| Acknowledgements | 第1-5页 |
| Abstract | 第5-8页 |
| 摘要 | 第8-10页 |
| Table of Contents | 第10-13页 |
| List of Tables | 第13-14页 |
| List of Figures | 第14-15页 |
| Chapter One Introduction | 第15-18页 |
| ·General description of the study | 第15页 |
| ·Motivations for the study | 第15-16页 |
| ·Significance of the study | 第16-17页 |
| ·Overall structure of the thesis | 第17-18页 |
| Chapter Two Literature Review | 第18-30页 |
| ·Key terms in the study | 第18-21页 |
| ·Abstract thinking | 第18-19页 |
| ·Argumentative writing | 第19-21页 |
| ·Theoretical framework in the study | 第21-22页 |
| ·Previous Studies abroad and in China | 第22-28页 |
| ·Previous writing-based studies on thinking abroad and in China | 第22-26页 |
| ·Previous writing-based studies on thinking abroad | 第22-25页 |
| ·Previous writing-based studies on thinking in China | 第25-26页 |
| ·Previous studies on development in L2 writing abroad and in China | 第26-28页 |
| ·Previous related studies on development in L2 writing abroad | 第26-27页 |
| ·Previous related studies on development in L2 writing in China | 第27-28页 |
| ·Comments on the previous studies | 第28-30页 |
| Chapter Three Methodology | 第30-34页 |
| ·Research questions | 第30页 |
| ·Research design | 第30-34页 |
| ·Corpus description | 第30-31页 |
| ·Data collection | 第31-32页 |
| ·Data analysis | 第32-34页 |
| ·Double scoring | 第32-33页 |
| ·Calculation | 第33页 |
| ·Comparison | 第33-34页 |
| Chapter Four Results and Discussion | 第34-50页 |
| ·General description of English majors' abstract thinking based on the content of their argumentative writing | 第34-35页 |
| ·Developmental pattern of English majors' abstract thinking based on the content of their argumentative writing in terms of relevance | 第35-39页 |
| ·Developmental pattern of English majors' abstract thinking based on the content of their argumentative writing in terms of explicitness | 第39-43页 |
| ·Developmental pattern of English majors' abstract thinking based on the content of their argumentative writing in terms of sufficiency | 第43-46页 |
| ·Developmental pattern of English majors' abstract thinking based on the content of their argumentative writing in terms of coherence | 第46-50页 |
| Chapter Five Conclusion | 第50-53页 |
| ·Major findings | 第50-51页 |
| ·Pedagogical implications | 第51-52页 |
| ·Limitations and suggestions for further studies | 第52-53页 |
| References | 第53-55页 |
| Appendices | 第55-62页 |
| Appendix Ⅰ:The criteria for scoring composition content parameters developed by Wen and Liu (2006) | 第55-56页 |
| Appendix Ⅱ:An example of scoring the composition | 第56-57页 |
| Appendix Ⅲ:Some compositions of the four grades | 第57-59页 |
| Appendix Ⅳ:Scores of the four composition content parameters across the four grades | 第59-61页 |
| Appendix Ⅴ:Scores of relevance across the four grades | 第61页 |
| Appendix Ⅵ:Scores of explicitness across the four grades | 第61页 |
| Appendix Ⅶ:Scores of sufficiency across the four grades | 第61页 |
| Appendix Ⅷ:Scores of coherence across the four grades | 第61-62页 |
