A Study On English Writing Strategies Employed By Non-english Majors

English writing is extraordinary useful and valuable as a communication way. Inrecent years, many universities have laid more emphasis on English writing. Writinghas a very important significance for English teaching. But research on the writingstrategy of second language is still not enough in China. Therefore, by conducting acomprehensive questionnaire of writing strategies and individual interview, this thesisaims to explore the general situation of non-English majors writing strategies so as togive implications to the practical writing learning and teaching.The present study aims to answer the following questions: firstly, what are thecharacteristics of writing strategies employed by the college students of non-Englishmajors? Secondly, what is the relationship between the subjects’ strategy use and theirEnglish writing proficiency? Finally, is there any difference in writing strategybetween male and female students? The subjects were98juniors from non-Englishmajors of a university in Jiangxi province. Of all these subjects,50were females and48were males. The results of the questionnaire were analyzed by SPSS andtriangulated by individual interviewsThe findings of the study are as follows:1).General speaking, the students employ writing strategies at a mediumfrequency level. Compensation strategies are most frequently used; metacognitive andcognitive strategies are the immediate follower and, socio-affective strategies are theleast used ones.2).Writing strategies are significantly positively correlated to proficiency(r=.486**>0.005), which indicates that the writing strategies are of great significance.Students can use plan, attention, revising and socio-affective strategies to enhancewriting ability, and effective writers have a systematic understanding of thosestrategies, utilize them more flexibly and have good writing habits.3).There is not significant difference in writing strategy between male andfemale.Some implications about writing learning and teaching have been elicited. Firstly,writing strategies instruction is in need for the students to realize the systematicwriting strategies and to utilize them more flexibly. Secondly, cooperative writinglearning should be encouraged. Thirdly, English mode of thinking can be used toimprove English writing skills.