Conjunctions found in discussion text made by writing IV students of English Department

As a language, English has four separate skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Among those skills, writing has been proven to be the most difficult language skill for learners as it requires the mastery of various sub-skills. The acquisition of good writing skill requires the ability to construct a grammatical and meaningful text. In order to create a meaningful text, the students are expected to be able to show logical relations in a text using cohesive devices. However, some studies have shown that students still have difficulties in the application of conjunction. Thus, the writer is interested to find out the frequency in using conjunctions and analyze the appropriateness in the use of conjunction encountered in discussion text of Writing IV students. This study is classified as a descriptive study. After analyzing 48 essays with an average of 500 words each collected from three different classes, it was finally discovered that the total number of conjunctions found was 1.061 times with the following order: causal occupied the first rank with the total sum of 422 times (39,77%), followed by temporal with the total occurrences of 265 times (24,98%). While additive followed in the third place with the total amount of 212 times (19,98%). The adversative dwelled in the last place with the total amount of 162 times (15,27%). The writer found that the most frequently used conjunction showing additive was ‘and’, and the least frequently used conjunction were ‘another case’ and ‘either or’. The most frequently used conjunction showing adversative was ‘but’, and the least frequently used conjunction were ‘another point of view’, ‘considering those facts’, ‘in spite of the fact’, and ‘nevertheless’. The most frequently used conjunction showing causal was ‘because’, and the least frequently used conjunction were ‘for’ and ‘otherwise’. The most frequently used conjunction showing temporal was ‘when’, and the least frequently used conjunction were ‘eventually’, ‘fifth’, ‘finally’, ‘fourth’, ‘in sum’, ‘in the end’, ‘meanwhile’, ‘since’, and ‘until’. The writer also found that in additive conjunctions, ‘and’ had the highest frequency of inappropriate use, followed by ‘besides’ and ‘moreover’. In adversative conjunctions, ‘but’ had the highest frequency of inappropriate use, followed by ‘however’. In causal conjunctions, ‘if’ had the highest frequency of inappropriate use, followed by ‘so’. In temporal conjunctions, ‘when’ had the highest frequency of inappropriate, followed by ‘then’