A study on the transition signals showing additional information in the expository composition of the English Department students of Widya Mandala University

Writing is a means of communication one must consciously learn. As a means of communication, writing has one big advantage over speaking. It gives the writer time to think, try out his ideas on the paper, choose his words, read what he has written, rethink, revise, and rearrange his ideas, and most importantly, to consider his writing effects on his readers. Everyone can write well but he has to organize his thinking in written works. Knowing how to express ideas on writing in an organized way is very important for everybody to make a good composition. Therefore, a writer has to anticipate the reaction of a reader he cannot see or hear. One of things he can do is to make his composition comprehensible in the sense that the composition is coherent, clear and easy to follow. There are two main ways to achieve coherence. One of the ways is to use transition signals to show how one idea is related to the next. The decision to use the transition signals shows that the writer wants to make an additional information which links causes or other ideas in a composition. Thus, it can be said that the use of the right transition signals helps the readers, connect the ideas presented and hence understand the composition. Regarding the importance of the use of transition signals to make a composition coherent, the writer decided to conduct a research which focuses her study on the transition signals used in the students' expository composition, especially those which show additional information (and, then, also, and also, and then, not only ... but also, and thus, in addition, after that, and furthermore). The problems investigated in this study are (1) which transition signals showing additional information are most frequently used and (2) least frequently used in the expository composition of the English Department students of Widya Mandala University and (3) how accurately the transition signals showing additional information are used by the English Department students of Widya Mandala University. To answer these problems, the writer takes randomly fifteen writing test papers of the fourth semester students. The students' works become the data for the writer and the data are then identified, classified, and analyzed. From the results of the research, the writer finds out that 86.83% of the transition signals uses were correct ,thus leading to a conclusion that the students' mastery was considerably high. It means that the students are familiar with the use of transition signals, especially the ten transition signals showing additional information discussed. Besides, the writer also finds out that the transition signal showing additional information which is most frequently used in the expository composition of the students is the transition signal and because it is used one hundred times of all occurrences (59.88%). On the other hand, the transition signals showing additional information which are least frequently used in the expository composition of the students are and thus, in addition, after that, and furthermore because each of them is used only one time of all occurrences or 0.60%. Generally, most of the students have understood the use of the transition signals but the students were still not demonstrating variations in using transition signals to show addition; therefore, the writer suggests the students to learn the variety of transition signals and how to use them. The writer also suggests the teachers to give the students a lot of composition tasks and ask them to recognize and find various forms of transition signals showing additional information so that they will enhance their writing skill.