Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate rhetorical strategies in the English and Indonesian persuasive essays of Indonesian university students. Comparisons of rhetorical strategies were carried out across university majors, across languages, and across university-year cohorts. The correlation between rhetorical strategies used in English persuasive essays and overall proficiency in English composition were also examined. Undergraduate students of the State University of Malang, Indonesia, were asked to write persuasive essays on whether violence on TV programs should be restricted. Third-year students majoring in Indonesian wrote essays in Indonesian, fourth-year students majoring in English wrote essays in Indonesian and in English, and first-year students majoring in English wrote essays in English. The rhetorical strategies were examined in terms of Connor and Lauer's (1988) model consisting of three measures: the superstructure of argument, the Toulmin model of informal reasoning, and the persuasive appeals. The overall proficiency in English composition was evaluated using Jacobs et al's (1981) "ESL composition profile". The fourth-year students' Indonesian and English essays were more like each other than like the Indonesian essays of colleagues who majored in Indonesian. It is suggested that this may be caused by their exposure to English rhetoric. The finding that the fourth-year students were more successful than the first-year students in using rhetorical strategies in English persuasive essays might be attributed to the role of instruction. Overall proficiency in English composition was a good predictor of success in using rhetorical strategies in English persuasive essays.