There are too many difficulties in writing in my university classes, especially in class of EG1471. If I address on all the difficulties I’ve ever met, the 300 to 400 words limit would be obviously not enough. Here, I want to share my thought regarding to the difficulties in English writing, which, from my point of view, is the essential of all the other difficulties I’ve encountered.
English is my second language and mandarin is my mother tongue, which suggests that mandarin is my default thinking language. Having been through a lot of trial and errors, I attribute my difficulties in academic writing to the incomplete process of switching default language, which, in my case, is from Chinese to English. And I try to distinguish the process into three stages.
Stage One: Mother Tongue is the default language
In this stage, we can automatically think deeply, often concern and comment on governmental decisions, international situation and some other social issues. The practical way of express the same idea is translation, with the help of dictionaries and online interpretation service. Ideas generated in this way are insightful, and can represent the maturity and thinking ability of a student. However, the translated expression may not be accepted or fully understood by native English speakers.
Stage Two: No Default Language
Trying to think and write directly in English while the default thinking style is still following the Chinese way. — It’s a necessary process in which no language is dominating; every non-English educated student would face this stage when writing in English. Limited by the vocabulary, thoughts generated in this stage would be less insightful and the phrases used tend to be less advanced. Writings in this period seem to be more like a primary student trying to present serious social issue with primary-level vocabulary. This is the most difficult stage to get through that thinking ability compromises with limited language skills, which is the stage I am now in.
Stage Three:
The default language transformation is complete. Tough time in struggling between Chinese and English is forever gone. Once the process is finished, we are able to generate ideas in English as we were using Chinese in stage one. This allows us to be thoughtful and more importantly, allows us to accurately express our thoughts as if we were using our mother tongue. Though, the way of achieving this process is even tougher.
Now I’m struggling in the second stage, which means, I can think neither totally in Chinese nor in English. Sometimes, when I’m tittering in thinking and writing out a sentence without the assistance of Chinese, it always turned out that my sentence structure follows the Chinese structure, which is frustrating. Consequently, my mind gets blanked when generating ideas in university classes.
For me, try to immerge in the English society as soon as possible is the most efficient way. For instance, enlarge the vocabulary; study the logical thinking modes of native English speakers etc. I'm trying towards that.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Reflection on my top three Grammar Mistakes
The top three grammar mistakes that bother me most are Subject and verb agreement, wrong word and improper use of passive voice. Though I know that these mistakes are my demises, I could not help making such mistakes again and again. It’s my first time to systematically analyze my grammar mistakes and hope this can help me avoid making those errors again. At least, hope they won’t appear in this journal.
Subject and verb Agreement
This is the most commonly encountered during my writing process. The most obvious example is the title of my writing assignment draft two. In my writing assignment, the title is written as “Is Hybrid Electric Vehicles the perfect solution of mitigating global warming?” However, it is “are” that was supposed to be at the beginning, as the subject is “HEVs”. The SVA mistake could have been avoided if only I pay more attention to clarifying the real subject, which, though is difficult for me, I will try my best to keep an eye on it.
Wrong word
The WW mistake is common among students who are not from English speaking countries. Many people may have the same experience with me that when we are generating ideas to write something complex, we usually use the most convenient or the most familiar language to think and write, and then translate it to English. Finding words with the same meaning is not tough work. However, choosing a proper one from piles of candidates is nerve-racking. I still remember when I was writing an essay about detective, I made a huge mistake and was laughed at for a long time. In Chinese, the meaning of detective and detector are similar, both mean investigating. In my essay, the sentence is” Sherlock Holmes is a detector”. Actually, detective refers to a person while detector refers to a machine! Thus, in my essay, Mr. Holmes became a machine. This reminds me to check the context of words first and try to select a more proper one.
Improper use of passive voice
In order not to always start a sentence with “I”, “they” or avoid monotonous subjects, we need to use passive voice to give some variety. In my case, passive voice means
negative marks. I know it’s good for me to use them but I often forget the relationship between object and subject and the result is a wrong or confusing sentence. For instance, in my writing assignment two, there is a sentence that “With the voice of developing a harmonic and sustainable society, environment related issues become the focal point to be take care of.” Here, I got the active and passive role upside down and the correct form should be “to be taken care of”. Writing down the subject and object may be the easiest way to avoid such mistakes.
Grammar mistakes are unquenchable but if we pay more attention on details, those mistakes can be reduced to a relatively low level. That’s what I’ve retained from my bloody experience.
Subject and verb Agreement
This is the most commonly encountered during my writing process. The most obvious example is the title of my writing assignment draft two. In my writing assignment, the title is written as “Is Hybrid Electric Vehicles the perfect solution of mitigating global warming?” However, it is “are” that was supposed to be at the beginning, as the subject is “HEVs”. The SVA mistake could have been avoided if only I pay more attention to clarifying the real subject, which, though is difficult for me, I will try my best to keep an eye on it.
Wrong word
The WW mistake is common among students who are not from English speaking countries. Many people may have the same experience with me that when we are generating ideas to write something complex, we usually use the most convenient or the most familiar language to think and write, and then translate it to English. Finding words with the same meaning is not tough work. However, choosing a proper one from piles of candidates is nerve-racking. I still remember when I was writing an essay about detective, I made a huge mistake and was laughed at for a long time. In Chinese, the meaning of detective and detector are similar, both mean investigating. In my essay, the sentence is” Sherlock Holmes is a detector”. Actually, detective refers to a person while detector refers to a machine! Thus, in my essay, Mr. Holmes became a machine. This reminds me to check the context of words first and try to select a more proper one.
Improper use of passive voice
In order not to always start a sentence with “I”, “they” or avoid monotonous subjects, we need to use passive voice to give some variety. In my case, passive voice means
negative marks. I know it’s good for me to use them but I often forget the relationship between object and subject and the result is a wrong or confusing sentence. For instance, in my writing assignment two, there is a sentence that “With the voice of developing a harmonic and sustainable society, environment related issues become the focal point to be take care of.” Here, I got the active and passive role upside down and the correct form should be “to be taken care of”. Writing down the subject and object may be the easiest way to avoid such mistakes.
Grammar mistakes are unquenchable but if we pay more attention on details, those mistakes can be reduced to a relatively low level. That’s what I’ve retained from my bloody experience.
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