Problems On Linking Words In College English Writing

Problems on linking words commonly exist in College English writing, and decrease the quality of English writing. Not only do these problems concern the use of linking words on the surface, but they also reflect the thinking mode of the writer in essence.What is the definition of linking words in this thesis? According to Chalker, a British grammarian, linking words include conjunctions and connectors. The former refer to those which are notional grammatically (that is an exception) and used to link two or more clauses functionally; the latter refer to those which are notional grammatically and used to link two or more sentences or paragraphs functionally.The author of this thesis probes into the usage of linking words in 110 English compositions by juniors from Business English Department, Jiujiang University, and finds out that there are usually four categories of linking problems in College English writing, i.e. underuse, overuse, wrong use and monotonous use of linking words. The four kinds of problems can be analyzed in greater detail. For example, underuse of linking words includes lack of linking words between clauses, between sentences, and between paragraphs; overuse of linking words consists of overuse of and, overuse of compound sentences, overuse of linking words in paragraph, and others; wrong use of linking words concern wrong use of linking words similar in form while different in meaning, wrong writing of linking words; wrong use of linking words because of wrongly understanding the logic relation between the linked parts, and others. As far as monotonous use of linking words, the conclusion is backed up by statistic data from the 110 compositions.Then the author explores further the causes for these problems, and find out three, i.e. inadequate logic thought, transfer of the Chinese language and poor English, all of which can be further classified into more concrete sorts. Take transfer of the Chinese language for example, it concludes transfer of parataxis, a character...