The Academic and Non-academic Announcements

Nowadays, the development of technology has become a trend in every aspect of our life. It includes the way how the society delivers information to each other. Yet, some people still use the conventional media to inform that information, one of which is announcement boards. As State University of Malang does, it still uses announcement boards for every single faculty. One of the faculties that still functions the announcement board is the Faculty of Letters. In our opinion, the reason why they use the announcement board because it is effective and visible. In this case, we take D8 building as the example. If students enter D8 building from the entrance, the students can see the announcement board on their right side, so they can easily access it. To explain more about the information that is properly attached, we classify it in terms of the purposes into two classifications, which are academic and non-academic.

First of all, we are going to deal with the first purpose which is academic. In this case, academic purposes mean that the information refers to the academic activities. Moreover, in our observation, the announcements which are attached on the D8 announcement board consist of several announcements, two of which are the dean election of the Faculty of Letters 2010 to 2014 and the required courses of 2008 to 2010 periods. From the dean election of the Faculty of Letters, the students could see that there are three candidates who propose to be the dean of the Faculty of Letters. It provides the names and the photos of them. The first candidate is Prof. Dr. Dawud, M.Pd, secondly is Prof. Drs. Bambang Yudi Cahyono, M.Pd. M.A. PhD, and lastly is Prof. Dr. Suyono, M.Pd. Next, we will go on to the second academic announcement which is the required courses of 2008 to 2010 periods. This announcement is aimed to the English Department’s Students to inform the students what courses they have to take. In our opinion, the attachment of this announcement is eye-catching because it is placed in the midst of the board.

Second of all, we are going to look at the non-academic purposes which are attached on the announcement board. Non-academic purposes mean that the information refers to the activities which do not have the direct relation with the students’ learning process. Furthermore, there are several non-academic announcements, two of which are, the tutor recruitment of Primagama Education Institution and the National Seminar. Firstly, let us deal with the tutor recruitment of Primagama Education Institution. This announcement informs that Primagama needs several tutors. It provides the requirements, the addresses on which the applicants should send their application letters, and the facilities which the tutors could get. Secondly, the non-academic announcement is about the National Seminar. This seminar which entitled “Evaluasi Hasil UAN 2010 Sebagai Upaya Meningkatkan Kelulusan UAN” is held by Bahasa Indonesia Students Association on Saturday, October 16, 2010 at the second floor of E6 Building. This announcement includes names of the speakers, facilities, contribution, and place to register. In our opinion, there will be many participants of this seminar because the theme that be chosen which is UAN is controversial in our society.

In a brief, the information on D8 announcement board can be classified in terms of the purposes, which are academic and non-academic. In our opinion, the parameter of academic and non academic purposes can be seen from the relationship between those announcements and the students’ learning process. Even, the effectiveness and the possibility to be read by the people are the reasons why State University of Malang still uses the conventional way which is announcement board. Additionally, there are several suggestions to make the announcement board in D8 become neater, one of which is the officer should make the boundaries of every single paper which is attached on it, so that the students can read it clearly. Hopefully, the purposes of the announcements which are attached can be accomplished.

Asizah

Nurrahma Sutisna P

Information on the Notice Board

A notice board is a place to put on any kinds of information. It is usually available in public places such as school, college, office, library, and even station. The same as those places, every single building in the State University of Malang has its own notice board in the lobby of the building. For instance, D8 building has a notice board that is placed near the main door and the front desk. You can find it on your right if you enter the building by the main door. Moreover, you can see many papers stick on its front and back sides. Those papers can be classified into three main categories based on the information given: the events, the announcements, and the vacancies.

            Firstly, we will deal with the events information. On the notice board, we can see several papers that inform us about the events that are held in the university. From our observation, we found six kinds of events which are held in the University of Malang. There are several competitions such as English Debate competition that will be held on 28-29 October 2010, Indonesian writing competition, and futsal competition from Indonesian Literature program. Besides, there are other events such as workshop of UKM Sanggar Minat, a seminar for Indonesian Literature students, and the 2010 Dean election.

            Secondly, we are going to analyze the announcement put on the board. We found that there are four announcements which are directed to the students of the Letter Faculty. From the front side of the board, that faces the front desk, we found the announcement of the 2010 Dean candidates, the announcement of Bank Indonesia scholarship, and the announcement of study plan for Germany Literature students. In addition, on the backside of the board, we also found the announcements of courses which are offered for the English Literature students.

            The next point is about the vacancies. Besides papers that inform  the events and the announcements for the students, we found another paper which is a piece information about a job vacancy. It is a vacancy as a private tutor of Albert course institution. It offers a place for students who are willing to be a private teacher in Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, English, and even for the elementary subjects.

            In conclusion, there are varies information papers that are put on the notice board, for example, information about events or competitions, announcements from the faculty, and even job vacancy. The purpose of those papers is to give as much information as the students need. Then, as college students, we should check the notice board frequently to keep us aware of anything new around the campus and to get important information for our study.

by

Ninuk Retna Sumiarsih/109 221 421 804

Wahyu Kartika Wienanda/109 221 422 439

Pay Attention to the Useful Information

In college, students have been felt mature. It makes them more responsible for themselves both of their daily life and education in university. In this case, having education in university is different from having education in senior high school. The reason is that many kinds of announcements are still told to the pupils in senior high school but it will be different in college. College students have to be active in paying attention to the announcements around them because students are usually being selfish in the college life. No one will tell you what happens in the university if you do not have any friends. Through this essay, we try to communicate how to understand kinds of announcement based on the content such as the content tells about competition, learning program, job vacancy, or only information. We can learn them by observing the announcement board in D8 building because it will give us the information that we need.

The most common announcement that we can find in the announcement board is competition announcement. It is a kind of announcement which tells about some competitions that will be held in the college. The content of this kind of announcement is usually about what competition it is, for whom that is, when and where it will be held, and how to join it. There are many competition announcements that we can find in D8 building announcement board such as futsal competition, public speaking and English debate competition, the competition of rubric writing of Komunikasi magazine, the competition of Inovasi Bisnis Pemuda, and writing competition (poem, short story, and essay). Those announcements help us knowing what competitions that are going to be held by the college.

The next kind of announcement is job vacancy. This announcement gives us information about some institutions that offer jobs for the students or alumni. The content of this job vacancy announcement usually consists of the name of the institutions, the job description, position, and the requirements for the applicant. For example, on the D8 building, we can find two examples of the job vacancy announcement. The first one comes from PT.ASIK which offers positions as managers in several terms, such as Business Development Manager, Human Resource and Quality Control Manager, Counseling Manager, and Administration and Finance Manager. The second offer is from ALBERT EDUCATION as part time tutors, such as the English tutor, Accounting tutor, Mathematic tutor, Elementary School tutor, Physic tutor, and Chemistry tutor. Through those kinds of announcement, we can find which job is suitable with us if we need a job to support our life.

Now, let us pay attention to the next kind of announcement! We classify this following announcement as learning program announcement. This announcement gives us information about what we have to do with our college and other information that is important for our study and college life. There are several examples of this announcement in D8 building, three of which are the copy of KRS, the announcement of the changing of classroom, and the announcement of subject matters that can be taken on the next even semester 2010/2011 in English Department. Those announcements contain information which is important for us so we have to give more attention to this kind of announcement.

The last announcement from our classification is information. This announcement gives us information about what is going on in the college. The information can be from the college, faculty, UKM (The Unit of Student Activity), or just from the students. For instance, Diklat 18 UKM Sanggar Minat, invitation for parents of students 2005 that have not been graduated in this year, the information about taking the orientation certificate, and the announcement about the election of dean. These announcements give more information that relates to what happens in our college nowadays. At least we can know the hot news in college through this kind of announcement.

Much information has been given through the announcement board. Being active to read or look for the information is one thing that we can do to help our college easier. Then, we have to pay attention about kinds of announcement because it is needed to help us understanding the content of information such as the topic of the topic about competition, job vacancy, learning program or only information. In sort, whatever the information given to us, we have to pay attention about it because every single announcement is important to be known in college life. Whatever the announcement is at least we have to check the announcement on the board because sometimes we do not know that when we get important announcement.

 Written by

Risky Ayu Dewi

Trisna A

The Level Mistakes on Essays

Writing an essay is actually a kind of writing activity. It is used to communicate between the writer and the readers. The writer makes essays to give some information to the readers. Generally, good essays should have good criteria. Those criteria are divided into two, a First criterion is the structure of the essays in general which are introduction, body and conclusion. Second criteria is the requirement structure of the essays which are grammar, small connecting words, diction, mechanics, unity, style, evidence (detail), thesis or topic sentence, balance and recommendation. Most of people think that writing an essay is not difficult thing to do. However, for those who just learn writing an essay often make mistakes on their work without realizing it. Based on observation which we have done, on six essays which title is bilingual education essay, we found some mistakes on the structure. From those, we can classification into three levels of important mistakes which are structure mistakes on body, on introduction and on conclusion.

Firstly, the part of the essays which contain the most mistakes is in the structure of the body of an essay. Actually, a good body of essays should contain all of the body requirements structure of the good essays. Among the body requirement, three of which are crucial. Those crucial requirements are grammar, diction, and topic sentence. Generally, the meaning of grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in any given natural language. Based on our observation, the mistake on grammar has the biggest number which is 21 mistakes. The example of grammar error which is writen by the student on the bilingual education essay is “this program would make it easier for the student to learn English without risking success in academic classes”. However, that sentence should be “bilingual education program would make easier for the student which learn English without risking success in academic classes”. Then, the mistakes on the body of essay are followed by the topic sentence. Topic sentence is a sentence that expresses the essential idea of a paragraph or larger section and usually appearing at the beginning. From observation, the mistake on topic sentence is about 5 mistakes, for example; “the first requirement is the skillful students.”  That sentence should be “the first requirement is the skillful students who are clever and have good personality. “The fewer mistake on the body is diction. As we know, diction is way to choose the best word to make a good diction. Moreover, the students make 4 diction mistakes on the body of essay, for example; “The students should be given some tests before they are received in RSBI.” However, the sentence should be “The students should be given some tests before they are admitted in RSBI.”  Thus, we know that the most mistakes that the students make on an essay is in the body of the essays.

Secondly, lets us move to the middle mistakes on essays. The middle mistake is in the structure of the introduction of an essay. Basically, the position mistakes in introduction usually happen in the thesis statement, grammar and diction. Generally, the biggest mistakes on introduction are same as the mistakes on body essay which is grammar. Students often make some mistakes on grammar. Based on observation, the amount of grammar mistake is 6 mistakes. Then, the following mistake is in diction which has 4 mistakes. The last mistake is thesis statement on the introduction. Actually the meaning of thesis statement is the sentence containing the central idea.” Based on observation, the thesis statement has 3 mistakes, for example; “In my opinion, there are many things that the RSBI must have. Three of which are the skilful students, the appropriate teachers, and the facilities of the school.” The correct sentence is ”In my opinion, there are several things that the RSBI must have, three of which are the skilful students, the appropriate teachers, and the facilities of the school.” Based on reason above, we know that actually the structure of introduction an essay has the middle mistakes.

Thirdly, the last mistake is in the structure of the conclusion of an essay. Actually, the structure of conclusion of an essay has standard requirements that are usually forgotten by students. These recommendations are grammar and diction. When the student makes an essay, the grammar has more mistakes on that essay. From our observation, the students make grammar mistakes on conclusion is about 6 mistakes. Then, recommendation and diction on the conclusion essay has the same amount which is 2 mistakes. The example of mistakes on recommendation is “If you are still curious about how bilingual education can be implemented in RSBI, you can try to find another sources.” This sentence should be “It is recomended to the headmaster of RSBI to improve the quality of the school by considering those three things.” In short, the structure of conclusion essay has the fewer mistakes.

Based on the explanation above, we can conclude that the writing often make mistakes when he or she writers an essay. Those mistakes can be classification in to three important levels. The body of the essays usually contains the most mistakes. Then, it is followed by introduction. The end of important level is conclusion because contains the less mistakes. For those who are trying to make good essays must be diligent to practice writing and pay attention on criteria of good essays in order to decrease their mistakes and improve the quality of their writing.

 Written by

Mega Astya

Umi Nadhirotun N

The Information in the Notice Board

Information can be very important for all people in the world. It becomes necessary because the nature of information is to tell something to someone who gets it. There are many kinds of media information, for instance: TV, Radio, Internet, Notice board, Magazine, and so forth. For those media, we have different methods to get the information, by watching TV, listening to radio, and of course reading the notice board. In this paper, we will have a great deal with the notice board at State University of Malang, particularly the notice board of D8 building. Moreover, if we read the notice board we can find many kinds of information which are substantial for us as the members of State University of Malang, based on the contents, we can classify the information into: announcements, invitations, and events.

Firstly, let us talk about the announcements. The announcements type contains many important announcements that inform something into the readers. The examples of it are such as “Sajian mata kuliah Sastra Inggris semester genap”, BI (Bank Indonesia) Scholarship 2010, and Job vacancies. The purpose of each announcement is to tell the readers about something that is important for them to know. In example, “Sajian mata kuliah Sastra Inggris semester genap” tells the reader about the subjects that the students of English Department should take in their next event semester. The next example, our government give all students information how to get the scholarship, and what have to be fulfilled to get it. Not only that, we have the other example which is about job vacancies. In that announcement, several institutions provide us about the requirement to be able to work in those institutions. From those evidences, it means that the announcements inform us about some things important.

Secondly, we will talk about the invitations. This kind of information persuades people to join or do something that it informs. The example of invitations is “Undangan untuk mahasiswa semester 8 ke atas”. The invitation tells about a study contract to the targets who are the students of the eighth semester like it has been explained. They and their parents are being asked to discuss about the students’ study period. Actually, it is good for the students, the parents, and the university. It can be looked at the students’ view; the students can graduate and work as soon as possible. The other view, we can have a great deal with the parents, the parent do not need to spend money for each next semester. Thus, we can make a conclusion that this kind of information has purpose to invite people of its targets.

Thirdly, we will talk about events. This kind of information informs the reader about upcoming events. The example of this kind of information are such as “HMJ Sasindo (Himpunan Mahasiswa Jurusan Sastra Indonesia” and “Inagurasi Sastra”. Its purpose is to inform the reader about the time, the place, and the contents of any events that will be held. This kind of information is usually made as attractive as possible to attract readers to come to the event which has been publishing for particular time. Actually, the committee of that event wanted you to come and join at that place and date. On the other hand, you can make the event become great by joining that event.

To draw the conclusion, many kinds of information that we can get from the notice board in D8 building are noteworthy. After all, it can be worthwhile for us because it contains about a lot of things. However, we still can categorize it into three parts: announcements, invitations, and events. For the detail, we can look at the example of those parts, such as: the announcement of BI (Bank Indonesia) scholarship, the invitation of the senior scholars, and the event of HMJ Sasindo (Himpunan Mahasiswa Jurusan Sastra Indonesia). If you have never given any attention to the notice board, you should read it although just for a moment because you will miss the important information if you do not read the notice board. Something that we have to remember is the purpose of putting the notice board there, to give all students some things that will be important and useful for us.

 Written by

Restu Maulidianto

Satria Akbar Sigit

The Classification of Error in Writing Essays

English department students, especially in State University of Malang are required to gain 146 credits to reach a bachelor degree. This means that every single student has to pass the entire courses given by the department. The courses consist of four language skills, reading, listening, writing, and speaking.  These courses are modified and classified based on the level, the basic to the advance one. The fact that writing course is essential for students, our department organizes to modify writing course into three courses which are paragraph writing, essay writing and argumentative writing. The writing course which is given to the sophomore in the second year is the essay writing.  Essay writing is the course to develop student ability to write expository essays using different method of development: examples, details, chronological order, comparison and contrast, cause and effect relations, as well as division and classification (English department book guideline). This course deals with writing in more than five paragraphs which consist of introductory, body, and conclusion paragraph. Writing in the large amount of words must be difficult to achieve. Therefore, the lecturers may find several errors come about the students’ paper. The purpose of this essay is to analyze the students’ error in writing the essay that can be classified from grammar aspect, three of which are frequently happen: the use of tenses, the use of article, and the use of subject and verb agreement.

Firstly, we have a deal with the inconsistent use of the tenses. As we observe, we find that in the essay writing students might be confused in using tenses. Tenses are the basic of grammar focus. The use of tenses is accomplished in such a condition which is influenced by time. Present, past, and future are three kinds of tenses that we usually use in our essay writing. Students are inconsistent to use it when they face the ambiguous circumstance that difficult to be analyzed whether use a particular tense or another one. For instance, when we talk about something in the present, usually we get a mistake in the consistency of using present tense. “Both two systems of education also required and…” In this case, we must change required become require because previously the writer use present tense. Thus, in the following sentences, the writer must use the present tense as well. This means that we should focus on the matter what we deal with. Therefore, our writing essay will be better without any inconsistent in the tenses.

Secondly, we have a deal with the lack use of article. In our identification, mostly, our mistakes are overlooking the article when we discuss about singular and plural things. Unlike native English, who can intuit the appropriate times to use each article in their own writing, students who learn English as their second language lack the years of understanding English that is required to develop that intuition for grammar use. Students usually are not aware about the use of article. They usually forget to put article a/an in singular forms that not a specific object, one of a number of the same objects and article “the” in specific object that both the person speaking and the listener know. For example, “Public school has the strict regulation in time and place.” In this case, the writer should focus in the use of article. He/she is supposed to put article “a” before public school instead of nothing. The lack use of article obviously finds in the students’ paper. Because of the fact that it is actually simple mistake, the students should increase their awareness of it as well. Thus, their writing essay will improve without any mistake of the lack use of article.

Lastly, we are going to thrash out about the wrong use of subject and verb agreement. Subjects and verbs must agree with one another in number (singular or plural). If a subject is singular, its verb must also be singular; if a subject is plural, its verb must also be plural. In the present tense, nouns and verbs form plurals in opposite ways: nouns add an s to the singular form; verbs remove the s from the singular form. For instance, as we find it in one of the student assignment, his error happens in this sentence “the government believe that Indonesia students can reach the high position of world students’ average intelligence.” He should add –s after believe because government is singular noun and should be attached by singular verb. Therefore, teaching students to anticipate these common grammar errors involving subject verb agreement will heighten their awareness of sentence constructions as well as anticipate other problems involving sentence structure.

Based on elucidation above, we can construe that the students mostly have the difficulty in writing essay. Those are the structure of the writing, the content of the writing, and the grammar use in writing. Many students feel that those problems are the crux problematic in the writing class. The lecturer should be aware of those problems so that he/she can find the method that can be used to solve the problems effectively. This means that lectures should prepare ample examples in advance for students to practice correcting before writing their next essays.

Written by

Bila Nastiti T

Orista Vella A