范文是供学生学习写作的作文范本。范文广泛使用于一语和二语写作教学。尽管有研究表明，范文不一定利于学生学习写作，但大量研究表明，范文对学生学习写作知识、提高写作能力具有显著的促进作用。传统的范文主要由本族语者或非本族语写作专家生产，范文质量高。但在写作教学中，学生接触到的范文大多出自命题人员或教师之手，范文质量不高，有些范文还存在误导性。现有的语篇分析研究和范文教学研究均不重视范文的质量研究，前者主要关注自然语篇，特别是经典语篇和学习者语篇的分析，不重视写作范文的分析，后者主要聚焦范文的作用、范文的使用方式与效果等研究，不重视范文的质量研究，研究成果较为欠缺，对范文的生产及使用的借鉴价值有限。

本研究以系统功能语言学和认知语言学为理论基础，在借鉴现有范文质量研究和二语写作质量研究成果的基础上，结合范文读者对象的特殊性，建立了以内容的真实性、内容的切题性、话题的延续性、语篇的衔接性、语篇结构、读者意识为分析维度的写作范文分析框架。该框架涉及六个纬度，涵盖范文的内容、形式、认知三个层面，能够较为客观地体现范文的质量状况。本研究的样本共217篇，来源于全国各地的中考英语写作试题参考答案部分提供的参考范文。样本评分由论文作者和另外一名研究人员共同完成。两位研究者的打分虽略有差异，但打分趋向和分析结论一致。本研究采用样本编码、不标注样本来源地、举例时排除样本中含有地域标识的样本等方式消除了范文的各种信息来源，确保了研究的伦理性。本研究得出了以下主要研究发现：

（1）中考英语写作范文的整体质量不高，范文良莠不齐，质量不均衡。大多范文质量不佳，优质范文和合格范文的数量和占比过少，特别是优质范文。优质范文尽管质量较高，但优势不明显，特别优秀的范文不多。合格范文的质量中规中矩，部分范文还存在质量瑕疵。质量欠佳范文的质量瑕疵问题较为突出，质量堪忧。

（2）质量欠佳范文存在的问题涉及“六维度”分析框架中的大多维度。范文描述的内容与真实的世界不相符；范文的内容与写作的主题和要求不相符；范文的话题在整体、局部受到阻隔，话题没有得到延续，语义不连贯；范文使用的衔接方式不当，特别是语法衔接和逻辑联系语的使用存在错误；范文的语段之间、语段内部语义混杂、信息结构安排不合理；范文使用的句子结构复杂难懂。

（3）优质范文的内容真实、作文切题性强、话题具有延续性、文章结构安排合理、读者意识强。优质范文使用了语法衔接、词汇衔接、逻辑联系语等多种衔接方式，但语法衔接使用最多、词汇衔接次之、逻辑联系语最少。优质范文使用的主位类型涵盖简单主位、多重主位和分句主位，但以简单主位为主。优质范文使用的主位推进模式涉及平行型、延续性、派生型等，但以平行型为主。优质范文的语篇关系结构有顺序结构、层次结构和平衡结构，但以层次结构为主。

本研究的贡献主要体现在研究对象、研究视角、样本规模、研究发现和分析框架等方面。本研究聚焦考试命题人员或英语教师生产的写作范文的分析，弥补了现有语篇分析研究不重视教师语篇分析、写作范文分析以及范文教学研究不重视范文质量研究的不足，拓宽了语篇分析和范文教学的研究视野和范围。本研究以系统功能语言学和认知语言学为理论基础，建立了语言与认知相融合的范文分析框架，突破了传统语篇分析主要在系统功能语言学视角下研究语篇分析的局限性，拓展和丰富了语篇分析的研究视角。本研究的样本规模较大，样本具有代表性，弥补了现有范文研究规模小、碎片化、研究成果参考价值不高的不足。本研究较为全面地描述了写作范文的总体质量状况、优质范文的典型语篇特征及质量欠佳范文的质量瑕疵问题，丰富了范文教学和语篇分析的研究成果。本研究建立的“六维度”写作范文分析框架对分析高中英语写作范文等其他类型的范文质量也有借鉴价值。

本研究对范文生产者和英语教师具有重要启示，特别对在英语写作教学中如何选择和使用范文具有重要启示。

Model essays are essay samples used to help L1 and L2 students to learn writing. Existing studies have shown that model essays play a significant role in helping students to learn the knowledge about writing and enhancing students’ writing skills, though some studies have shown the negative outcome. Normally model essays are mainly produced by native speakers or non-native language writing experts, and are usually of high quality. However, most of the model essays that are used today are produced by test designers or teachers instead of writing experts. These model essays may have poor quality and some of them may even mislead students. The existing research on the use of model essays have not paid due attention to the quality and the use of model essays, thus having limited contributions and implications for the production and use of model essays. Existing discourse analysis mainly focuses on natural texts, especially classical discourse and learner discourse, with model essays largely ignored. Some studies on model essays have investigated the role, the use and the effects of using model essays but have ignored the quality of model essays.

Based on the theoretical basis of systemic functional linguistics, cognitive linguistics, the existing research on the quality of model essays and L2 writing quality, as well as the uniqueness of readers of model essays, the present study proposes a six-dimension analysis framework of model essays, in which authenticity of content, relevance of content, topical continuity, discourse cohesion, discourse structure, and reader awareness are included. The six dimensions can be classified into three categories: content, form and cognition, which provides relatively objective criteria for analyzing the quality of model essays. A total of 217 model essay samples are selected from the writing model samples provided by the Senior High School Entrance Examination across the country. The rating of the samples was conducted by the researcher of the present study and another researcher. The scoring results were consistent to a great extent though there were minor scoring differences of the two raters. The present study adopted various means such as sample coding, unmarking the origins of samples, and excluding samples with origin information as demonstration examples to eliminate the origins of the samples to ensure the ethics of the study. The main findings of the present study are as follows:

(1) The overall quality of writing model essays used in Senior High School English Entrance Examination is not good enough. There are good model essays and also bad model essays, and the quality of model essays is unbalanced. The majority of the 217 model essays fail to meet the criteria of qualified essays. The number and proportion of high-quality essays and qualified essays is too small, especially high-quality essays. The samples rated as high-quality model essays have good quality, but there are few really good model essays. Qualified model essays meet the criteria of writing requirements, but some essays still have defects. Inferior model essays are of poor quality, many of which have serious defects of quality.

(2) The defects of inferior model essays are identified in terms of most of the six dimensions in the analysis framework. There is a mismatch between the content of model essays and the real world. The content of the model essays does not meet the writing requirements. The topics shift globally and locally across the essay, leading to a failure of topical continuity and discourse coherence. The cohesive ties in the essays are not used properly, especially grammatical cohesive ties and conjunctives. The same semantic meaning is scattered in different paragraphs and the information structure is not properly arranged. Various structures and clauses are mixed in one sentence.

(3) The content of high-quality model essays is authentic and closely related to the writing topic and requirements. The topic is continued across the whole text. The structure of these model essays is clear and logical. There is a strong reader awareness in the model essays. High-quality model essays use a variety of cohesive devices such as grammatical cohesive ties, lexical cohesive ties and conjunctives, but grammatical cohesive ties are used the most, followed by lexical cohesive ties and conjunctives. The theme used in high-quality model essays include simple themes, multiple themes and clausal themes, with simple themes being used the most. The thematic progression (TP) used in high-quality model essays involves various patterns such as TP with a continuous theme, simple linear TP, TP with derived themes, but the dominant type is TP with a continuous theme. High-quality model essays used various structures such as sequential structure, hierarchical structure and balanced structure, but the dominant type is hierarchical structure.  

The present study has made contributions in several aspects. The study focuses on analysis of model essays produced by test designers and EFL teachers, filling the gaps in the existing studies such as ignoring analysis of teacher discourse and the quality of model essays. Therefore, the study has expanded the field and scope of discourse analysis and the study of model essays. Besides, based on systemic functional linguistics and cognitive linguistics, the present study has proposed a framework for analyzing model essays, which integrates language and cognition, breaking through the limitations of traditional discourse analysis that studies discourse analysis mainly from the perspective of systemic functional linguistics, expanding and enriching the research perspectives of discourse analysis. In addition, the present study uses a larger size of samples, which represents the majority of model essays, making up for the deficiencies of the existing research in which the sample size is usually small, the research is fragmented and the implication is less significant. Moreover, the present study has described the overall quality of model essays, the typical discourse features of high-quality model essays and the quality defects of inferior model essays, enriching the research findings on discourse analysis and model essay research. Lastly, the six-dimension analysis framework of model essays proposed in the present study can provide references for analyzing the quality of model essays used in senior high school English teaching and other English teaching practices.

The present study provides implications for producers of model essays and EFL teachers, especially implications for selecting and using model essays in the teaching of English writing.