AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ WRITING ASSIGNMENT OF

ANALYTICAL EXPOSITION TEXT

Muhammad Mujtaba Mitra Zuana

Institut Pesantren KH. Abdul Chalim
[email protected]

Abstract
Writing is not always easy to do. Students face some difficulties in mastering
writing skills because they need particular practices to develop their writing
skills. A teacher should understand students’ abilities and difficulties and one of
many ways a teacher can do is by analyzing students’ compositions like generic
structures and language features of analytical exposition texts. These may make
students find some difficulties in writing analytical exposition texts. This study is
a descriptive qualitative study and aims to describe the students’ competence in
writing expository text. The researcher is the first instrument and the second
instrument for this study is the students’ compositions of analytical exposition
texts. To analyze the data, there will be three steps; classification, analysis, and
representing to determine whether the students write analytical exposition texts
with proper generic structures and language features or not. The researcher
found that the students could write analytical exposition texts with good generic
structures and language features. However, there are some students who did not
compose them properly. For generic structures, some students often did not
write a review of arguments in the thesis and reiteration. And for language
features, some of the students often did not apply the diction well. The students
were proficient enough in organizing analytical exposition text in terms of
generic structures and language features. The teacher should give a clear
explanation and understanding in teaching analytical exposition text. The
teacher had to explain how to make analytical exposition text deeply in order
that the students could comprehend the text well. In addition, the English
teacher could give comments to the students’ composition for the better next
writing assignments, because they could understand their mistakes.
Keywords: analytical exposition text, writing, generic structures, language
features

Introduction
Writing is a very important skill in human life. Writing allows the students
take their ideas out of the realm of thought and give them a form that other
people can read and consider (Kern, 2000). It means people can share their
opinion freely followed by logical reason through writing.
However, writing is not always easy to do. The students face some
difficulties in mastering writing skill. Reid (1993) states that there are some

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obstacles that the students face in writing. First, the students might have a little
practice in writing composition in their native language. Second, the students
have a limited or none at all, of the idioms, transitions, words, connectors, and
other important writing elements in English. Third, many students are shy to
write because they feel they have nothing to write about, or because they do not
know how to express themselves.
To develop writing skill, students need particular practice. Nunan (2003)
said that writing is acquired through practice. In other words, writing should be
practiced and learned gradually and it needs long time to make the students
skillful in writing. There are several steps in writing that should be followed
when the students start to produce something. They should master four main
areas in writing skill. The first is called grammatical skill. The students should
have the ability to write correct sentence. The second is stylistic skill. In this
case, they should also have the ability to manipulate sentences and use language
effectively. Then the third is mechanical skill. It is the ability to use correctly
conversations peculiarly to the written language. And the fourth is judgment
skill which is the ability to write in appropriate manner for a particular propose
with a particular audience in mind, together with an ability to select, organize,
and order relevant information.
The teachers can use text type to teach writing skill. The fact, the senior high
school students are demanded to acquire 13 genres or types of the text. They are
recount, narrative, descriptive, analytical exposition, hortatory exposition,
procedure, anecdote, review, report, discussion, spoof, news item, and
explanation (Depdiknas, 2006).
From all of the texts, the analytical exposition text is the text that has to be
mastered by students. An analytical exposition text is a piece of text which
presents one side of an issue to persuade reader or listener by presenting one
side of argument (Anderson, 1997). The analytical exposition text is designed to
persuade the reader or listener that something is the case (Doddy, 2008:62). The
generic structure of analytical exposition text consists of thesis, argument, and
reiteration. Thesis introduces the topic which will be talked about. Then to
support and criticize the topic, the students need to elaborate the evidence to
convince the audience called argument. In this part, they develop and support
each point/argument. The final section is the reiteration that restates their
position.
Somehow, writing the analytical exposition text is considered to be difficult.
The students have difficulties in writing the analytical exposition text. Their
difficulties can be seen from the ability to apply the generic structure of the
analytical exposition text appropriately. The students must concern on what
kind of text they are going to write because each text has its own generic
structure. Deciding whether using analytical exposition text or hortatory
exposition text when they wanted to argue something is the case or something
should be or ought to be becomes so crucial because it determines what the

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writer’s purpose of making the text. Knapp and Watkins in Hyland (2002) states
that to make the text effective as written communication, the students should
consider on how all parts of the text, such as the paragraph and sentences are
structured, organized, and coded.
Suharko (2009) found that most students still consider that analytical and
hortatory exposition texts are the same. They do not really realize the
differences. The students also still got difficulties in making thesis statement in
analytical exposition text although they were able to apply the argument of the
text. Erina (2008) also found that most of students did not apply the
recommendation in hortatory exposition text appropriately. The students got
difficulties to end the texts whether to bring the reader that something is the
case or something should be or ought to be.
The problems above interest the researcher to conduct this research. This
study attempts to know to what extent students are able to write analytical
exposition text. The students of senior high school are chosen as the subject of
this study because they have writing material about analytical exposition text.
They are hoped to express feeling, thoughts, and ideas to compose analytical
exposition text assignment.

Literature Review
As one of language skills, writing is a productive endeavor as opposed to
listening comprehension and reading which are receptive. It is a skill which asks
students to produce their composition. According to Reid (1993), writing as
productive skill is likely considered as unnecessary skill by students, since of the
four skills, writing is the least critical within the framework of foreign language
learning.
On the contrary, Percy (1981:7) says that writing is important in students’
activity. It creates ideas of something, which cannot be produced by spoken way.
It also allows students to give information to others about their intentions, and
permit them to express their feelings and emotions. Many students claim that
the act of writing helps them discover idea, make new connection, or say
something they know. Writing can help each student individually to improve his
or her writing with their respect to expression, content, logical organization,
grammar, spelling, and also mechanic. They can express everything they thought
in the form of composition by doing writing.
In teaching and learning process, students are expected to be able to express
their feeling, ideas, and thoughts into written form by doing writing activity. In
writing class, teacher may give less attention to the students’ condition. There
may be teacher’s domination in the classroom activities like giving the
instruction to the students to do assignments without guiding them to do the
duties. Besides, the students are asked to write a paragraph or text based on the
chosen topic which has been prepared by the teacher. However it can make the
students feel bored because they may not be interested in the chosen topics.

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Therefore, they get difficulties to explore their creativity in writing the
paragraph or text.
Thus, the teacher has to consider the students’ interest or willing and their
language level to make it useful and effective. She/ he can give some texts which
are interesting but still related to the material and can help the students to
achieve the objective of learning.

Method
In conducting this study, the researcher chose descriptive qualitative
method. Descriptive qualitative studies simply describe phenomena. The
researcher observed and described the fact in natural condition.
According to Bodman and Tylor in Moleong (2008:3), qualitative research is
a research procedure which represents the descriptive data such as words in
written or oral from the people and the behavior that can be observed. The
researcher chose this method because the main purpose of this study is to
describe the ability of the students of a state senior high school in Mojokerto city
in implementing analytical exposition text. Moreover, there was no treatment in
this study. Besides, there were no numeric data in this study.

Respondents
The subjects of the study are the eleventh grade students of a state senior
high school in Mojokerto city. The eleventh graders have to be able to master
some kinds of texts, including analytical exposition text. This study was
conducted to analyze the writing analytical exposition text of eleventh graders of
a state senior high school in Mojokerto city. The researcher took six students
from one class. It was XI-IS2 class. This class was chosen by the consideration of
the teacher’s information. From this class, the researcher chose those six
students from every level of achiever (good, average, and low) randomly.

Instruments
The researcher is the first instrument to get the data. The second instrument
needed for this study is the students’ analytical exposition text compositions.
The data were in the form of writing analytical exposition text. The topic
was free. The students’ analytical exposition text compositions were collected by
the teacher as the teachers’ document, then the researcher took the data
randomly which would be analyzed. Table of generic structure and language
features were used to simplify the classification and identification of generic
structure and language features of the students’ analytical exposition text
composition.
Table of generic structure was used to analyze the generic structure of the
students’ compositions from the thesis, arguments, and reiteration while the
table of language features was used to analyze their composition in terms of
language features.

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Procedures
The results presented the students’ ability to write analytical exposition text.
Besides, the organization of generic structures and the application of linguistic
features of analytical exposition text were presented based on the text analysis.
The data of this study were analytical exposition text writing of the students of
senior high school.
After having been collected, the data were analysed and grouped into
three different levels, those are; good, average, and low. This was intended to
examine the students’ ability in writing analytical exposition text composition in
terms of generic structure and linguistic features.

Data Analysis
After getting data from the students’ composition, the researcher did the
next step that was analyzing the data. Table of generic structure was used to
assess the students’ composition. Their understanding of writing exposition text
could be analyzed through the table. In the table of generic structure, there are
lists of generic structure of analytical exposition texts. The generic structure of
analytical exposition text is thesis, arguments, and reiteration. In this step, the
researcher used the table to know the students’ compositions whether they are
appropriate or not in the case of generic structure.
After analyzing the generic structure of the compositions, the researcher
then analyzed the components of the language features by using table of the
language features of each text. The linguistic features of analytical exposition
text are generalized participants, possibility of technical terms relating to the
issue, variety of verbs (process) types – action (material), linking (relational),
saying (verbal) and mental, actions are often changed into ‘things’ (nominalized)
to make the argument sound more objective and to help structure the text,
connectives, employ emotive and poetic words, present tense, passive form. In
this step, the application of language features was seen whether it was correct or
not. Then by doing the analysis, the confusion of writing analytical exposition
text could be identified. As the result, the students’ compositions in writing
analytical exposition texts were described.

Discussion
The Generic Structure of the Students’ Analytical Exposition Text
Composition
The researcher collected the analytical exposition text compositions
composed by the eleventh graders of a state senior high school in Mojokerto as
the source of data. They were six compositions of analytical exposition text
represented all levels ability and those compositions were taken randomly from
XI-IS2.
The type of text was analytical exposition text and the topic was free. The
teacher did not limit how many paragraphs the students had to compose. He

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only gave some suggestions to his students to compose analytical exposition text
completely in the generic structure.
In this part, the researcher describes the students’ composition based on the
text analysis. The generic structure of analytical exposition text consists of
thesis, argument, and reiteration. Thesis introduces the topic which will be
talked about. Then to support and criticize the topic, the students need to
elaborate the evidence to convince the audience called argument. In this part,
they develop and support each point/argument. The final section is the
reiteration that restates their position. From the analysis of generic structure in
the students’ compositions, there are three levels found; good, average, and low.
Here are the students’ analysis of generic structure.

a. Good Level
This is the example of good category made by student 1. He included all
components of the generic structure of analytical exposition text in her
composition. The paragraphs were also showed logically sequenced and the
transition of each paragraph was smooth enough. The writing result below
presented paragraph logically sequenced or chronological generic structure.
1. Thesis
Firstly, it was showed by the thesis in the first paragraph. He included a
good thesis statement to start the text by stating what the issue was and what he
thought about it. The thesis introduced the topic of the text and showed the
general opinion. The thesis was expressed in high articulate manner.
“Learning English through music and songs can be very enjoyable.”
After stating the thesis, he gave preview of arguments that accompanied
the thesis.
“You can mix pleasure with learning when you listen to a song and exploit the
song as a means to your English progress. Some underlying reason can be
drawn to support the idea why we use songs in language learning.”
The first paragraph was started with the problem that was focused, and then
there were some reviews of arguments as the evidence. The writer showed that
the case was learning English through music and songs can be very enjoyable.
Then review of arguments which supported what he thought was learning
English through music and songs mix pleasure with learning when you listen to a
song and exploit the song as a means to your English progress.

2. Arguments
The second generic structure was arguments. In the arguments, student 1
composed a series of points with supporting evidence. The students gave
evidence for all points of elaboration which are highly articulate and very well
researched. The series of argument strengthened the thesis stated before. In this
example of analytical exposition text, paragraph 2, 3 and 4 were the detail
arguments presented in a reporting fact to support that learning through music

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and song is enjoyable. That “songs use simple conversational language with a lot
of repetition, song can be appropriated by listener for their own purpose, and
songs are relaxing” were used to support the statement of problem/ thesis.
3. Reiteration
The last part of the generic structure was reiteration. In the reiteration, the
conclusion of the writer was presented. The reiteration was simple but it was
really a powerful reinforcement. The writer could summarize and give a brief
review of arguments mentioned before. She restated that “learning through
music and songs can be enjoyable and fun” as the representative of arguments
stated in paragraph 2, 3, and 4.
It proved that student 1 had knowledgeable information on how to make
analytical exposition text. He really knew how to write the generic structure of
analytical exposition text in his composition appropriately.

b. Average Level
This is the example of text that was categorized in average level. It was made
by student 2. She included all components of the generic structure of analytical
exposition text in her composition.
1. Thesis
The first, she included a good thesis statement to start the text by stating
what the issue was and what she thought about it. The thesis was expressed in
high articulate manner but was not accompanied by a clear preview of
arguments. It was started with the problem that was focused but there were not
some review of arguments as the evidence. The thesis was very simple and too
short. Student 2 just wrote “I think sleep is important for our life. Why do I say like
that?” as the problem without giving review of arguments that supported her
idea. She should give review of arguments to support the problem in the first
paragraph.

2. Arguments
Student 2 continued her text to the arguments. The student gave evidence
for all points of elaboration which are highly articulate and very well researched
although they were very short. Student 2 could elaborate the arguments clearly
and it was very well researched. The arguments were also presented in a good
arrangement from the first until the last argument. She gave three arguments on
the writing composition. The first argument consists of point and very brief
elaboration. The point sentence is “sleep can make our body fit shows the
advantage of sleep”. Then the elaboration is “if not, we will feel tired and sleepy
every time”. The elaboration shows the consequences if people do not sleep, they
will feel tired and sleepy every time. It can be inferred that the first argument
use the generic structure correctly.
The point sentence in the second argument is also showed clearly, “sleep also
van avoid our body from many kind of diseases like diabetes”. But the point

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sentence is not followed by the elaboration that presents the reason why sleep
can also avoid our body from many kinds of diseases. And the sentence “besides
that, if you cannot sleep well it can make you stress” is not the elaboration. The
sentence is actually the example of diseases. From the sentences in the second
argument, it can be said that the student can state the point but still lack of
elaboration. In addition, the third argument is also lack of elaboration. It just
consists of point sentence “if you can sleep well, it can help your activity in your
life”. There is no elaboration of how sleep can help our activity.

3. Reiteration
The last criterion of the generic structure was reiteration. In the reiteration,
restating the writer’s position was reinforced. The reiteration of this text was
organized in a simple way too. “From the fact above, we know the importance of
sleep for our life. It can make our body fit and health for every time and every day”.
The reiteration is used to make the arguments in the previous paragraphs
stronger. It can summarize the three arguments stated before.
Besides, although the organization of composition was too short, it briefly
expressed a fluent idea. The writer could compose the generic structure
smoothly enough and in a chronological order by giving appropriate connectives
in each paragraph like firstly, secondly, and thirdly. So the reader can
understand the arguments or even the whole text easily.

c. Low Level
The text “Dangerous of Drugs” is the example of analytical exposition text
classified into Low level. This text was from student 5. The text was only
completed with thesis and arguments. So, there was no reiteration in this text.
1. Thesis
The thesis organized by student 5 included a topic and indicated the writer's
position; outlines the main arguments to be presented. But there was no review
of argument as the requirement in thesis to accompany the writer’s point of
view about the topic discussed.
The thesis is begun with general opinion of the writer about the topic which
will be discussed on her writing. It is showed clearly in the sentence “The drugs
is destroy of people”. Nevertheless, the thesis does not propose review of
arguments. It can be minus point for the student’s writing. The sentence “Now,
many people injected in drug, so you must know that dangerous of drug like”
actually can be continued as the review of arguments, but she does not continue
to review the arguments to support the statement of problem.

2. Arguments
The thesis then was followed and supported by arguments. The arguments
were used to strengthen the statement of position. This text had three
arguments that were used to support the thesis. Unfortunately, the three

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arguments were not in logically sequenced and smooth transition in each
paragraph. She used appropriate connectives as the characteristic of analytical
exposition text in the arguments.
The first argument paragraph consists of point and elaboration. The point is
“Firstly, drug can make we keel”. The sentence shows one of the dangerous of
drugs. After stating the point, the student wrote the effect if we still consume
drugs as the elaboration sentence.
In the second argument, the student stated the point without writing brief
elaboration. She stated “Secondly, drug can destroy of people and our dreams will
destroy cause drug” as the point sentence. Actually she should giving elaboration
by stating how drugs destroy people and their dream. For the third argument,
she only wrote the point sentence “And the last drug is very expensive if you use
the drug you will waste your money and can decrease your life” without
mentioning any elaboration. It seems the student is lack of understanding the
generic structure of analytical exposition text. The arguments should be begun
with point and followed by elaboration that supports the points.

3. Reiteration
Unfortunately, there is no reiteration in this text. The student should give
the reiteration as the form of conclusion from the arguments stated before. The
reiteration can be used to strengthen the arguments in the previous paragraphs.
She actually can give the reiteration like “from the fact above, it can be concluded
that drugs give many disadvantages for people especially for their health, money,
and dream”
All compositions of analytical exposition text made by the students had been
analyzed. From the analysis, most of the students were able to organize the
component of analytical exposition text in terms of the generic structure. The
generic structure of analytical exposition text made by the students showed that
they had understood and they had no significant difficulties. Most of the students
organized the thesis, arguments, and reiteration in analytical text properly.
However, there were still some of them produced the generic structure
improperly, for instance, student 4 did not include the review of arguments in
the thesis of analytical exposition text. She only stated the problem/ issue and
there were no any reviews of arguments. Actually, the review of arguments is
very important in the thesis.
In short, the students’ ability in terms of generic structures touches the
highest level. There were three students (student 1, student 3, and student 6)
who got good categorization in analytical composition text. The thesis,
arguments, and reiteration of the text were very complete. The thesis contained
the expression of the position statement and was accompanied by a concise
preview of arguments. The arguments were explained by strong evidence and
elaborated clearly. Then, reinforcement of position statement was forcefully
stated in a highly articulate manner with strong and clear reference/s to

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arguments presented. But student 2 and 4 were in average level because they
missed review of arguments in the thesis. The last was low level that was placed
by student 5. She did not state review of arguments in the thesis and give
conclusion of the case as reiteration in the last paragraph.

The Linguistic Features of the Students’ Analytical Expository Text

Composition
Analytical exposition text has a specific linguistic features and it differs from
other texts. The linguistic features of analytical exposition text are generalized
participants, possibility of technical terms relating to the issue, variety of verbs
(process) types – action (material), linking (relational), saying (verbal) and
mental, actions are often changed into ‘things’ (nominalized) to make the
argument sound more objective and to help structure the text, connectives,
employ emotive and poetic words, present tense, passive form. However, not all
of them have to be used by the writers in writing analytical exposition text. They
can use some of the linguistic features as they need. After analyzing the data,
there are only two levels (good and average) in students’ analytical composition.
The examples and the analysis of the students’ composition could be seen as
follows:

a. Good Level
It is the example of analytical composition that is classified into good level.
This text entitles Learning English through Music and Songs. Here, student 1
used the linguistic features of analytical exposition text properly.
Generalized participants
Sometimes human but often abstract (issues, ideas, opinions, etc.) – unless
the issue centers on a particular event or incident. The examples of generalized
participants are as follows: simple conversational language, a lot of repetition,
and their own purpose.

Technical terms relating to the issue.

Technical terms found in the text are shown in the following examples:
“Relaxing, variety, fun, harmony, enjoyable”
The technical terms used are in line with the topic. If the topic is about
learning English, the words used are words related with learning English. When
the text talked about healthy, technical terms that is used such as medicine,
drugs, disease, and injured.

Variety of verbs
1. Material process
Material process includes processes of doing and happening. The participant
roles associated with material processes are; actor, the person or thing which
‘does’ the process; goal, the person or thing which is ‘done to’.

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 It refers to physical action which others can see somebody is doing or a
thing does. It could be found in the students writing, for example:
1. ……….we use songs in language learning.
2. ………what many learners look for sample text.
3. ………and encourage harmony within oneself and within one group.
From the example above, the words “use”, “look for”, and “encourage” are
done by the subject in order to do something. Therefore, the words above are
the examples of action verbs that are used by the students in their writing.

2. Relational process
Relating process refer to verbs which give information about the subject.
Sometimes relating verbs are called linking verb or “state-of-being verb.” In the
students writing were found such as:
1. ……… learning English through music and songs can be very enjoyable
2. The fact that they are effective…….
3. Songs are relaxing.
In the first sentence, the word “be” was proposed to give information about
the subject that is “learning English through music and songs” which is very
enjoyable. The student also used the other word “are” as relating verb in his
writing.

3. Mental process
Mental processes are the verbs that refer to the human being mind. The
examples of thinking verb in the composition were as follow:
“I personally think learning English through music and songs……”
The students used thinking verb in order to show their feeling about
something what he wanted to write such as the word “think”. It was based on
the student’s own point of view.
Actions changed into ‘things’
A term to describe or to express a process as a thing or participant is
nominalization. Another reason for using nominalization is to help structure a
text.
- Some underlying reason can be drawn to support the idea why we use
songs in language learning.
- Learning English through music and songs can be very enjoyable.

Connectives
Connectives are words that indicate logical reasons between two clauses or
sentences. The connectives used by the students to show the relationship
between paragraphs. The words “firstly and secondly” are used to show the
sequence of reason why things should be given attention. In the third sentence
the word “in addition” is used to express as well (as) or the act of adding a

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substance or thing to something else. In the student’s composition, the
connectives were:
1. Firstly, songs in general use simple conversational language…..
2. Secondly, song can be appropriated by listener………
3. In addition, songs are relaxing.

Emotive and poetic words to argue and convince

The emotive words found in the text are as follows:
- Learning English through music and songs can be very enjoyable.
- They provide variety and fun…
- …………..and encourage harmony within oneself and within one group.

Present Tense
Verbs have forms called tenses that tell you when the action happens. If the
action happens regularly, sometimes or never, use the simple present tense. The
simple present tense is also used to state facts, to tell the events of a story that is
happening now, to talk about things that will happen in the future. In the simple
present tense, the adverbs of frequency used are always, seldom, usually, often,
and sometimes.
The examples of the sentences used by the student are:
1. You can mix pleasure with learning
2. …………..when you listen to a song and exploit the song as a means to your
English progress.
3. Songs in general use simple conversational language
4. They provide variety and fun.

Passive Form
Passive voice refers to sentence which the subject receiving an action from
the object. This type of sentence was found in the students writing:
1. Some underlying reason can be drawn to support….
2. Song can be appropriated by listener….
3. It can be concluded that……
From the example above, it can be seen that the students can use passive
voice in their writing correctly. He used it in the right grammar, those are
followed by past participle, e. g. “be drawn, be appropriated, and be
concluded”.

b. Average Level
In this level, there are three students showed the linguistic features in
average level. They are student 2, 4, and 5. The students’ writing result
presented the linguistic features appropriately. The example of average level is
obtained from student 4.

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Generalized Participants
Sometimes human but often abstract (issues, ideas, opinions, etc.) – unless
the issue centers on a particular event or incident. The examples of generalized
participants are as follows:
Do you know if you are to smoke, you may have serious problems with your
health? A group of doctors wrote a report about some of the effects of too much
smoke.
One of effects is on the lungs. If you are smoke, your lungs has to work
harder this may lead to a lungs attack, or it may lead to other lungs problem.

Technical terms relating to the issue.

Technical terms found in the text are shown in the following examples:
“serious problems, health, lung, and cancer”
The technical terms used are in line with the topic. If the topic is about
smoke, the words used are words related with smoke. When the text talked
about healthy, technical terms that is used such as medicine, drugs, disease, and
injured.

Variety of verbs
1. Material process
Material process includes processes of doing and happening. The participant
roles associated with material processes are; actor, the person or thing which
‘does’ the process; goal, the person or thing which is ‘done to’
It refers to physical action which others can see somebody is doing or a
thing does. It could be found in the students writing, for example:
A group of doctors wrote a report about some of the effects of too much
smoke.
From the example above, the words “wrote” is done by the subject in order
to do something. Therefore, the word above is the example of material processes
that was used by the students in their writing. But the student still made mistake
write the word “broke”. It should be “break” because after modal “can”.
“Extra smoke can also broke your lungs, and can caused diseased lungs
cancer.”

2. Relational process
Relating process refers to verbs which give information about the subject.
Sometimes relating verbs are called linking verb or “state-of-being verb.” In the
students writing were found such as:
Do you know if you are to smoke, you may have serious problems with your
health? A group of doctors wrote a report about some of the effects of too much
smoke.
One of effects is on the lungs. If you are smoke, your lungs has to work
harder this may lead to a lungs attack, or it may lead to other lungs problem.

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 3. Mental process
Mental processes are the verbs that refer to the human being mind. The
examples of thinking verb in the composition were as follow:
Do you know if you are to smoke, you may have serious problems with your
health? A group of doctors wrote a report about some of the effects of too
much smoke.
The student used the mental processes in order to show their feeling about
something what she wanted to write, for example the words “think”. It was
based on her own point of view.
Connectives
The connectives used by the students to show the relationship between
paragraphs. The word “one of effects” was used to show the sequence of reason
why things should be given attention. In the third sentence the word “in
addition” is used to express as well (as) or the act of adding a substance or thing
to something else. In the student’s composition, the connectives are:
1. One of effects is on the lungs.
2. In addition, extra smoke can also broke your lungs.

Present Tense
Verbs have forms called tenses that tell you when the action happens. If the
action happens regularly, sometimes or never, use the simple present tense. The
simple present tense is also used to state facts, to tell the events of a story that is
happening now, to talk about things that will happen in the future. In the simple
present tense, the adverbs of frequency used are always, seldom, usually, often,
and sometimes.
The examples of the sentences used by the student are:
1. You may have serious problems…
2. One of effects is on the lungs.
3. More studies are needed about all these problems.
4. But one thing is clear, extra smoke may make your life shorter.

Passive Form
This type of sentence that is found in the students writing:
“More studies are needed about all these problems.”
From the example above, it can be seen that the students can use passive
voice in their writing correctly. She used it in the right grammar. Those are
followed by past participle, e. g. “are needed”.

Generally, the result of the analysis indicates that the students’ competence
in applying linguistic features is very good. There are only two levels in this
term, good and average level either in implementing linguistic features of
analytical exposition text. In analytical exposition text, there are three students
(student 1, student 3, and student 6) who got good categorization. The students

JELLT Vol.4, No.1 - 2020 14

were able to apply generalized participants, possibility of technical terms
relating to the issue, variety of verbs (process) types – action (material), linking
(relational), saying (verbal) and mental, actions are often changed into ‘things’
(nominalized) to make the argument sound more objective and to help structure
the text, connectives, employ emotive and poetic words, present tense, passive
form properly. Then there are also three students (student 2, student 4, and
student 5) classified into average level. They still got difficulties in applying the
use of action verbs and connective. Somehow, the students touch the highest
level in applying the linguistic features.

Conclusion
From the analysis, most of the students were able to organize the
component analytical exposition text in terms of the generic structure. Most of
the students organized the thesis, arguments, and reiteration in analytical text
properly. However, there were still some who produced the generic structure
improperly, for instance, student 4 did not include the review of arguments in
the thesis of analytical exposition text. She only stated the problem/ issue and
there were no any reviews of arguments.
In short, the students’ compositions in terms of generic structures touch
the highest level. There were three students (student 1, student 3, and student
6) who got good categorization in analytical composition text. The thesis,
arguments, and reiteration of the text were very complete. But student 2 and 4
were in average level because they missed review of arguments in the thesis.
The last was low level that was placed by student 5. She did not state review of
arguments in the thesis and give conclusion of the case as reiteration in the last
paragraph.
In addition, the students’ compositions in applying linguistic features are
very good. There are only two levels in this term, good and average level in
composing analytical exposition text. In analytical exposition text, there are
three students (student 1, student 3, and student 6) who got good categorization.
Then there are also three students (student 2, student 4, and student 5)
classified into average level. On the other hand, there are only two students that
belong to average level. They are student 2 and student 4. They still got
difficulties in applying the use of present tense and connective.

JELLT Vol.4, No.1 - 2020 15

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