Politeness in Thesis Consultation by WhatsApp: Do Lecturers and Students Apply Different Strategies?

Politeness strategies in lecturer-student interactions using WhatsApp have been relatively unexplored over the last decade. Therefore, this study aims to explore occurrence of four types of politeness strategies used by lecturer and students in virtual communication using WhatsApp during thesis consultation. The researcher applied a mixed method research to explore the politeness phenomena in WhatsApp interaction between 1 lecturer/thesis supervisor and 10 undergraduate English students. The data of the study consist of 50 screenshots of WhatsApp chat thesis consultation. The results show that all four types of politeness strategies were found in lecture-students interaction. The politeness strategies used by the lecturer and students differ greatly. The lecturer dominantly employed bald onrecord (30. 93%) with the most imperative sentences realization; on the other hand, the students tend to use positive politeness strategy (23.20%) with the most greetings realization. This demonstrates that lecturers keep their distance when communicating, whereas students attempt to “get closer” during the interaction. The different politeness strategy choices are caused by the different power and social status (position) factors between lecturers and students. The findings of this study also show that the politeness strategies used by lecturers and students seem relatively different with previous similar studies. In addition, the use of non-verbal language in interaction, like emoticons, is also a part of politeness strategies to maintain good interactions between students and the lecturer during thesis consultation via WhatsApp.

concept of politeness in communication. Then politeness theory develops and is used as a foundation in research related to communication principles and strategies or social interaction. Several studies have been conducted by linguists around the world to discuss politeness strategies in social interactions. Politeness strategy research is conducted in a variety of contexts and settings (Rosari, 2016;Sorlin, 2017;Feren, 2020;Su, 2019;Sifianou, 2019;Xiang et al., 2020), however it is most commonly conducted in educational settings, such as teacher-student interaction or lecturersstudent interaction in the classroom Politeness strategies have been studied by academics in the context of teacher-student interaction in the classroom (Mahmud, 2019;Yusuf & Anwar, 2019). In these studies, previous researchers ahve attempted to investigate the politeness strategies employed by students in class during class presentations each of which employing a unique politeness strategy. Furthermore, another study attempted to investigate how students employ politeness strategies when conversing with an English native speaker (Rejeki & Azizah, 2019). The findings of this study differ slightly from previous studies in those students used only three types of strategies when interacting with the English speaker, positive, negative, and off-record politeness strategies, while bald on record was not found. Moreover, Indriani et al. (2019) investigated lecturers' use of politeness strategies when teaching non-English department students. According to the findings of this study, lecturers who teach English use a variety of politeness strategies to keep the teaching and learning process running smoothly in class. Rahayuningsih et. al. (2020) attempted to uncover patterns of politeness strategies used by teachers in interacting with students in a class, as well as the social factors that influence them. According to the findings of this study, all types of politeness strategies can be found in teacher-student interactions in the classroom. When compared to other strategies, the teacher has the most influence in selecting positive politeness strategies. In addition, social factors influencing strategy selection include distance, power, and degree of imposition.
Then, research on politeness strategies is conducted to examine the patterns of using politeness strategies by teachers and students in online classes using existing social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. Maros & Rosli (2017) investigated how female students in Malaysia use politeness strategies when interacting with one another on Twitter. According to the findings of this study, the students used the four types of politeness strategies identified by Brown and Levinson, with positive politeness being the most frequently used by these female students. They claim that the limited space for updating Twitter leads to misunderstandings in their communication. Flores-salgado & Castineira-benitez ( 2018) and Mulyono & Amalia (2019) attempted to express students' politeness strategies when communicating via WhatsApp.
From a number of previous studies on the exploration of politeness strategies that have been carried out by a number of researchers in an academic context, it is found that almost all politeness strategies are applied in the practice of communication in the classroom. This study offers a different dimension from previous research. Although the media platforms used are the same, WhatsApp, the communication settings used are different, namely in the context of lecturer-student consultation.
Research on the politeness strategies used by lecturers and students in interactions via WhatsApp is still very important and leaves much room for exploration, particularly in the context of lecturer-student communication during the thesis guidance process.

Politeness
Politeness is a positive attitude toward communication. It is a form of respect for others in social interactions (Khusnia, 2017;Jeanyfer & Tanto, 2018;Susanti et al., 2018;Yusuf & Anwar, 2019;Mahmud, 2019;Sapitri et al., 2020). Furthermore, according to Lakoff (1973), politeness is a type of communication attitude developed in society to avoid conflict. Sifianou (2019) goes on to say that politeness is an attitude of suppressing emotions and feelings to avoid conflict in social interactions. On the other hand, it is also used to manipulate the hearers (Sorlin, 2017;Flores-salgado & Castineira-benitez, 2018). Therefore, politeness is an attitude developed during interaction to avoid conflict and to manipulate the hears.
Politeness is the use of good manners or etiquette in practice to ensure others are not offended (Kerbrat-Orecchioni, 2011). It is a socially constructed concept, so in one culture what is considered polite may be rugged or simply eccentric occasionally in other cultures. As an aspect of human communication features, it is a human phenomenon, but represented unique cultures, as one of fundamental characteristic of human interaction (Carolus et al., 2019). It is both verbally and nonverbally conveyed. Brown and Levinson constructed one of the famous language categorizations (Burenhult & Levinson, 2008). In their views, politeness is more than just a label. Acknowledging politeness offers insight into basic truths or what it means to be a personeveryone with an individual identity. It also shows how society are sometimes controlled by the rule. Being polite lets us show others, even strangers, basic human decency (Ye, 2019). It recognizes and reconfirms our humanity to receive politeness. Politeness only makes a social world a bit safe and secure and even sometimes fearsome. In today's society, there is a standard where people are expected to be respectful to new people one meets or even those who we already know. The usage of courteous speech in everyday life impacts many elements in one's life and society. Politeness reduces stress in oneself and others.

Politeness Strategies
The investigation of politeness is essentially the study of understanding how people utilize language while interacting or communicating (Flores-salgado & Castineira-benitez, 2018). The communication emphasizes how to use the language and how to go comfortably. Brown & Levinson (1987) developed a new approach by highlighting comprehensive commonalities in the construction of polite expressions in widely different languages and cultures and by trying to argue that the structure of good manners utterances is underpinned by universal values (Healey et al., 2014). The comparisons they observed are of two kinds: how culturally politic expressions are structured; how in response to the prevailing attributes of those in contact with them, the polite expression of utterances is altered.
In social interactions, it is necessary to devise a strategy that allows for harmonious and smooth communication (Ayuningrum et al., 2019). Brown & Levinson (1987) then developed a theory of politeness to address the issues raised above. They emphasize the importance of maintaining the other person's "face" in communication, which is the public self-image that everyone strives to maintain. Everyone tries to maintain the others' 'face,' otherwise, Face Threatening Acts (FTAs) will occur to them (Arif et al., 2018;Jeanyfer & Tanto, 2018). Feelings of shame, offense, and displeasure may accompany FTAs. Then, Brown and Levinson proposed four politeness strategies: 1) bald on record politeness; 2) positive politeness; 3) negative politeness; 4) off-record politeness.

Bald on record politeness
Bald on record is a strategy used by speakers in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons when carrying out facethreatening acts (Sapitri et al., 2020;Sembiring & Sianturi, 2019). This strategy is thought to be the most straightforward of the three. In this case, the speaker is not attempting to minimize the impact on the hearer's FTA. This strategy usually leaves the hearer shocked, uncomfortable, offended, and feeling disrespected. This practice of bald on record is most common between a speaker and a hearer who have a close and intimate relationship. Strategies can be expressed in a variety of ways, such as great urgency or anxiety, speaking as if great efficacy is required in greater attention, task-oriented or paradigmatic form of instruction, sympathetic advice, suggestion or warning, granting permission for something, invitation, welcoming, greetings, farewell, and imperative.
Direct imperatives are obvious examples of bald record politeness strategy. Imperatives are quite often suppressed by hedging instruments or traditional politeness markers (Sapitri et al., 2020); e.g., "Please write a clear explanation on your statement." In the same case, the hedge can also be in the form of verb "do" that is used with imperatives, like in "Do revise your paragraphs." The use of this strategy demonstrates the intimate linguistic use provided by its remedial powers to give the language positive politeness.
This kind of politeness strategy is more dominant than other strategies, because of its simplicity of use (Hobbs, 2003). Language speakers simply add hedge words that work directly to improve the communication language.

Positive politeness
According to Brown & Levinson (1987), positive politeness is a strategy used by speakers to satisfy the hearer's needs, good, want, and interest. Sembiring & Sianturi (2019) and Yusuf & Anwar (2019) emphasize that in the spirit of maintaining face, interactions are supposed to minimize the FTAs. The main principle of positive politeness is the speaker's and hearer's varying degrees of familiarity.
Positive politeness can be achieved in a variety of ways (Adel et al., 2016), including notice, or attend to hearer's interests, wants, need, and goods, exaggerate interests, approval, and sympathy with the hearer, intensify interest to the hearer, use in-group identity makers: address form, dialect, jargon, slang, seek agreement, repetition, avoid disagreement, pseudo-agreement, white lies, presuppose/raise/assert common ground, making a joke, assert or presuppose speaker's knowledge and concern for hearer's wants, offer, promise, be optimistic, include speaker and hearer in an activity, give or ask for a reason, assume or emphasize exchange, thanking and give a gift to hearer for sympathy or cooperation (Su, 2019). Positive politeness is directed to the addressee's positive face, his perennial desire that a speaker wants (or the actions/acquisitions/values resulting from them) should be thought of as desirable (Maros & Rosli, 2017).
The strategies are intended to avoid giving offense by highlighting friendliness (Maros & Rosli, 2017). These strategies include juxtaposing criticism with compliments, establishing common ground, and using jokes, nicknames, honorifics, tag questions, special discourse markers (please), and in-group jargon and slang. In the following illustration, a speaker takes a notice of a hearer condition and applies a positive politeness strategy: S: You look hungry. It's a long time since lunch. How about some dinner?" In this example, the speaker takes a notice of aspects of H's condition (noticeable changes, remarkable possessions, anything which looks as though the hearer would want the speaker to notice and approve of it).
In this politeness strategy, a hearer needs to be connected in a member of a group; for example, "Let us do it together, you and I have the same problems." In addition, this strategy tries to show positive face through his utterances of politeness. In conclusion, the positive politeness shows the following common features (Su, 2019); Usually in groups of friends, or with people who know the hearer each other, It tries to take away the intrude their personal space and creates social distance and awkwardness into the situation.

Negative politeness
Negative politeness is used to reduce the burden on the listeners and to demonstrate solidarity between the speaker and the hearer. When social interaction is awkward and distant, positive politeness is used to bring the speaker and the hearer closer together (Sapitri et al., 2020;Sembiring & Sianturi, 2019;Yusuf & Anwar, 2019;Meiratnasari et al., 2019),. The negative politeness strategy can be realized by following the acts: be conventionally indirect, do not assume that a hearer is able or willing to comply with any acts imposed on him, be pessimistic about hearer's ability or willingness to comply with any acts imposed on him, reduce the obligation, give difference, apologize and admit the impingement, impersonalize a speaker and a hearer, state the FTA as a general rule, nominalize to distance the actor and add formality, go on record as incurring debt or as not indebting a hearer.
The strategy of negative politeness tends to take position to be an independent or free (Ye, 2019). The following best illustrate the negative politeness: "I am sorry to call you late tonight". "I know you are a busy person but let me inform you an important message for a moment." Other examples of negative politeness can be in the form of indirectness, "I am looking for sport shoes," in the form of forgiveness, "Forgive me for coming late.", in the form of minimization, "I just want to ask you if you could your tablet for a while", and in the form of pluralization, "we forgot to tell you that you needed to have vaccination card before flying".

Off-record politeness
According to Brown & Levinson (1987), off-record politeness is a strategy in which the speaker's intention is stated indirectly (implicitly), causing the speaker's intention to become vague or unclear (Yusuf & Anwar, 2019;Sapitri et al., 2020;Fitriyani & Andriyanti, 2020) . For example, the speaker may use the words "clue" or "hint" to refer to what was discussed with the hearer. This is done to avoid the hearer's face being threatened. The off-record strategy can be expressed by doing the following: give hints, give association or clue, presuppose, devalue, overemphasize, use tautologies, use contradiction, be ironic, use a metaphor, use rhetorical questions, be ambiguous, be vague, overgeneralize, displace hearer, be incomplete, and use ellipsis.
A speaker does not impose on the listener in these politeness strategies. In consequence, the face is not threatened directly. Often the listener needs this strategy to understand what the speaker says (Ye, 2019). Some of the pressures are being removed from off record indirect strategies. The speaker is trying to avoid the direct FTA of asking for a beer. He/she would rather it be offered to another person once your hearer sees that they want one, e.g. Rather than saying, "It's so hot, it makes us really thirsty," an example of the off-record (indirect) politeness is by giving hints with "It's a bit cold in here." Perhaps someone should open the window. He or she may utter in sarcastic way or joking, "Yeah, it's really hot here." For example, a speaker using the indirect strategy might merely say, "wow, it's getting cold in here," insinuating that it would be nice if the listener would get up and turn up the thermostat without directly asking the listener to do so. For example, when watching a movie, someone who wants to go out of the cinema. Using off record politeness, he might say, "this movie is boring," rather than simply saying, "let's go out."

Method
The study aims to highlight the politeness strategies practiced by undergraduate students during their thesis consultation with their supervisor. Those students were under the supervision of the researcher. In this thesis guidance process, the thesis supervisor and the students used WhatsApp as a means of communication. This study applied a mixed method, the combination of qualitative and quantitative research (Creswell, 2009). The qualitative method was applied to allow the codification and interpretation of the WhatsApp texts from the lecturerstudents communication. On the other hand, quantitative method was employed to serve the statistical analysis of the data (Eshghinejad & Moini, 2016). The process of gathering, analysing, and interpreting data in the form of text was applied to explain a phenomenon that occurs (Gay et al., 2012).
The research was conducted at undergraduate English Program, University of HKBP Nommensen, Medan. The research participants consisted of 10 undergraduate students who had been previously informed about the research and they had made agreement to be involved as the research participants. The subject selection was based on purposive sampling technique applying inclusive criteria; that is, the students who got thesis supervision by the researcher team. The data were taken from individual WhatsApp thesis consultation chat. The research data consist of 50 screenshots of thesis consultation chats. Every datum was the screenshot of each box of text. In addition, all students that participated in this research have consented to their first names or nicknames being revealed in the data.
The collected data were then analysed based on the politeness strategies developed by Brown & Levinson (1987). In the study, the student communication data on WhatsApp were described, coded, grouped, and interpreted to get insights into the strategy patterns used by lecturers and students (Eshghinejad & Moini, 2016). The grouping is based on strategic politeness categories such as bald on record politeness strategy, positive politeness strategy, negative politeness strategy, and off-record politeness strategy. The politeness strategies used by participants were tallied, and the results were presented as percentages. Furthermore, the strategies used by lecturers and students to find details and insights on the forms of communication used are described.

Results
The findings of this study show that the four politeness strategies of Brown & Levinson (1987) are found in 50 records of WhatsApp communication between the lecturer and the thesis consultation students. In the lecturer-student communication, a total of 194 sub-politeness strategies were discovered. Besides the verbal politeness strategies, nonverbal politeness by using emoticons was performed by students and the lecturer. The table below breaks down each politeness strategy used, along with the number and percentage of times it was used.  Table 1 shows the use of politeness strategies that both lecturer and students used the four types of politeness strategies. Balance-on-record was the most commonly used strategy, with 97 occurrences (50 %), followed by positive politeness 57 (29.38 %), negative politeness 31 (15.98 %), and finally off-record politeness 9 occurrences (4.64 %).  Table 2 shows the realization of politeness strategy used by the lecturer and the students. The lecturer used the bald on record strategy dominantly around 60 times (30.93 %), while the students mostly used the positive politeness strategy 45 times (23.20 %). Lecturers used negative politeness the least, with 5 occurrences (2.58%), while students used off-the-record politeness the least, with 3 occurrences (1.55 %). In realizing the above strategy, lecturers tend to use imperatives with 23 occurrences (11.85%) and greetings, with 15 occurrences (7.73%). On the other hand, students realized the most politeness strategies with greetings with 35 occurrences (18.04%) followed by expressions of apology, which are 24 occurrences (12.37%). According to the findings of this analysis, the lecturer employs a different politeness strategy than the students. The more detail of politeness strategies used by the lecturer and the students are depicted in the following.

4.1Realization of Bald on Record Politeness
Bald on record is one of the politeness strategies in which the speaker has more power and position than the hearer. The speaker does not try to minimize threats to the hearer's face in this situation. The speaker frequently shocks, embarrasses, and makes the interlocutor uncomfortable. In the context of this study, the lecturer has more power and higher status than the students. This strategy was discovered to be as much as 50% of the strategies used by the lecturer and the students in their communication during the thesis consultation process. The realization of the bald on record in the communication is as follows.
Student : Morning, Sir. How's my thesis revision, Sir? Lecturer : Morning. Pay attention to the spelling and punctuation! I still find many mistakes in spelling and punctuation. Student : I am sorry, Sir. I will check the spelling and punctuation. Lecturer : Okay. Make sure you don't forget to revise my corrections! Student : Okay, Sir. I will.
Excerpt 1 Excerpt 1 found three bald on record politeness strategies expressed by lecturers and students. The word "morning" is categorized as a 'greeting' strategy. This strategy is carried out by students and lecturers to make their closeness. The phrase "pay attention to the spelling and punctuation!" is the 'imperative' category. This statement was conveyed by the lecturer directly and firmly to students to carry out what was ordered. This makes the hearer's FTA. The lecturer also uses the command "make sure you don't forget to revise my correction!" This expression is also classified into the bald-on record category, 'imperative' strategy.

Lecturer
: You should check your thesis before you submit it to me. Student : Already, Sir. But, I still make some mistakes, Sir. Lecturer : You should proofread it for your friends.

Student
: Okay, Sir. I am sorry.

Excerpt 2
In Excerpt 2, we found 2 bald on record strategies. The lecturer advised students to reread their thesis before submitting it for review. The lecturer used the expressions "you should check your thesis," and "you should proofread it to your friends." The two strategies above are classified into balance on record, the strategy of 'giving advice or suggestion.'

Lecturer
: You write the outline first before you write your proposal. We had discussed it last time.

Student
: Okay, Sir. But I forgot some of it. Lecturer : You may ask your friends. Student : Ok, sir. Thank you, Sir.

Excerpt 3
Excerpt 3 shows that the lecturer gave assignments to students to write the outline of their thesis proposal before carrying out the writing stages. In this case, the lecturer used a 'task-oriented' strategy, where the lecturer gave assignments to students to be carried out properly. This strategy threatened students with their 'face.'

4.2Realization of Positive Politeness
Positive politeness is a strategy used by speakers to maintain the hearer's positive face. This strategy is carried out by showing a friendly attitude, claiming common ground, seek agreement, avoiding disagreement, and other strategies that make the hearer comfortable in communicating. This strategy was chosen to maintain the closeness between the speaker and the hearer by creating affection, warmth, and mutuality when interacting. Around 28.39% of the politeness strategies were used by lecturers and students. Here are some Excerpts from the strategy which is included in positive politeness.

Student
: How about if I write the three chapters? Lecturer : You just write the first chapter first and then come to me for review. Student : Okay, Sir. I will. Excerpt 4 Excerpt 4 found 2 types of positive politeness, namely the use of the words "sir" and "okay sir. I will." The word "sir" falls into the address form category. Students used the word "sir" to show respect to the lecturer. Meanwhile, students used the sentence "okay sir. I will" shows that students tried to avoid disagreement with lecturers. Both of these strategies were used by students to be able to please the lecturer so that the thesis guidance process runs well.

Lecturer
: Why don't you add the reference as I told you to do? Student : I forget, Sir.

Lecturer
: You should add the reference. Student : I promise I will add the reference. Excerpt 5 Excerpt 5, there are 2 positive politeness strategies that students used when consulting students. The words "sir" and "promise" are positive politeness groups. The use of the word "sir", the same as Excerpt 4, was used to show a sense of respect to the lecturer. Furthermore, the sentence "I promise" was used by the student to keep the lecturer from getting angry with the task he did not do.

Realization of Negative Politeness
Negative politeness is a strategy used by speakers to maintain the hearer's negative face by maintaining distance and establishing caution in communicating. Some of how this strategy is realized by apologizing and reducing the burden on the hearer. The research data found 15.98% negative politeness. The following shows some Excerpts classified into positive politeness.

Student
: It's difficult to find the reference, I just get 20 references. Lecturer : Ok. You may find 25 article journals, not 30 articles anymore. Students : Thank you so much.

Excerpt 6
In Excerpt 6, we found one negative politeness category. The sentence "you may find 25 articles, not 30 articles anymore" shows that the lecturer considers that students were not able to do the assignment given beforehand so that he reduced the student's workload. The strategy of reducing the burden or obligation of the hearer because he was considered unable to carry it out is classified into the category of negative politeness.
Lecturer : I have told you many times to pay attention to the use of punctuations. Student : I am sorry. I will correct the punctuation. Sorry, Sir. Lecturer : Okay, revise it based on the correction.

Excerpt 7
In Excerpt 7 students apologized to the lecturer because he did not check the use of punctuation in his thesis. This strategy is classified into negative politeness. The act of apologizing to the lecturer was carried out by students so that the lecturer was not angry. The strategy of apologizing is carried out by students when they make mistakes in the writing of their thesis or they do not carry out suggestions or assignments given by the lecturer.

Realization of Off-record Politeness
Off-record politeness is a strategy where the speaker uses utterances that allow the speaker to interpret it with various meanings according to the explanation from the speaker. In this case, the utterances used by the speaker are vague, ambiguous, or equivocal. This strategy is used by lecturers and students in their interactions as much as 4.64% out of politeness strategies. The following are some excerpts that show off-record politeness.

Student
: How to write the introduction, sir? I still get confused. Lecturer : You may start with the reasons you choose the topic. And then the development of the issue discussed.

Student
: I understand now. Thank you.

Excerpt 8
Excerpt 8 shows off-record politeness. The lecturer responds to student questions on how to write the introduction section in their thesis by explaining the form of a clue of what to write. With such an explanation, students do not get a detailed explanation of the things that will be written in the introduction.

Student
: Will I add more references? Lecturer : Yes, you must work harder Student : Now I have a job in mall sir. Lecturer : You can kill two birds with one stone. Excerpt 9 In Excerpt 9, an off-record politeness strategy is found using the metaphoric expression "you can kill two birds with one stone." When writing thesis proposals, the lecturer used this expression to respond to student complaints. The student explained that he couldn't find more references because he was now working in a mall. The lecturer responds, "I can kill two birds with one stone." This phrase means that students can work on two projects at the same time.

Discussion
After the research findings are presented and explained in detail, we can see that this study has similarities and differences with previous linguistics experts' research on politeness strategies. In general, research on politeness strategies in the classroom with a focus on lecturer-student interaction uncovers four types of politeness strategies (Mahmud, 2019;Yusuf & Anwar, 2019;Indriani et al., 2019;Rahayuningsih et al., 2020). However, a study also reveals different results with the those studies, only three types of politeness strategies were found (Rejeki & Azizah, 2019).
The findings of this study are similar to those studies of Flores-salgado & Castineira-benitez (2018), and Mulyono & Amalia (2019) in the context of using politeness strategies in online classes using the WhatsApp platform and other applications. It was also discovered in these two studies that there was no difference in the use of politeness strategies in teacher and student interactions when the WhatsApp platform was used versus direct teacher-student interactions in the classroom. When the above researches found the same number of politeness strategies between both lecturers and students, the results of this study indicate a fact that is different from the dominance of the number of strategies practiced by students, as well as the types of politeness strategies used in thesis consultation events.
In this study, it was discovered that students used more politeness strategies than lecturers did. Mulyono & Amalia (2019) discovered this finding in their research. In this case, students are more active in employing the politeness strategy when interacting with lecturers in order to keep the lecturer from losing his face. This is common in oral communication via WhatsApp chat application in Indonesia given that there is still an unequal position between lecturers and students in two-way communication. This phenomenon also occurs in developing countries such as parts of Asia and Africa (Schaik et al., 2018). This is supported by the finding that, when compared to other strategies, the students used the most positive politeness. This strategy is intended to maintain positive relationships and create a comfortable environment for in-class interaction (Rahayuningsih et al., 2020;Rejeki & Azizah, 2019).
In contrast, the findings of this study show that the lecturer employed the bald on-record strategy. The findings of this study differ from the research results of Mulyono & Amalia (2019), which found that in teacher-student interactions in class, teachers most frequently use positive politeness to keep student interactions going well. The purpose of using this strategy by the teacher is to motivate students to continue to consult the development of their thesis writing without any fear and hesitation to the lecturer. The lecturer employed bald on-record politeness as a strategy for maintaining distance with the students as the hearers (Brown & Levinson, 1987). In their study, the lecturer demonstrates greater power and higher social status to the students (Mulyono et al., 2019). This is done to ensure that the lecturer is respected by the students. The results of this study show that although teachers are sometimes higher than students with affirmative expressions, they also practice their politeness strategies to make the students feel comfortable to review their thesis in writing.
This study contributes to pragmatics research, specifically the use of politeness strategies in lecturerstudent interactions in the classroom. This study confirms that the use of politeness strategies in class interaction, both in classes using WhatsApp and in direct class interaction, is not significantly different (Yusuf & Anwar, 2019;Susanti et al., 2018). The research also confirms that in general, all types of politeness strategies are found in interactions between lecturers and students. This demonstrates how diverse and "colourful" the interactions are.
Students have a tendency to use positive politeness to demonstrate respect for lecturers who have more power and social status than students (Arif et al., 2018;Khusnia, 2017). A lecturer, on the other hand, employs a strategy with distinct preferences. The finding also reveals that non-verbal communication, was used by students and the lecturer to express politeness in their communication. This study confirms that a lecturer does not always use the same politeness strategy, such as positive politeness to demonstrate familiarity with students. He can, however, use other politeness strategies, such as going bald on record, to demonstrate his social status or power position in the interaction. In other words, the different politeness strategy choices are caused by the different power and social status factors between lecturers and students.
The results of this study have described a phenomenon of politeness strategies in an online communicative event in an academic context between lecturers and students in terms of thesis guidance through WhatsApp chat application. There are many things that have not been explored in this study to provide a complete picture of the phenomenon of communication through social media, such as chat duration, chat intensity, chat time and other aspects of communication that can open up nuances for further researchers to continue the findings of this study.

Conclusion
The implementation of Brown & Levinson (1987) politeness strategies in the interaction of lecturers and students in student thesis consultations via WhatsApp is discussed in this study. According to the findings of this study, lecturers and students engage in four types of politeness strategies in their interactions: bald on record politeness, positive politeness, negative politeness, and offrecord politeness. This research also reveals that the most prevalent politeness strategy is bald on record. In these interactions with imperative sentences, lecturers are more likely to use the bald on record strategy. This strategy demonstrates that lecturers have a higher position and power than students. Students, on the other hand, tend to use positive politeness with the greeting strategy. This demonstrates that students are aware that their position is inferior to that of the lecturer. As a result, they try to respect the lecturers in all interactions during the thesis guidance process.
As the implication of this study, the use of politeness strategies differs in the interaction between lecturers and students in the thesis guidance process via WhatsApp. The disparity is due to factors such as social status and power held by both parties. In this interaction, the lecturer uses his power and position to maintain 'the distance,' while the students constantly try to shorten 'the distance' and bring 'closeness' to the communication in order to avoid the hearer's FTA. Considering the study limitation in terms of methods of analysis and the number of participants, future studies are necessarily conducted to explore occurrences of politeness strategies applied in academic contexts.