ERROR ANALYSIS ON THE INTRODUCTION OF ENGLISH ACADEMIC WRITING BY CHINESE NON-ENGLISH MAJOR POSTGRADUATES AND WAYS TO IMPROVE THEIR WRITING ABILITIES

Abstract

The ability to write English academic paper is a basic language skill that postgraduate students should master. This article was intended to analyze the errors in English academic writing made by Chinese non-English major postgraduates and find out ways to improve students’ writing abilities. The author selected one class randomly from the first-year postgraduate students of non-English major at North China Electric Power University (NCEPU). The class consisted 48 students and all of them could participate on the research. This study used quantitative and qualitative research methods in analyzing the data. The instrument of this research was iWrite 2.0 (an online system for automatically correcting English papers) correction and then the author collected the types and frequency of the errors. According to the results of iWrite 2.0, the author collected the error types into the following eight categories: subject-predicate disagreement, run-on sentences, missing conjunctions, incorrect use of nouns in singular and plural forms, verb tense errors, misuse of determiners, punctuation problems, and spelling errors. The results of this research showed that the main reason for the errors was the difference between the Chinese and English ways of thinking. In response, the author proposed three ways to help students improve their academic writing skills, namely, enhancing students’ basic knowledge and application ability of English, improving students’ subject knowledge and professional ability, and giving feedback from teachers.