UNNES International Conference on ELTLT
Vol. 14 (2025)

From theme to quality: Investigating thematic progression in IELTS writing

Farida, Alief Noor (Unknown)



Article Info

Publish Date
06 Oct 2025

Abstract

Coherence is one of the indicators of good writing, especially in high-stakes proficiency tests, like IELTS. Very few studies have been conducted on the thematic progression of IELTS writing, especially to compare the quality of the essays across different bands. This study aims to explore the thematic progressions employed in IELTS Writing band 2 essays, from bands 4 – 9. By doing quantitative and qualitative text analysis on 30 argumentative essays, which responded to the same prompt, the thematic progressions and thematic breaks were analyzed. The study revealed that all types of thematic progressions are employed by the essays from different bands, with different portions, while breaks mostly occur at low-band essays. This confirms the importance of incorporating thematic progressions in writing instructions, so student learn that they need to plan their writing structure to make is more persuasive.

Copyrights © 2025






Journal Info

Abbrev

eltlt

Publisher

Subject

Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media

Description

ELTLT Conference is one of the greatest annual events for Universitas Negeri Semarang (UNNES). It can be seen from its improving participants and presenters year by year. ELTLT conference has successfully invited leading linguists, researchers, scholars, and lecturers to present varied topics. The ...