A Study On The Characteristics Of The Ending Part In Chinese College Students’ English Argumentative Composition

As we can see, argumentative compositions are tested in various kinds of English proficiency tests, which says that it plays a very important role in English learning. A well-written ending can sublimate the theme and enlighten the readers. However, it is found out that students don’t pay much attention to the ending part, which leads to a lot of mistakes and a big mess in the ending part. And the scholars domestic have made little achievements on the ending part. As a result, it is urgent for us to make some studies on writing and its related subjects.This study takes the ending part in Chinese college students’ argumentative compositions as the research subject, the quantitative research as the methodology, so as to reveal the characteristics displayed by the ending part, to further explain the reasons, and to propose suggestions finally. The400compositions are randomly selected from4topic compositions written by50English majors and50non-English majors. Through the analysis, it is mainly focused on the linguistic features of the ending part, including the distribution of the ending part, the length of the ending part, the four moves, the generalization degree, the sentence mode, sentence pattern, the distribution of high-frequency word, low-frequency word and the conjugate, word repetition and word transform.On discourse level, it mainly discusses the general distribution, the length, the moves of the ending part and the relationship between the generalization degree and the quality of the whole passage. We discover that most of the compositions contain the ending parts, but many of which are far from well-written in structure and content. On syntax level, this study is mainly focused on the discussion on sentence mode and sentence pattern. In sentence mode, we deal with declarative sentence, interrogative sentence, exclamatory sentence, imperative sentence,"there be" and "have/has" sentence; in sentence pattern, we deal with simple sentence, compound sentence and complex sentence. Through analysis, we find out that most of the students tend to use uncomplicated expressions, such as declarative sentence or simple sentence and that they are influenced by the mother tongue more or less. What’s more, through comparative analysis, it is found out that the students at high level can produce more colorful and more native sentences then those at low level. On lexical level, this paper is focused on the high-frequency word, low-frequency word, the conjugate, word repetition and word transform. Comparatively analyzed, it is discovered that the frequency of the high-frequency word, low-frequency word and the conjugate appeared in compositions of high level is higher than those in low level. At the same time, the compositions of high level cover more transformed words, while those of low level cover more duplicated words.Finally, some suggestions are proposed for teaching writing in the future. We should build up students’awareness of discourse, catch more attention to the writing of the ending part and practice more. Meanwhile, we should develop students’reading ability, and increase their reading materials. Through accumulating language points constantly, the student can get their writing ability improved finally.