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142 

 

 
ELT FORUM 6 (2) (2017) 

 

Journal of English Language Teaching 

 
http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt 

 
 

THEMATIC DEVELOPMENT ON STUDENTS’ 

ANALYTICAL EXPOSITION TEXTS 
A CASE OF THE FOURTH SEMESTER STUDENTS  

IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2014/2015 

 

Novita Setiawati, Intan Permata Hapsari, Arif Suryo Priyatmojo  
 

English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia  

 

Article Info 
________________  
Article History: 

Received in October 

2017  
Approved in November 

2017 Published in 

December 2017 
________________  
Keywords: analytical 
exposition, textual 
meaning, thematic 
development, thematic 
structure. 
  
____________________ 

 
Abstract  
___________________________________________________________________ 
This final project is based on a study endeavored to examine the development of analytical exposition texts 

written by the fourth semester students of Universitas Negeri Semarang in the academic year of 2014/2015 

who took Genre-based Writing class . The objective of the study is to examine to what extent the students 

develop their analytical exposition texts, in terms of Thematic Development. 

This study is a written discourse analysis in which the data collected are in the form of written texts. To 

examine Thematic Development, Thematic Structure must be found first. The data were divided into 

clauses and analyzed to discover their Thematic Structure using theory suggested by Gerot and Wignell 

(1995). Then the Themes and Rhemes were examined using Thematic Development theory suggested by 

Eggins (2004). 

Results show that unmarked Topical Theme and reiteration pattern are dominant on students’ texts 

because they are the simplest and easiest form of Thematic Structure and Thematic Development. In 

addition, some problems related to Thematic Structure and Thematic Development were found. In 

Thematic Structure analysis, one problem of empty Theme and three problems of empty Rheme were 

discovered, while more than half of total clauses did not have Thematic Development. These might 

indicate two points; first, the students of Genre-based Writing class are still novice writers. Second, they 

might not know about Thematic Development theory and how to employ it to develop their analytical 

exposition texts. 

  
 © 2017 Universitas Negeri Semarang 

  


 Correspondent Address: ISSN 2252-6706 
B3 Building FBS Unnes  

Sekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229  

E-mail: unnes_english@yahoo.com  



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INTRODUCTION 

Among skills learnt in English, writing is considered as the most challenging skill to master 

for many EFL learners. Not only do they have to generate ideas, they also have to develop them into 

a coherent whole text. However, this is not something easy to do. Instead of writing a coherent 

whole text, many EFL learners tend to brainstorm ideas, write them in a piece of paper, and submit 

it on their teacher‟s desk without having it proofread beforehand. As a result, not only grammatical 

mistakes, but also ideas which jump from one message to another are commonly found by writing 

teachers.  

A text which consists of jumping messages may cause confusion for readers. They might not 

understand what the writer means. When a text does not make sense, it fails to perform its function. 

Moreover, it means that the writer fails to achieve his goal in writing the text. Therefore, in teaching 

writing it is important to teach students how to develop ideas in order to write a coherent text.  

Teaching how to develop ideas can be done by Thematic Development. It is a method to 

develop ideas into cohesive and coherent text. Nevertheless, according to Gugin (2014: 24-25), the 

teaching of EFL has historically give priority to accuracy at sentence level; this will almost 

inevitably, automatically, create a “grammar-first” teaching approach, which in turn leads to a 

“grammar is writing” and “writing is grammar” teaching philosophy. This also happens in 

Indonesia. Students are taught to make grammatically correct sentences while they do not know 

how to develop those sentences into a coherent whole text. Consequently, jumping ideas are found 

in their text, which make readers difficult to understand the text. For this reason, it is important to 

teach students how to develop their text in writing class. 

Based on these problems, this study intends to examine to what extent the fourth semester 

students of the English Department of Universitas Negeri Semarang who took Genre-based Writing 

class develop their ideas in writing analytical exposition texts, in terms of Thematic Development. 

The goal of writing this text type is to persuade readers to support the students‟ point of views on an 

issue. To achieve it, their texts must be clear and make sense in order to make readers understand 

their arguments and support their positions. Hence, each idea needs to be carefully selected and 

developed (Derewianka: 1990: 76). These can be done by means of Thematic Development.  

Thematic Developmnet is a method of development that contribute to cohesion and 

coherence of a text (Eggins, 2004:324). It signifies the flow of information from one clause to the 

other in a text. According to Eggins (2004: 324) there are three methods of Thematic Development: 

Theme reiteration, zig-zag Theme pattern, and multiple-Rheme pattern. Each pattern is explained as 

follows. 

1. Theme reiteration 

It is where the item in the Theme of the first clause is also selected as the Theme of the 

following clause (Belmonte and McCabe-Hidalgo, 1998: 18). In other words, each clause in the text 

shares a common Theme. Although this type gives a clear focus, a text using this Thematic 

Development is claimed to be boring to read or listen to and it indicates a text which is going 

nowhere (Eggins, 2004: 324). An example of this pattern which taken from Butt et. al. (2000: 142) is 

presented as follows. 

1 A good teacher  needs to be understanding to all children 

2 He or she must also be fair and reasonable 

3 The teacher  must work at a sensible pace and not one thing 

after another 

4 The teacher  also needs to speak with a clear voice 

Clause Topical  



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Theme Rheme 

 

 
 

Figure 1.1 Theme Reiteration 

1. Zig-zag Theme Pattern 
In this pattern, the Rheme of the first clause becomes the Theme for the second clause. 

According to Eggins (2004: 325): 

The zig-zag pattern achieves cohesion in the text by building on newly introduced 
information. This gives the text a sense of cumulative development which may be 
absent in the repeated Theme pattern. 

An example of linier Theme pattern which taken from Butt et. al. (2000: 143) is presented as 

follows. 

1 Phonetics and phonology are concerned with speech ‒ with the 

ways in which humans produce and hear 

speech. 

2 Talking and listening to each other are so much part of human life. 

Clause 
Topical  

Theme Rheme 

 
 

 
 

Figure 1.2 Zig-zag Theme Pattern 

2. Multiple-Rheme Pattern 

In multiple-Rheme pattern, a Rheme may include a number of different pieces of information, 

each of which may be taken up as the Theme in a number of subsequent clauses. An example of 

multiple-Rheme pattern which taken from Butt et. al. (2000: 144) is presented as follows. 

1 It   is possible to distinguish three auditory dimensions or 

parameters of phonation, loudness, pitch, and a quality of 

sound that is sometimes called „timbre‟. 



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2 Perceived loudness is related to subglottal pressure. 

3 Pitch  is the perceptual correlate of the frequency of vibration of 

the vocal folds. 

Clause 
Topical  

Theme Rheme 

 

 
 

Figure 1.3 Multiple-Rheme Pattern 

To recapitulate, developing ideas into a coherent text is important in writing, and one way to 

examine the development is by examining the Thematic Development of the text. Therefore, the 

study aims to examine to what extent the fourth semester students of the English Department of 

Universitas Negeri Semarang develop their analytical exposition texts, in terms of Thematic 

Development. Specifically, there were two aspects analyzed in this study: the realization of 

Thematic Structure and the most frequent pattern of Thematic Development used by the students in 

their analytical exposition texts. 

  

METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH  

This study investigated the realization of Thematic Structure and discovered the most 

frequent patterns of Thematic Development used in 25 analytical exposition texts written by the 

fourth semester students of the English Department of Universitas Negeri Semarang in the academic 

year 2014/2015 who took Genre-based Writing class. In order to investigate the Thematic Structure, 

the data was examined using Thematic Structure theory suggested by Gerot and Wignell (1995). The 

result of this examination was then further analyzed using Thematic Development theory by Eggins 

(2004) to discover the most frequent pattern of Thematic Development used by the students in their 

analytical exposition texts. The procedures of analyzing the data are explained as follows. 

1. Thematic Structure Analysis 

In analyzing Thematic Structure, there were several steps to be followed.  

(1) Before analyzing the Thematic Structure, each text had to be broken up into clauses. These 

clauses were then numbered so that it would be easier to count the number of clauses in every 

text. An example is shown below to make this explanation clearer. 

 
Being too thin is commonly known as underweight. It is simply defined as weighing less than 

normal, healthy, or required weight.  Underweight potentially leads high risk of health problem. 

 

There are three clauses in the paragraph which then would be put in sequence. 

1. Being too thin is commonly known as underweight. 

2. It is simply defined as weighing less than normal, healthy, or required weight. 

3. Underweight potentially leads high risk of health problem. 



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(2) Next, the clauses were examined for their Thematic Structures by splitting each clause into 

Theme and Rheme. Each clause might have more than one Theme. Nevertheless, every clause 

must contain one and only one Topical Theme (Eggins, 2004: 302). Once the Topical Theme 

was identified, the rest of the clause would be Rheme.  

 

1.  

Being too thin is commonly known as underweight. 

Subject  

(Embedded clause) 

Rheme 

Topical (Unmarked) 

Theme 

 

2.  

It  is simply defined as weighing less than normal, healthy, 
or required weight. 

Subject (Nominal group) 

Rheme 

Topical (Unmarked) 

Theme 

 

3.   

Underweight potentially leads high risk of health problem. 

Subject  

(Nominal group) 

Rheme 

Topical (Unmarked) 

Theme 

 

(3) Then, the Themes were categorized into Topical, Interpersonal, and Textual Themes and 

counted to calculate their quantity and percentage. 

(4) Each type of Theme was further analyzed in detail. 

a) Unmarked topical Theme 

(1) Nominal group 

(2) Nominal group complex 

(3) Embedded clause 

(4) Predicator 

b) Marked topical Theme 

(1) Adverbial as Adjunct 

(2) Prepositional phrase as Adjunct 

(3) Nominal group as Adjunct 

(4) Embedded clause as Adjunct 

c) Interpersonal Theme 



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(1) Modal Comment Adjunct 

(2) Vocatives 

(3) Finite verbal operator 

(4) WH-element 

d) Textual Theme 

(1) Conjunction 

(2) Conjunctive Adjunct 

 
2. Thematic Development Analysis 

To discover Thematic Development, the clauses that were examined for their Thematic 

Structure were used. For this analysis, the Theme was named Theme 1, Theme 2, etc.; the numbers 

signified the clause numbers. The Rheme was also named Rheme 1, Rheme 2, etc. Next, they were 

analyzed using Thematic Development theory by Eggins. Each clause in a text was connected by an 

arrow to show its type of Thematic Development.  

 

1 Being too thin is commonly known as underweight. 

2 It is simply defined as weighing less than normal, healthy, or 
required weight. 

3 Underweight potentially leads high risk of health problem. 

Clause 

Topical  

Theme Rheme 

 

Theme 1   Rheme 1 

 

Theme 2  Rheme 2 

 

Theme 3  Rheme 3 

 
The last step was classifying the Thematic Development discovered into three types: Theme 

Reiteration, Zig-zag Pattern, and Multiple-Rheme Pattern.  

RESULT AND DISCUSSION 

A. Findings 

1. Thematic Structure 
The first finding is about three types of Theme: Topical, Interpersonal, and Textual. There are 

703 clauses in the texts. Each text, according to Eggins (2004: 302), must have a Topical Theme. 

However, only 702 Topical Themes or 99.86% were discovered. It means there is one clause which 

does not have Topical Theme. 

Other types of Theme were also found in the texts. Interpersonal Theme occurred 32 times or 

4.55% from the overall clause. Textual Theme, whose function is to build relation between parts of a 

text, occurred more frequently compared to Interpersonal Theme. It was found 328 times or 46.66% 

in the texts. To summarize, Topical Theme was found mostly in the texts, then followed by Textual 

Theme and Interpersonal Theme. 



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Thematic Structure Total 

Number of clauses 703 

Theme 702 

Rheme 700 

No Theme 1 

No Rheme 3 

Table 3.1 Thematic Structure 

 

Theme Total Percentage 

Topical Theme 702 99.86% 

Interpersonal Theme 32 4.55% 

Textual Theme 328 4.66% 

Table 3.2 Theme Types in Students‟ Analytical Exposition Texts 

Furthermore, this study found that there are 3 clauses which have no Rheme. They are 

presented as follows. 

 

(1)  

Fast responds on internet transaction No Rheme 

Subject (Nominal group) 

 

Topical (Unmarked) 

Theme 

 

(2)  

First, from the health side. No Rheme 

Conjunctive Adjunct Adjunct (Prepositional phrase) 

 

Textual Topical (Marked) 

Theme 

 

(3)  

Then, cultural awareness of others. No Rheme 

Conjunction Subject (Nominal group) 

 

Textual Topical (Unmarked) 

Theme 

 

 



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a. Topical Theme 

Topical Theme is the element which refers to a participant, a circumstance or the process of 

the clause (Arunsirot 2013: 165). There are two types of Topical Theme: unmarked and marked.  

(1) Unmarked Topical Theme 
In a declarative clause, the unmarked Topical Theme is the Subject of the clause. The subject 

can be nominal group, nominal group complex, or embedded clause. In a WH-interrogative clause, 

WH-items have the function of unmarked Topical Theme because they represent participant or 

circumstance (Halliday 2004: 85).  In this study, WH-items are classified as nominal group. In 

imperative clause, the unmarked topical Theme is the predicator. The following is the result of 

unmarked Topical Themes which were found in the students‟ texts. 

Unmarked Topical Theme Total Percentage 

Nominal Group 591 84.07% 
Nominal Group Complex 11 1.56% 

Embedded Clause 26 3.70% 
Predicator 4 0.57% 

Table 3.3 Unmarked Topical Theme 

The result shows that nominal group gets 84.07%, followed by embedded clause, nominal 

group complex, and Predicator. Embedded clause gets 3.70%, nominal group complex gets 1.56%, 

and Predicator gets 0.57%.  

 

(2) Marked Topical Theme 

In a declarative clause, a Theme which is other than the Subject is referred to as marked 

Topical Theme (Halliday 2004: 73). The most usual form of marked Topical Theme is adverbial 

group or prepositional phrase functioning as Adjunct in the clause. The other is nominal group or 

embedded clause functioning as Complement. 

Marked Topical Theme Total Percentage 

Adjunct:   
- Adverbial 16 2.28% 

- Prepositional 

  phrase 49 6.69% 
Complement:   
- Nominal Group 2 0.28% 
- Embedded Clause 3 0.43% 

Table 3.4 Marked Topical Theme 

The table shows that the highest occurrence of marked Topical Theme is prepositional phrase 

(6.97%). It is followed by adverbial group, which get 2.28%, embedded clause, which get 0.43%, and 

nominal group, which gets 0.28%. In short, compared to marked Topical Theme, unmarked Theme 

has higher frequency.  

b. Interpersonal Theme 



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Interpersonal Theme conveys interpersonal meaning. It includes one or more of the following: 

(1) Finite, (2) WH-elements, (3) Vocative, and (4) Mood and Comment Adjunct or Modal 

Comment Adjunct. Here is the result of Interpersonal Theme analysis which was found in the 

students‟ texts. 

Interpersonal Theme Total Percentage 

Modal Comment Adjunct 25 3.56% 
Vocatives -  

Finite Verbal Operator 1 0.14% 
WH-element 6 0.85% 

Table 3.5 Interpersonal Theme 

The table shows that the most dominant Interpersonal Theme is Modal Comment Adjunct 

which gets 3.56%. The second is WH-element, which gets 0.85%. The third is Finite verbal operator, 

which gets 0.14%, and there is no Vocatives occurred in the students‟ analytical exposition texts. 

c. Textual Theme 
Textual Theme connects a clause to its neighboring clauses. They can be Continuatives, 

Conjunctive Adjuncts, and Conjunctions. Since the texts analyzed are written texts, only 

Conjunctive Adjuncts and Conjunctions were analyzed. 

Textual Theme Total Percentage 

Conjunction 242 34.42% 
Conjunctive Adjunct 86 12.09% 

Table 3.6 Textual Theme 

The table shows that Conjunctions outnumber Conjunctive Adjuncts. Conjunctions occurred 

242 times (34.42%), while Conjunctive Adjuncts occurred 86 times (12.09%). 

2. Thematic Development 

The second research problem is to examine Thematic Development which students employed 

in writing analytical exposition texts. In analyzing Thematic Development, Eggins‟ theory was used. 

The following is a table showing the result of Thematic Development of students‟ writings. 

Thematic Development Total Percentage 

Theme Reiteration 151 21.48% 

Zig-zag Pattern 136 19.35% 

Multiple-Rheme Pattern 11 1.56% 

Table 3.7 Thematic Development 

The table shows that the students in Genre-based Writing class mostly used Theme reiteration 

to write analytical exposition texts. Theme reiteration was found 151 times in the texts or 21.48%. 

Next, zig-zag pattern was found 136 times in the texts or 19.35%. The last pattern, multiple Rheme 

pattern was found only 11 times or 1.56%.   

B. Discussions 
1. Topical Theme 

Halliday (2004: 64) defines Theme as an element which serves as the point of departure of the 

message, the meaning each clause embodies. It can be Topical, Interpersonal and Textual. Among 

these Themes, however, Topical Theme plays a prominent role to the development of a clause since 

it takes transitivity role such as Actor, Behaver, Senser, or Circumstance within the clause (Eggins, 

2004: 302). Therefore, each clause must have one and only one Topical Theme (Eggins, 2004: 302). 

Nevertheless, this study found that there is one clause which does not have Topical Theme. That 

clause is presented as follows. 



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For example  is the leak of answer key by the printing company that 
have tender to print the final exam script. 

Conjunctive Adjunct  

Rheme 

Textual  

Theme  
As it can be seen, the clause does not have a Topical Theme. The clause starts with a 

Conjunctive Adjunct for example and the following element is a finite is. Because its function is to 

connect ideas between clauses, Conjunctive Adjunct must be followed immediately by Topical 

Theme, which can be a Subject, an Adjunct or a Complement. This, according to Arunsirot (2013: 

169), is called the problem of empty Theme. It might be caused by mother tongue interference 

(Arunsirot 2013:169) or cross-linguistic influence (Ellis, 1997: 54). It might happen since giving 

example in Bahasa Indonesia usually does not use a Conjunction or Conjunctive Adjunct, yet 

Indonesians use contoh to give an example, which is a noun. 

In addition to Theme, a clause also must have Rheme. It is the part of the clause in which 

Theme is developed (Eggins, 2004: 300). It typically contains „unfamiliar‟ or „new‟ information 

about the Theme. This study discovered that there are three clauses which do not have Rheme.  This 

indicates that the writers fail to develop the Themes of the clauses as has been said by Eggins (2004: 

300) that Rheme is the part of the clause in which Theme is developed. 

a. Unmarked Topical Theme 
Analyzing Thematic Structure also enables us to discern two kinds of Topical Theme: 

unmarked and marked Topical Theme. The former outnumbers the latter. This might be caused by 

the fact that novice writers, that have difficulty in composing their texts, tend to choose the simplest 

way of constructing English sentences by putting either nominal group or pronoun in subject 

position to make sure that the sentence is grammatically correct (Arunsirot, 2013: 172). 

Furthermore, Ebrahimi and Ebrahimi (2012: 775) state, “The low portion of the marked Themes in 

students‟ writings shows that the students‟ writing is less argumentative in nature.”  

In this study, unmarked Topical Theme is composed of nominal group, nominal group 

complex, embedded clause, and Predicator. 

The findings indicate that among those four categories of unmarked Topical Theme, nominal 

group occurred mostly on the texts. Choosing nominal group to begin a clause or a sentence lowers 

the possibility of performing incorrect grammar. Besides, Hyland (2003: 4) states that teaching 

writing predominantly involves developing learners‟ skills in producing fixed patterns since accuracy 

and clear exposition are considered the main criteria of good writing. Therefore, 84.07% of clauses 

begin with nominal groups. 

While nominal group occurred often on the texts, Predicator as unmarked Topical Theme 

was the other way round. It only hits 0.57% or 4 clauses. The reason might be in relation to the text 

type of students‟ writings, which is analytical exposition. In structuring this text type, Derewianka 

(1990: 76) cites three obligatory elements: thesis statement, argument which should be supported by 

evidence and examples, and restatement of writer‟s position. These elements are usually presented in 

the form of declarative clause as its function is to give information, whereas imperative clause is 

commonly used in procedure text to give instructions. The reason of the usage of imperative clauses 

could be to emphasize their arguments on the texts. 

b. Marked Topical Theme 
In this study, there are four elements of marked Topical Theme which were examined on the 

students‟ texts: adverbial and prepositional phrase function as Adjunct, and nominal group and 

embedded clause function as Complement. 



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Among those kinds of marked Topical Theme, prepositional phrase is the most dominant on 

the students‟ texts since it may serve as Circumstantial Adjunct denoting time, place, and manner 

(quality, degree, comparison, and means) which is needed in writing analytical exposition text. This 

is supported by Davies in Ebrahimi and Ebrahimi (2012: 776) who states, “Looking at marked 

Theme from functional view point, these students used this Theme to put some elements that 

frequently indicate notion such as validation of internal evidence, location in discourse time or 

space, and writer viewpoints into the Theme position.” 

In contrast, nominal group as complement only occurred twice. This might be caused by the 

fact that creating a clause by making nominal group functioning as complement as the Theme of the 

clause is rather difficult for novice writers. Ebrahimi and Ebrahimi (2012: 776) also find that there is 

a systematic increase in the use of marked Theme moving from sophomore to senior students, which 

attest that the occurrence of marked Topical Theme is relevant to students‟ language proficiency and 

competence in writing. 

2. Interpersonal Theme 

The second type of Theme this study examined is Interpersonal Theme which consists of four 

elements: Modal Comment Adjunct, Vocatives, Finite verbal operator, and WH-element. These 

elements convey interpersonal meaning on a text, and thirty-two Interpersonal Themes have been 

discovered from the texts.  

Among those elements of interpersonal Theme Modal Comment Adjunct occurred frequently 

because it is one of the language features of analytical exposition text, whereas Vocative, the element 

which was not found on the students‟ texts, is not a language feature of analytical exposition text.  

3. Textual Theme 
In addition to Topical and Interpersonal Themes, Textual Themes were also discovered in the 

texts. Regarding frequency analysis, the Textual Theme is used more than Interpersonal Theme, yet 

it is less than Topical Theme. This could be due to the fact that, “An exposition needs to make a 

point and to persuade the readers to agree with it” (Arunsirot, 2013:172). In order to enhance 

readers‟ solidarity with his point of view, the writer must grab readers‟ attention by ensuring 

continuity in the text. This can be achieved by using internal Conjunctions and external 

Conjunctions (Arunsirot, 2013: 172). In this study, internal Conjunctions are referred to 

Conjunctions and external Conjunctions are referred to Conjunctive Adjuncts.  

According to the findings, Conjunctions (internal Conjunctions) were frequently found on 

students‟ texts. This may indicate that the students are still novice in writing since Conjunctions are 

typically employed to chain ideas in spontaneous spoken language (Schleppegrell, 1996: 272). 

Compared to Conjunctions, Conjunctive Adjuncts are less employed in the students‟ 

analytical exposition texts. This result might be due to the fact that Conjunctive Adjuncts are 

difficult to master even at advanced level (Grager and Tyson in Mudhhi and Hussein, 2014: 19). 

Hence, it is not surprising that the students preferred Conjunctions to Conjunctive Adjunct in 

constructing their ideas into analytical exposition texts. 

4. Thematic Development 

All Thematic Development patterns were found in the texts: Theme reiteration, Zig-zag 

pattern, and multiple-Rheme pattern; however, Theme reiteration was mostly preferred as a method 

to develop students‟ ideas in composing analytical exposition texts.   

For the writers particularly novice ones, it is easy to organize their ideas this way since the 

Themes chosen are coming from the same participant. For the readers, this kind of paragraph is easy 

to understand because “Having the same participant made Theme on a regular basis provides the 

text with a clear focus” (Eggins, 2004: 324). Nevertheless, Eggins (2004: 324) also states, “A text in 

which the Theme never varied would not only be boring to read or listen to, but would indicate a 

text which is going nowhere.” Besides, according to Wang (2007) and McCabe (1999) in Ebrahimi 



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153 

 

and Ebrahimi (2014: 256), “The use of the reiteration progression pattern makes the text to be 

simple, repetitive, and redundant.” Thus, overusing reiteration pattern may lead to the lack of deep 

explanation of the ideas introduced since the writer does not expand the information contained in 

the Rheme (Belmonte and McCabe-Hidalgo, 1998: 22). 

Furthermore, Rakhman (2013), who examined Thematic Development on analytical 

exposition texts written by high school students, found that Theme reiteration was dominant on 

students‟ texts. This finding is similar to this study; even though, the subjects are from different level 

of education. College students are expected to have higher competence in using English compared to 

high school students. However, in reality most of both students employed the same method to 

develop their ideas in writing analytical exposition texts. Therefore, it might be concluded that 

Genre-based students‟ competence in writing analytical exposition is still low. 

In addition, many of students‟ texts are lack of Thematic Development. Consequently, the 

texts could not achieve their goal due to difficulty in understanding the writers‟ ideas. This is also 

supported by Wang (2007: 167) who stated, “If a writer fails to control the flow of information from 

Theme to Rheme, his or her text is difficult for a reader to follow, because there is no clear signpost 

directing the reader, who therefore cannot easily follow the progression of an idea or argument.” 

This condition might be due to the fact that the students might not know about Thematic 

Development theory and how to employ it to develop their texts, particularly analytical exposition 

texts. 

CONCLUSIONS 

Based on the research‟s findings and discussions, there are two main points concluded. First, 

this study found that Topical, Interpersonal, and Textual Themes are discovered from the texts, in 

which unmarked Topical Theme is dominant on the students‟ analytical exposition texts. It might be 

caused by the fact that the students are still novice writers. Therefore, to ensure that the texts were 

grammatically correct, they chose the Subjects as the point of departure in most clauses on their 

texts.  

Second, this study also discovered that most students use reiteration pattern to organize the 

flow of their ideas from one clause to the other. This method of development is the easiest one to 

apply compared to the other methods. The students simply pick Theme on the first clause to be 

Theme on the subsequent clauses. Nevertheless, overusing this method might indicate that the 

students‟ competence in writing, particularly analytical exposition texts, is low since they failed to 

develop their ideas on the texts using various methods. 

It is important to teach students Thematic Development and Thematic Structure as they help 

the students organize ideas and improve texts‟ cohesion and coherence. Moreover, they might help 

English teachers and lecturers evaluate, mark, and improve students‟ writings at discourse level. 

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