Thematic Progression And Writing Quality In Graduate Students' Argumentative English Composition: An Analytical Study

This study, based on the thematic theory proposed by Halliday and the thematic progression theory put forward by Danes, intends to construe English compositions written by the non-English major graduate students in Lanzhou University so as to research the relationship between thematic progression and writing quality in argumentation and prove that an argumentative genre favors a certain thematic progression, or the thematic progression might possess a certain argumentative generic feature. Furthermore, it will investigate and discuss the common features and problems of the thematic progression patterns in graduate students' writings. It is expected that the study might provide a better understanding of the thematic progression pattern used in the non-English major graduate students of Lanzhou University. It is hoped as well that this study would have some significant pedagogical implications for teaching English writing in China.The study was performed by collecting 100 sample compositions among 1321 compositions written by the graduate students who took part in the 2007 English final examination in Lanzhou University. After the samples were then marked by two raters according to Jacobs Rating Scale, the compositions were analyzed by the present writer.The findings reveal that every thematic progression pattern finds its way in the argumentative text. As for these three patterns, thematic progression with derived Theme has the highest percentage out of all the patterns, followed by thematic progression with the same Theme and continuity. Through the analysis, it is also found that the high - pointed compositions have employed comprehensively and effectively more thematic progression. While the low - pointed compositions lack of the corresponding strategy of combination of thematic progression patterns. A further analysis indicates that thematic progression with derived Theme among the three patterns is much useful for development of the argumentation. The reason is that the topic of the composition adopted in this study makes the students choose this pattern to extend and develop their opinion. And the use of this pattern can effectively avoid the monotony that the repeat of the same words at the starting of sentence brings. The pattern continuity also contributes to the organization of argumentation. Besides, by the pattern thematic progression with the same Theme, readers can get some clues about the development of the writer's thought or the framework of the text. It is obvious that this pattern can contribute the argumentation. Most graduate students can unconsciously use various thematic progression patterns in their compositions, but the advantages of these patterns were not completely applied due to lacking of explicit awareness and systemic writing practice in this regard.The study further contributes to the research field of the English writing teaching. It can also promote the understanding of the thematic progression features and offer suggestions to improve writing quality of graduate student from the perspective of thematic progression.