Can Chinese Students Master Academic Writing in English? continued

SECOND DRAFT: PART 2

The ESL student encounters many more challenges than the native speaker.

Last week, we looked at choice of words and phrases. This week, we will look at use of singular and plural, prepositions, verb tenses, and running and spelling and grammar check.

1.  Check singular and plural, subject-verb agreement, and proper use of articles. 

• Make sure that plural nouns have the final “s”: 10 books, the students in the program.

•  Identify the noun/subject and the verb and make sure they agree. In most cases, the singular verb has an “s,” and the plural verb does not. Sometimes the subject and the verb are not immediately identifiable because they are separated by long descriptions or interjected phrases (ergo, the importance of keeping your writing clean and clear!). 

• Make sure you are using articles (a/an, the) when they are required. If the noun is singular, you need an article: “an essay,” “the word”; if it’s plural, an article is not required unless you are being specific or emphatic. So, “restaurants,” without the article is fine (“finding restaurants that are affordable”), but when you are being specific (“the restaurants that are most affordable”), you need the article.

2. Finding the correct preposition. 

The only way to learn prepositions is to memorize them. I still look up word combinations (e.g., is it “different than” or “different from”; “relationship to” or “relationship with”). The best way to make sure that you are using the correct preposition is to put it into your Internet browser. I do this often. Again, just as with determining the proper phrase, the correct answer is usually instantaneous. 

3. Next challenge: verb tenses. 

Here I am only offering the very basic rules for verb tenses. 

• The simple present verb is, of course, the easiest: “I write the essay.”

• The gerund (-ing ending) is probably more commonly used than the simple present. “I am writing the essay.” 

• The simple future tense is also fairly straightforward: “I will write the essay tomorrow” (“I am going to write the essay tomorrow” is more colloquial and thus should not be used in academic writing). 

• The past tense can be more complicated: “I wrote the essay yesterday” (simple past). But then there are many other variations: “The students had been writing (past perfect progressive) the essay, when the electricity went out” (simple past).” 

4.      Run a spelling and grammar check. 

Run a spelling and grammar check, which is available on all word processing programs. You may also wish to download the program “Grammarly,” which is a free app that identifies typographical and grammar errors and suggests correct usage.

Next week, final draft!