An Investigation Of Cohesion And Rhetorical Moves In Thesis Abstracts

The present study aimed at investigating cohesion and rhetorical move in thesis abstracts of English Education Department students in UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. This study used a qualitative research design in which 10 abstracts were chosen as samples of the study. To collect the data of the study, the researcher used human instrument in which the instrument was the researcher herself. Then, for analyzing the data of cohesion, the researcher used Halliday's and Hasan's cohesion concept. While, for analyzing the data of rhetorical move, the researcher used Swales' and Feak's move framework. The results of data analysis show that all cohesive devices are used in 10 students' thesis abstracts except substitution. Among those cohesive devices used, reference is the most frequently used while general word is the least frequently used. The results also show that there are still some cohesive devices used incorrectly in the abstracts such as the reference 'the'. As a result, seven abstracts (70%) are still in medium category of cohesion level while three abstracts (30%) are in high category of cohesion level. Furthermore, 7 abstracts are organized in different move patterns which do not follow the Swales' and Feak's framework. Then, the information in some moves in the abstracts is incomplete, and some moves in 10 abstracts are written by using incorrect passive voice and inconsistent tense. From the results of the study, it can be concluded that most of the students' abstract samples achieve medium category level of cohesion, and the rhetorical moves in most of the abstracts samples are not organized well