Download Elizabeth - College

The Problems in College Student’s Writing
Elizabeth
[email protected]
Abstract: English writing is a comprehensive test of the English ability.
Based on the mistakes of college English Writing ,the paper analyzed the
causes of them and put forward with some suggestions aiming at
improving student’s writing skills.
Key word: college English writing
problems
solution
With China's rapid economic development and its reform and opening up
furthering, the exchanges between China and other countries of the world
have become increasingly frequent; therefore English Writing is
attracting people’s more attention than before. In the process of English
learning, most students keen to memorizing words, syntax, and reading
articles, thus being lack of writing ability. Some common mistakes
typically classified is as follows:
1. lexical problem
1.1 pronoun. indicating vaguely
In the use of the pronoun such as "it", "he", "this" and "that", many
students may be very clear about which these pronouns indicate in their
minds, yet the expressions in the articles fail to be , resulting in
ambiguities.
E.g.(false)People have been fighting against the influence of TV
commercials, but it often proves useless.
(true)People have been fighting against the influence of TV
commercials, but this often proves useless.
Review: what dose it refer to? It is obviously unreasonable to refer to
"influence", and according to the context, "it" should mean former clause.
This is the inappropriate use of pronouns.
1.2 misuse of conjunctions
1.21 run-on sentence
Two or more independent clauses are separated by commas or there is no
punctuation between them, thus creating the "run-on sentence." Such as :
Eg1.(false)One should improve his English, one should overcome
difficulties in studies.
(true)If one wants to improve his English, he should overcome difficulties
in studies.
Eg2.(false)I ran to the door my sister is in her room.
Suddenly she bursts into tears.
(true)As I ran to the door, my sister is in her room. Suddenly she bursts
into tears.
1.22 mistakes in collocation of conjunctions
There are great differences in collocation of conjunctions between
Chinese and English
Eg3 (false) Though my family is not rich, but I love it.
(false) In spite of my family is not rich ,but we live a happy life.
(true) Though my family is not rich, I love it.
(true) In spite of my family is not rich , we live a happy life.
1.3 difficulties in distinguishing similar words
In Chinese, adverbs and adjectives do not have many form changes, while
in English, adjectives or adverbs should be changed correspondingly
according to the different components used in sentences. Therefore
Chinese students find it hard to adapt to this, they often make them
confused.
Eg (false) I am very luck. (lucky)
(false) My mother is kindly. (kind)
(false)My family life is hardly. (hard)
1.4 displace modifier
In English if the modifier is placed in different location, then the sentence
means differently. Chinese students usually do not take the location of
modifier seriously enough, resulting in unnecessary misunderstandings.
Below are some errors students made in locating "just" and "only" which
are very familiar to them.
Eg1.(false) Just he suggested that we leave early.
(Actually ,the student wants to express “He just suggested that we
leave early”)
Eg2 (false) Only I asked the girl for her name.
(In fact, the student intends to say “I asked only the girl for her
name.”)
Review: Chinese students are not good at using conjunction or adverb
transition to express the logical relation among sentences so the false
examples above are unreasonable. As previously mentioned English is a
form-oriented language, students who are learning English writing must
pay attention to this linguistic phenomenon. Actually Chinese syntactic
features in the mind of students have the impact on the learning of
English.
2. grammatical problem
2.1 agreements
Eg1(false)Whether one enjoys or resents advertisements, we are actually
bomb-barded with it every hour of the day.
(true)Whether we enjoy or resent advertisements, we are actually
bombarded with them every hour of the day.
Eg2.(false)The eating habit of Chinese people have changed
dramatically in the past decade.
(true)The eating habit of Chinese people has changed dramatically
in the past decade.
Review: The inconsistency between subject and predicate is a
common problem with Chinese student’s writing, especially the subject is
the third person singular, for in Chinese there is no consistency, and this
is a kind of relocation of negative in the process of language learning .
2.2 tense
Eg1.(false)Riding bicycles had more advantages than taking a bus.
(true)Riding bicycles has more advantages than taking a bus.
Eg2.(false)Now more and more people were fond of traveling.
(true)Now more and more people are fond of traveling.
Review: The misuse of tense in writing is a very prominent problem,
mainly manifested in the arbitrary use of the past tense. The reason is that
Chinese relied mainly on the adverb to indicate tense, not through the
reflectional changes of verbs. Therefore, the students use past tense to
refer to any time.
2.3 voice
Eg1 (false)Opportunities are belonged to those who work hard.
(true)Opportunities belong to those who work hard.
E.g. 2(false)Great changes are being taken place now.
(true)Great changes are taking place now.
Review: There are two main reasons for misuse of voice . One is that
students are not clear about the distinction between the transitive verb or
intransitive verb. Second, students fail to master five basic types in
English Sentence.
2.4 participle(past present)
Eg1 (false)Comparing with other countries, China pays little attention to
the energy problem.
(true)Compared with other countries, China pays little attention to the
energy problem.
Eg2 (false) Looking at the top of the hill, the school is large.
(true)Seen at the top of the hill, the school is large
Solution : In order to address the mistakes above, teachers should
concentrate time and energy on comparing the differences between
English conjunction and pronoun and those of Chinese. By citing
examples, focus training, teachers should ask students to practice as much
as possible to avoid the mistakes.
3.English coined by Chinese students
Chinese English is a prevalent phenomenon in the English writing .The
fundamental reason is that Chinese students as English learners are lack
of knowledge about English language, so they put English stuffing into
the model of Chinese language and translate Chinese into English word
for word. For example, they express "fighting a person's face" as "hit
somebody's face" (should be "hit somebody in the face "). Learners
should know that people of different races have different thinking model,
and that the totally equivalent two languages don’t exist.
Solution : In order to
deal with the Chinese English ,students should
gain more knowledge of English, contrast the similarities and differences
between two languages. Learners should also memorize amounts of set
phrases and expressions and put them into practice when write English
paper, adapting to the English habits.