A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF RHETORICAL STRUCTURE OF SEVERAL THESIS ABSTRACTS BY UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF UNVERSITAS BENGKULU

The abstract in every research paper has always served as an attention-grabber,
either encouraging readers to continue reading the research or discouraging them
from doing so. This research is aimed to find the most dominant move and step of
thesis abstract by undergraduate students and to identify any differences. This
research used a mix method approach. The design of this research is descriptive,
using quantitative as well as qualitative data. The data was taken from thirty
undergraduate thesis abstracts of Education faculty from University of Bengkulu
who graduated between 2019 to 2022. Hyland’s five-move model will be used for
research instrument. The result showed that, the majority and most dominant
moves that found were Move 2 (purpose) 100%, followed by Move 3 (Method)
97%, Move 4 (Product) 97% and Move 5 (Conclusion) 80%, while the most
dominant Step that found was Step 1 of Move 2 (Stating the purpose directly)
100%. Also, there is no significant differences of Move from the three study
programs (English, Physic and Guidance and Counselling). Conclusion, most of
the students were simply following the “Thesis Writing Guidelines” in writing
their abstracts. Therefore, it would be better for the department in charge to revise
the guidelines and use this research as a reference or guidance for a better
abstracts writing.
Keywords: Abstract, Rhetorical Style, Move analysis, Different study programs.