AN ANALYSIS OF TEXTUAL MEANING ON STUDENTS’ WRITING OF RECOUNT TEXTS

Abstract

The topic of this study is the textual meaning on students‟ recount texts of the 4th
semester students of English Department, Semarang State University in the
Academic Year 2016/2017. The analyses intend to figure out what Thematic
structures are displayed and what Thematic progressions are employed in the
students‟ recount texts. The approach used in this study is qualitative descriptive
method, and some quantitative approaches to enhance the depth of results. The
units of analysis of this study were clauses in the 4th semester students‟ recount texts
taken from Genre-Based Writing course. The results of the Thematic structures
analysis show that unmarked topical Theme is the most frequently used rather than
the marked one. Modal adjunct is the only constituent of interpersonal Theme that
is found to show the writer‟s judgment. Moreover, structural and conjunctive
adjunct are used in relating the clause to its context or another clause. In addition,
there only one continuative found in the text to signal a new move is made. The
study also shows that the students used re-iteration (constant) to make the text keep
focused. Then, zigzag pattern is commonly used in relative clauses which replace
subject. While multiple (split) pattern is used to introduce a number of different
pieces of information which is made as Theme in subsequent clauses.