COHESION IN THE RESEARCH BACKGROUNDS OF THE UNDERGRADUATE THESES WRITTEN BY THE ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITAS BENGKULU

This research aimed at finding the types of cohesive ties and the
proportions of appropriate used of cohesive ties in the research background
section of the undergraduate students’ theses. The design was descriptive
quantitative. The objects were 26 theses written by the undergraduate students of
the English Department graduated in April 2019 at Universitas Bengkulu. The
data were collected by using a table checklist. In data analysis, simple statistical
calculations were used. The results show that the types of cohesive ties that are
used in the research backgrounds of the undergraduate students' thesis were 5
types from grammatical and lexical cohesion. Grammatical cohesion share 3 types
namely reference, substitution, and conjunction. The only ellipsis does not
appears in this research. Furthermore, for lexical cohesion share 2 types namely
reiteration and collocation. Moreover, the proportions of the appropriate use of
cohesive ties in the research backgrounds of undergraduate students’ thesis can be
categorized mostly appropriate in reference and inappropriate in reiteration or
repetition. From the research findings, it can be concluded that the students have
good knowledge in producing cohesion at their writing texts because they utilized
all the types of cohesion except ellipsis. This research was recommended for the
lectures, especially those who teach discourse analysis and writing, provide a
more detailed explanation of applying cohesion.
Keywords: Research Background Section; Cohesive Ties; Thesis.