* Corresponding author IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022, 289-310 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Available online at IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education) Website: http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee ESP STUDENTS’ USE OF APPRAISAL LANGUAGE IN TOURISM BLOGS Ni Putu Era Marsakawati Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha, Indonesia (era.marsakawati@undiksha.ac.id) Received: 31th January 2022; Revised: 27th November 2022; Accepted: 27th December 2022 ABSTRACT This study investigated how ESP students used appraisal language in their tourism blogs. The research design used in this study was a qualitative content analysis. The data sources of this research were ten tourism blogs written by the seventh-semester students taking English for Tourism course. These blogs were selected based on several criteria: a) they were written by students who had good writing skills, and b) they promoted tourism spots in Bali. The obtained data were analyzed by using several steps, namely a) determining the single clause that existed in each sentence; b) identifying clauses based on appraisal theory (attitude, engagement, and graduation), c) categorizing clauses into appraisal language, and d) concluding. The results showed that students realized appraisal language through three types of resources: attitude, engagement, and graduation. Attitude was realized through appreciation and affect; Engagement was realized through expansion and contraction; and Graduation was realized through force and focus. This study implies that to create tourism blogs well, students do not only simply include appraisal language in their writing but also learn how to use them in purposeful and strategic ways. Key Words: appraisal language; promotional text; tourism blog ABSTRAK Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis bagaimana mahasiswa ESP menggunakan appraisal language pada tourism blogs. Rancangan penelitian yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah analisis konten kualitatif. Sumber data penelitian ini adalah sepuluh tourism blog yang ditulis oleh mahasiswa semester VII yang mengambil mata kuliah English for Tourism. Tourism blogs ini dipilih berdasarkan beberapa kriteria: a) tourism blogs ditulis oleh mahasiswa yang memiliki keterampilan menulis yang baik, dan b) tourism blogs mempromosikan destinasi wisata di Bali. Data yang diperoleh dianalisis dengan menggunakan beberapa langkah, yaitu a) menentukan klausa yang ada pada tiap kalimat; b) mengidentifikasi klausa sesuai dengan teori appraisal (attitude, enggagement dan graduation), c) mengelompokkan klausa ke dalam appraisal language, dan d) menarik simpulan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa mahasiswa merealisasikan appraisal language melalui tiga jenis resources: attitude, engagement, dan graduation. Attitude direalisasikan melalui appreciation dan affect; Engagement direalisasikan melalui expansion dan constraction; dan Graduation direalisasikan melalui force dan focus. Penelitian ini menyiratkan bahwa untuk membuat tourism blog yang baik, mahasiswa tidak hanya sekedar memasukkan appraisal language dalam tulisan mereka tetapi juga belajar bagaimana menggunakannya dengan cara yang strategis. Kata Kunci: appraisal language; teks promosi; tourism blog How to Cite: Marsakawati, Ni P. E.(2022). ESP Students’ Use of Appraisal Language in Tourism Blogs. IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 289-310. doi:10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022 290-310 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license INTRODUCTION English for tourism is one of the elective courses taken by the seventh- semester students in one of English Education Department at a state university in Bali. In this course, students are equipped with competencies to become professional tourism marketing. To function well in this social practice, they should have knowledge and skills of English in the field of marketing. In so doing, after the students graduate from the university, they are expected to be able to participate and function well in workplaces. To achieve this, in ESP learning, students do not only learn about general English but also specific English as needed in their future work (Mickan, 2017; Poedjiastutie & Oliver, 2017). In the practice of tourism marketing, one of the skills that should be possessed by employees is the skill to promote tourist destinations. The media of promotion can be done through blogging. According to Pal and Kapur (2010), blogging is one of the effective media that can be used by marketers to promote their business. They further argue that through blogging, the marketers can share their ideas to the target readers in a fast and focused manner. Thus, writing tourism blogs is one of the essential skills that should be mastered by students taking English for tourism course. In this context, this promotion aims to attract potential visitors to visit the promoted destinations. To enable the ESP students to write purposeful tourism blogs, they do not only need to understand the structure of the texts posted in their blogs, but they also need to master the linguistic features, such as the use of appraisal language. Appraisal language is rooted in systemic functional linguistic (SFL) theory that is used to realize interpersonal meaning (Martin & White, 2005). This interpersonal meaning is very important to be delivered properly considering that when doing promotions, marketers do not only convey information related to the promoted destinations but also express feelings, opinions, and judgments of the marketers. Within SFL, interpersonal meanings are realized through an appraisal system consisting of attitude, engagement, and graduation. This system explains how language is used to evaluate attitude, take stances, create authorial identity, and construct interpersonal positioning and relationship (Wei, Wherrity, & Zhang 2015). In this context of the study, the attitude subsystem deals with the marketers positive/negative emotions toward people or things. Engagement IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022 291-310 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license deals with the marketers’ voices concerning others’ voices. The graduation attends to grading phenomena, whereby feelings are amplified and categories are blurred (Martin &White 2005). The use of appraisal language is important in the context of promotional texts, including tourism blogs aiming at influencing people to visit the place being promoted. This is because appraisal language consists of specific registers, which can be purposively selected by the marketers to meet their objectives. Even, Yang (2016) argues that in order to influence and convince the target audience, the language users need to use the appraisal resources. Due to the importance of appraisal language, there have been a number of studies of how appraisal language are deployed in promotional texts (see, Kristina, Hashima, & Hariharan, 2017; Ho & Suen; 2017; Mocini, 2013). These studies explore how professional marketers promote their products/services through promotional media such as books, brochures, billboards, and websites. Unfortunately, few researchers have studied how future marketers (students) conduct promotions on blog media. Research on this area is needed to find out to what extent these prospective marketers already have the knowledge and skills related to the expected ESP competencies. Not only in promotional texts, research concerning the use of appraisal language has also been widely conducted in students’ writing, however, they mostly focused on non- promotional texts (see Amornrattanasirichok & Jaroongkhongdach, 2017; Fitriati, Solihah, & Tusino, 2018; Mendale, Komariah, & Fitriani 2019; Fitriati & Solihah; 2019; Jalilifar, Alireza, & Hemmati, 2013; Solihah, 2020; Yuliana & Gandana, 2018) From the reviewed studies, it can be identified that the gap in the literature still exists in relation to the use of appraisal language in students’ writing. Particularly, the studies on how ESP students exploit appraisal language in their promotional texts through blog media are regrettably rare. Studies in this area are needed to generate practical pedagogical implications to promote the use of appraisal language in students’ promotional texts by using blog media. Thus, it can provide an overview of students' ESP competencies and give input related to the ESP curriculum and learning. To fill the identified empirical gap, the researcher conducted a study that aimed to describe how ESP students use appraisal language in IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022 292-310 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license their tourism blogs. The present study is expected to contribute to raising teachers and students’ awareness of the importance of appraisal resources in writing promotional texts as well as to enhancing students’ writing skills. Literature Review Tourism Blog In this digital age, the way tourism marketers promote their tourism product and services is shifted from paper-based marketing to digital marketing. One type of digital marketing tool, which commonly used by tourism marketers is blog. According to Volo (2010), blog is a free online journal or informational website aiming to display certain information or subject to the readers. The information is written specifically for the target readers and is arranged in a chronological order (Labanauskaitė Fiore, & Stašys, 2020). Blog also allows bloggers to combine texts, images, videos, audios, and links to create more informative, communicative, and persuasive texts. All information stored in the blog is distributed fast and is easily accessed by the readers. In so doing, tourism marketers also use blog as a platform to share the information about the tourist destinations, attract the readers’ attention about the described tourist spots, and persuade readers to visit the promoted tourism places. As the technology is growing rapidly, the way tourists search and purchase tourism products and services is changing (Li, Robinson, & Oriade 2017), in which tourists tend to find the needed information in the internet. When tourists plan to visit certain tourist destinations, they use search engines in advance to obtain information about the intended destinations (Labanauskaitė, Fiore, & Stašys, 2020). In response this, tourism marketers need to create tourism blogs to provide effective digital marketing tools, which can influence tourism marketing and attract more potential visitors to visit their tourism objects. Appraisal Language Appraisal language or evaluative language is a system rooted from Systemic Functional Linguistics, where language is used to interact with other people, construct roles and relationship as well as give evaluation (Martin & Rose, 2007). In this paper, the term appraisal language and evaluative language is used interchangeably. According to Martin and White (2005), appraisal language is divided into three subsystems: attitude, engagement, and graduation. The first subsystem is Attitude. Attitude is concerned with the writers’ IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022 293-310 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license feelings, judgments of behavior and evaluation of things. Attitude resources can be used to convey both positive and negative emotions and are expressed explicitly or implicitly. Referring to Martin and White (2005), attitude is classified into three subdivisions: affect, judgement, and appreciation. Affect resources are used by the language users to express emotions and feelings, such as happy/sad (happiness/unhappiness), confident/anxious (security/insecurity), and absorbed/ bored with (satisfaction/dissatisfaction). Judgement resources are employed when the writers intend to evaluate people’s characters and behaviours, which falls into two main categories: social esteem and social sanction. Appreciation resources are deployed by the writers for evaluating things, including natural phenomena. The dimensions of appreciation are Reaction, Composition, and Valuation. The second subsystem of appraisal language is engagement. Engagement resources are used by the writer to engage and involve readers (Yuliana & Gandana 2018). In addition, the resources of engagement are also deployed to create the writers’ stance and position towards the issue being presented in their writings. The engagement strategies are in the form of lexicogrammatical resources (Ho & Suen, 2017) that are used to either open the dialogue space through expansive resources (i.e., entertain or attribute) or close the dialogue space by using contraction resources (i.,e., disclaim or proclaim). The third system of appraisal language is graduation. Graduation resources are used by the writers to strengthen and weaken their attitudinal systems (Wu, 2018). By using these resources, the writers can grade their attitudinal meanings (values of attitude and engagement) up or down. If the writers intend to scale from low to high intensity, they can use force resources by using intensification and quantification. Meanwhile, if they intend to scale from a core to marginal membership, they can use focus resources to sharpening or softening the boundaries between categories (Jalilifar & Moradi, 2019). Promotional Text Promotional texts are texts used by marketers to attract potential customers to purchase a product or service (Kristina, Hashima, & Hariharan 2017). Following Bathia (2014), promotional text belongs to promotional genre, that serves three functions, namely informative function, attractive function, and persuasive function. In the context of tourism industry, the IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022 294-310 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license existence of promotional text serves as a key mechanism in promoting and publicizing the tourist attractions and allow potential tourists to learn about tourism products/services and persuade them to purchase these products (Hui, Santhi, & Mungthaisong, 2020). To meet the communicative purpose of the promotional texts, the writers need to use certain linguistics strategies, such as the use of certain attitudinal resources that can create a good impression about the promoted tourist destinations. METHOD Research design This study was aimed to describe how ESP students used appraisal language in their tourism blogs. To achieve this aim, the researcher used a qualitative research approach. According to Creswell (2007), qualitative approach is an approach that allows the researcher to collect, interpret, and analyze data in natural settings. Through this approach, the researcher studied how meaning is constructed through written language in the real context. In addition to this, the researcher did not conduct any treatments to the research participants. In this context of the study, the researcher made an interpretation based on what she read in the students’ tourism blogs. Among some numbers of qualitative inquiry forms, a qualitative content analysis was used in this study. This technique provides a systematic way of analyzing language in a discourse. In addition, this also involves a close reading of the text and a systematic discursive practice (Krippendorff, 2018), in which the researcher is engaged in the text to explore the phenomenon under study by interpreting the text (Drisko & Maschi 2016). In implementing this research design, the researcher categorized qualitative textual data into clusters of similar entities or conceptual categories to explore ESP students’ attitude in their tourism blogs. Source of data The source of the data for this research is ten tourism blogs written by the seventh-semester students taking English for tourism course. The criteria for selecting the ten tourism blogs are: a) tourism blogs promote tourist destinations in Bali, and b) they were written by students who had good writing skills. This was evidenced by the consistency of their writing skills during the course and from the final score of the previous writing course. IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022 295-310 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license Data collection and analysis Data collection was carried out through the following procedures. a) asking all students to write tourism blogs as their final project; b) asking all students to submit the tourism blog addresses; c) reading all students’ tourism blogs repeatedly; and d) selecting ten tourism blogs based on the predetermined criteria. After the data were collected, they were analyzed by following some steps, namely: a) determining the single clause in each sentence; b) identifying clauses based on appraisal theory (attitude, engagement, and graduation); c) grouping clauses into appraisal language; d) concluding. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Findings The findings on the distribution of appraisal language used by ESP students in the tourism blogs are presented in Table 1. Table 1. Summary Distribution of Appraisal Language Attitude Engageme nt Graduati on Tota l + - 106 16 88 120 330 32 % 5% 28% 35% 100 % Table 1 reveals that ESP students use all types of appraisal language in their writings, with the predominance subsystem used is attitude. The detailed distribution for each subsystem is provided in the following tables. Table 2. The Distribution of Attitude Resources Affect Appreciatio n Judgemen t Tota l + - + - + - 19 1 87 15 0 0 122 16 % 1 % 71% 12 % 0% 0% 100 % Table 2 shows that ESP students use positive appreciation the most. Even, they used both positive and negative appreciation in their writings. Table 3. The Distribution of Graduation Resources Force Focus Total Intensi ficatio n Quanti ficatio n Sharpe ning Softe ning 91 28 0 1 120 76% 23% 0% 1% 100% Table 3 shows the use of graduation resources in students’ promotion texts. All texts written by students contain graduation resources. Of the two types of graduation resources, students use force resources more than focus resources. IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022 296-310 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license Table 4. The Distribution of Engagement Resources Expansion Contraction Tota l Enterta in Attrib ute Disclai m Proclai m 52 1 34 1 88 59% 1% 39% 1% 100 % Table 4 shows that students used both types of engagement resources, in which expansion resources were used more than contractions. Discussion This study found that tourism blogs written by ESP students contained all types of appraisal resources. These resources are realized through the use of attitude, engagement, and graduation resources. These three divisions of appraisal resources are used as a tool for the students to create a powerful promotional texts to persuade the readers. Each type of appraisal resource is discussed in the section below. Attitude resources Attitude resources are evaluation resources that students use to express their emotions (Martin & White, 2005). Among the three attitude resources, students used two attitude resources: appreciation resources and affect resources. This research finding is similar to the studies conducted by Ho (2019) and Ho & Suen (2017) revealing that the authors of promotional text evaluate the promoted places/things positively and express positive emotions in their writings. Appreciation Appreciation is the most frequent type of attitude used by ESP students in their tourism blogs. According to Martin and White 2005, appreciation resources are used to appreciate objects, including scenery. These resources are divided into three: reaction (has to do with attention and emotional impact), valuation (has to do with the assessment of the social significance of thing), and composition (has to do with the perceptions of proportionality and detail of thing). Each of which will be described as follows. Reaction Based on the results of the data analysis, reaction is the most predominance type of appreciation used by the ESP students in their tourism blogs. Reaction relates to the writers’ response to something or a phenomenon. This reaction is oriented towards interpersonal significance. Therefore, in this case, students tended to describe the promoted tourism places based on their views. Examples of clauses containing positive reaction are as follows. IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022 297-310 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license 1. There are many interesting photo spots with beautiful sunflowers (T3, C21) 2. Blue Lagoon offers a bit adventurous track (T6, C13) 3. This is because the tree becomes a very aesthetic and attractive photo spot (T10,C17) 4. When the sun rises, this Lovina beach will look exotic with black sand(T2, C22) 5. While taking a shower, enjoying the fresh and clear of Kanto Lampo waterfall… (T8,C19) 6. …..and easy to reach;(T3, C15) 7. Kintamani provides a very unique scenery (T1,C5) The bolded words “interesting”, “beautiful”, “adventurous”, “aesthetic’, “attractive”, “exotic”, “fresh” and “clear”, “easy” , and “unique” show positive reaction. Through these registers, the students evaluate the promoted places by evoking the readers’ positive emotions. These lexical items are purposively selected to grab the reaction of the potential visitors to visit the places. Interestingly, reaction is not only expressed positively but also negatively. The use of negative reactions can also be seen in tourism blogs written by the students. Negative promotion is related to someone's negative response, in this case, the blog writer, to something or a phenomenon that is appreciated. Below are the two examples. 8. For sure, it is a bit tiring (T6, C17) 9. But, visiting this place is quite difficult (T7, C20) Register “tiring” in Example 8 and “difficult” in Example 9 show the writers’ feelings when reaching the promoted places. The students described their emotional reactions negatively to the target visitors. This is done to provide a genuine experience for the visitors. Valuation Valuation is oriented to the way the author evaluates something or a phenomenon more objectively (Mocini, 2013). In the tourism blogs written by the students, students use valuation to appreciate the promoted place based on the reality/the fact seen/felt by them. The following are some examples of clauses that contain valuation. 10. This price is still relatively affordable (T5, C37) 11. …..to discover various corals, plants, and fish, such as tuna, batfish, sea turtles, angelfish, IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022 298-310 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license jackfish, and many more (T5, C16) 12. Lovina Beach is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Bali (T2, C1) 13. Pantai Teluk Karang Sewu is one of the popular tourist attractions (T9, C11) 14. This beach is an uninhabited place (T4, C30) 15. There is a hidden destination at Panji Village named Kedu (refreshing water destination) (T7, C1) 16. (it) is always crowded with local and foreign tourists (T1, C4) The words in bold italics in Examples 10-16 are vocabulary classified as valuation resources. The word "affordable" in Example 10 is used to inform the entry fee that need to be paid by potential visitors. In addition to using positive evaluation, the results of the data analysis also show that students use negative evaluation, as can be seen in the following Examples. 17. ….but the place is still underrated(T3, C7) 18. The common beach usually has black sand (T9, C24) In Example 17, the student uses “underrated” to explain the reality about the place to the reader. In Example 18, the writer uses the word “common” to describe sand on beaches in general. By using this vocabulary, the author intends to convey that the sand on Lovina beach is not like the sand in general. This means that the use of words that contain negative evaluation aims to give a positive impression of the place being promoted on the blog. Composition Composition is related to the sense of perception. It concerns the writers’ view of order (Martin & White, 2005). Below are some clauses that contain register positive composition. 19. The waves on Lovina Beach are quite calm (T2, C13) 20. Kanto Lampo still a perfect natural scenery (T8, C4) 21. The location of Karang Sewu also very strategic (T9, C33) Examples 19-21 show some registers used to express positive composition. The words "calm", “perfect”, “strategic” are used to describe the structure of the promoted places. Surprisingly, in addition to using positive composition, students also use negative composition in their promotional texts. Below are some IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022 299-310 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license clauses containing negative composition registers. 22. because the terrain is rocky enough (T7, C21) 23. Where the island is very hot and dry(T5, C6) Register “rocky” in Example 22 shows the structure of the terrain. Registers "hot and dry" in Example 23 are used to evaluate the island. In this clause, the author tries to show the true island atmosphere to tell the readers so that they can prepare themselves better such as bringing appropriate hats, sunscreen cream and others if they are planning to go on vacation. Affect Affect is the second most frequent type of attitude resource used by the students in their tourism blogs. Affect concerns with positive or negative feelings, that can be realized in domains: dis/satisfaction (whether the appraiser is interested or bored), in/security (whether the appraiser is confident or anxious), and un/happiness (whether the appraiser is happy or sad) (Martin & White, 2005). Each of which is described as follows. Satisfaction Satisfaction is a part of affect resources that are used to express feelings of satisfaction with something (Ho & Suen, 2017). In this study, satisfaction is the most predominantly affect resource used by the students. Some examples can be seen in the clauses below. 24. This location is the most strategic place to enjoy the natural scenery (T1,C8) 25. Menjangan island area always impress the visitors(T5,C12) 26. People are also attracted to come to Menjangan island (T5,C27) 27. There are some people who love to refresh their mind (T9,C5) The bolded vocabulary in Examples 24-27 show satisfaction resources. In these examples, the students tend to use registers in the form of verbs. The use of verb, according to Mocini (2013) aims to illustrate an emotional reaction. The meaning of the verb can be conveyed implicitly or explicitly. As written in Examples 23 and 24, "enjoy” and “impress" are categorized as mental process. Implicitly, the phrase "this location and Menjangan island" refers to visitors as emoters (someone who experiences) that are referred to as non- authorial affect. The trigger for these emotions is "natural scenery and visitors" respectively. Likewise, Example 25 indicates non-authorial IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022 300-310 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license affect, namely 'people' who will be satisfied if they visit Menjangan Island. In addition, the phrase “love to refresh” in Example 26 also shows the interest of potential visitors to refresh their mood. In promotional blogs, the use of these registers can increase people's desire to visit the promoted place. Security Security relates to feeling of safe, confident and protected. In the analyzed data, it is presented that the students use words and verb phrases about feeling safe. The examples are presented below. 28. There is no need to doubt about the tourism facilities in Kintamani(T1, C12) 29. this hot water can cure common skin diseases (T1, C21) 30. Because the local government has protected these animals (T2, C12) 31. ….which make the guest more comfortable lay on the grass (T9, C31) The use of security registers is quite varied. As seen in Example 27, this phrase convinces readers to come to Kintamani without worrying about the facilities. Example 28 denotes another emotion of physical health which is beneficial for those who wish to have a natural treatment with 'hot' water. Example 29 implies that the author also wants to inform readers that there is no need to think negatively about the safety of animals (dolphins) because they have been conserved by the government. Example 30 evaluates the visitor's comfortable feeling when lying on the grass. Happiness Happiness relates to the 'perception of the heart' including sadness and happiness. In the tourism blogs, the register of happiness is used to express the feelings of potential visitors when visiting the place and trying out the activities there. Some examples containing the register of happiness are shown in the clauses below. 32. …and make you feel happy to do anything (T7, C27) 33. … and relax your soul;(T6, C20) 34. This place will refresh your day. (T7, C26) In Example 32, the writer describes the readers' feelings that they will be happy if they do activities in that place. In Example 33, the word “relax” relates to a mental process that aims to refresh the visitor's mind. Example 34 contains a "refresh" register which functions to reflect the happy condition of visitors when visiting the place. IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022 301-310 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license Interestingly, besides showing security, data analysis also shows insecurity, as presented in Example 35. If you are afraid.. (T6,C26) The word “afraid” in Example 35 is used to inform the reader about the challenging activity done by the visitor in the promoted place. Graduation resources Graduation is the second most dominant type of appraisal language used by the students in their tourism blogs. Graduation is divided into two: Force and Focus. Force deals with assessing of amount (quantification) or intensity (intensification). Focus is concerned with grading the values on a scale between core (sharpen) and marginal (soften) membership of category (Jalilifar, Alireza, & Hemmati 2013; Martin & White, 2005). In this study, force resources are used more frequently than focus resources. This research finding confirms the study conducted by Jalilifar and Moradi (2019) and Wu (2018). The dominant use of force resources indicates that the authors use exaggeration language as a maximization strategy to build a strong persuasive strategy to attract readers to visit the places. The details of the findings are presented below. Force Force refers to the system used to express high or low intensity, strengthen or weaken the feelings and attitudes conveyed by the author and can also be used to express numbers. Force is divided into two parts: intensification and quantification Intensification Force-intensification is the most dominant type of force used by the students in their tourism blogs. Examples of force used by the students are as follows. 35. Kintamani provides a very unique and amazing natural scenery (T1, C6) 36. Lovina Beach is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Bali (T2, C1) 37. No, no, no for now (T4, C13) 38. The seawater surrounds this beach as clear as crystal; (T4, C42) 39. Which is always crowded with local and foreign tourists (T1, C5) From Examples 36-40, it can be seen that the registers “very”, “most” are used to express high intensity. The word “very” is used to reinforce the IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022 302-310 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license words “unique and amazing”. This aims to convince the readers to imagine how unique and amazing the scenery in Kintamani is. This is needed in persuasive texts such as promotional texts to attract the attention of readers. While the word “most” is used to strengthen the adjective "famous". It aims to exaggerate the meaning of the word “famous”. Besides the words “very” and “most”, words “no, no, no” are also included in force-intensification. According to Martin and White (2005), intensification can also be realized in the word repetition. The words “no, no, no” in Example 38 illustrate that the meaning of the word is strictly prohibited, where there is an emphasis and reinforcement on the meaning of the word "no". The phrase “as clear as crystal” in Example 39 also belongs to intensification because it includes a figurative language. This is the author's analogy to express crystal-clear water. The word “always” in Example 40 is also categorized as intensification because it is used to describe an activity or how often it happens. The author conveys an emphasis on habits or activities that occur continuously. Quantification Quantification is a part of graduation that is used to express quantity. According to Martin and White (2005), quantification is a language of valuing a quantity that is used to measure numbers and features such as size and weight. Force- quantification is the second most used graduation expression in this study. Examples of the use of force- quanfication can be seen in the following clauses. 40. Tourists can also take as many photos as they want (T3, C34) 41. Usually, some other beaches will offer a sunset (T2, C23) 42. And if there are a few visitors, this beach feels like a private beach (T4, C25) 43. Tourists who visit can also learn a lot about plantation there (T3, C25) 44. So, Gili Putih is a small white island in the middle of the sea (T4, C29) The registers “many”, “some”, “a few”, “a lot” are used to express an evaluation related to the amount, while the word “small” is used to express an evaluation of size. Focus Focus is related to judgment to sharpen and soften a feeling or attitude. Focus is divided into two parts, namely: sharpening and softening. In the tourism blogs written by the students, IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022 303-310 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license there is only one clause containing softening resource, shown in Example 60. 45. “It is very cheap for this kind of amazing place”(T9, C38) The word “kind of” belongs to the category of focus-softening expressions. The word “kind of” shows a softening attitude when expressing or appreciating "amazing places". The use of softening is used for polite situations. Softening is difficult to define whether it means positive or negative. In general, softening positive sentences will occur if the assessment of positive sentences that are interpreted has the potential to cause problems for readers. Engagement resources Engagement resource is the least type of appraisal language used by the students in their tourism blogs. Through engagement resources, the students constructed a different level of intimacy by either affirming or distancing himself from what was written. In this study, the two types of engagement resources (expansion and contraction) are used by the students, in which expansive resources are used more frequently than constructive resources. By using expansive resources, the students acknowledged alternative voices and thus expanded the dialogic space in their tourism blogs. A delicate analysis reveals that the dominant expansive resources used in this study are entertain. The predominantly used of entertain resources in students’ writing is also shown in the Yuliana and Gandana (2018)’s study, in which the use of modality (can, will) is used to create a sense of opening dialog with the readers. The detailed findings are shown below. Expansion Expansion is part of engagement that is used to provide space for readers to accept or reject statements written by the author. Expansion, according to Martin and White (2005) is divided into two: Entertain and Attribute. Entertain In promotional texts written by the students, entertainment is one of the most widely used engagement components. It is used when the author suggests a plausible alternative to the implicit belief. The clauses below are examples of entertainment in a promotional text written by the students. 46. The visitors can also enjoy a natural hot spring bath in Toya Bungkah Village (T1,C20) 47. Tourists can enjoy the beauty of sunflowers (T3,C33) IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022 304-310 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license 48. Tourists can also take as many photos as they want (T3,C34) The word "can" in Examples 47-49 indicate that the writer is describing something that can be seen by the reader, such as enjoying a natural hot spring bath or admiring the beauty of sunflowers. In addition to using the modal auxiliaries “can”, the students also use “will” as can be seen in the following examples. 49. Some other beaches will offer a sunset; (T2,C23) 50. This sunrise view will be even more amazing; (T2,C25) 51. This Lovina beach will look exotic with black sand. (T2,C29) In Examples 50-52, the auxiliary modal "will" indicate that the author promises the possibility if the reader visits a certain location. The author writes that the sunrise view will be even more amazing, as in Example 51. The author promises a sunrise view, so that when tourists arrive, they will be greeted with a stunning view. Attribute According to Martin and White (2005), attribute resources are used by writers to convince readers by using statements from other people. In addition, Fuoli (2012) further said that attributes are representations of external sources, the author must gain the reader's trust by using the ideas that have been discussed previously. The following clauses are examples of clauses belonging to attributes. 52. So the society believe that this hot water, can cure common skin diseases (T1,C26) The word “believe” in italics in Example 53 shows how the author builds trust with the reader by using statements made by many people or other people (society). By using this register, readers will feel more involved because there has been a testimony from the society about the benefit of the hot water. Contraction Different from the study conducted by Yuliana and Gandana (2018) that has no contraction, this study reveals that the students use disclaim and proclaim as the constructive resources. The different finding is due to the different nature of the texts. In this study, the students uses disclaim to show disassociate themselves from the stance that they include in the texts. It is natural as the tourism blogs created by the students are a kind of promotional text aiming at persuading the readers to visit the place. In this study, two contraction resources are used by the students, namely disclaim and proclaim. IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022 305-310 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license Disclaim A disclaim can be interpreted as a rejection or disapproval of something, Examples of clauses containing disclaim are as follows. 53. We can not think that all people have the same interest (T9,C2) 54. But in contrast to Lovina beach (T2,C24) 55. The tourists usually do not just visit places that are famous and hits recently(T3,C1) 56. ..and don’t forget to keep your health (T4,C1) 57. but now it has started to be managed (T4,C38) All of these examples express rejection or denial of something. In Example 55, the word “but” is used to compare another beach with Lovina beach, the same case is also found in Example 58, in which the word “but” is used to explain that there is a change in a current situation. Example 57, the negation is used to remind the readers to maintain their health. Proclaim According to Martin and White (2005), proclaim can show a proposition as being highly justifiable (interesting, logical, reasonable, reasoned, widely recognized, reliable, etc.). The example is shown as follows. 36. it is quite difficult to find freshwater sources, especially during the dry season (T5,C5) Based on the distribution of appraisal language, the students use attitude resources more than graduation and engagement resources. This indicates that in their tourism blogs, the students mostly convey both positive and feelings emotions, particularly towards the phenomenon. This is evidenced by the most predominantly used of appreciation resources in their tourism blogs. Through a more delicate analysis, in terms of appreciation, reaction is the predominant resource used by the students. They use reaction resources invoke the potential visitors’ positive emotions so that they would visit the places being promoted. As noted by Mocini (2013), reaction concerns whether the entity evaluated is pleasing or displeasing to the senses. In this research context, the use of positive reaction is needed to please the readers’ senses to attract the potential customers’ attention about things being promoted. This research finding corroborates with Lasne (2017) that found reaction resources are the most predominant appreciation resources used in Chinese clothing companies. Similar to Lasne’s (2017) study, this study also reveals that IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022 306-310 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license the blog writers take a relatively more emotional approach to persuade the readers. The research finding in this research is also strengthened by the use of affect resources as the second most dominant attitude resources used by the students. Through the use of affect resources, the students build more positive emotions to invoke the readers’ positive feelings towards the places being promoted (Ho, 2019). The deployment of both reaction- appreciation and affect resources are aimed at achieving the purpose of creating tourism blogs, that is promoting tourist destinations in Bali. To achieve this aim, the students need to consider the use of appropriate registers, which can help them in describing the place as vividly as possible (Noprianto, 2017). By the use of the preselected vocabulary, the tourism blogs’ readers can visualize the beauty of the place and are attracted to visit the place. In addition to using these two resources of attitude, the students also use graduation resources. Through a delicate analysis, it is revealed the students use force resources more than focus. This research finding is in line with findings from previous research (Fauziah, Warsono, & Widhiyanto 2019; Jalilifar, Alireza, & Hemmati, 2013; Mocini, 2013; Yang, 2016). In these studies, force resources are predominantly used to strengthen and exaggerate the meaning. In so doing, the readers can be more attracted to visit the promoted place. Despite persuading the potential readers about the tourist destinations, the students still provide dialogic spaces by opening up alternative voices. This is shown by the predominance use of expansion resources in their tourism blogs. Following Yuliana and Gandana (2018), expansion, particularly entertain resources are used to anticipate potential disagreement of the addressee regarding the proposition. In this way, the students are open for different voices that may come from the readers. In this research context, the students present their individual subjectivity towards the places. It is obvious that the students use the three types of appraisal language in their tourism blogs. However, their distribution is still considered less effective. In terms of attitude resources, the students still use some negative words, which may affect the visitors’ desire to visit the places. Besides, the students also employ simple and repetitive words. This result of the study empirically supports the studies conducted by Fareed, Ashraf, and Bilal (2016) and Siregar (2020) indicating that IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(2), 2022 307-310 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i2.24574 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license vocabulary is one of students’ problems in mastering writing skills. To avoid this, Afzal (2019) suggests students enrich their word-repository and develop linguistic repertoire. Indeed, learning vocabulary is challenging. Thus, it needs teachers to scaffold the students about the appropriate registers used to create texts as to meet the aim of the text, certain text requires certain linguistics features to use. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTION This study highlights how ESP students use appraisal language in their tourism blogs. Based on data analysis, it is revealed that the three types of appraisal language (attitude, graduation, and engagement) are employed. Among these three resources, attitude is the most dominant type of appraisal language used by the students. This indicates that the students evaluate the phenomenon by evoking both their emotions and the readers’ feelings in their tourism blogs. This is purposively done to achieve the purpose of the text. Even so, the varieties of vocabulary used by the students are still limited as the students still use ineffective, basic, and repetitive words. Thus, the study suggests English teachers provide more learning activities to scaffold the needed registers. This study only focuses on exploring the deployment of appraisal language of students’ having good writing skills, future study needs to be conducted to explore how students with different levels of English proficiency use appraisal language in their blogs. Besides, a study focusing on comparing the use of appraisal language in companies’ websites between novice and professional marketers is worth conducting to provide the bridge between the novice and the professional ones in using appraisal language in promotional discourse. Acknowledgments The researcher is thankful for the students, who willingly participated in this study. The researcher is also grateful for the editorial journal and the reviewers of Indonesian Journal of English Education for the thoughtful comments and feedback. REFERENCES Afzal, N. (2019). A study on vocabulary-learning problems encountered by BA English majors at the university level of education. Arab World English Journal, 10(3),81–98. doi: 10.24093/awej/vol10no3.6. Amornrattanasirichok, S., & Jaroongkhongdach, W. (2017). 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