| In TEM-4, the writing takes 25 points totally, but in 2009, its mean mark in the whole nation is only 16.91; that in comprehensive universities is 17.05; and that in Ningbo University is 17.07. More than 30% of 120877 examinees failed the writing examination. English majors are confronted with some problems with their writing skill development and many of their writing skills can hardly reach the requirements of The National Curriculum. From the recent researches, it is not known that what kind of problems students have in writing and the actual gap between their writing skill development and the requirements. Related researches seldom focus on this point, especially for empirical study. Therefore, the study provides an empirical description of students'writing skill development, in order to probe into the specific problems existing in the writings and dig out the reasons for hindering their English writing skills.The samples in this study refer to the paper and answer sheets of Comprehensive English IV Test of Grade 2007 of Ningbo University. The reason for selecting Grade 2007 is that these students have just taken part in the TEM-4 and have finished all the courses in the fundamental period of learning. Their writing skill development can be measured by The National Curriculum and The Guidelines for TEM-4. In using the methods of literature review and the samples analysis, the study divides the samples into three graded groups, aiming at finding what has hindered the students from the expected performance in writing after finishing the study in the fundamental phase, and what the reasons for the gap among three graded groups are.According to the definitions of the writing skill, as well as the its requirements in The National Curriculum and The Criteria for Evaluation of TEM-4 Writings, the research discusses the writing skill development of English major students from four lines of inquiry, namely, literal fluency, language accuracy, discourse cohesion and semantic logicality. In specific, literal fluency contains writing speed and literal revision. Language accuracy includes grammar, vocabulary, sentence patterns, and mechanics. Discourse cohesion consists of language cohesion and stylistic appropriateness. Semantic logicality includes arguments and the statement of ideas.After learning linguistic skills for two years, 98.15% students can finish the required 200 words fluently within 30 minutes in high ratio of correctness. In the sample writings, there are more mistakes in the three aspects of language accuracy. Generally, the average number of lexical, syntactic and mechanical mistakes is 7.02, in which the minimum number is 1 and the maximum one is 16. In each graded group, the numbers are respectively 6.08, 8.66 and 10.6, which indicate that the overall development of students'language skill stays at a relative low level with a lot of mistakes. These errors are the language points that are required to be mastered by The National Curriculum. In language cohesion, students have obtained the cohesive device, but freely change the subject from"I/we"to"you", which results in the weakness of cohesion. Besides, they like to use advocacy language to appeal to others and spoken language to express their ideas, which result in problems of the style. Logic problem is also one of the reasons for the low marks. The gap among three groups is obvious, which reaches 30% for the ratio of mistakes.In conclusion, after learning for two years in university, English majors can easily express their ideas and finish the written work in a smooth way with proper cohesive devices, but their mechanics, style, logicality, especially vocabulary and syntax contain much of the problems and do not reach the requirements of The National Curriculum. These problems should be brought into forefront by administrators, teachers and students of English major through taking practical measures in teaching and learning process of the writing.
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