Sentence Complexity Analysis in Selected Students’ Scientific Papers: A Closer Look on Abstract Section

. Abstract is an essential part of a scientific paper. However, according to the finding of researchers working in the repository at the (UIN) Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh, many students still do not comply with the rules for writing scientific papers. This study aims to analyze the types of sentence complexity in the thesis abstracts of UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh students and the level of use of sentence complexity in scientific papers by students of UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh. This study used a qualitative approach with descriptive and content analysis methods. The data were obtained from the Repository UIN Ar-Raniry through purposive sampling. The data were analyzed using Miles and Huberman’s method. The result shows four types of sentence complexity in abstract writing, namely simple sentence (24.58%), compound sentence (25.97%), complex sentence (26.25%,) and compound-complex Sentence (23.19 %). The level of sentence complexity in student scientific abstracts includes complex sentences containing independent clause + noun clause, independent clause + adjective clause, independent clause + noun clause + adverbial clause. This finding contributes to improving the skills of students' ability in scientific writing.


INTRODUCTION
Writing a scientific paper is one of the requirements that must be met to get a bachelor's degree in the Indonesian education context. A scientific paper is a manuscript that exhibits unique research or study in the field of science. For example, it may be an addition to the ongoing research in a field, a ground break analysis study, or a comparison of various methodologies.
Writing scientific papers helps college students learn how to put together and write scientific work related to their field of study. They should also be able to do research, from coming up with a problem to gathering data, processing data, analyzing data, and coming to a conclusion. Lastly, they should be able to take what they have learned and use it to improve science. A scientific paper has a preface abstract, an introduction, accession, inclusion, and a list of sources (Al-Mudhaffari et al., 2020;Sharp, 2002).
Abstract is a summary presented briefly and clearly and contains an article or scientific work's purpose, scope, and findings. The ideal abstract is that the information contained in the abstract must be written in detail and objectively. (Garrido, 2017;Suparyanto & Rosad (2015. According to the findings of researchers working in the repository at the (UIN) Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh, many students still do not comply with the rules for writing scientific papers. The researchers found many problems, such as an abstract being too long (more than 250 words), correctly placing commas and conjunctions in compound phrases and complex sentences, and avoiding high levels of plagiarism.
In scientific papers, the abstract is the most crucial component that is frequently neglected. The abstract is expected to encourage the reader to peruse the full text. In other words, selecting sentences in the abstract should entice and persuade the reader that the text's contents are captivating and crucial to read.
An abstract consists of a single paragraph with the title "Abstract" centered and in bold type at the beginning of the paragraph. The first line of the abstract does not have any indentation in it. Although the American Psychological Association (APA) (2020) suggests that abstracts should generally be less than 250 words, many publications have word restrictions; therefore, it important to check the rules. The following types of information should be included in an abstract. These include the problem or core argument, a condensed explanation of the structure, techniques, and processes of the research, and a condensed version of your research's findings, that is, a concise overview of the repercussions that the study will have on both practice and theory.
A quick, comprehensive description of the contents of the work" is what is meant as an abstract (American Psychological Association [APA], 2020, p. 38). For example, a research study or term paper may have a summary similar to the language seen on the back cover of a book. This summary aims to discuss the topic, argument, and conclusions of the study or paper. When writers sends in their work for consideration as a publication, the reviewer will typically encounter their writing for the first in the form of an abstract, for course papers will not require an abstract (Forley, 1995).
Some sections of scientific papers are organized by the scientific method. Most scientific papers start with the abstract, then the introduction, then the methodology, the results, the conclusions, and finally the acknowledgments. The problem and the experiment's hypothesis are written in the introduction. The findings and methods portions of the study describe the methodical procedure, significant observations, and relevant data. The discussion section contains the author's interpretation and analysis of the data. If they like, the author can also point out any experiment irregularities that could have affected the results. The ruling will conclude with a summary of the investigation and some findings. An acknowledgments section at the end of the article usually gives credit to other contributors.
Hogue (1995, as cited in Saragih & Hutajulu, 2020 explained that a sentence is a group of words with a subject and a verb that expresses a complete thought. Frank gave more information about the sentence in his clarification (1972, in Saragih & Hutajulu, 2020. He said there are two main ways to classify a phrase, that is, by its purpose and the number of predictions it makes. The type of sentence a sentence is depends on what it does. Depending on what it does, a sentence can be declarative, interrogative, imperative, or exclamatory. Sentences are classified into four groups based on how many predictions they make, namely simple, compound, complicated, and compound-complex. According to Warren and Gibson (2012), five referential processing and phrase complexity evaluations exist. Gibson argued (1998) that sentence complexity is proportional to the closeness of integrations between dependent syntactic heads and that localization is measured by the number of new discourse references between their endpoints. This paper evaluates the claims of Gibson (1998). Each experiment examined the effect of noun phrases (NPs) on sentence complexity in object-extract relative clauses. Experiments 1-3 utilized questionnaires, whereas 4-5 utilized selfpaced perusing. The results of Experiments 1, 2, 4, and 5 indicate that the embedded subject's Givenness position within the Givenness Hierarchy had a more significant impact on the complexity of the experimental items than its discourse age. Experiment 3 contrasted quantifiers with rotated subject positions in relative clause structures with nesting. This experiment validates a location distance metric based on discourse processing and demonstrates a similarity-based structural complexity account. Radford (2002); Oshima et al. (2007), & Subekti (2017) list four forms of sentences, namely simple, compound, complicated, and compound-complex. Sentence complexity is the number of thoughts expressed in words. Each clause states the fundamental notion. A sentence needs a subject and a main or finite verb. English grammar prioritizes subjects and verbs. This completes a thought. Subjects and verbs make up sentences.

Simple Sentence
A simple sentence has a clause, one subject, and one verb phrase. It can be as short as one word or include the verb, the direct object, and the indirect object in some permutations. Students can comprehend simple sentence constructions at this level without experiencing any structural ambiguity. Here are some examples of short sentences with one primary, independent sentence. (Altenberg, 2010;Demirezen, 2013).

Compound Sentence
Language users connect concepts to create flow, coherence, and cohesiveness, particularly in written work. Consequently, language learners use extensive leases, consisting of two or more independent clauses. To become independent writers by investigating these structures, learners must thoroughly investigate the rules of compound sentences (Effendi et al., 2017;Sezen, 2011).

Complex Sentence
For students to be able to write effectively, they need to understand and use both simple and complex phrases, but they also need to be able to use more complex sentence structures. When putting together a detailed statement, the importance of its many parts does not, on average, add up to the same level. A complicated sentence has at least one full dependent clause with its subjectpredicate. The information is added to the main sentence in one of the following ways, namely as a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb (Sezen, 2011;Steffani & Dachtyl, III, 2007;Van & Jordaan, 2009;Verspoor et al., 2017).

Compound-Complex Sentence
A compound-complex sentence with two main clauses and one subordinate clause is called a compound-complex sentence. It's also possible to see "more than two main and subordinate clauses. (Demirezen, 2013;Oshima et al., 2007). Per Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005), complexity is the extent to which students generate advanced language. Language can be regarded elaborated in two different ways. A language is more complex than one fully internalized if it has reached the limit of its interlanguage system and is, therefore, not automated. A lack of universal proficiency in a complicated language is anticipated because students' propensities for taking on more significant linguistic challenges vary widely.
Before the analysis, looking into what other researchers have found is essential. There have been many studies on complex sentences. Narula & Sharma (2014) looked at how sentences are put together in the Punjabi language. It also discusses how these sentences are put together, and this topic has been discussed in depth. In addition, there was a way to categorize sentences as simple, compound, or complicated, depending on how hard it is to understand them. The investigation focused on one part of the sentence's internal structure, also the subject of one of the debates. Saragih and Hutajulu's (2020) study looked at the different types of sentences used in the abstracts of journal articles written by ten women and ten men. All the abstracts came from the book program for UNIMED Medan's first annual international seminar, which was held on November 19, 2016.
Bernstein and Costa (2021) researched how context affects English sentence complexity evaluation. A new dataset of utterances is graded for perceived complexity in distinct contextual contexts. They analyze which linguistic traits correlate with complexity judgments and annotator agreement. Finally, the train regression models utilized explicit linguistic variables or contextualized word embeddings to predict sentence complexity mean and standard deviation in distinct contextual windows. Models using clear features capturing morphosyntactic and syntactic phenomena perform better, mainly when they use characteristics from all contextual phrases.
Based on previous studies, the researchers found a gap. This study focused on analyzing the types of sentence complexity in the thesis abstracts of UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh students and the level of use of sentence complexity in scientific papers by students of UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh. This research was carried out so that institutions can consider the research results to improve the skills of students' ability in scientific writing. These considerations aim to evaluate whether a student's final writing meets the ideal requirements and has used appropriate sentences. Therefore, it can be an evaluation material for supervisors and lecturers in supervising students in writing for a scientific paper; furthermore, it can be used as a basis for improving future planning in the curriculum of scientific writing.

METHOD
Content analysis is a research tool used to determine the presence of certain words, themes, or concepts within some given qualitative data (i.e., text). Using content analysis, researchers can quantify and analyze the presence, meanings, and relationships of certain words, themes, or concepts (Hsieh, 2005). The researchers employed a qualitative content analysis strategy to examine the thesis abstracts' sentence complexity regarding clause count, namely simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences. The data were collected from UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh Repository website. They were collected by observation over three days. Data collection, reduction, presentation, and findings were made utilizing the Miles and Huberman approach, as depicted in Figure 1.

Figure 1 Data Analysis
After the data were collected, data reduction was made to select relevant and meaningful data. In this case, the data population was obtained from the Repository UIN Ar-Raniry as many as 122 abstracts, and the sample abstracts were selected according to the criteria of the ideal abstract as many as 50 abstracts were selected through purposive sampling with abstract criteria including presenting briefly and clearly and containing purpose, scope, and findings of an article or scientific work. An ideal abstract in this study consists of 200-250 words on one page, written in one or three paragraphs, consisting of background and research objectives, research method, data analysis techniques, theory, result, conclusions, and recommendations (Garrido, 2017;Suparyanto & Rosad (2015). Then, findings are presented and the conclusion is drawn depending on the aim of the current study. The 72 abstracts that were not related to those criteria were then discarded.
The next phase, after data reduction, is data display. Tables, graphs, the chard, pictograms, and other visualizations can all be used to communicate this kind of information in qualitative research. To make the data more digestible, it is sorted and laid out in a pattern of relationships through the presentation. The data for this qualitative study were presented in a table with percentages. Miles and Huberman (1994) state that identifying and drawing verification conclusions is the fourth stage of qualitative data study. When researchers go out into the field to collect data, their findings are more likely to be trustworthy if they are supported by valid and consistent evidence. Here, the information is presented in writing, and inferences are derived from that.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter provides the data that have been acquired and analyzed in terms of the sentence complexity. After analyzing the abstracts, the researchers found that there are four types of sentence complexity in abstract writing. They are simple sentences, compound sentences, complex sentences, and compound-complex sentences. The number and percentage of sentence complexity can be found in Table 1.  Table 1, it can be seen that complex sentence type is mostly used in writing the abstracts (26.25%), followed by compound sentence type (25.97%) and simple sentence type (24.58%). Lastly, compound-complex sentence type (23.19 %) is the most rarely used in the abstracts. In other words, the students of UIN Ar-raniry Banda Aceh tend to write abstracts in the scientific papers using complex sentence. Several examples of the sentences are provided as follows.

Simple sentence
An example of simple sentence found in the abstract can be seen in Excerpt 1 and 2.

Excerpt 1
This study aims to determine the characteristics of the English language in terms of subject placement.
Independent clause : This study aims to determine the characteristics of the English language in terms of subject placement.

Excerpt 2
This article purposes to analyze the causative construction of English language as a typology in morphosyntaxis.
Independent clause : This article purposes to analyze the causative construction of English language as a typology in morphosyntaxis.

Excerpt 3
The data were obtained by using tests (a pre-test and a post-test), the data were analyzed using a T-test, and the data obtained from the pretest and posttest were analyzed through the SPSS 26.0 software The sentence in Excerpt 3 consists of the following clauses and conjunction: Independent clauses : The data were obtained by using tests (a pre-test and a post-test), the data were analyzed using a T-test, the data obtained from the pretest and post-test were analyzed through the SPSS 26.0 software Conjunction : and

Complex sentence
Complex sentences in the abstracts consist of several clause combinations. They are presented below.

Excerpt 4
The result showed that the use of LMS had positive impacts on the learning process during the Covid-19 pandemic, such as being flexible, could access anywhere and anytime.
The sentence in Excerpt 4 can be broken down as follows: Independent clause : The result showed Noun clause : that the use of LMS had positive impacts on the learning process during the Covid-19 pandemic, such as being flexible, could access anywhere and anytime.

Conjunction
: that

Excerpt 5
The findings of this study show that most students in this study revealed that preparing Pecha Kucha enhanced students' English speaking.
The sentence in Excerpt 5 consists of the following clauses: The results of this research indicate that there was progress in the student while learning vocabulary through the popular song. Mubshirah, D., et. al., (2023). Sentence Complexity Analysis in Selected Students' Scientific Paper: A Closer Look on Abstract Section. E-Structural (English Studies on Translation, Culture, Literature, and Linguistics). 6 (01), 70─83.
The sentence in Excerpt 6 can be analyzed as follows: From the examples of data above, it can be seen that the complex sentences used in the English abstracts consist of independent clause + noun clause and of independent clause + noun clause + adverbial clause and with conjunctions such as that and while.

c. independent clause + adjective clause
The complex sentences which consist of independent clause + adjective clause can be seen in these sentences:

Excerpt 7
The product of technological progress is one of the factors that encourages students to do plagiarism.

Independent clause : The product of technological progress is one of the factors
Adjective clause : that encourages students to do plagiarism Conjunction : that

Excerpt 8
The researchers interviewed five students who had used the paraphrasing tool to assist them in writing essays.

Independent clause : The researchers interviewed five students
Adjective clause : who had used the paraphrasing tool to assist them in writing essays Conjunction : who

Excerpt 9
The researchers selected some mobile applications which were considered the most common use application in learning English.

Independent clause : The researchers selected some mobile applications
Adjective clause : which were considered the most common use application in learning English.

Excerpt 10
Speaking is one of the first skills that English students wish to acquire considering its crucial role.
In Excerpt 10, the sentence is broken down into: Independent clause : Speaking is one of the first skills Adjective clause : that English students wish to acquire considering its crucial role Conjunction : that

Excerpt 11
The purpose of this study is to find out the types of code-mixing that were produced by the students on their Social Media and analyze the reasons why students create and implement code-mixing on their Social Media (WhatsApp and Instagram).

Excerpt 13
The teachers seem to enjoy their work, and the teachers usually have high dedication although the teachers get very low salary.
Independent clause : The teachers seem to enjoy their work the teachers usually have high dedication Adverbial clause : although the teachers get very low salary Conjunction : and, although

Excerpt 14
Although the teachers always work long hours, the teachers seem to enjoy their work, and the teachers usually have a long time rest during the dry season.
Independent clause : the teachers seem to enjoy their work, the teachers usually have a long time rest during the dry season Adverbial clause : Although the teachers always work long hours

Conjunction : although, and
Based on the information presented above, it can be seen that the students' abstracts contain the four types of sentences. The sentences consist of independent clauses, adjective clauses, noun clauses, adverbial clauses, and conjunctions such as that, who, which, and while. It can be said that the 50 chosen abstracts all feature sentences with various structures. Furthermore, the researchers found that method and result are the most prevalent abstract sections that use complex sentence type.

Discussion
The study's findings have addressed the given research questions and added to them. This study discusses the types of sentence complexity in the thesis abstracts of UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh students and the level of use of sentence complexity in writing abstracts by students of UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh. According to the data, the most common sentence complexity found in abstracts is the simple sentence (24.58%), followed by the compound sentence (24.97%), and finally the complex sentence (26.25%). Compound-complex sentences (23.19% of all abstract sentences) are the least common. In general, there are not many distinctions between each variety.
This fits with the theory, which says that sentences can be simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex (Altenberg, 2010;Steffani, and Dachtyl, 2007). There is no such thing as a "better" kind of sentence. Each one serves a different purpose. Academic writing often uses compound and complex sentences to connect ideas and strengthen claims. This is similar to what occurred in UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh students who write abstracts in the scientific paper by using complex sentence and compound-complex sentences. Simple sentences are also found in the abstract. According to Altenberg (2010);Steffani, and Dachtyl (2007), a simple sentence in the right place of text can be a breath of fresh air and a quick way to bring attention to a critical idea. Therefore, it also occupies a significant position in a paragraph.
This research is supported by Melinda & Suhartono (2022), which found that compound sentences predominate in the narrative text of Bahasa Indonesia bagi Penutur Asing (BIPA) students at Walailak University, Thailand. There were insertion sentences, dense sentences, equivalent sentences, multilevel compound sentences, and complex compound sentences that were found. Compared to single sentences, there are 69% complex sentences and 31% single sentences.
This study also differs from Curran (2020), whose results showed that children's literature and suggested scripting offered to teachers at all grade levels contain complex sentences. Texts in the third and fifth grades have a more significant proportion of complicated sentences than texts in the first grade. Adverbial and relative clauses occur more frequently in third-and fifth-grade writings than in first-grade texts, and complement clauses are prevalent throughout. However, this research is different from Curran's research, which focused on children's literature and suggested scripting, while this study focused on students' scientific papers.
According to the results of this study, the level of sentence complexity in the scientific abstracts written by students is determined by the fact that the complex sentences in the 50 English abstracts have an independent clause followed by a noun clause, an independent clause followed by an adjective clause, an independent clause followed by a noun clause and an adverbial clause, and conjunctions such as that, who, which, and while.
A compound-complex sentence with two main clauses and one subordinate clause is called a compound-complex sentence. It is also possible to see "more than two main and subordinate clauses (Demirezen, 2013;Oshima et al., 2007). According to the study's findings, it is consistent with the compound-complex sentence theory, which determines whether a complex sentence contains two clauses and a conjunction.
This research is supported by Aggavamsa (2020); a complex sentence has at least one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses. Because it can't stand alone as a complete sentence, a dependent clause must be combined with an independent clause to make a complete sentence. Three kinds of clauses could be in an independent clause. They were noun clauses, relative clauses, and adverb clauses.
The other thing that happens is that the results of Subekti's (2017) and Rahma & Rosa (2021) study showed that complex sentences with multiple clause structures became the most common, and among the four categories of complex sentences, those with multiple clause structures became the most common. Good mastery of complex sentences containing noun clauses, adjective clauses, and adverb clauses was demonstrated by the students.
The complexity of the sentence is closely related to the reader of the text or article. Complex sentences make it difficult for readers to comprehend what is being said. In models that emphasize domain-general comprehension mechanisms at the next level, the importance of sentence comprehension to successful reading has been disregarded. The researchers advocate assessing sentence comprehension in subject areas containing complicated sentences (Scott, 2009).
The research findings are highly beneficial in demonstrating the types of sentence complexity in the thesis abstracts of UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh students and the sentence use level. This research can provide information to educators or lecturers in this case, to evaluate the curriculum in writing scientific articles so that they focus more on the variations of sentences used, not only in the form of simple sentences. Therefore, these findings also contribute to the institution's curriculum.
Although this research has discussed the types of sentences, it has limitations. The number of abstracts used is a manageable size to represent scientific article abstracts. This happened because only 50 abstracts were appropriate and met the ideal abstract criteria for scientific articles. Then, for the sentence level, this study only focuses on sentence categories used in complex sentences then separate it into the several clauses that are used in that sentence. Out of as many as 122 abstracts, only 50 were included in the ideal abstract after the researchers collected the data, according to the most recent findings of this study. This is based on Garrido (2017); Suparyanto & Rosad (2015, the ideal abstract includes the elements, namely between 200 and 250 words should be allocated to abstracts, and they should all fit on a single page. An abstract should be able to be written in one to three paragraphs and should contain background and research objectives, research methodology, data analysis strategies, theoretical underpinnings, results, and conclusions and recommendations are all included. The information presented in the abstract must be written in a way that is both thorough and impartial. This research is also supported by Simkhada et al. (2013), an abstract is a brief essay, frequently no longer than 200 or 300 words, that accomplishes at least three different objectives. An abstract should be no longer than 200 or 300 words and fulfill at least three different purposes.
Therefore, the results of this study also recommends that lecturers pay more attention to writing student abstracts by the ideal abstract so that writing scientific papers is interesting to read.
Writing is a crucial skill that students must master. Bryne (1983 in Risani (2020) defined writing as more than just the creation of graphic symbols; it takes conscious effort so one can express ideas.
Research by Kroll et al. (2014) demonstrated that there is a direct correlation between journal quality and scientific imprecision, i.e., journals with low impact factors have higher numbers of imprecision indicators, such as the number of citation bunches and the number of relativizing words, and writing style is partially influenced by the preferences and characteristics of the domain. Thus, the choice of words and the use of sentence types are very influential in writing scientific papers.
This finding also contributes to improving the skills of students' ability in scientific writing. The academic writing style is distinct from other types of writing and is more formal. Academic writing requires outlining, paraphrasing, and summarizing (Al-Khasawneh & Maher, 2005in Madkur, 2013.

CONCLUSION
Several types of sentence complexity in students' abstracts are found in this study. It also answered and expanded the research questions. This study examined the types and levels of language complexity in UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh students' thesis abstracts. The type of sentence that is mostly used is complex sentence, while compound-complex is rarely used. This finding contributes to the institution's curriculum to improve the skills of students' ability in scientific writing. Furthermore, these criteria evaluate students' final reports. Thus, teachers can assess students' scientific paper writing. The researchers also analyzed sentence complexity types in students' scientific paper abstract by clause count. It can be concluded that the more complex the sentence is, the higher the level of writing the scientific work.