Improving Chinese writing skills when studying alone

[DanWang]

Hi! I am hoping that whoever sees this post, as long as they love Chinese, can share a few tips on how to improve writing in Chinese when studying alone. I myself is trying to improve my written Chinese but find it hard and inconvenient when without the guidance of an instructor. What are good reading materials to study for this purpose? Is there a good routine that one should go through everyday to improve most efficiently? 

[skylee]

I would think that reading and writing a lot (like everyday) would help. What do you read? How often and what do you write?

There are sites where people are willing to comment on language learners' writing. I can't remember them but I am sure other members can provide you with this information.

[Meng Lelan]

I go through a daily routine that begins with Skritter to maintain my ability to handwrite Chinese characters then I pick a passage from a book (maybe three or four sentences) and memorize by writing it out on paper not computer. 

[li3wei1]

Are you talking about character production (remembering how to write individual words and characters), or writing as in producing sentences to express original ideas? Lang-8.com and italki.com are both websites where you can post your writing and native speakers will give you comments and corrections.

[skylee]

Oh!

It never crossed my mind that the OP could be asking about writing individual characters ... the title says "Chinese writing skills" ...

[xh207hi]

Any other ideas? I am interested in improving writing skills while studying myself as well, but I don't really have anything I want to write about, I need some tasks So, do you think, rewriting a Chinese passage would help? (@Meng Lelan)

Or do you know any materials, focusing on improving writing skills, like stated in the original post?

[DanWang]

Hi all! I am talking about writing Chinese articles, not individual characters. I am looking for ways to improve fluidity and precision in writing paragraphs. Sometimes I feel awkward expressing complicated ideas and thoughts in writing and occasionally in speech. I am not really talking about how to write individual characters because I think it is more mechanical in improvement and involves less creative technique. So in other words, I am looking for creative ways to boost essay-writing skills. 

[skylee]

So you should read and write a lot. What do you read? And what and how often do you write?

Consider using the websites mentioned at #4.

[DanWang]

@skylee

 

The question should not be what I read but what I should read. What are works that will be of value to furthering my mandarin expertise? My top priority of goals goes to learning formal writing as in professional contexts—resume, business email, job application...

[OneEye]

Some books I've found useful:

 

馮勝利：漢語書面用語初編 Expressions of Written Chinese

Vivian Ling: 從精讀到泛讀 The Independent Reader

 

You could also look for a book on 應用文.

 

Apart from that, the way to get better at writing is to imitate good Chinese writers. Whenever you read something, mark interesting turns of phrase, eloquent expressions, etc. and come back to them later, putting them in Anki or something like that. Pay close, thoughtful attention to what you're reading and your writing will benefit. Find a native speaker to meet with occasionally, write something, and have them correct it. Make sure they know that you want them to treat it as though a native speaker was writing it, not a foreigner, otherwise you'll get too much "已經很好了" and not enough useful correction.

 

This all depends on your level, though. You're not going to write well if you don't read well yet. 

[gato]

You'll want to get this book by Yu Feng, as it's one of the few good books in this area:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/9379-book-on-formal-chinese-writing/

A Learners' Handbook of Modern Chinese Written Expressions (Paperback)
by Yu Feng 

 

Sometimes I feel awkward expressing complicated ideas and thoughts in writing and occasionally in speech.

 

Certainly getting your reading up to par should be a priority.  You didn't say what kind of reading you usually.  Most people's competence in writing lag behind their reading.  If your goal is to be able to write clearly and fluently about complicated subject matters, then you'll at least need to be able to comfortably read materials that are complicated.

 

These threads below are not directly on point, but might still be of interest to you:

 

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/38055-advice-for-abc-on-improving-chinese-to-business-level-in-2-3-yrs/?hl=caixin#comment-285877

Advice for ABC on improving Chinese to business level in 2-3 yrs?

 

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/36343-strategy-to-relearn-reading-for-heritage-learner/?hl=caixin#comment-270847

Strategy to relearn reading for heritage learner

 

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/1367-chinese-style-vs-english-style/

Chinese style vs. English style

[stivb]

Best thing I have done is join the lang-8 website (lang-8.com) basically you can write something - and within an hour (sometimes within minutes) you have loads of corrections by native speakers.

 

Steve

[Ruben von Zwack]

Thanks Gato, I just secured myself a used copy of that book at a really good price online.

 

This topic just reminded me of how I am always frustrated when I attempt to write even a short email in Chinese, and realise I probably sound like a child.

[gato]

Good. You'll enjoy it, I think. It's very well done and still one of the few books of its kind after all these years. There are many books that teach how to write English well (such as Strunk & White's "Elements of Style" and Joseph Williams' "Style"), but there are preciously few such books for Chinese and none that can come close to the quality of the books for English.

[gato]

In all the years that I've been looking, “怎样写作” by Ye Shengtao comes the closest to the "Elements of Style"/"Style" mentioned above.  Ye was a famous educator and novelist.  He authored some of the first modern grade-school textbooks for Chinese in the 1930s.  

http://www.amazon.cn/%E8%B7%9F%E5%A4%A7%E5%B8%88%E5%AD%A6%E8%AF%AD%E6%96%87-%E6%80%8E%E6%A0%B7%E5%86%99%E4%BD%9C-%E5%8F%B6%E5%9C%A3%E9%99%B6/dp/B0011C2XMY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1390354407&sr=8-2&keywords=%E6%80%8E%E4%B9%88+%E5%86%99+%E6%96%87%E7%AB%A0

跟大师学语文:怎样写作 

叶圣陶

 

It's worth pondering why few others since have even attempted to write such books since.  Most books on Chinese writing (both those published in Taiwan and China) are either geared to exam-taking or office work.  They provide formulas on how to get higher scores on writing exams or standard templates for writing letters and reports for work, but they don't provide a general guide on how to write better.  One reason is that such functional writing books on how to do better on exams and how to do what's needed for work sell much better.  Another is that a general guide to better writing is much harder to write.  Samples writing and formulas are not enough.  You'll have to analyze what makes one piece of writing better than another.  Few are willing or able to do that type of analytical work.  

 

The two articles comparing Chinese writing style to English writing (pulled from the "Chinese Style vs English Style" thread mentioned above) are worth reading.  Chinese writing traditionally tend to be more vague, use long strings of adjectives, have too many famous quotes, and focus more on emotions than reasoning.  Chinese students often have a hard time when they need to write English essays for exams such as IELTS or GRE that expect a more analytical type of writing.  

 

http://review.jcrb.com.cn/ournews/asp/readNews.asp?id=115977

中国语言、思维与法律 

2002年10月10日

 

http://www.neworiental.org/publish/portal0/tab1059/info354209.htm

从文化的情智差异看高考作文命题嬗变

2009-06-26 07:51:39 

[Ruben von Zwack]

 

You'll want to get this book by Yu Feng, as it's one of the few good books in this area:

http://www.chinese-f...hinese-writing/

A Learners' Handbook of Modern Chinese Written Expressions (Paperback)

by Yu Feng

 

I'm already holding it in my hands - that was one fast seller! - and want to add two things:

 

- there is a Kindle version available on Amazon for only €3.22 (~ USD 5.-)

- the preview of the Kindle version on Amazon is in Traditional. I don't know what this means (did they make both a Simplified and a Traditional edition? The cover image is the same one as for the print edition and shows Simplified characters.), just thought it may be interesting to those here who learn Traditional.