My Difficulties in University Writing

During the whole semester, I have been blessed with lots of opportunities to practice university writing. Every writing task has been a struggle in arduous efforts yet with unsatisfactory results. I am still struggling and I am going to struggle with wiring for the rest of my college life or even my life.

One obvious excuse is that I have learned English as foreign language whose target is to pass English exams through education in China. However, it is absolutely not fair nor objective to attribute my troubles to this factor. I have been in an English-learning atmosphere for nearly one year and there is enough space on this campus for me to improve English. Putting aside the problem of language itself, I am still trapped by the process of formal writing, even in my mother tongue. More serious reason goes to my stubborn attitude.

Writing in university class further requires formality, logic, clarity and order, at which I am weakest at. Sometimes, I would rather believe I am born to think in a random way. Though I love the feeling of expressing myself in inspiration and freedom, in the form of language, this emanative habit also gives me huge problems faced with all the writing requirements at a university level. Step by step, I have been forcing myself to conform to “academic writing”, painstakingly hoping someday I am able to accustom to being responsible for my writing, that is to say, not to write for my own pleasure or will, but to write to serve a certain purpose or take on a particular task in a responsible, strict, logical, formal, acceptable, sensible, reader-friendly, clear and conventional “university” manner. To achieve this ambition requires a total change of mindset. I have realized my writing now has some assigned roles supposed to perform, figuratively speaking, roles of presenters or reporters whose findings, discoveries, research results are waiting to be approved or acknowledged, and I must bear these roles in heart all the time. Otherwise, I will easily forget the identity of writing as assignment, and thus easily digress from the designated range within which my topics are supposed to be confined.

One pattern I have often followed in the semester turns out unwise yet persistent: the more time I spend on research, the more unsure where my point lies in I feel. Threatened by approaching deadline, I start writing somewhere I am a bit confident in. The sad truth is such intuition always leads nowhere, and I have to start from scratch again. It seems the research on various sources limits and directs my writing, instead of making use of the information to support my point of view. The whole process of writing inevitably becomes passive, helpless, miserable and struggling. My current ability to handle a large amount of information is rather insufficient for university research. This ability can hardly be developed fast in any technique. Only through accumulated experience day by day, it can grow to need the meets of university writing. I should collect my determination and patience.


Patience, with frustration in the air, is knocking down the doors, because determination won't take no for an answer.

grammar mistake series

My deep-rooted grammar mistake series are listed as following.
Corrections are made in ( ).

1. Modal
Eg1. Dr Jane has found that the development of new pathways should (might/may could) be the key.
Eg 2. It should (would) also be true for other people who have strong habit(habits) towards (the) existing practice.
 A projection or prediction should use low possibility: may/might/ could

Possibility: Low moderate high
may/might/ could < should < must

Stronger certainty or human intention: will / would

Wether sth is a good idea, advisability: should (an advisable did not occur in the past: should have done) , ought to

Necessity : must , have to

Ability: can, could, could have done( a past situation in which the ability for something to happen existed, but the reverse happened)

2. Subject - verb agreement
Eg1. Aphasia – communication problems caused by damage to the brain--- were (was) very common.
 The verb must agree with the head word of a noun phrase, rather than the part that acts as explanation


3. Articles: important to refer to the context
Eg 1. It should (would) also be true for other people who have strong habit(habits) towards (the) existing practice.
 A singular countable noun should never appear without any articles !!!
Specific reference: the
1. The noun is recognizable through shared knowledge.
2. Used after a general reference is made.
3. When the noun has been modified by an adjective phrase or clause: the suitability of using NEWater; in the vicinity of Washington DC
Nonspecific and generic reference: not identified as sth know, unique or familiar
1. a/an + singular countable noun: a large amount of, a thorough analysis of,
Eg. Cost an estimated $1.4bn
2. zero article+ plural countable noun: renewable power sources.
3. zero article + uncountable noun : drinking water; without doubt; throughout education

Eg2. the Endangered Species Act; the US; supply to the public; the HDB

Eg3. The highest mountain, the third factory, the main/chief/sole reason
Eg4. The particularly interesting aspect of
 the is always used with superlatives, ordinals and sole references
but comparative better use “a”: a more skyrocketing level; a higher requirement

4. Preposition phrases:
Eg1. Work in isolation
Eg2. It may not be considered as(delete) (a) new practice
=> No need prep in this case: consider sth sth/ adj.
Eg3. Bulid sth (from) scratch
Eg4. Add…to…; link… to…; akin (similar) to ; prefer…to..
Eg5 above approach
Eg6. At the entry point of
. one step IN that direction
. put into use
.spend… on…
5. Pronoun: important to understand the context
Eg1. The government want its(their) citizens to support it(them).
Eg.2 Spurred on by concerns that species and ecosystems may not survive such shifts, conservationists began to talk seriously about relocating species to help it adapt
 Some collective nouns need plural pronouns. important to understand the context
Eg3. … almost without they( them) realizing it
=> them should be used after preposition

6. Misuse/use of that, those
Eg1. That(This) is worrying because…
Eg2. mentioned for the first time : Those(delete) people who….
 That/those is used only to refer to the distant object. Generally in writing, this/ these is used to show STRONG coherence instead of that/ those to refer to what mentioned previously.
 However, in the structure of comparison ... than that/those… should be used.
Eg3. For instance, pages which( that) sell books or music…
 Only “That” to definite noun clause.

7. Verb tense
Eg1. In July, scientists have( delete) first proposed that… was likely to become…
 simple past tense to indicate that an action took place at a specific time in the past, especially with the signal word: first.
Eg2. Such difficulties are faced by up to a quarter of people who (have) suffered a stroke.
 Present Perfect to express an action or state that began in the past and continues to the present; occurred more than once in the past(specific times are not given). Signal words : until recently, several times, for 4 years now, just
Eg3. Nobody has( had) dreamt that cloning was possible in the 1990s.
Eg4. By the time …. the waters had reached…
=> Past perfect: an event that that was COMPLETED by a definite past time or before ANOTHER action was COMPLETED in the past. ( if stress the duration of an activity, perfect progressive) TWO actions involved <= consider CONTEXT

8. Verb forms:
Eg1. Perserve(d) soft tissues; promote the emerging technology
 Attention ! be careful. Understand the meaning
Eg2. The user has to follow the same rules and going ( go) through the same analysis, thus take ( taking) the same amount of time.
 Identify parallel structure: keep the verbs in the same form
 Thus + doing indicates subsequent results.

9. word forms:
Economic downturn --- an economical car

10. Transitions: so/hence ---but, however- moreover -- thus, therefore

Understand the CONTEXT!!!