Thematic Structure in Students’ Writings: Implications on their Ideas Organization and Development

Thematic structure is an important concept in organizing ideas academic writing. Although numerous studies have focused on investigating how it realized students' writing, only a few focus thematic text across different proficiency levels. This article based study analyzing idea organization and development 24 high low-scoring essays through Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). It was qualitative content analysis with complementary quantitative data. The results show significant differences are organized developed essays. Even though all types of Themes (topical, interpersonal, textual Theme) were observed both groups, the high-scoring elaborated more themes than low ones indicating that comprised clauses. As for Progression, patterns present Linear Theme pattern primarily applied essays, while Constant frequently ones. Split Rheme less These findings indicate achievers provided expounded linear theme patterns, whereas their counterparts tended to subject reflected reiteration. Thus, this implies characterized writers developing writing as Choice Progression.