Browsing by Author "Schneider, Melanie"

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    Analyzing Topical Structure in ESL Essays: Not All Topics are Equal
    (Copyright © Cambridge University Press [BREAK]The original doi for the as-published version of the article is 10.1017/S0272263100009517. To access the doi, open the following DOI site in your browser and cut and paste the doi name where indicated: [LINK]http://dx.doi.org[/LINK][BREAK]Access to the original article may require subscription and authorized logon ID/password. IUPUI faculty/staff/students please check University Library resources before purchasing an article. Questions on finding the original article via our databases? Ask a librarian: [LINK]http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/research/askalibrarian[/LINK]., 1990) Schneider, Melanie; Connor, Ulla, 1948-
    Topical structure analysis (TSA), a text-based approach to the study of topic in discourse, has been useful in identifying text-based features of coherence. It has also been used to distinguish between essays written by groups of native English speakers with varying degrees of writing proficiency (Witte, 1983a, 1983b). More recently, TSA has distinguished between higher and lower rated ESL essays, but with different results from those found with native speakers of English (Connor & Schneider, 1988). The present study replicated the previous ESL study of two groups of essays written for the TOEFL Test of Written English with three groups of essays. Findings indicate that two topical structure variables, proportions of sequential and parallel topics in the essays, differentiate the highest rated group from the two lower rated groups. We offer explanations for the results and propose that all occurrences of a particular type of topic progression do not contribute equally to the coherence of a text.