TypesofErrorsinEnglishWritingandSolutions

程曄

【Abstract】The writing is difficult for most of the students because it calls for that the students have a large mount of vocabularies， a good sense of grammar， the good order thinking ability and so on. Of course it is also a problem for me. Why is English writing so important for us students？For personal needs， firstly it is necessary for us to get a good mark in every kind of English tests. Furthermore it can make us master English better. For social demands， many companies call for office clerks writing skills. So I am ready to improve my writing skills. In this paper， we study types of errors in English writing and solutions.

【Key words】English Writing； Types of Errors

1. Error Analysis of English Writing

1.1 Run-On Sentence

Before the expansion of postgraduate recruitment， the mistakes in student exercises are mainly concentrated on the expression （idiomatic usage） aspect and morphological aspect （sees introduction）. But after the expansion， their mistakes are more prominent in the syntactic structures. For example：Regardless of the sentence structure， some students just write their paragraphs like the stream of consciousness， and the often case is that there is only one sentence in a whole para-graph：“In my opinion， this will make the pharmacy market chaotic for every factories produce its product and they expect to sell them as quickly as possible， of course， in high price， however， the society does not only own such a factory， therefore， they take actions like offering a trip to the doctor who prescribe their drugs， in one hand， it is just a manner to improve the sales， standing with the factories， I may prove it to be right， in an other hand， if every ones do like that， it will bring serious consequences such as the bad drugs entering the pharmacies， to do harm the patients' profile and so on， thus， from a big view， I sincerely wish the government take some actions to stop such wind of marketing the pharmacies， to most aspects is worth doing.”After improvement：“In my opinion， this will make the pharmacy market chaotic， for all pharmaceutical factories must produce their own products and they expect to sell them as quickly as possible， of course， in high price. However， the society owns not only one such factory.Some of them would try every means to remain competitive such as offering a free trip to the doctor who prescribes their drugs. Ont he one hand， this is just a way to promote the sales， favoring only the factories， not the society and people；and on the other hand， if every pharmaceutical factory does like that， it will bring about serious problems such as the bad drugs entering the pharmacies， harming the patients' benefits. Thus， at any rate， I sincerely wish the government take worthwhile measures to stop such a kind of immoral marketing.”The percentage of this kind of mistakes （Run-On Sentence）is 7.1%， counting 446 cases.endprint

1.2 Sentence Fragments

Just worrying about the danger would reach when they were made by the students， discovering obvious difference between errors made by the students in previous grades. Digging into the root of the difference has revealed that in the undergraduate stage the curriculum showed some flaws， serving as some useful materials for the course reform.

In appearance， there seems to be two subjects （“danger”， “they”） and two predicates （“would reach”，“were sleeping”） in the above English， so， the student mistakes it for a sentence. Actually， it is only a sentence fragment. The errors caused by such difficulty in understanding the sentence structure accounts for 6.1%， namely 384 cases.

2. Solutions

The statistical analysis of the errors in the English writing exercises made by non-English major postgraduates has revealed the fact that in the undergraduate stage the "Middle School English" curriculum showed the following flaws：（1） Massive multiple choice question training in the test-oriented education causes the imbalance between students' active glossary and inactive glossary；（2） The basic syntax knowledge flaw results in the incorrectness of their sentence structures；（3） Paragraph and discourse writing ability has been insufficiently developed.This research only selects source materials from 6287 errors in 1048 English writing exercises made by 131 non-English major postgraduates， so it certainly has some limitation， cannot represent the overall situation of the national "Middle English" teaching. But these 131 students come from every corner of the country， and simultaneously this research also provides some source materials for the improvement of English teaching for non-English major postgraduates in the nation.

References：

[1]Murray Donald.The Makers Eye：Revising Your Own Manuscripts.新編英語(yǔ)教程5[M].上海外語(yǔ)教育出版社，2008.

[2]Wolff，Jurgen.Your Writing Coach：From Concept to Character，F(xiàn)rom Pitch to Publication[M].Nicholas Brealey Publishing，2007.

[3]Gardon，Taylor.A Students Writing Guide：How to Plan and Write Successful Essays[M].Cambridge University Press，2009.endprint