| English writing is one of the most important and difficult skills in English learning. Although the importance of writing is highlighted in different levels of English teaching in China, writing is still an obstacle for second language learners. Recent years have seen great development in the researches of EFL teaching and learning, which have proposed various methods as to how to improve EFL learners'English writing. However, most of the researches are made in the context of native English-speaking countries and compared with expository writing, argumentative writing draws little attention. There is an urgent need for the multidimensional analysis of argumentative writing.Employing Kaplan's theory of contrastive rhetoric and the cohesion theory by Halliday and Hasan, this study makes a multidimensional analysis of Chinese English majors'argumentative writing from both macro level (thesis statements, topic sentences and the reiteration of thesis statements) and micro level (cohesion devices), upon which the previous researches have rarely touched. This study aims to explore the text features in Chinese students'argumentative writing and to find out whether differences exist between students of different language proficiencies.The data for this study are the 80 argumentative compositions by English majors (40 freshmen and 40 juniors) in Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. An interview is also made after the compositions are roughly analyzed. Data analysis is made from both macro-level and micro-level. The data are quantified and contrasted. The results are then presented and discussions are made in combination with the responses of students in the interview.Through quantitative and qualitative studies, this study has found out that differences do exist between different proficiency groups on some of the text features. Based on the results and discussions, some implications are put forward to give some hints for the teaching of English argumentative writings.
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