For English majors in higher education, writing demands not only grammatical accuracy and appropriate word choice at the linguistic level, but also logical coherence at the discourse level. Compared to non-English majors, university English students possess a more solid foundation in grammar and vocabulary, yet they often struggle to achieve high scores in writing. This is because discourse cohesion and coherence are also key criteria in English writing assessment. The Thematic Progression within functional grammar emphasizes logical connections and semantic relationships within discourse context. This theory can help students enhance their discourse organization skills, thereby improving their writing proficiency. Guided by the Thematic Progression, this study uses English majors at Qingdao City University as experimental subjects. Through discourse analysis of students' essays before and after the experiment, it explores the importance of the Thematic Progression theory in writing.
Wei et al. (2025) studied this question.