Content Words and Readability in Students’ Thesis Findings

Abstract

This study investigates the content words and readability in bachelor’s thesis findings in the English Literature Program at the University of Sumatera Utara. Qualitative analysis was applied in this study. The data for this study were content words and sentences taken from the data sources of 13 bachelor’s thesis findings. The content words were collected using a lexical density online tool, and the data for readability was collected and analyzed using an online Flesch Reading Ease tool. The results show that the lexical density of the content words ranges from 50.47% – 57.5%. Whilst the readability of the 13 texts range from 19.1 – 61.7. The average score of content word density indicates that the theses’ findings present concise information as represented in scientific writing, and the readability style ranges from "very difficult to read” to “standard readable”. In conclusion, these findings can be categorized as densely written language and content words, supported by college students' increasingly intricate choice of words and sentences frequently read.