An Analysis of complaint letters in Jakarta Post's "Your Letters"

This study observed the complaint strategies occurred in complaint letters which were published in newspapers. It was analyzed based on Trosborg by using descriptive qualitative approach. It focused on the strategies of complaint and the most strategies of complaint. The data were taken from twenty complaint letters which were published in Your Letters, a column for the readers to express their thoughts in Jakarta Post, especially those concerned with the service. In the newspaper, people write their complaint directly. Based on the theory, there are eight complaint strategies but the findings show that there are seven complaint strategies which occurred in the complaint letters, namely, Annoyance, Ill consequences, Indirect, Direct, Modified blame, Explicit condemnation of the accused?s action and Explicit condemnation of the accused as a person. The findings also show that complainers did not use one strategy, namely hint strategy. To conclude, the occurrences of complaint strategies show that most of the complainers use explicit condemnation of the accused?s action strategy as the strategy of complaint. The complainer states directly to the complainee by complaining about the complainee?s behavior.