Problems and Solutions in Response to Postgraduates’ English Academic Writing

Abstract

As we all know that many graduate students need to finish academic writing in English. Research on English academic writing has attracted increasing scholarly attention. However, there are few breakthroughs in the research on postgraduates' English academic writing in China, and few studies have focused on the writing difficulties and solutions of postgraduates of English majors. In this study, we mainly used a questionnaire and interview to explore 19 postgraduates of English major about their perceptions of factors affecting their writing, challenges encountered in the writing process, and coping strategies. Results indicate that: 1) all the postgraduates were clear about the steps and contents of an academic thesis, but more than half of them would write their thesis in Chinese first and then translate it into English; 2) many factors were important for English academic writing, and the most important of which were logic, good ideas, etc. The important factors affecting their writing were inappropriate expressions, the shortage of writing training, vocabulary and sentence form, etc.; 3) Postgraduates encountered many difficulties and challenges in the process of English academic writing, and the literature review and the selection of the topic were considered to be the most difficult parts. To cope with these difficulties, they adopted many solutions, such as reading more literature and imitating published papers.