| Acknowledgement | 第1-4页 |
| Abstract | 第4-6页 |
| 摘要 | 第6-8页 |
| List of tables | 第8-9页 |
| List of figures and histograms | 第9-10页 |
| List of abbreviations | 第10-15页 |
| Chapter One Introduction | 第15-20页 |
| ·Research background | 第15-17页 |
| ·Purpose of this study | 第17页 |
| ·Significance of this study | 第17页 |
| ·Definition of Key terms | 第17-18页 |
| ·Paragraph | 第17-18页 |
| ·Thematic pattern | 第18页 |
| ·Overview of this thesis | 第18-20页 |
| Chapter Two Literature Review | 第20-40页 |
| ·Historical overview of Theme-Rheme theory | 第20页 |
| ·Thematic structure at the micro level | 第20-27页 |
| ·Theme and rheme | 第20-21页 |
| ·Theme, subject and topic | 第21-22页 |
| ·Thematic structure and information structure | 第22-23页 |
| ·Classification of Theme | 第23-27页 |
| ·Simple theme | 第23-24页 |
| ·Multiple themes | 第24-25页 |
| ·Clausal themes | 第25-26页 |
| ·Themes in the Special clauses | 第26-27页 |
| ·Thematic structure at the macro level | 第27-30页 |
| ·Thematic structure at the paragraph and text level | 第27-29页 |
| ·Functions of themes | 第29-30页 |
| ·Thematic progression | 第30-37页 |
| ·Definition of thematic progression | 第30页 |
| ·TP patterns | 第30-36页 |
| ·Functions of TP | 第36-37页 |
| ·Relevant studies on thematic patterns in written texts | 第37-40页 |
| Chapter Three Theoretical Framework | 第40-51页 |
| ·Overview | 第40页 |
| ·Choice of paragraph theme | 第40-43页 |
| ·The types of paragraph themes analyzed in this study | 第40-41页 |
| ·Identification of the four types of paragraph theme | 第41-43页 |
| ·TP patterns | 第43-49页 |
| ·TP patterns analyzed in this study | 第43-45页 |
| ·Criteria and ways for identification of themes, rhemes and TP patterns | 第45-49页 |
| ·Thematic continuity of the paragraph | 第49-51页 |
| Chapter Four Research Design and Methodology | 第51-63页 |
| ·Research questions and hypotheses | 第51-52页 |
| ·Research questions | 第51页 |
| ·Hypotheses | 第51-52页 |
| ·Instruments used in this study | 第52页 |
| ·Writing tasks | 第52页 |
| ·Scoring criteria of CET 4 for evaluating writings | 第52页 |
| ·Research process | 第52-53页 |
| ·Data collection | 第53-58页 |
| ·Requirements for data collection | 第53-54页 |
| ·Process of data collection | 第54-58页 |
| ·Collection of writings by the Chinese students | 第54-56页 |
| ·Collection of writings by the American college students | 第56-58页 |
| ·Data analysis | 第58-63页 |
| ·Coding the data | 第58-59页 |
| ·Steps and methods for data analysis | 第59-61页 |
| ·Comparative analyses of the data | 第61-63页 |
| ·Comparative analysis of the choice of paragraph themes | 第61页 |
| ·Comparative analysis of TP patterns | 第61-62页 |
| ·Comparative analysis of thematic continuity of paragraphs | 第62-63页 |
| Chapter Five Results and Discussion | 第63-93页 |
| ·Comparison of the choice of paragraph Themes | 第63-71页 |
| ·Quantitative results | 第63-66页 |
| ·Qualitative description of some sample paragraphs | 第66-71页 |
| ·Comparison of TP patterns | 第71-84页 |
| ·Quantitative presentation of different TP patterns in the paragraphs | 第71-74页 |
| ·Quantitative presentation of paragraphs with dominant TP pattern | 第74-76页 |
| ·Qualitative description of some sample paragraphs | 第76-84页 |
| ·Comparison of thematic continuity of paragraphs | 第84-93页 |
| Chapter Six Conclusion | 第93-102页 |
| ·Major findings in this study | 第93-97页 |
| ·Major finding 1 | 第93-95页 |
| ·Major finding 2 | 第95-97页 |
| ·Pedagogical implications | 第97-100页 |
| ·Conduct contrastive analysis in class before writing | 第98-99页 |
| ·Develop the Chinese students' sense of thematic structure of English text | 第99-100页 |
| ·Help the students self-evaluate their writings | 第100页 |
| ·Limitations and suggestions | 第100-102页 |
| Bibliography | 第102-109页 |
| Appendices | 第109-111页 |
