Mini Study on the Logical Function of Clauses as Relations in Student Essay Assignment Results
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24114/tj.v14i4.76262Keywords:
Logical Function, Clauses as Relations, Student Essays, Systemic Functional Linguistics, Academic WritingAbstract
This study examines the logical function of clauses as relations in student essay assignments. The study was conducted on 20 essays written by English Education students at Medan State University, which were originally written to fulfill a case method assignment for the Productive Written Language Skills course. The focus of the analysis was on how clauses function relationally to construct meaning in students' writing. This study uses a qualitative descriptive approach with Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics framework, specifically the logical metafunction, as the main tool of analysis. Data were collected from selected student essays, then analyzed to categorize the logical functions realized through clause relations such as coordination, subordination, and embedding. The results showed that most students used paratactic relations more frequently, particularly coordination with conjunctions such as and & but, while hypotactic relations such as cause, condition, and concession were used less frequently. In addition, several incomplete or inconsistent relational constructions were also found, reflecting the development of students' ability to manage more complex clause relationships. These findings indicate that although students are able to construct meaning through basic relational clauses, further pedagogical attention is needed to strengthen their ability to use more varied and academic logical relationships.
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