Developing formal writing skills

[OneEye]

As I mentioned here, I'll be working on writing with my tutor over the next several months in order to get ready for the MA program I'm hoping to start next fall. My term papers will of course all be in Chinese, and people in the department have recommended that I work heavily on my writing skills between now and then. The type of writing we're focusing on will of course be academic, but I will do some other writing as well.

This is not something I've ever put much effort into. I have some understanding of the conventions of this type of writing through exposure in the books and papers I've been reading, but I've never actually worked on it. One thing I've been thinking about doing is summarizing chapters of the books I'm reading in my field and having my tutor mark it up and then explain the corrections, then go back and make edits, etc. I also plan to work on my application and research plan for the MA program in a similar manner.

I personally don't really want to use lang-8 because you never know who's making the corrections. My tutor understands academic writing, being a graduate student herself, as well as a professional translator, so I trust her opinion on these matters. She's never taught before though, which I view as a positive because she doesn't view herself as "the teacher" and me as "the student," which keeps us more on an even playing field, but at the same time makes for uncertainty in how to go about this.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be very much published in Taiwan for teaching foreigners how to write. I bought the mainland-published Expressions of Written Chinese (recommended ressions-of-written-chinese/'>here), and I'm also working through The Independent Reader 《從精讀到泛讀》, which isn't a writing textbook, but which does point out many of the constructions used in formal writing throughout the book. I'd love to hear any other recommendations you guys may have.

I'm hoping this thread can foster some good discussion developing writing skills, because that's something that doesn't get very much air time (or publishing dollars). What worked, what didn't work, what resources can you recommend, etc.

[Scoobyqueen]

Post deleted

[Kenny同志]

“情况”的量词是“种”

The statement is not accurate because 個 is fine too, e.g. 你說的這個情況確實很嚴重.

In fact, 種 as in the sense of "kind" or "sort" should be used sparingly. I've seen people use such expressions as 一種寂寞, 一種衝動 in which 一種 doesn't make any sense at all, at least to me. You can even leave out 這種 in the corrected sentence.

[Kenny同志]

Sorry for the off-topic post. Now back on topic.

People learn fast when they are aware of their errors so besides a book to follow, it's very important to have a competent tutor go over your writing and correct the mistakes. It's good you've done this.

Since I don't have a tutor, I've been back-translating Chinese news stories on the Wall Street Journal as a way to improve my English writing skills. So far, so good.