THEME AND RHEME IN THEMATIC DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS’ NARRATIVE WRITING AT STATE POLYTECHNIC OF CILACAP

Abstract

Many students face difficulties in writing narrative texts because of their lack of cohesion and less of connectedness. They usually cannot express their idea well because they cannot develop the old and new information in their writings. The thematic progression in forms of theme reiteration, zig zag pattern and multiple-rheme pattern of the second semester students of State Polytechnic of Cilacap (PNC) is the main concern of this study. The data were 10 narrative texts written by the second semester students of Information Technology study program at State Polytechnic of Cilacap (PNC). The analysis was done by identifying the occurrence of theme-rheme relation in thematic development of the texts. The result of the study showed that 133 clauses (70%) implemented theme reiterations, 51 clauses (26,84%) applied cross-referential thematic developments of zig-zag pattern, and 6 clauses (3,16%) showed cross-referential thematic developments of multiple-rheme pattern.