An Analysis Of Cohesion Errors In English Abstract Writing

Based on cohesion theory and by using contrastive analysis and error analysis methodology, the thesis analyses the diversities in cohesion devices between English and Chinese abstracts from the perspective of reference, conjunction,substitution and ellipsis respectively. By random sampling, totally 30 papers written by graduate students are selected from CNKI from three different disciplines: automation, journalism, and economics. Taking their English abstracts as the data, the thesis carries out both quantitative and qualitative analysis of cohesion errors, records the frequency, rate of error, and the percentage of each cohesion error, describes their characteristics and concludes the sources. It proves that reference device is the weakest point for Chinese English learners, for the percentage of reference errors ranks the first among the four cohesion devices. Finally, directed towards the result of the research, the thesis puts forward some practical implications: the overuse and misuse of cohesion devices is an important factor that influences the quality of the abstract; the learning of cohesion is helpful to raise the learner's discourse awareness; and exact examples and writing practice are very essential in abstract writing classes.