On Reasoning Nature of Editorial Essay in Indonesian Newspaper

Reasoning ability is fundamental for college students as well as professionals since it reflects their intellectual quality. This paper is aimed at revealing the reasoning nature in the editorial essays in Indonesian prominent newspapers. The study is qualitatively approached, by employing Content Analysis, in which (i) the types of reason and (ii) the soundness of reasons the editorial essays are objectively, systematically, and generally inferred. The data collection was conducted by documentation technique, by which the researchers selected the online editorial essays in Indonesian prominent newspapers. The study revealed that types of reason found in the essay written by IW (Indonesian Writer) are (a) statement of a means to an end, (b) a statement of cause, (c) statement of judgment based upon knowledge, and (d) statement of condition while the most reasonings practiced by IW in their essays are logically sound.

professional, as well as in academic provisions. However, employing an ability of reasoning in writing an essay seems of a painstaking task for most college students in Indonesia.
In different contexts the term reason, as the response of the question why, has diverse meanings. According to Inman and Gardner (1979), there are at least six senses of the term reason as found in the following situations: (1) Why is the price of rice rising? Because a drought has made the paddy fields dry so that the production of rice decreased.
(2) Why is John arrested by the police? Because he is suspected for homicide and his fingerprints were found on the murder weapon.
(3) Why did Joshua steal bread? Because he was hungry.
(4) Why do you study law? Because I want to be a lawyer.
(5) Why should we not get a divorce? Because it is bad for our children.
(6) Why did Professor Brown ask him to revise his thesis proposal? Because there are still several fallacies in his reasoning.
From those given contexts, we find that the term reason may refer to different concepts or meanings. For the context as given in number 1, the reason refers to a statement of cause or factor, i.e. drought, that necessarily makes the production of rice decreased. In situation number 2, the reason refers to a statement of circumstantial evidence, by which John is arrested because of an evidence of his fingerprints available on the murder weapon. In number 3, the reason points to a statement of justification, that is being hungry that made Joshua steal the bread. In number 4, the reason points to a statement of a means to an end; that is studying law is used as a way to achieve goal, i.e. being a lawyer. In the last two numbers, 5 and 6, the reasons express statement of judgment, specifically based on value and on knowledge (Gardner, 1979). The former reveals a value that divorce is bad for children so that it shouldn't be done while the latter reveals the reason why his thesis proposal needed revision since, according to a study of logic, it still contained fallacies.
In short, a reason can be of a cause, circumstantial evidence, a justification, a purpose, a value judgment or a knowledge based judgment. It is used to respond the question why and is thus very essential in developing an argument, i.e. a discourse produced to explain a 'why' aspect of a topic in an argumentative essay.
A very similar term to the word reason is the word cause, which is also vital in academic essay, which demand them to make logical and sound argument. In several occasions, both terms are used in a closely related sense, but in fact the latter is a more precise than the former. Such a basic element of argument skill has several distinctive meanings in cause-effect relationship (Pearl, 2002). Firstly, in a particular context, it could mean necessary cause, that is 'a condition without which an effect cannot under circumstances occur'. For instance, when there is a plane crash, we can infer for certainty that the cause of the accident is a gravitation force. Such a cause is the absolute factor of the accident. Another example is when a patient dead, the very necessary cause is the heart stops beating. Hence, the necessary cause is generally related to the systemic or natural factor.
Secondly, a cause may refer to a sufficient cause, that is the circumstances that enable the necessary cause to work. In our example, it could be in the form of the leakage of plane's fuel tank, engine failure, or other circumstances that make the gravitation force causes the plane falls downward to the earth. In the case of patient's death, the sufficient cause could point to an extreme high blood pressure, triggering the heart failure.  Vol. 4, No. 1;2021 In the perspective of logic, every sentence, particularly its proposition, is accounted as to have a truth value, either true or false (Jeffrey, 1967). Hence, as a set of sentences are related, they make what so called truth-functional relationship, which is of the provision of the study of logic (Chapman, 2000). It primarily deals with formal relations involving constants and variables. Such relationships can cover such definition as entailment, presupposition, formal logic and predicate logic. For the sake of being relevant to the topic of this paper, my review concentrates on formal logic, especially condition, which pertain to cause-effect relation of a set of propositions.
Logical condition is indicated by natural language if ... then, in which two simple propositions, p as an antecedent and q as consequent are joined, resulted in if p then q. Symbolically, it is visualized as Cpq. Condition is put in the truth table as follow.
As seen on the table, the truth value of consequent is the most determinant in condition. The value of Cpq is always true if the consequent is true and both antecedent and consequent are false. Suppose that we make a compound sentence 'If you can answer the questions correctly, you will pass the exam'. This sentence is true unless the proposition of you can answer the questions correctly is true but the proposition of you will pass the exam is false. In other words, it is illogical to say that if you can answer the questions correctly, you will not pass the exam'. This logic is closely related to cause and effect relationship in natural language. Thus, the conditional, 'If you can answer the questions correctly, you will pass the exam', is equal to 'Because you can answer the questions correctly, you will pass the exam' in natural language. Hence, you can answer the questions correctly is the cause or reason, and you will pass the exam is the effect. In relation to the topic discussed in this paper, this logical condition is important for the process of inductive reasoning.
As to raise sound reasons in our essay, a writer must make efforts in underlying our argumentation with what socalled necessary or, at least, sufficient cause. Identifying those types of reasons are very important in scientific work, like discovering bacteria that cause a disease, or a vital investigation like an engine failure the causes of airplane crash. As such, an ability to determine necessary or sufficient cause is very fundamental in composing a qualified argumentative essay. We have previously pertained to an inductive reasoning process in order to determine hypothetical cause of a certain effect. As the general rule, an effect is of observable facts while a cause is an inferred hypothesis.
Necessary and sufficient causes can be established by inductive reasoning, that is moving from facts observed to a conclusion (Hayes, Heit, & Swendsen, 2010). However, in the process of inductive reasoning to arrive at a conclusion, the employment of a deductive logic, i.e. conditional syllogism is of worthwhile tool, despite the use of a pure inductive reasoning.
In inferring a hypothesis of a cause, we basically observe different factual characteristics other than the same characteristics, as done in drawing a generalization. Both processes of inductive reasoning need familiarity to the relevant facts, knowledge and experience that become the material of an induction (Hayes et al., 2010). Suppose, in seeing a flying plane, we catch several facts concerning with the plane like: (a) it is exhausting black smoke, (b) losing altitude, (c) circling back, and (d) decreasing its speed, and thus from such characteristics as a, b, c, and d, we can draw a hypothesis that the probable cause is a power failure. This conclusion is an example of inductive reasoning resulting in an hypothesis.
On other hand, an inductive reasoning resulting in a generalization needs an observation focusing on the same characteristics given by different subjects. For instance, if planes x, y, z, and so on show the same characteristic, that is leaving white smoke track as they are flying in the sky, then we can draw a generalization that 'Most planes produce white smoke as they are flying'.
Doing an inductive processing to come to a hypothesis cannot pertain to deductive reasoning, specifically syllogism, i.e. reasoning from a premise to a conclusion according to established rules of validity (Bird, 1969;Mody & Carey, 2016;Morreau, 2009). In conditional syllogism, the relationship between a sufficient cause and its effect can be formulated as follow. If there has been a power failure, the plane will lose its altitude.
There has been a power failure. (antecedent) ∴ The plane is losing its altitude. (consequent) The rule of logic in conditional syllogism tells us that if the antecedent is affirmed then the consequent must be true. Put it simple, the consequent must always follow the antecedent; in ordinary language it equals to the effect is likely to follow the cause. Thus through conditional syllogism above, we can infer that since we catch the fact that the plane is losing its altitude, while we have knowledge or experience that tells 'If there has been a power failure, the plane will lose its altitude', then our logic infer that the probable cause of the plane's losing altitude is a power failure.
However, the possible cause, i.e. a power failure, will soon be in question as our logic tells us that the plane's losing attitude can also occur when the pilot intentionally change the altitude itself. Thus, to determine a cause based on one observable fact is not valid. We can increase the validity of our conclusion by obtaining more observable facts such as the plane is exhausting black smoke, circling back, and decreasing its speed experience. Based on our knowledge and experience, those three different facts can also follow plane's power failure. Thus we can obtain similar formulations of conditional syllogism as follow: If there has been a power failure, the plane will exhaust black smoke, If there has been a power failure, the plane will circle back, and If there has been a power failure, the plane will decrease its speed, Since all different consequents or effects follow the same antecedent or cause, i.e. power failure, then degree of certainty of our conclusion is increased. Therefore, determining a sufficient cause of an effect can be done by observing more factual effect or consequent which also follows the same antecedent. To be noted here that the sufficient cause we have inferred here is merely of a high probability, not a certainty.
This paper is aimed at investigating how Indonesian writers, especially professional newspapers' editors employed their reasonings in their essays. Our choice of this study topic was motivated by the fact that I have frequently found weak reasoning during my readings on students' essay or thesis, as their thesis supervisor. And so are similar complaints from my colleagues on their thesis advisees' arguing skills. By studying this issue, we hope that the study result can be of an inspiration or a 'model' on how to reason well in their writing academic activities. Thus, they are expected to have a better basis of reasoning skill after reading such a study report.

Method
The approach which based this study is qualitative, by applying Content Analysis. Content Analysis is a technique to make inferences by identifying various specific characteristics of a text or message objectively, systematically, and generally (Krippendorf, 1989(Krippendorf, , 2009Neuendorf, 2020;Parker & Holsti, 1970).
The data collection was conducted by documentation technique, by which the researchers selected the online editorial essays in Indonesian prominent newspapers. The data which have been collected were then analyzed based on the theoretical framework. The analysis is focused on discovering (i) the types of reason and (ii) the soundness of reasons employed by Indonesian writer (IW) in their essays. The former focused analysis was based on the theory of types of reasons by Inman and Gardner (1979) while the latter was based on the theory of formal logic (Jeffrey, 1967;Nolt, 1989).

Types of Reasons Employed by Indonesian Writers
As to clarify, the term reason discussed here particularly refers to the basic element of argumentative essay, namely the writers' statements answering the question why in discussing the issue being discussed. As such, the terms reason and cause are commonly used in a closely related sense even though the latter is considered more precise one than the former in the account of the logic of causal relationship (Pearl, 2002).
From result of our data analysis, we found that there are four types of reason employed by Indonesian writers (IW) are (a) statement of a means to an end, (b) a statement of cause, (c) statement of judgment based upon knowledge, and (d) statement of condition.
The first type of reason found in the essay written by IW is statement of a means to an end, as discovered in the statement below. In datum (1), there are two propositions whose logical relation is cause-effect. The bold-typed phrase, i.e. Dengan mencabut paspor tersebut 'By withdrawing the passport', is the proposition of reason or antecedent while the underlined clause, namely warga Indonesia yang terlibat dalam kelompok ISIS tidak lagi berhak atas kewarganegaraannya di Indonesia 'The Indonesian citizens who got involved in ISIS have been no more entitled to be Indonesian citizens' is the effect or consequent. The reason lies within datum 1 belongs to statement of a means to an end, which means that antecedent, i.e. withdrawing the passport, functions as a tool to achieve the goal as lying in the consequent, that is invalidating the Indonesian citizenship of those who got involved in ISIS. Therefore, those who got involved in ISIS are no more Indonesian.
The employed reason of a means to an end is also realized in two propositions which are accommodated in two sentences like datum (2).
(2) Namun, mengantisipasi hal yang lebih buruk, Senin (3/2/2020), Menteri Pertanian Agus Suparmanto, saat berada di Pasar Senen, Jakarta Pusat, menegaskan, membatasi impor sejumlah barang konsumsi dari China. Langkah ini diambil untuk mengantisipasi penyebaran virus korona. [Kompas, 5 Februari 2020] Datum (2) shows three propositions of cause-effect which are linguistically realized in two sentences. The first sentence contains the antecedent that is the bold part as well as the consequent (the underlined part) while the second sentence is entirely the consequent. The antecedent or the reason is a type of statement of a means to an end. As such, the reason points to a measure taken by Indonesian government, i.e. screening a number of consumed goods imported from China prudently as a way to achieve two goals, namely (a) anticipating the worse situation, and (b) anticipating the spread of Corona Virus.
The next type of reason found in the essay written by IW is statement of cause, that is the antecedent is of an entity which directly or indirectly gives an impact to another one (Pearl, 2002). Such a type of reason can be discovered in a simple cause-effect relation as found in datum (3), in which the relation is realized in a single sentence. It contains two propositions, the antecedent (the bold-typed part) and the consequent (the underlined part). The writer argue that as given in the antecedent, i.e. 'the corona virus is massively and swiftly spread out', and such a situation will bring about ' a negative effect on global economy', as stated in the consequent.
[Kompas, 5 Februari 2020] Another type of reason containing a statement of cause is found in datum (4). As shown in the proposition of antecedent (the bold-typed clauses) is 'the outburst of the new corona virus 2019-nCOV reaches as many as 17,391 cases found in 24 countries and the majority is found in china as many as 17,238'. This outburst, as stated in the consequent which is underlined, causes 'serious health diturbances as many as 2.296 cases and deaths as many as 361 cases'. The last reason of a statement of cause found also shows more complicated cause-effect relation than found in datum (6). See datum (7) below. In datum (7), formally we can identify 3 sentences. The first sentence contains two propositions, i.e. : (a) 'the current state of corona virus epidemy' and (b) 'the Indonesian government keeps alert on the epidemy'. We can discover cause-effect relation in this sentence, that is proposition (a) is the antecedent of proposition (b). Next, the second sentence contains two propositions, namely (c) 'corona virus epidemy makes China economy sluggish' and (d) 'Indonesian government must anticipate the spill over of China's economic sluggishness'. Up to this point, we found that there two cause-effect relations. The first relation is between propositions (a) and (c) while the second is the relation between propositions (c) and (d). Thus, proposition (c) here has two functions, as the antecedent and the consequent as well. The last sentence contains one proposition, namely (e) 'The potential spillover of China's economic sluggishness may squeeze the China's demand on Indonesian export. Here, we can see a cause effect relation of propositions (d) and (e).
The next type of reason discovered in the essay written by IW is statement of judgment based upon knowledge, whose antecedent expressing a judgment, specifically based on knowledge. The last type of reason discovered in the essay written by IW is statement of condition as found in datum (9).
(9) WNI memang dilarang ikut dalam perang untuk kepentingan negara lain, jadi kalau ada WNI ikut perang dengan sukarela, itu bisa terancam kehilangan paspor. [PIKIRAN RAKYAT, 5 Februari 2020] The reason or antecedent in datum (9) refers to a statement of a condition of law which must be fulfilled by the Indonesian citizen, that is they are not allowed to a combatant for the other countries' interests. As the consequent, 'if such a rule is violated, the violator will lose his passport'.

The Soundness of Reasoning Made by Indonesian Writers in Their Essays
The soundness of reasoning in this study refers to the truth values lying in the statements or propositions which are intentionally interrelated as a cause-effect relation by the IW. In formal logic, a cause-effect relation is formally equivalent to logical condition, indicated by natural language if ... then, in which two simple propositions, p as an antecedent and q as consequent are joined and symbolically visualized by Cpq (Jeffrey, 1967;Pearl, 2002).
In this study, the soundness of the IW's reasoning was determined by inferring whether the value of Cpq is true or false. When its value is true, then the reasoning is considered being sound, and not when the other way round. Seeing the table of truth values of conditional logic, the decision of the truth value of Cpq was made. Since the soundness of argument in this study is perceived logical view, thus the analysis merely confined to the data of cause-effect relations whose statements are factual rather than inferential. The data are those whose reasons are a statement of cause and a statement of judgement based on knowledge. The results of analysis is presented in table1.
As we see in the table, most reasonings of the cause-effect statements made by IW in their essays are sound, considering that 9 reasonings underlying the cause-effect relations made by IW are undoubtedly sound since their truth values of the logical condition Cpq are derived from the antecedent and consequent whose values are true. As seen on the truth table, the truth value of Cpq is always true if the antecedent is true and the consequent is also true (Hitchcock & Pearl, 2001).
On other hand, the soundness of reasonings used in data 3, 5b, and 7d cannot be determined because their consequents are respectively non-factual statements. Therefore, their truth values cannot be determined. However, it does not mean that there are reasoning errors lying within them since the antecedents' truth values are true.
Referring to the truth table, we know that value of Cpq is false when the consequent is also false. Since the consequents could be potentially true or false, then the logical condition Cpq still has a chance of being true.

Conclusion
The professional writers must have unique reasoning skill in creating a strong argument in their commercial essays. Thus, such a study attempts to reveal their unique ways to reason. The analysis is focused on discovering (i) the types of reason and (ii) the soundness of reasons they employed. The types of reason found in the essay written by IW are (a) statement of a means to an end, (b) a statement of cause, (c) statement of judgment based upon knowledge, and (d) statement of condition. Meanwhile, the soundness of most reasonings of the cause-effects made by IW in their essays is logically good.
Conducting an analysis on the reasoning element of the editorial essays made by professional writers could be beneficial for those who teach writing as well as for those who learn to write. The teacher can reap strategies of reasoning from those skilled writers that can be a practical learning source for the learners. It is expected that such a practically reasoning strategies of the professional indirectly affect the writing beginners' reasoning skill development, which is vital in producing a profoundly reasoned essay.