Menurut pembimbing, judul skripsi yang terlalu panjang kurang masuk akal kalau tujuannya hanya menjelaskan ide sederhana.

Menurut pembimbing means according to the supervisor/advisor.

• menurut = according to
• pembimbing = supervisor, advisor, mentor

So this phrase sets up whose opinion is being reported. Indonesian often puts this kind of phrase right at the start:

• Menurut saya, ... = In my opinion, ...
• Menurut guru itu, ... = According to that teacher, ...

In this sentence, it tells us that the judgment that follows is the advisor’s view, not necessarily the speaker’s own.

Not exactly. Pembimbing is someone who guides you, especially in an academic context.

In the phrase pembimbing skripsi or when understood from context, it usually means a thesis advisor/supervisor.

Compare:

• guru = school teacher
• dosen = lecturer / university instructor
• pembimbing = guide, supervisor, advisor

So in this sentence, pembimbing most naturally means the person supervising the student’s skripsi.

Skripsi is an Indonesian academic term for an undergraduate thesis or final research paper written for a bachelor’s degree.

This is different from:

• tesis = thesis, usually for a master’s degree
• disertasi = dissertation, usually for a doctoral degree

So judul skripsi means the title of an undergraduate thesis.

It means thesis title or the title of a thesis.

In Indonesian, noun + noun combinations often work like this:

• judul skripsi = thesis title
• buku sejarah = history book
• rumah sakit = hospital

So judul skripsi is a noun phrase where judul is the main noun and skripsi specifies what kind of title it is.

Here, yang introduces a phrase that describes the noun before it. It works a bit like that / which / that is in English.

So:

• judul skripsi = thesis title
• yang terlalu panjang = that is too long

Together:

• judul skripsi yang terlalu panjang = a thesis title that is too long

This is a very common Indonesian pattern:

• orang yang baik = a person who is kind
• buku yang mahal = a book that is expensive
• rumah yang besar = a house that is big

Because terlalu means too, not just very.

• panjang = long
• sangat panjang = very long
• panjang sekali = very long
• terlalu panjang = too long

In this sentence, the advisor is not merely saying the title is long. They are saying it is excessively long, especially considering its purpose. So terlalu panjang is the right choice.

Masuk akal is an idiom meaning to make sense or to be reasonable.

So:

• masuk akal = makes sense / is reasonable
• tidak masuk akal = does not make sense / is unreasonable
• kurang masuk akal = less reasonable / not very sensible / somewhat hard to justify

Kurang masuk akal is softer than tidak masuk akal. It sounds less absolute and more nuanced.

So the advisor is not necessarily saying the title is completely absurd. They are saying it is not very reasonable, especially under the stated condition.

Here kalau means if.

The sentence is setting up a condition:

• kalau tujuannya hanya menjelaskan ide sederhana
• if the goal is only to explain a simple idea

In many contexts, kalau can feel a bit flexible and conversational, sometimes overlapping with when depending on context. But in this sentence, if is the best interpretation because the advisor is judging whether the long title is reasonable under that condition.

Also note:

• kalau = common, conversational if
• jika = more formal if
• bila = also formal/literary if

Tujuannya means the goal/purpose or its goal/purpose.

Breakdown:

• tujuan = goal, purpose
• -nya = a very common suffix that can mean the, its, his/her, or refer back to something already understood from context

Here, -nya most naturally refers to the thing being discussed, probably the title or the act of making the title, depending on how you interpret the sentence. In natural English, you would usually just say:

• if the purpose is only to explain a simple idea

So -nya is helping make the phrase sound definite and connected to the context.

Both are possible, but the sentence without untuk is perfectly natural.

• tujuannya hanya menjelaskan ide sederhana = the goal is only to explain a simple idea
• tujuannya hanya untuk menjelaskan ide sederhana = the goal is only to explain a simple idea

Adding untuk can make the infinitive-like meaning more explicit, but Indonesian often omits it when the meaning is already clear.

So the version in the sentence is concise and natural.

Because Indonesian often does not use a copula like is/are in the present tense.

English says:

• The thesis title is too long
• The purpose is only to explain a simple idea

Indonesian often simply places the words next to each other:

• judul skripsi ... terlalu panjang
• tujuannya hanya menjelaskan ...

This is normal Indonesian grammar. A word like adalah can sometimes appear, but it is not required here and would often sound more formal or less natural in everyday usage.

Because in Indonesian, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe.

So:

• ide sederhana = simple idea
• judul panjang = long title
• rumah besar = big house

This is one of the most important word-order differences for English speakers to notice.

Also, adverbs like terlalu go before the adjective:

• terlalu panjang = too long
• sangat sederhana = very simple

A helpful way to see it is:

• Menurut pembimbing,
  according to the advisor,

• judul skripsi yang terlalu panjang
  a thesis title that is too long

• kurang masuk akal
  is not very reasonable / makes less sense

• kalau tujuannya hanya menjelaskan ide sederhana.
  if the goal is only to explain a simple idea.

So the full structure is basically:

According to the advisor, [a too-long thesis title] [is not very reasonable] [if the purpose is only to explain a simple idea].

That is a very normal Indonesian sentence pattern: opinion frame + noun phrase + comment/judgment + condition.

Yes, and that is exactly how it works.

The conditional phrase kalau tujuannya hanya menjelaskan ide sederhana gives the condition under which the judgment kurang masuk akal is true.

So the meaning is not just:

• a long thesis title is unreasonable

but more specifically:

• a long thesis title is unreasonable if its purpose is only to explain a simple idea

That last part limits the statement. A long title might be more acceptable for a more complex or technical topic, but less so for a simple idea.