An Exploratory Study on the Use of Topic Sentences in Chinese University Students’ English Paragraph Writing
ABSTRACT
Other than the grammar accuracy, a good organizational structure also contributes to the success of an argumentative composition. Topic sentences plays an important role in composing a logical discourse and the thesis reports on an exploratory study of 45 English argumentative compositions written by college students in an attempt to examine and identify the features of how Chinese students use topic sentences in their English writings, including whether they use topic sentences in their writings and where they put their topic sentences. Participants of the study are freshmen majoring in engineering and science in SJTU and they were asked to write an argumentative composition on a given topic. Based on the definition of topic sentences, 250 paragraphs from body parts of 44 valid compositions were analyzed. The result shows that 75% of the students surveyed used topic sentences in their writings, which implied that they have already exhibited an awareness of using topic sentence in their writings and they adopted the initial position of topic sentences. Besides, those essays lack of topic sentences displayed logical problems. The thesis hopes to inspire the teachers to pay more attention to the cultivation of college students’ logical thinking in writing classes apart from the grammar accuracy.
Key words: Argumentative writing, paragraph writing, topic sentences
Contents
Chapter One Introduction-1
1.1    Introduction -1
1.2    Purpose and significance of the study 2
Chapter Two Literature Review 3
  2.1 Argumentative writing -3
  2.2 Paragraph writing 3
  2.3 Topic sentence 5
Chapter Three Methodology 7
  3.1 University contexts for the study -7
  3.2 The design of the study 7
  3.3 Identification of body part -7
  3.4 Identification of topic sentence and reliability test 8
  3.5 Placement of topic sentence -8
  3.6 Summary 9
Chapter Four Results and Discussions 10
Chapter Five Conclusion and Suggestions 13
  5.1 Summary of the study 13
  5.2 Suggestions 13
  5.3 Limitation of the study -13
Bibliography 15