A Probe Into The Patterns Of Thematic Progression Applied In College English Writing

Thematic Progression (TP) Theory indicates the relationship between themes and rhemes of different clauses in the hierarchy of a text. It is the best way to analyze the microstructure of a text. Through the analysis of the structure in the text, whether the text is full in structure and coherent in content or not will be testified. By getting a thorough understanding of TP Patterns, the writers can better work out the skeleton of the plot.English writing as a necessary part of the Comprehensive English skills has drawn more and more attention in English teaching recently. Based on the Thematic Progression Patterns given by Dane s and Dubois, this paper studied 45 composition samples from CET-4 paper taken in June 2003 in regard to the application of TP Patterns. The focus of analysis has been laid on the thematic choices and the thematic progression patterns in the CET-4 compositions. The results are consistent which indicates that the compositions of higher scores have applied more combination of four TP patterns, while the samples of lower scores lack of the combination of different TP patterns. Moreover, the study also got information on the similarities of CET-4 compositions in terms of the application of TP patterns. Therefore, close attention has been shed onto the TP situation in CET-4 writing, which will be of great significance to the teaching of English writing.