An Investigation Into The Ending Part In Argumentative Compositions By Chinese Non-English Major Postgraduates

Nowadays, argumentative compositions are examined in various English tests. An eye-arresting ending part of a composition will impress the rater. Students do not pay adequate attention to the writing of the ending part. This study mainly investigated the common features of the ending part in the argumentative compositions written by Chinese non-English major postgraduates, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Forty-five compositions were collected from the first-year non-English major postgraduates in Huazhong University of Science and Technology and assessed by three English teachers. After the assessment the compositions were divided into two groups (G-group for highly-rated compositions and P-group for poorly-rated compositions) for statistical analysis according to the mean score (63.03). In quantitative analysis, the length, the moves and the modes of the ending part are taken into consideration. Based on this framework the variables that influence the ending part, or even the whole composition, were calculated and the data were analyzed statistically through the statistics program (SPSS 12.0). In the process of quantitative analysis, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were adopted to evaluate the relationship between the usage of the moves in the ending part and the quality of the argumentative compositions. From the results it can be found that students prefer a short ending part about 40 words in one ending paragraph. All the students who wrote an ending part in their compositions in this research make use of the obligatory ending move– consolidation in the ending part, while other three moves– marker, affirmation and close are not employed as often. Also students intend to finish their compositions in ending modes. From the angle of content, they like to use a brief comment, summary or conclusion in the ending part. In the aspect of structure, they prefer to use signal words and phrases to define an ending boundary. Only five students use some rhetoric techniques in the ending part. The statistics show that the higher the score of the argumentative composition is, the more ending moves the students employ. Through the analysis, the common features in the students'argumentative compositions are revealed and these can have some pedagogical implications for Chinese English learners in English argumentative writing.