INTRODUCTION These papers contain about the application of five scientific texts characteristics in the LTBI journal of UNIMED which is published on 2nd November 2009. There are five articles in the journal. The articles are (1) The use of reading materials accessed from the internet under cooperative learning strategy to improve the quality of teaching and learning drama by DR. Sri Minda Murni, M. S, (2) Grammatical metaphor in internet news by Juli Rachmadani Hasibuan, S. Pd, M. Hum, (3) Semantic anomaly in news program seputar Indonesia by Feryanti Elina Gultom, (4) Teaching writing-genre based approach by Drs.
Zainuddin, M. hum, and (5) Thematic structures in computer help menu texts by Akmal. Scientific article is one published in a journal, which is a printed or electronically displayed matter covering publications of one discipline or branch of knowledge. The function is to inform or communicate research findings to the audience (scientists, researchers, students, etc. ). A scientific article is commonly derived from a research report. In other words, a scientific article is a research finding appearing in the form of an article.
Occasionally it may be derived from a critical review of literature or a conception of a specific topic. The characteristics of scientific texts are objective, impersonal, technical, practical, and written language. 1. Objective An objective concept means one which is perceived similar by all persons regardless of the surrounding elements, such as temporal, spatial, manner characteristic. On the contrary, a subjective idea is one which is contextually dependent, that is the idea varies in terms of location and manner.
Subjectivity is coded by linguistic aspects of mental process ( that is verbs coding cognition, affection, and perception such as know, realize, understand, feel, like, love, hate, etc), epithet (that is adjectives which accept intensifier very and degrees of comparisons such as high, low, pretty, good, etc), modality ( which codes assessment, opinion, personal judgments, such as certain, may, will, can, sometimes, must, etc), euphemism (wash my hand, pass away, ask one’s hand), and connotative meanings. To get objectivity in a scientific text, the use of the five subjective elements should be avoided or if not possible be minimized. . Impersonal Impersonality is involvement of the writer of the text typically coded as personal pronouns I, we, s/he, and the writer is avoided. To maintain the objectivity, pronouns are not used. 3. Technical Technicality refers to a linguistic form which conveys meanings of a number of other linguistic forms. In other words, technicality contains condensed meaning of words. A technical term is constituted by three elements, namely the term, definition with a, process (typically relational process) in between the term and definition.
For example, sound in sounds is a compression of wave that can be heard is technical term. 4. Practical The practicality of scientific texts indicates that words or linguistic resources used are economical and unambiguous. Specifically the coding of propositions or ideas in more than one clause is preferred to be represented in a single clause. 5. Written language Written language differs from spoken language not merely in terms of medium in the sense that spoken language is coded in or realized by sounds (phonemes) and that written language is coded in scripts (grapheme) but also in lexicogrammatical aspects.
It is specified that spoken language has high grammatical intricacy (GI) and low lexical density (LD) whereas written language has low GI and low LD. GI refers the number of clause in a sentence and LD describes number of content words (Noun, Verb, Adjective and Adverb). The goals of these papers are to analyze the application of five scientific texts characteristics in the articles. All of these characteristics are very important in writing scientific texts. So, the writers of scientific texts are expected to follow these characteristic in their writing.
The carefulness is needed to analyze the application of five scientific requirements in the articles in order to get the true result of analysis. The result of this analysis will determine the level of the writer in the journal. As we know that there are three kinds of writer which are novice writer, intermediate writer, and expert writer. The characteristic of novice writers: a. They lose basic skills such spelling, punctuation, or correct syntax b. They fail to elaborate points and evidence c. They are tyrannized by the assignment d. They are tyrannized by the concrete
The characteristic of intermediate writers: a. They use more multisyllable and careful word choice b. They begin to look at paragraph into section c. They are familiar with figurative meaning. The characteristic of expert writers: a. They usually do not do some mistake in their sentence structure b. They follow scientific characteristics c. Sometime, their writing is difficult to be understood by ordinary people After reading these papers, we will know whether the writers in the journal follow the scientific requirements or not and we will know the level of them as a writer.
DISCUSSION 1. The Use of Reading Materials Accessed From The Internet Under Cooperative Learning Strategy to Improve The Quality of Teaching and Learning Drama by Dr. Sri Minda Murni. In this article, the writer does not follow all of five scientific texts characteristics. Her writing is not objective (subjective). For example, we can know that from the sentence “Various plays of certain level of quality can be found limitedly in the library in addition to those designed particularly for certain level of students English proficiency (paragraph 2)”.
The word “can” indicates modality and modality indicates subjectivity. And we also can find modality in other sentences in the articles. Her writing is not impersonal such as in sentence “some considerations and adaptations have made during the writers’ experience teaching this subject in the last 5 years (paragraph 2)”. The word “writer” should be avoided because it is personal. Being personal implies subjectivity. So, don’t use personal pronouns to make your scientific texts objective. This article is technical. We can see that from the use of some technical terms. For xample, drama in drama is one of the literary subject assigned to students of the educational and non-educational study program English Language and Literature Department – State University of Medan, search engine in search engine is an internet server or a group of server contains data base from the network address or links, the internet in the internet is a treasure – trove of information for educators and students, cooperative learning in cooperative learning is a learning procedure which aims at improving students’ achievement by creating a more active learning process which is relevant to students individual needs, Classroom action research in Classroom action research is defined as a reflective study conducted by teachers as researcher whose goal is to increase the rational establishment of what they are doing in the teaching process, and to improve the condition of learning, jigsaw in jigsaw is the cooperative learning technique used in reading the materials.
The words “drama, search engine, the internet, cooperative learning, classroom action research, jigsaw” are technical terms. This article is practical because I do not find uneconomical or ambiguous words. But the some sentences in this article are not written language. We know that spoken language has high grammatical intricacy (GI) and low lexical density (LD) whereas written language has low GI and low LD. GI refers the number of clause in a sentence and LD describes number of content words (Noun, Verb, Adjective and Adverb). It means that written language consists of little clause and many content words whereas spoken language consists of many clause and little content words.
For example, in the sentence ”the best strategy is the one which helps the students become independent learners while at the same time capable in establishing collaboration among them”(paragraph 2), it can be written in one clause “the best strategy is the one way of creating independent and capable learners at the same time in establishing collaboration among them. So to make written language, the writer should be careful to make sentence which actually can be written in one clause. I also find redundance in a sentence “experiences show that the more famous the plays are the easier, it will be to find the critical essays on them in the internet. The use of article “the” is redundance and redundance is more related to spoken language. Based on the explanation above, we can know that the writer just follows two characteristics of scientific texts which are technical and practical. Objective, impersonal and written language are not followed by her. 2.
Grammatical Metaphor in Internet News by Juli Rachmadani Hasibuan, S. Pd, M. Hum. In this article, the writer does not follow all of five scientific texts characteristics. Her writing is not objective because I find some modality in sentences such as can, should, sometimes and so on, for example in a sentence “it can be stated that every text is identified based on the three variables of context”(paragraph 16). Modality indicates subjectivity. The writer uses personality not impersonality in some sentences, for example in sentence “writers cannot simply describe their thought to their writings in a literal way”(paragraph 17). The word “writer” indicates” personality.
But, In this article, we can find some technical terms such as news, internet, SFL, grammatical metaphor, text, and modality; news in news is the most popular trusted by people to transfer information, internet in internet is a worldwide network of computer networks, SFL in SFL refers to an approach to the study of language on the principle of roles or functions played by language or rather functions given by human beings to language in their lives as social beings, grammatical metaphor in grammatical metaphor is the relocation of wording the meaning from its usual representation to another unusual realization, text in the term text refers to a complete linguistic interaction (spoken or written) preferably from beginning to end, and modality in modality refers to the area of semantic meaning that lies between yes or no – the intermediate ground between positive and negative polarity. In this article, I also find an impractical sentence such as ”internet is a worldwide network of computer networks” (paragraph 2).
It is impractical because the sentence is uneconomical. It should be” internet is one of computer networks”. The writer also does not use written language in some sentence, for example in sentence” news is the most popular trusted by people to transfer information (paragraph 1)”. It should be “news is the most popular information medium”. Based on explanation above, we can know that the writer just follows one characteristic of scientific texts which is technical. Practical, Objective, impersonal and written language are not followed by her. 3. Semantic Anomaly in News Program Seputar Indonesia by Feryanti Elina Gultom. The writer of this article does not use objective concept in her writing.
We can see that from the use of modality “must, might, can”, the use of epithet “good” and also the use of mental process such as imagine, underestimate and so on in some sentences. For example: “it is impossible or at least very difficult to imagine a situation in which they could be in used, although we must not underestimate the flexibility and ingenuity of the human mind in this respect” (paragraph 1). But she uses impersonality in her writing. There is no personal pronoun that indicates the writer such as I, we, s/he and the writer which found in this article. She also use technical terms such as semantic anomaly, pleonasm, overlap, prolixity, zeugma, prozeugma, hypozeugma, epizeugma, mesozeugma, and diazeugma.
Semantic anomaly in semantic anomaly is the abnormality profile of the linguistic item in term of combination and interaction of the elements of language in the different context which may create ambiguity and connotative meaning, Pleonasm in pleonasm is the use of more words or even word-parts that necessary to express an idea clearly, Overlap in overlap means one word’s semantic component is subsumed by the other, Prolixity in prolixity means a phrase may have words which add nothing or nothing logical or relevant, to the meaning, Zeugma in zeugma is the use of one part of speech in a sentence to modify two or more other elements in the sentence, frequently in different ways, Prozeugma in prozeugma is the use of a single verb at the beginning of a series of clauses to modify the entire series, Hypozeugma in hypozeugma is the use of a single verb at the end of a series of clauses to modify the entire series, Epizeugma in epizeugma involves placing the governing verb at either the verb beginning or very end of the sentence, Mesozeugma in mesozeugma is the use of a unifying verb in the middle of a series of clauses, and Diazeugma in diazeugma is a construction wherein one subject governs several verbs, The sentences in this article are practical because I don’t find any uneconomical or ambiguous words in the sentences. But, the writer does not use written language in some sentences, for example in a sentence; “a good language is a language that is not creates ambiguity ”(paragraph 1). There are 2 clauses there. It should be “a good language is not ambiguous language”. And in a sentence “language is a tool which is used by human being to communicate”. It should be “language is communication tool of human beings”. Written language should not consist of many clause.
Based on explanation above, we can know that the writer follows three characteristics of scientific texts which are impersonal, technical and practical. Objective and written language are not followed by her. 4. Teaching Writing-Genre Based Approach by Drs. Zainuddin, M. hum. The writer of this article does not use objectivity in his writing. There is modality in some sentences such as can and should. We can see that from the sentence “genre is a concept that can be clearly understood only the students are provided with experience which draws explicit connection between the social purpose of the text and its generic structure and grammar” (paragraph 4). He use impersonality because there is no personal pronoun like I, we, s/he or the writer to indicates the writer found in the article.
There are some technical items used by writer to support his writing such as approach, the purpose, the audience, the genre, prewriting technique, planning, drafting, revising and editing drafts and so on. Based on the analysis that I have done to this article, I get the result that all sentences in this article are practical. We can know that because there is no word which indicates uneconomical and ambiguous words. The writer also uses written language in writing this article. There is no spoken language found in this article. Based on explanation above, we can know that the writer follows four of five characteristics of scientific texts which are impersonal, technical, practical, Objective and written language. Objectivity is not followed by him. 5. Thematic Structures in Computer Help Menu Texts by Akmal.
The writer does not use objective concept in writing this article. The modality such as “can, must” occur in some sentences. The modality is one of aspects in the subjectivity. For example,”they are interesting texts which can be analyzed about the structures of clauses using the functional grammar” (paragraph 2). So, the writing is not objective. The personality is used in this article. There is personal pronoun ‘researcher’ which indicate the writer found in the article. It can be seen in the sentence “one of the metafunctions which is used in this study is thematic structures because the researcher can see the arrangement of clauses as messages in the text” (paragraph 2).
Some technical terms are used by the writer to support his writing such as computer, logical operation, information, rheme, theme, topical theme, textual theme and so on. Computer in “computer is an electronic device for performing arithmetic” is one of technical term. All sentences in this article are practical. We can know that because there is no word which indicates uneconomical and ambiguous words. But, the writer uses spoken language in writing some sentences in this article. Based on explanation above, we can know that the writer follows three characteristics of scientific texts which are technical and practical. Objective, impersonal and written language are not followed by him.
CONCLUSSIONS a. Based on the description before, it is concluded that there is no one of writers who follow all of five scientific texts characteristics. 1. DR. Sri Minda Murni, M. S, just follows two characteristics of scientific texts which are technical and practical. Objective, impersonal and written language are not followed by her. 2. Juli Rachmadani Hasibuan, S. Pd, M. Hum, just follows one characteristic of scientific texts which is technical. Objective, practical, impersonal and written language are not followed by her. 3. Feryanti Elina Gultom, follows three characteristics of scientific texts which are impersonal, technical and practical.
Objective and written language are not followed by her. 4. Drs. Zainuddin, M. hum, follows four of five characteristics of scientific texts which are impersonal, technical, practical, and written language. Objectivity is not followed by him. 5. Akmal follows two characteristics of scientific texts which are technical, and practical. Objective, impersonal and written language are not followed by him. b. The main reason why some of them cannot follow all of five scientific texts characteristics is because they are not yet expert in writing and they still do not understand the application of five characteristic of scientific texts in writing English text.
As a writer, their level is intermediate writer because they still do some mistake in writing scientific texts. c. There is a possibility that shows those writers still practice Indonesian way of thinking in writing English version. We can know that from the some sentences in the articles that they write. The structures of the sentences are too easy, and some of sentences are not written language, but spoken language. The reason why it can happen is because they are not yet expert in writing English texts. References Arifin, T. M.. 2009. Jurnal Linguistic Terapan Pasca Sarjana Unimed. Medan: UNIMED Saragih, Amrin. 2008. Literacy in Scientific and Academic Texts. Medan: UNIMED Columb, Greg. 2003. University of chicago
