An Analysis of the Thematic Progression in Non—English Majors’ Summary Writings

Abstract：Based on the framework of Thompsons Thematic system and Bloor & Bloors Thematic progression Theory， the paper aims to explore how the first year non-English Majored students in a northeast university organize the message of English Summary writing and the coherence of the writings by identifying thematic progression pattern in each paragraph of the 6 selected sample texts. Besides， the paper also proposes a hypothesis that theres a relation between text coherence and the scores of the writings. The paper intends to verify the hypothesis by analyzing the text coherence from the thematic progression perspective.

Key words： Thematic Progression Pattern； Coherent； Discourse Analysis； Summary Writing

ⅠIntroduction

Clause can only be properly understood by putting it in its context. The analysis of thematic progression pattern is quite common in text analysis of realizing textual meta-function. This research would give an emphasis on the thematic progression patterns used in English essays of students and try to explore the difference of thematic progression patterns between Non-English Major students Summary Writings of high scores and low scores and further verify the hypothesis that theres a relation between text coherence realized by Thematic Progression and the scores of the writings.

During the research， two questions will be answered ---- If thematic progression patterns are employed in college English writing， is there a relation between the thematic progression and the scores of English Summary writings？ Whats the difference of thematic progression patterns between Non-English Major students Summary Writings of high scores and low scores.

Ⅱ Literature Review

Text may be better interpreted when focusing on the thematic progression pattern on the sentence and paragraph level. Danes （1994） realized a close relationship between the thematic organization of discourses and their inner connection. He also pointed out that the degree of coherence in the text is reflected in the extent of the continuity of the thematic progression. Bloor & Bloor （2004： 105） has summarized four basic patterns： （a） the constant theme pattern （b） the linear theme pattern （c） the split rheme pattern （d） derived themes.

Numerous scholars consider that the proper use of thematic progression patterns is helpful for the construction of discourse coherence. Coherence is a major property of discourse and a well-known term in writing. Some Chinese scholars have investigated the Thematic progression and coherence in English Writing of Chinese College students. Ma （2001） analyzes several writing samples of CET-4 and proves that thematic progression has something to do with semantic cohesion and coherence of English writing. Zhang （2004） talks about this issue through analyzing the college students' English writings from the perspective of conjunction， lexical cohesion and thematic progression patterns， and she proves the feasibility of thematic structure and information structure in ensuring coherence. However， most of the previous studies mainly focus on examination English writing and argumentative writing. And this paper would concentrating only on Summary writing. Summary writing has its unique features.

Ⅲ Methodology

3.1 Hypothesis

As mentioned above， some Chinese scholars have studied the thematic progression pattern in college English Writing and proved that thematic progression has something to do with coherence of English writing. Most of those analysis are based on the writing materials from CET-4/6 and most are argumentation. Therefore， a hypothesis raised that theres a relation between score and text coherence realized by thematic progression in the sample writings. To prove this hypothesis， this thesis mainly focus on identifying if there is any thematic progression between the clauses and analyzes the employments of four different thematic progression patterns ---- constant theme， linear theme， split rheme and derived theme pattern， generalized by Bloor & Bloor （2004： 105）. In order to make the analysis clearer， the analysis in each section are grouped into two parts according to the score layers： Outstanding （score over 85） and Good （score below 85）. That is to say， a contrastive analysis is employed in each data analysis section.

3.2 Data Collection

The data are collected from the “normal” first year students （normal means exclude art students and English majored students）. Cluster Random sampling are employed in the research. The stratification is realized by the score layers， which mainly divided into two categories， Outstanding （score over 85， the total score is 100） and Good （score below 85）， for theres no fails. For each category， 3 sample writings is finally selected which writing length almost equals. “Outstanding” contains Sample A， B， C and “Good” contains Sample D， E， F. The word count in 6 sample writings all varies from the range 144 to 155. The basic unit of analysis in this paper is clause. To guarantee the authenticity of the data， any obvious grammar and spelling errors are retained in the analysis. Last but not least， it is necessary to mention that the writing is done by students after class and the scores are given automatically by computers.

Ⅳ Data Analysis and Discussion

The most frequent Thematic Progression Pattern in sample writings is Derived theme pattern which takes up one thirds of all， much higher than Constant and Linear theme pattern. Another distinct feature is that there are clauses have no thematic progression at all. This means that the two clauses have no coherent relation from the thematic perspective.

The frequent use of derived theme should be fully discussed. According to the notion of derived Themes in Bloor & Bloor （2004： 91）， the term is used to describe expressions in Theme position which are cohesively linked in meaning， but not necessarily in form. A summary should omit the redundant unnecessary message and every sentence should carry new information. Whats more， the story summary writing is not the same as note-taking. That is to say， the format should be very flexible. Derived theme pattern can fulfill these two requirements. It can not only avoid the monotonous thematic type but also freely shift to other points of message relevant in meaning. This pattern improved both the coherence and fullness of the information and the organization of the paragraph of the discourse by this means.

Both “Outstanding” sample writings and “Good” sample writings have 32 thematic progression pattern. As shown in table 1（a） and table 1（b）， the most evident distinction between the two groups is that all clauses in “Outstanding” Group have thematic progression pattern while “Good” Group have 4 gaps where should have thematic progression pattern havent got any. Another difference is that “Outstanding” Group employed a bit more Constant and Linear theme pattern than “Good” Group. That is to say， “Outstanding” Group possesses more diversified Thematic progression pattern.

Note： “None” means have no thematic Progression.

Therefore， the previous analysis and empirical results have verified the hypothesis. “Good” Group， whose writing scores are lower than the “Outstanding” Group， are less coherent because some clauses have no thematic progression and the thematic progression pattern are less diversified. There is a relation between score and text coherence realized by thematic progression.

Ⅴ Conclusion

The most frequent Thematic Progression Pattern in college summary writing is Derived theme pattern. The frequent use of derived theme can be explained. In summary writing， all the core information should be arranged into text neatly. It should omit the redundant message and every sentence should carry new information. Besides， the story summary writing is different from note-taking which should avoid the monotonous thematic type. Therefore， derived theme pattern are widely used. This pattern improved both the coherence and fullness of the information and the organization of the paragraph of the discourse by this means.

“Outstanding” Group possesses more diversified Thematic progression pattern. Whats more， All clauses in “Outstanding” Group have thematic progression pattern while “Good” Group have 4 gaps where should have thematic progression pattern havent got any. Thus， it is concluded that “Good” Group， whose writing scores are lower than the “Outstanding” Group， are less coherent. Therefore， the previous analysis and empirical results have verified the hypothesis. There is a relation between score and text coherence realized by thematic progression. The thematic progression can be applied in writing teaching and learning in order to improve the coherence of students writing.

Due to the limitation of time， the writer hadnt involved more samples into the discourse analysis. In addition， it is found that students have kind of deviation in comprehending the original reading as well as the accurately mastering of summary writing. This may cause statistical bias in the research.

Reference

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作者简介：王安琪（1993.07）女，汉，黑龙江大庆人，东北师范大学， 硕士在读，研究方向：语篇分析。