Topical structure analysis in Egyptian university students' argumentative essays

Abstract EN

This study examines the topical structure analysis of 25 argumentative essays of first-year university students in Arab academy for science and technology and maritime transport (aastmt).

it specifically examines the internal coherence of the students’ essays by examining the internal topical structure and its three basic elements which are parallel, sequential, and extended parallel progressions employed by the sample students.

the repetition of keywords and phrases is investigated using lautamatti’s (1987) framework for the topical structure analysis (TSA).

the findings of the study reveal that parallel progressions were the mostly employed with a percentage of 37.26%, followed by sequential progressions with a percentage of 35.62%, and extended parallel progressions with a percentage of 27.12% respectively.

these findings suggest that students find difficulty in achieving coherence because of their poor lexical resources as l2 learners.

it is recommended that instructors use the TSA as a strategy in teaching both intermediate and advanced academic courses.

consequently, the students’ familiarity with the TSA would contribute to enhancing coherence in their essays.