The Rhetorical Pattern of Script Defence Examination at Public Universities in Indonesia

In many universities in Indonesia, script defence examination (SDE) is a must for students to graduate from their studies. The SDE is a compulsory unit that gives an opportunity for students to show their ability to understand the content of their research and to show their communicative competence. The SDE is considered as a genre which has its elements such as rhetorical pattern (RP). Understanding the RP could help students to perform competently in the SDE which ends with obtaining a high score. In literature, the information of RP of SDE is mostly available at the doctorate level. Consequently, the SDE RP of the undergraduate level could be important. This paper presents the SDE RP in public universities in Indonesia. To collect data, multiple observations in two public universities in Aceh and Medan were conducted. The SDE RP of these selected universities was determined and is presented in this paper.