argumentative writing skill. Finally, by this thesis the researcher hopes that in the next research, there will be more students who are interested in analyzing other claims like claim of value and claim of policy in any argumentative texts.