Appraisal in Students’ Argumentative Writing

Appraisal is a system of interpersonal meanings
which concerns with evaluation. The evaluation is used to
negotiate human social relationship. Attitude is one of
interacting domains in appraisal which concerns with feelings
such as emotional reactions, judgements of behaviour and
evaluation of the things. The feeling can be delivered orally or
written. In written form, attitude can be found in
argumentative writing as this kind of genre deals with opinion
and persuasion. In line with this idea, this study is aimed to
investigate types of attitude and its realization used in students
argumentative writing. The research was conducted by using
qualitative design. The data were words or phrases taken from
the students argumentative writing. The data were collected by
using documentary technique and identify the words or
phrases into types of attitude based on Martin and White
theory (2005). The findings showed all types of attitude, i.e.
affect, judgement and appreciation are used in students
argumentative writing.