Theme and Thematic Progression of Undergraduate Thesis

Investigating Meaning Making in Academic Writing

Bibliographic Data

ID21240239
AuthorsWawan Gunawan (0000-0003-1792-8350, Indonesia University of Education), Fatayatul Aziza (Indonesia University of Education)
Year2017
Volume7
Issue2
Pages175
Publication date2017-09-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIndonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2301-9468 • E-ISSN: 2502-6747
PublisherUniversitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.17509/ijal.v7i2.8350
OpenAlexW2759330943
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited5

This study attempts to investigate the choice of theme and thematic progression deployed in one of the considerably best undergraduate theses in a university in Indonesia. The choice of theme and thematic progression is constrained by the audience of a particular culture; therefore, the process of meaning making is culturally situated. The university, in effects, has its standard for grading academic writing, representing a culture that shapes meaning making processes. This study particularly focuses on how theme and thematic progression contributes to making meanings to meet the demands of the institution. This study employs a descriptive-qualitative research design embracing the characteristics of a case study approach. The data obtained from the best undergraduate student’s thesis were analyzed from the perspective of Halliday’s theme system and its progression. The analysis shows that the three types of theme: topical, interpersonal and textual themes, were realized in the thesis following the conventional features of good academic writings. The topical theme dominantly occupies the theme system chosen for the thesis. This study confirms that a good academic text shares its characteristics across cultures, suggesting that the teaching of academic writing in one culture could refer to the characteristics of good academic texts in other cultures

Academic writing · Art · Biology · Linguistics · Pedagogy · Qualitative research · Situated · Social science · Sociology · Thematic analysis · Thematic structure · Visual arts · Academic integrity and plagiarism · Computer Science · Education and Critical Thinking Development · Philosophy · Psychology

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