A thematic structure analysis of the essays by 2nd year students at a university in hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

LÊ NGUYỄN HOÀI NGÂN

A THEMATIC STRUCTURE ANALYSIS OF THE ESSAYS BY 2ND
YEAR STUDENTS AT A UNIVERSITY IN HANOI
(Phân tích cấu trúc chủ đề các bài luận của sinh viên năm 2 tại một
trường Đại học tại Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 8220201.01

Hanoi, 2021


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

LÊ NGUYỄN HOÀI NGÂN

A THEMATIC STRUCTURE ANALYSIS OF THE ESSAYS BY 2ND
YEAR STUDENTS AT A UNIVERSITY IN HANOI
(Phân tích cấu trúc chủ đề các bài luận của sinh viên năm 2 tại một
trường đại học tại Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field

: English Linguistics

Code

: 8220201.01

Supervisor : Prof. Dr. Hoàng Văn Vân

Hanoi, 2021


DECLARATION

I hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled
“A thematic structure analysis of the essays by 2nd year students at a
university in Hanoi” (Phân tích cấu trúc chủ đề của các bài luận của sinh
viên năm 2 tại một trường đại học tại Hà Nội) submitted in partial
fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at the Faculty
of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies,
Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Except where states otherwise by
reference or acknowledgment, the work presented is the result of my own
research.
Hanoi, 2021

Lê Nguyễn Hoài Ngân

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my supervisor,
Professor Hoang Van Van, for his invaluable guidance to do this research.
I would like to thank him for his vision, precious materials, dynamism,
sincerity. It was a pleasure and privilege to study and accomplish my thesis
under his guidance.
I am extremely grateful to Ms. Hoang Thi Hong Hai and Ms. Tran
Hoang Anh for their encouragement and enthusiasm in helping me collect
data for this study.
Finally, I owe the completion of this study to my family and my friends
who gave me understanding and encouragement throughout the study.

ii


ABSTRACT
This thesis entitled ―A thematic structure analysis of the essays by 2 nd
year students at a university in Hanoi‖ was conducted as a contribution to
enhance awareness of applying a wide variety of thematic progression
patterns and cohesive tie devices in order that students could master their
writing skills. In order to reach the goals of the study and determine answers
to the research questions, the researcher used the combination of quantitative
and qualitative method. The qualitative method was used in order to give a
detailed description of the thematic structure and cohesive ties by 2nd year
students‘ essays; their practical applications in writings and problems students
experienced. Furthermore, the quantitative method collected from the essays
was analyzed. The writing tasks were distributed among 2nd year students.

Then, their writing performances were gathered, categorized and analyzed.
Writing tasks are given to 2nd year students as tests because they are a reliable
and quick method to collect information in an efficient and timely manner.
The result of the study indicated that beside using thematic progression
patterns (constant thematic progression, linear thematic progression, derived
hyper-thematic progression, split rhematic progression), cohesive ties, types
of themes in students‘ essays, 2nd year students also encountered some themerheme problems (the problems of the brand-new theme, the over-use of
―There‖ in the theme selection, empty rheme and non-constant progression,
themes with unclear reference).

iii


TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION .............................................................................................. i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................ ii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................... iv
LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, CHARTS AND DIAGRAMS .................. vi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................. 1
1.1. Rationale of the Study ................................................................................ 1
1.2. Aims of the Study....................................................................................... 2
1.3. Scope of the Study ..................................................................................... 2
1.4. Methods of the Study ................................................................................. 2
1.5. Significance of the Study ........................................................................... 3
1.6. Design of the Study .................................................................................... 3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW...................................................... 5
2.1. Previous Studies ......................................................................................... 5
2.2. Literature Review ....................................................................................... 8

2.2.1. Definitions of Theme and Rheme ........................................................... 8
2.2.2. Experiential, Interpersonal and Textual Theme ...................................... 9
2.2.3. Types of Theme..................................................................................... 11
2.2.4. Thematic Progression Patterns .............................................................. 13
2.2.5. Overview of an Essay............................................................................ 16
2.2.6. Cohesive Ties ........................................................................................ 18
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ....................................... 20
3.1. Research Design ....................................................................................... 20
3.2. Research Methods .................................................................................... 20
3.3. Data Collection......................................................................................... 21
3.3.1. USTH‘ Overview and Education .......................................................... 21
3.3.2. Settings and Participants ....................................................................... 22
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3.3.3. Methods of Data Collection .................................................................. 23
3.4. Procedures of Study ................................................................................. 23
3.5. Data Analysis ........................................................................................... 24
3.6. Reliability and Validity ............................................................................ 24
3.7. Summary .................................................................................................. 25
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ......................................... 26
4.1. Findings .................................................................................................... 26
4.1.1. Thematic Progression Patterns of Students‘ Essays ...................................... 26
4.1.2. Cohesive Ties of Students‘ Essays........................................................ 28
4.1.3. The Use of Types of Theme in Students‘ Essays ................................. 30
4.1.4. Theme-Rheme Problems ....................................................................... 32
4.2. Discussion ................................................................................................ 34
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ..................................................................... 41
5.1. Recapitulation .......................................................................................... 41
5.2. Limitations and Suggestion for Further Research ................................... 42

REFERENCES .............................................................................................. 43
APPENDIX ....................................................................................................... I

v


LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, CHARTS AND DIAGRAMS
Table 2.1. Analysis of experiential Theme ....................................................... 9
Table 2.2. Analysis of unmarked Theme ........................................................ 10
Table 2.3. Analysis of interpersonal Theme ................................................... 10
Table 2.4. Analysis of multiple Theme ........................................................... 12
Table 2.5. Types of writings and organizations .............................................. 17
Table 2.6. Transition words and phrases in English ....................................... 18
Figure 2.1. An example of constant thematic progression ............................. 14
Figure 2.2. An example of linear of ‗zig-zag‘ progression ............................. 14
Figure 2.3. An example of derived hyperthematic progression ...................... 15
Figure 2.4. An example of the split rheme pattern ......................................... 15
Figure 2.5. An example of the split theme progression .................................. 16
Chart 4.1. The use of thematic progression patterns in students' essays ........ 26
Chart 4.2. Distribution of the use of thematic progression patterns ............... 27
in each part of essay ........................................................................................ 27
Chart 4.3. Cohesive ties in students' essays .................................................... 28
Chart 4.4. Transition in students‘ essays......................................................... 29
Chart 4.5. The Use of Experiential, Interpersonal and Textual Theme .......... 30
in Students‘ Essays .......................................................................................... 30
Chart 4.6. The Use of Simple Theme, Multiple Theme and Clausal Theme in
Students' Essays .............................................................................................. 31
Diagram 4.1. Thematic progression of students‘ essays 1 .............................. 35
Diagram 4.2. Thematic progression of students‘ essays 2 .............................. 36
Diagram 4.3. Thematic progression of students‘ essays 3 .............................. 37

Diagram 4.4. Thematic progression of students‘ essays 4 .............................. 37
Diagram 4.5. Thematic progression of students‘ essays 5 .............................. 38
Diagram 4.6. Thematic progression of students‘ essays 6 .............................. 38
Diagram 4.7. Thematic progression of students‘ essays 7 .............................. 39

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale of the Study
Writing is an important skill for language learners not only at school
but also for their future job. Writing skills provides students with a lot of
chances to compose ideas, organize their thoughts and arguments, support key
points and share information in an effective way. It is the fact that making
mistakes related to thematic structure in essays is more and more common in
students‘ essays. Therefore, the awareness of the thematic structure as well as
the functional grammar will also prepare students for their future academic
and professional endeavors. As a result, it helps students find ideal jobs
because in the area of technology and information writers are required to
master writing for marketing campaigns, for making documents, records,
contracts, etc…
However, most Vietnamese students have major difficulties in
conveying their ideas into words, connecting them by effective glues and
creating persuasive writing essays or compositions.
Being aware of these challenges, I engage in a study in English and
Vietnamese essays in terms of theme-rheme patterns to have a clear look into
their effects on theme-rheme. This will help students master how essays are
written in the right way in term of theme-rheme patterns or thematic
progression.
For these reasons, with a view to providing Vietnamese learners of

English with the awareness of thematic structure in writing essays so that
learners can better understand and make better use of thematic structure in
writing more and more successfully, I have decided to work on “A thematic
structure analysis of the essays by 2nd year students at a university in
Hanoi‖ as the topic of my research paper.
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1.2. Aims of the Study
The aim of this study is to use theme-rheme analysis framework to
explore how the essays written by the 2nd year students organized and
developed in terms of the theme-rheme patterns, cohesive ties and
theme-rheme students‘ problems. To realize this aim, the following two
questions are raised for exploration:
1. How are the texts (students‘ essays) organized and developed in terms
of theme-rheme patterns by the 2nd year students?
2. How are the different cohesive ties of contexts hung together to make
the texts cohesive?
3. What problems do students experience when writing essays in terms of
theme-rheme patterns?
To answer these questions, I will first review some fundamental
concepts relevant to the study: the definitions of theme and rheme, types of
theme and rheme, thematic progression patterns, overview of an essay, the
importance of coherence of an essay and cohesion ties.
1.3. Scope of the Study
Writing skill seems to be a big challenge for students of English as a
foreign. Therefore, this study wishes to help students improve their writing
skill. However, given the scope, this study is confined to investigating only
the theme-rheme patterns in essays written by 2nd year students at the
University of Science and Technology of Hanoi.

1.4. Methods of the Study
The study employs both qualitative and quantitative methods. The
former is concerned with the description of the main aspects of theme-rheme
patterns, cohesive ties and other textual aspects; and the latter deals with the
analysis of the essays written by the students in terms of theme-rheme
patterns, cohesive ties, and then turn it into quantifiable data for discussion.
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1.5. Significance of the Study
The significance of the study lied in its focus on exploring how the
essays written by the 2nd year students organized and developed in terms of
the theme-rheme patterns, cohesive ties and theme-rheme students‘ problems.
On the basis of the findings of this study, researcher hopes that English
teachers can design the suitable content for students‘ writing tasks in great
effort to support students to write different types of academic essay patterns
and master key academic writing skills.
1.6. Design of the Study
The thesis is presented in five chapters:
Chapter 1 – Introduction – presents general issues of the study such
as the reasons for choosing this topic, aims of the study including research
questions, scope of the study, methods of the study and design of the study.
Chapter 2 – Literature Review – provides an overview of related
studies and establishes the framework employed as the basis for arguments
and analysis of the data in the study. The chapter attempts to define key terms
such as theme-rheme definition, thematic analysis, Halliday‘s theory of
theme-rheme, types of theme, thematic progression, overview of an essay and
cohesive ties.
Chapter 3 – Research Methodology – is concerned with research
design and data collection. This chapter demonstrates the setting, the

participants, and the method of collecting data as well as the process of
analyzing data in particular and the procedures for conducting the research
in general.
Chapter 4 – Findings and Discussion – answers the research
questions.

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Chapter 5 – Conclusion – summarizes what has been studied in
answering to the research questions, points out some limitations of the
research and make suggestion for further research.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter is concerned with literature review of the minor thesis.
It will first provide an overview of related studies. Then it will discuss about
the definition of theme and rheme, thematic analysis, Halliday‘s theory of
theme-rheme, types of theme, thematic progression patterns, cohesive ties and
overview of an essay.
2.1. Previous Studies
There has been a consensus that instruction in thematic structure should
be included in teaching of English (Alonso & McCabe, 2003; Bohnacker,
2010; Cheng, 2002; Christie & Dreyfus, 2007; Hawe & Thomas, 2012;
Ventola, 1994; Wang, 2007). Ventola (1994), for example, advocated that
courses for academic writing in a foreign language should develop learners‘
consciousness and linguistic skills in organizing information in texts in a way
which was referentially and thematically cohesive. Similarly, Cheng (2002),

in his study discussing how the problems with thematic progression would
compromise coherence in Chinese college students‘ writing, proposed that the
theory of theme and thematic progression should be included in English
teaching to Chinese students. Emphasizing the importance of theme-rheme
structures in essay writing, Alonso and McCabe (2003), pointed out that
English learners of English as a second/foreign language often wrote essays
that consisted of sentences which did not seem to connect into a cohesive text.
They recommended that more attention should be paid to the progression of
information in texts in addition to focus on cohesive devices.
Wang (2007) claimed that the theory of theme and thematic progression
was a valuable tool for teachers to diagnose writing difficulties and students
should be taught how to arrange old and new information to help improve
cohesion and coherence in their writing. Christie and Dreyfus (2007) advocated
5


a genre-based approach to teaching deconstructing genre models for theme and
thematic progression likely to monitor for differences concerning the
interaction of information structure and word order, as they were probably not
even aware that Swedish differed from German in this regard.
Hawe and Thomas (2012) proposed that ―there is a need for coaching
in thematisation ... teaching at least rudimentary thematisation theory and
giving students practice with an assortment of thematic options... based on our
students‘ apparent inadequate familiarity with English information structure‖
(p.182). In contrast, however, there have not been a lot of investigations
regarding how teachers could apply the theory of theme and thematic
progression (Wang, 2007), or studies that have developed and studied
teaching materials informed by theme and thematic progression (Bonhnacker,
2010). Cheng (2008) provided a genre-based pedagogy on EFL students‘
writing development by incorporating ―analyzing thematic choices‖ as part of

the three-stage EFL composition course in Taiwan for college freshmen‘s
narrative writing course, where stage three focused students on analyzing
lexical-grammatical features associated with English narrative writing,
intending to help the students understand how the situational context was
constructed through linguistic features, which included type of verbs, use of
appraisal terms, syntactic features, thematic choices and cohesive ties.
Ho (2009) tried helping students understand the macro and micro
elements following analysis of theme and thematic progression in a text. The
research subject is a second-year student pursuing an English medium science
degree at the university. She was first asked to read a science article of her
choice from the different sources (for e.g., journals and books), and then
asked to write a review of the article. The completed written text was
collected by the instructor. Over the next two weeks, the student was
presented with a number of model review texts under the review genre. Using

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the whole text SFG (Systemic Functional Grammar)-based approach,
instruction consisted of joint instructor-student analysis of the obligatory and
optional sequence of stages found in a review text, the types of clauses and
their patterns of thematic progression. The instruction is aimed at raising the
student‘s awareness of the generic identity of the review text, its clause
structure and thematic development. Mello (2011) presented classroom
activities that introduced students to the grammar of theme and thematic
progression in order to improve the coherence of their writing, with a model
of Theme-Rheme analytical framework in academic writing curriculum.
Comprised of five sections, i.e., Introduction to Theme/Rheme, Analysis of
authentic and model texts, Introduction to thematic patterns, Analysis of
theme and thematic progression in student texts, and Application to the

students‘ writing, the lessons were intended for an undergraduate ESL
academic reading and writing course and with adaptation, could be used for
other levels and contexts. Cheng (2008)‘s genre-based pedagogy included
―analyzing thematic choice‖ as part of a three-stage EFL composition course,
Ho (2009) implemented his instruction in theme and thematic progression
with one participant, Mellos developed a comparatively complete but brief
Theme-Rheme analytical framework in academic writing curriculum
comprising of five sessions for ESL students. The present research, however,
intends to develop a more complete and detailed instructional package in
theme and thematic progression for Vietnamese EFL students by examining
theories in Systemic Functional Grammar and reviewing relevant literature.
Within this academic domain, there has been no prior study into the
thematic structure and cohesive ties in writing essays experienced by 2 nd year
students at the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi. Therefore,
this study is intended to raise awareness of the thematic structure and
cohesive ties on writing essays and provide students of English as a foreign
7


language a better insight into the use of thematic structure and thematic
progression.
2.2. Literature Review
2.2.1. Definitions of Theme and Rheme
The Theme is defined by Halliday as ―the point of departure for the
message ... the element the speaker selects for ‗grounding‘‖ (2014, p. 83). It is
―the peg on which the message is hung‖ and can be recognized by the fact
that it ―is put in the first position‖ (Halliday, 1970, p. 161). The Theme orients
the listener/reader to the message that is about to be perceived and provides a
framework for the interpretation of the message. The Theme typically
contains familiar, old or given information, which has already been mentioned

somewhere in the text, or it is shared or mutual knowledge from the
immediate context.
The Theme is followed by the Rheme, ―the remainder of the message,
the part in which the Theme is developed‖ (Halliday, 2004, p. 64). The
Rheme is the remainder of the message in a clause in which the Theme is
developed, which means the Rheme typically contains unfamiliar or new
information. As a message structure, a clause consists of a Theme
accompanied by a Rheme and the structure is expressed by the order—
whatever is chosen as the Theme is put first (Halliday, 2004, p. 65). The
Theme extends from the beginning of a clause up to (and including) the first
element that has a function in transitivity. This means that the Theme of a
clause ends with the first constituent that is participant, circumstance, or
process, which is referred to as the topical Theme. The topical Theme may be
preceded by elements which are textual and/or interpersonal in function, and
they are called textual Theme and interpersonal Theme respectively in SFG.
This typology of Themes into topical, textual and interpersonal Themes is
made in terms of textual metafunction.
8


2.2.2. Experiential, Interpersonal and Textual Theme
According to the thematic content and what function it performs, theme
can be divided into three categories, they are experiential, interpersonal and
textual Theme.
(1) Experiential/Topical Theme
According to Halliday (1985, 1994), experiential Theme represents
human experience, inner world, conceptions mostly obtained by people from
the outside world. The topical or experiential element in a multiple theme is
the obligatory constituent, a representative of experiential elements a
transitivity part involves. In a sentence, experiential Theme invariably occurs

in the initial position followed by Rheme, it can be the participants, temporal
adjuncts or adverbials, etc. In functional terminology, it can be Actor—the
subject of a material process, or Circumstance which is realized mostly by the
adverbial or prepositional phrase in all different process, or Senser—subject
or object of a mental process. Examples are provided in Table 1 below.
Table 2.1. Analysis of experiential Theme
He
On the university campus
I
Theme

chased three squirrels just now.
they dance every evening.
hate telling you the truth.
Rheme
(Adapted from Junying, 2016)

Theme can be further divided into marked and unmarked Theme.
If Theme element conflates with the Subject of the clause, it is unmarked
Theme. Otherwise, it is marked Theme. The unmarked Theme is realized by
(i) the Subject of the declarative clause, (ii) the finite verbal operator plus
Subject in the yes/no question, (iii) Wh-word or group in wh-question, (iv) the
thematic equative, and (v) the initial element in the imperative clause and the
exclamatory clause as illustrated in Table 2 below.

9


Table 2.2. Analysis of unmarked Theme
Mary

Do you
What topic
What you need to do
How beautiful
Unmarked Theme

is a top student.
like English?
did you choose?
is to make a response.
the girl is!
Rheme
(Adapted from Junying, 2016)

(2) Interpersonal Theme
By interpersonal, it is meant interaction between writers and readers.
Interpersonal Theme is composed of vocative, modal and mood-making
elements (Halliday, 2000). A vocative is an item used to address, it may
appear in any position of the clause and is thematic if it appears before topical
Theme. A modal adjunct like surprisingly, frankly. etc. becomes a modal
Theme when it occurs before the topical Theme. Such modal adjuncts convey
to readers the speakers‘ judgment of the relevance or truth value of their
message. They can be regarded as the comment on the message rather than
the content itself (Thompson, 2000, p. 134-135). Finite verbal operator like
would, can, should, etc. also serves as the interpersonal Theme. Examples are
provided in Table 3 below.
Table 2.3. Analysis of interpersonal Theme
Unfortunately
Would
Mary, Mary won‘t

Interpersonal Theme

the doctor
you
you
Experiential Theme

hasn‘t left an address.
like the teapot?
marry me?
Rheme
(Adapted from Junying, 2016)

(3) Textual Theme
Textual theme is used to arrange information in a certain order. There
are three types: continuative, conjunctive and structural Theme. Continuatives

10


refer to the discourse markers such as yes, no, well, oh, now, etc. which signal
the beginning of a new move in the exchange, if more than one textual
element is present, they occur in the order of continuative, conjunction,
conjunctive, for example, ‗Well but on the other hand…‘ (Thompson, 2000,
p.136). Conjunctions such as and, but, obviously work primarily between two
or more clauses, join two clauses into one sentence and indicate the types of
semantic relationships. Conjunctive adjuncts do not link the clause into a
larger structural unit, but link the content of the clause to that of other clauses
without forming part of the content, and show how two sentences relate to
each other through the use of alternatively, as a result, etc., they relate the

clause to the preceding text, signal how the clause as a whole fit in with the
preceding text.
2.2.3. Types of Theme
In terms of types, Theme can be classified into simple Theme, multiple
Theme and clausal Theme.
(1) Simple Theme
Simple theme is ―the Theme of a clause that is composed of only one
structural element and it is realized usually by only one element—one
nominal, prepositional or adverbial component‖ (Halliday, 1994, p. 39). It is
an independent unit which can no longer be further divided into smaller
functional unit. For example: My brother (T) | has been assigned that task by
the teacher. Very carefully (T) | she put him back on his feet again. On
weekend days (T) | I go back home from school.
(2) Multiple Theme
Multiple Theme is the Theme that consists of topical Theme together
with anything else that comes before it (Halliday, 1994, p. 53). According to
its semantic constituents, multiple Theme can be further divided into three

11


types of Themes, namely, the experiential, interpersonal, and textual Theme.
In a multiple Theme, the Theme of the clause ends with the first constituent
that is participant, circumstance, process and it extends from the beginning of
the clause up to the first element that has a function in transitivity, which
means that the last constituent in a multiple Theme has to be an experiential
or topical Theme. The element that comes before the topical Theme can vary
from elements which are textual and /or interpersonal in function. An example
is provided in Table 4 below.
Table 2.4. Analysis of multiple Theme

Not surprisingly,

Then,

its operation

were viewed with
admiration.

interpersonal

textual

experiential

Theme
(Adapted from Thompson, 2000:137)
(3) Clausal Theme
Clausal Theme, as the term indicates, means a clause serves as the
Theme. Halliday (1985, 1994) defines thematic structure largely for the
clause, but makes it clear that other units like clause complex also has
thematic structures. A clause complex is a combination of clauses linked
together by conjunctions that indicate the logical relationships between
clauses. Clause-complex can be classified into two types: paratactic clausecomplex and hypotactic clause-complex. If a clause-complex is a combination
of two or more equal clauses, it is a paratactic clause-complex. If the
combination is made up of clauses with unequal status, it is a hypotactic
clause-complex. In the clause-complex, the clause that takes the initial
position in the clause complex is given the Theme status, and at the same time
Halliday (1994) states that there will still be a thematic structure in each of all

12


the constituent clauses (p. 57). The following examples illustrate the two
means of identifying clausal Theme. John ran away, (T) | and Fred stayed
behind (R). John (T) | ran away (R) ‖ and Fred (T) | stayed behind (R). In
analyzing a text, to signal more clearly the method of text development, we
can choose any of the two ways of analysis, either to identify the dependent
clause in initial position as the Theme or the subject of the clause as Theme,
different analyses indicate different aspects of what is going on.
2.2.4. Thematic Progression Patterns
Thematic progression, as understood by Danes (1974), is the study of
how Theme in a text is developed from clause to clause to build larger
stretches. Eggins (1994) prefers to use Thematic development instead of
Thematic progression. She states that the choice of Theme for any individual
clause is generally related to the way information is being developed over the
course of the whole text. Danes (1974) presents three models of Thematic
Progression.

These

are

re-iteration,

zigzag,

and

multiple

patterns

(see Nikmah, 2010: 18).
McCabe (1999) modified the thematic progression scheme proposed by
Danes (ibid.) and identified four main patterns of thematic progression:
‗constant TP‘, ‗linear TP‘, ‗split theme TP‘, and ‗split rheme progression‘ that
might manifest differently in different genres. These thematic progressions
are presented as follows:
1) Constant thematic progression: The theme of one clause is derived from
the theme of the previous clause:
T ----- R1
T ----- R2
T ----- R3

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Theme

Rheme

Salim Mohammed

was born in UAE.

He

was very interested in learning English.

And (he)

always tried to find opportunities to speak English with
his friends.

When he

was twelve,

he

could communicate with his foreign friends freely.
Figure 2.1. An example of constant thematic progression
2) Linear thematic progression: The theme of one clause is derived

from the rheme of the previous clause:
T1------R1
T2 (R1) ------ R2
T3 (R2) ------ R3
Theme

Rheme

Outside my window

is a big lawn.

In the middle of the lawn

is a flower bed.

The flower bed

is full of roses.

The roses

are my favorite flowers.
Figure 2.2. An example of linear of ‘zig-zag’ progression

3) Derived hyperthematic progression: Particular themes in
subsequent clauses are derived from a hypertheme or from the same
overriding theme;
T1 -------- R1
T2 --------R2
T3 --------R3

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Theme

Rheme

The play (T1)

was interesting, (R1)

But I (T2)

didn‘t enjoy it. (R2/ T1)

A young man and a young woman (T3)

troubled me. (R3/ T2)

I (T4)

turned round and looked at them,
(R4/ T3)
didn‘t pay any attention to me. (R5/ T4)

But they (T5)

Figure 2.3. An example of derived hyperthematic progression
4) Split rhematic progression: The rheme of the first clause is split into
two items, each in turn being taken as a theme element in subsequent clauses.
Theme

Rheme

There (T1)

are four basic types of clowns. (R1)

Whiteface clowns (T2/ R1.1)

cover their face with white make-up
(R2)

And (they) (T2/ R1.1)

do a lot physical stunt like leaping and
tumbling. (R3)

Auguste clowns (T3/ R1.3)

wear colourful, ill-fitting clothing and
oversized shoes (R4).

They (T3/ R1.3)

make fun of the human condition (R5)

And (they) (T4/ R1.3)

may impersonate characters such as a
cowboy, fireman, tramp or policeman.
(R6)

The more recent ―New Vaudellie‖ involve
clowns (T5/ R1.4)

the

audience

in

the

performance. (R7)

Figure 2.4. An example of the split rheme pattern
He later proposed a fifth category to Danes‘s, split theme progression, where
the theme of the first clause is split into two or more ideas, and these ideas
aredeveloped in the themes of subsequent clauses (Jalilifar, 2010a: 34 and

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Jalilifar, 2010b: 13).
Theme

Rheme

1-Many of the changes to Earth that has the potential to rob the planet of its
concerns scientists

biological richness.

The destruction of Earth‘s ozone could contribute to the general process
layer for example,

of

impoverishment

by

allowing

ultraviolet ray to harm plants and
animals.
And global warming

could wipe out species unable to quickly
adapt to changing climates.

Clearly, protecting

will come only through coordinated
international efforts to control human
population, stabilize the composition of
the atmosphere, and preserve intact
Earth‘s complex web of life.

2-Bill and Mary

had opposite ideas about the weather.

He

was a pessimist

and she

was an optimist.

Figure 2.5. An example of the split theme progression

2.2.5. Overview of an Essay
2.2.5.1. The Definition of an Essay
According to Zemach & Rumisech (2005), an essay is a group of
paragraphs written about a single topic and a central main idea. It must have
at least three paragraphs, but a five-paragraph essay is a common length for
academic writing.
2.2.5.2. The Structure of an Essay
An essay consists of three main parts: the introduction, the main body
and the conclusion.

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- The introduction
This is the first paragraph of an essay. It explains the topic with general
ideas. It also has a thesis statement. This is a sentence that gives the main
idea. It usually comes at or near the end of the paragraph.
- The main body
These are the paragraphs that explain and support the thesis statement
and come between the introduction and the conclusion. There must be one or
more paragraphs in the main body of an essay.
- The conclusion
This is the last paragraph of an essay. It summarizes or restates the
thesis and the supporting ideas of the essay.
2.2.5.3. The Importance of Coherence in an Essay
Coherence is related to unity. Ideas that are arranged in a clear and
logical way are coherent. When a text is unified and coherent, the reader can
easily understand the main points. Creating a good outline helps make a wellorganised essay. Zemach & Rumisech (Ibid.) advise students that when
organizing their ideas, they should think about what type of organization is
the best for the topic or essay type. They provide some examples of types of

writing and good ways to organize them as follows:
Table 2.5. Types of writings and organizations
Type of writing
Type of organisation
Chronology
(historical
events, Order by time or order of events/ steps
personal narratives, processes)
Description
Order by position, size, and shape of things
Classification
Group ideas and explain them in a logical
order
Comparison/ contrast
Organise in point-by-point or block type
Argumentation/ persuasion and cause/ Order from least important to most
effect
important

(Source: Zemach & Rumisech, 2005: 82)
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