improve chinese essay writing

Improve Chinese Essay Writing- A Complete How to Guide

  • Last updated: June 6, 2019
  • Learn Chinese

Writing can reflect a writer’s power of thought and language organization skills. It is critical to master Chinese writing  if you want to take your Chinese to the next level. How to write good Chinese essays? The following six steps will improve Chinese essay writing:

Before You Learn to Improve Chinese Essay Writing

Before you can write a good essay in Chinese, you must first be accustomed with Chinese characters. Unlike English letters, Chinese characters are hieroglyphs, and the individual strokes are different from each other. It is important to be comfortable with writing Chinese characters in order to write essays well in Chinese. Make sure to use Chinese essay writing format properly. After that, you will be ready to improve Chinese essay writing.

Increase Your Chinese Words Vocabulary

With approximately 100,000 words in the Chinese language, you will need to learn several thousand words just to know the most common words used. It is essential to learn as many Chinese words as possible if you wish to be a good writer. How can you enlarge your vocabulary? Try to accumulate words by reading daily and monthly. Memory is also very necessary for expanding vocabulary. We should form a good habit of exercising and reciting as more as we can so that to enlarge vocabulary. Remember to use what you have learned when you write in Chinese so that you will continually be progressing in your language-learning efforts.

Acquire Grammar,Sentence Patterns and Function Words

In order to hone your Chinese writing skills , you must learn the grammar and sentence patterns. Grammar involves words, phrases, and the structure of the sentences you form. There are two different categories of Chinese words: functional and lexical. Chinese phrases can be categorized as subject-predicate phrases (SP), verb-object phrases (VO), and co-ordinate phrases (CO). Regarding sentence structure, each Chinese sentence includes predicate, object, subject, and adverbial attributes. In addition, function words play an important role in Chinese semantic understanding, so try to master the Chinese conjunction, such as conjunction、Adverbs、Preposition as much as you can. If you wish to become proficient at writing in Chinese, you must study all of the aspects of grammar mentioned in this section.

Keep a Diary Regularly to Note Down Chinese Words,Chinese Letters

Another thing that will aid you in becoming a better writer is keeping a journal in Chinese. Even if you are not interested in expanding your writing skills, you will find that it is beneficial for many day-to-day tasks, such as completing work reports or composing an email. Journaling on a regular basis will help you form the habit of writing, which will make it feel less like a chore. You may enjoy expressing yourself in various ways by writing; for instance, you might write poetry in your journal. On a more practical side of things, you might prefer to simply use your journal as a way to purposely build your vocabulary .

Persistence in Reading Everyday

In addition to expanding your view of the world and yourself, reading can help you improve your writing. Reading allows you to learn by example; if you read Chinese daily, you will find that it is easier to write in Chinese because you have a greater scope of what you can do with the vocabulary that you’ve learned. Choose one favorite Chinese reading , Read it for an hour or 2,000 words or so in length each day.

Whenever you come across words or phrases in your reading that you don’t understand, take the time to check them in your dictionary and solidify your understanding of them. In your notebook, write the new word or phrase and create an example sentence using that new addition to your vocabulary. If you are unsure how to use it in a sentence, you can simply copy the sample sentence in your dictionary.

Reviewing the new vocabulary word is a good way to improve your memory of it; do this often to become familiar with these new words. The content of reading can be very broad. It can be from novels, or newspapers, and it can be about subjects like economics or psychology. Remember you should read about things you are interested in. After a certain period of accumulation by reading, you will greatly improve your Chinese writing.

Do Essay Writing Exercise on a Variety of Subjects

As the saying goes, “practice makes perfect.” In order to improve your China Essay Writing , you should engage in a variety of writing exercises. For beginners, you should start with basic topics such as your favorite hobby, future plans, favorite vacation spot, or any other topic that you can write about without difficulty.

For example :《我的一天》( Wǒ de yì tiān, my whole day’s life  ),《我喜欢的食物》( Wǒ xǐhuan de shíwù, my favorite food  ),《一次难忘的旅行》( yí cì nánwàng de lǚxíng, an unforgettable trip  ) etc.

Generally the writing topics can be classified into these categories: a recount of an incident,a description of something/someone, a letter, formulate your own opinion on an issue based on some quote or picture etc.

Takeaway to Improve Chinese Essay Writing

Keep an excel spreadsheet of 口语(Kǒuyǔ, spoken Chinese) –书面语(Shūmiànyǔ, written Chinese) pairs and quotes of sentences that you like. You should also be marking up books and articles that you read looking for new ways of expressing ideas. Using Chinese-Chinese dictionaries is really good for learning how to describe things in Chinese.

improve chinese essay writing

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Qin Chen focuses on teaching Chinese and language acquisition. She is willing to introduce more about Chinese learning ways and skills. Now, she is working as Mandarin teacher at All Mandarin .

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improve chinese essay writing

How to Become a Rockstar Chinese Writer

HSK 3 quiz

The importance of learning Chinese writing

Nowadays more and more people are beginning to   learn Chinese. For the most part, they are only focusing on learning how to speak Chinese. But concerning using this language, they also need to learn Chinese writing. Writing can reflect a writer’s power of thought and language organization skills. It is critical to master Chinese writing if you want to take your Chinese to the next level.

How to write good Chinese essays? The following five steps will improve your Chinese writing.

Become familiar with the Chinese Character Writing

In order to write a good Chinese essay, a fundamental step is to be familiar with Chinese characters. Chinese characters are different when you compare them to English letters. Chinese characters are hieroglyphs and   each stroke of a Chinese character is different from the next stroke. Familiarity of Chinese character writing is indispensable for anyone who wants to write nice Chinese essays.

Increase Your Vocabulary

The Chinese language includes 100,000 vocabulary words. If you want to just know the most used words you still need to learn several thousand words. A good writer needs to acquire as many words as possible. How can you enlarge your vocabulary? The best method is to listen, read and learn as much Chinese as possible. Don’t forget to apply what you have learned to your Chinese writing so that you can make continual progress.

Acquire Grammar and Sentence Patterns

Chinese grammar and   sentence patterns need to be acquired in order to improve your Chinese writing. Generally speaking, grammar consists of words, phrases and sentence structure. In terms of single words, Chinese words can be classified as lexical and functional words. In terms of phrases, Chinese phrases can be divided into CO (co-ordinate phrases), SP (subject-predicate phrases), and VO (verb-object phrases). In terms of sentence patterns, a Chinese sentence includes subject, predicate, object, adverbial, attribute and complementary. All of the above grammar points are necessary to study if you want to learn how to write in Chinese.

Persistence in Reading Everyday

Reading can broaden one’s horizon, and it can aid their writing. Reading everyday is a great way to help people learn how to have good Chinese writing ability. The content of reading can be very broad. It can be from novels, or newspapers, and it can be about subjects like economics or psychology. Remember you should read about things you are interested in. After a certain period of accumulation by reading, you will greatly improve your Chinese writing.

Do Writing Exercise on a Variety of Subjects

Practice makes perfect. Apply this proverb in Chinese writing. You need to do a lot of writing exercises to make your Chinese writing excellent. It has been suggested to begin with simple subjects, like personal hobbies, future dreams or anything else that can be understood easily. Students with more experience can write about more complicated topics like economics, politics and society. You should consider all these aspects, because doing writing exercise on a variety of subjects can help improve a person’s writing ability.

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should add some pictures to make it interesting!

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Hi Deynika. Thanks for your advice, we will try to add some interesting pictures in our posts.

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I love chinese writing and it is a lot interesting. Can you send a list of chinese words to improve vocabulary? Thanks

You can check out our blog, it introduces many interesting words, slang and useful expressions. In addition, we offer many video lessons to help you improve vocabulary. Hope it will help.

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The Guide to Writing Your First Mandarin Essay

When you want to be able to make writing your first Mandarin essay nice and easy, it pays to put plenty of thought and effort into the preparation. As the old saying goes ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail.’ To give you plenty of food for thought we’ve put together everything you need to know to get things moving. All you need to do is work through the following steps, and you’ll be submitting your essay in no time at all.

Check you understand the basics

There are so many things you have to think about when writing an essay, particularly when it’s not in your native language. But as with any cognitively demanding task, the process for getting started is always the same. Check you understand the following basics and you’ll be heading in the right direction:

  • Do you know what the question means?
  • Have you made a note of the final submission date?
  • Make sure you read some past examples to get a feel for what’s expected of you
  • Do you understand the question that has been set?
  • Do you know who you can talk to if you need advice along the way?
  • Are there any restrictions on the dialect you should be aware of?

Once you can write the answers to the above down on a single side of the paper, you are ready to tackle the main part of the problem: putting pen to paper.

Set aside time to write

The chances are that you’re not going to be able to pen the entire essay in a single sitting, and that’s okay. It’s nothing to be ashamed of or to worry about, and it’s natural that you need to work across multiple days when writing your first essay.

If you want to be able to make great progress, the most important thing is sticking to a routine. You need to have consistency in your application, and you need to be able to know when you are at your most productive. It’s no good staying up late one night and then carrying on early the next morning. You’d be far better off writing for the same amount of time but on two successive afternoons. Think about how your studies fit in with the rest of your daily life, and then choose the time that seems most appropriate. If you box it off and decide it’s only for writing, you’ll be in a great routine before you even know it.

Clear space so you can focus

As well as having time to write each day, you need a place to write too. The world is full of distractions (most of them are digital and social) so that means you’re going to want to keep yourself to yourself, and your phone in a different room. It might seem a little boring or uncomfortable at first, but you need to practice the habit of deep work. It’s what will allow you to create the most in the shortest time — ideal if you want to have plenty of time leftover to spend doing the other things that matter to you.

Have a daily word count in mind

Telling yourself that you want to write an essay today is one thing, but if you’re really going to push yourself to stick to your goal then you need to get quantitative. If you have a word count in mind that you need to hit, then it will prevent you from giving up and throwing in the towel the minute you start having to think and concentrate more than feels normal. Just like working out in the gym, it’s the temporary moments of extra effort that really drive the big differences. It’s when you’ll see the biggest improvement in your writing ability, and the lessons you teach yourself will stay with you for years to come. Ideal if you want to become a fluent Mandarin writer, as well as an engaging face-to-face speaker.

Read widely to provide context

When you’re immersed in an essay it can be all too easy to become blinkered and fail to pay attention to everything else that’s going on around you. Of course, you want to be focused on the task at hand, but you don’t want to be single-minded to the point of ignoring other great learning resources that are just a click away.

Reading widely is one of the best ways to improve your essay writing because it exposes you to techniques and approaches used by the best of the best. You’re not expected to be able to instantly write like a native speaker after an hour of reading. But what you will be able to do with consistent application is build up confidence and familiarity with written Mandarin. Over time this will reflect on the quality and depth of your writing as you gradually improve and take onboard lessons you’ve learned.

Take a break before you proofread

Last but not least, you need to remember that essay writing is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s all about taking the time to get things written before you hand them in, not racing through to try and finish on time. If you want to get the most out of your writing you need to take a day off between finishing your draft and proofing it. That way your brain will have had plenty of time to reflect on the work you’ve produced, and you’ll be able to spot many more little mistakes and places for improvement than you would if you proofed right away.

Final Thoughts

Writing Mandarin is a challenging task that will test your language skills and make you think hard about how to apply what you’ve learned so far. It might be slow going to begin with, but that’s great as it means you’re pushing your limits and building on your existing skills. If you want to be able to master Mandarin, you need to persevere and stay the course. Once you do, you’ll start to improve a lot faster than you expect.

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By Diana Adjadj | A Super Chineasian

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How to Write a Chinese Essay

Dec 16, 2020 | Guest Blogs & Media

The more essays you write, the better you get at communicating with Chinese. To write a good essay, you first have to reach a high language mastery level.

Do you admire the students who write seamless Chinese essay? If you do, then you should know that you too can achieve this level of proficiency. In the meantime, don’t be afraid to pay for your essay if you cannot write it on your own. Online academic writers are a resource each student should take advantage of.

Here are tips to help you get better at writing essays in Chinese.

How to Write a Chinese Essay | That's Mandarin Blog

Learn New Chinese Words

The key to communicating in a new language is learning as many words as you can. Take it upon yourself to learn at least one Chinese word a day. Chinese words are to essay writing what bricks are to a building. The more words you have, the better you get at constructing meaningful sentences.

Case in point, if you’re going to write a Chinese sentence that constitutes ten words, but you don’t know the right way to spell three of those words, your sentence might end up not making sense.

During your Chinese learning experience, words are your arsenal and don’t forget to master the meaning of each word you learn.

Read Chinese Literature

Reading is the most effective way of learning a new language. Remember not to read for the sake of it; find out the meaning of each new word you encounter. When you are an avid reader of Chinese literature, nothing can stop you from writing fluent Chinese.

In the beginning, it might seem like you’re not making any progress, but after a while, you will notice how drastically your writing will change. Receiving information in Chinese helps your brain get accustomed to the language’s sentence patterns, and you can translate this to your essays.

Be extensive in your reading to ensure you get as much as possible out of each article. Remember that it’s not about how fast you finish an article, but rather, how much you gain from the exercise.

Translate Articles from your Native Language to Chinese

Have you ever thought about translating your favorite read to Chinese? This exercise might be tedious, but you will learn a lot from it. The art of translation allows you to seamlessly shift from one language’s sentence pattern into the other. The more you do this, the easier it will be for your brain to convert English sentences into Chinese phrases that people can comprehend.

You can always show your Chinese professor your translations for positive criticism. The more you get corrected, the better you will get at translation. Who knows, you might actually like being a translator once you graduate.

Final Thoughts

Adrian Lomezzo | Guest Author at That's Mandarin Blog

by Adrian Lomezzo

Adrian  Lomezzo is a freelance writer. Firstly, he has been developing as a content manager and working with different websites, and the main goal of his was to develop the content making it in the first place. Secondly,  Adrian  had a big desire to help students and adults in self-development in this field and teach them to improve their skills. As a lover of traveling, he did not want to be in one place, and became a writer who could be closer to everyone, and share precious information from the corners of the world.

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Good composition phrases – A quick and easy guide

writing chinese compo using good phrases

Using good composition phrases in your Chinese compo  can definitely add that wow factor into your writing. However, what kind of words or phrases qualify as good?

In this Chinese composition writing guide, we’ll cover the following:

  • What is a good Chinese compo phrase
  • Examples of good words and phrases that you can use in your Chinese composition
  • Common mistakes that primary school kids make with these words and phrases
  • What to take note of when using these words and phrases

Let’s dive right in!

What makes a Chinese composition phrase good?

Many parents and students believe that the good phrases that primary school teachers are looking out for are Chinese idioms (成语 cheng yu), classic sayings (俗语 su yu / 谚语 yan yu) and bombastic expressions.

As an ex-MOE Chinese teacher, I can tell that this is true only to a certain extent.

Think about this. Why do we want to write these so-called good phrases in our compositions in the first place?

You just want your compositions to sound more expressive and interesting, right? But this doesn’t mean they have to be complicated.

Good Chinese compo phrases can also include:

  • Descriptive words and phrases
  • Transitional phrases

Since there is no standard set of good words and phrases, don’t bother memorizing those so-called “good phrases” that you find in your Chinese assessment books or guide books you see at Popular bookstore. They are good resources, but memorization is too painful.

Instead, try coming up with your own unique expressions!

Sure, this takes some imagination and training. However, if you can pull it off, your Chinese composition is going to stand out from the typical model composition writings and sound much more natural!

To help you get started, here are some examples of good phrases that you can use for writing your next Chinese composition.

Good Chinese phrases for composition writing

Here are some examples of good Chinese phrases (作文好词好句) that can describe the feelings of a character in your compo!

Chinese compo phrases for happy

Chinese compo phrases for sad.

  • 眼泪像断了线的珍珠似的

Phrases to describe anger in Chinese

Which of these Chinese compo word or phrases do you like?

Why should we use good words and phrases in our Chinese compositions

Good words and phrases can be helpful if you are the kind who finds yourself using the same words or phrases over and over again when you are doing your Chinese zuo wen.

Having a variety of Chinese compo phrases in your toolbox gives you the flexibility to express yourself a little differently each time.

Common misconception about good composition phrases

1. the more good phrases you use, the more impressive your compo is.

Many primary school children often make the mistake of memorizing these words and phrases without understanding.

That’s a big no-no.

Not only is memorizing painful, it kills the interest of learning in your primary school years.

If you want to use good phrases to improve your writing, you need to understand what the words and phrases mean so that you can use them correctly. Otherwise, your composition may end up sounding weird or even nonsensical.

So make sure that you really understand what each good phrase mean so that you can choose the most appropriate one to use for your writing. Being able to match the right phrase to the right situation is key to making your Chinese composition shine.

2. The more words and phrases in my compo, the merrier

Stuffing your Chinese composition with good phrases or idioms in every sentence isn’t going to impress your teachers and make you sound smart.

Instead, too many good words and phrases can make your story sound clunky and mechanical.

So here’s a tip! When it comes using descriptive words and phrases in your composition, less is more.

For example, if the characters in the story has not much emotions, focus on narrating the story clearly and be as descriptive as you can. Using the right transitional words instead of good words and phrases would help the flow of your composition.

However, if your main character is experiencing some very strong emotions, elaborate on that by using more descriptive words. You need to choose the right thing to focus on depending on the situation.

Acing your Chinese composition with/without good phrases

ace chinese composition

Throughout my decade of experience as a teacher and PSLE composition marker, I know that a good piece of writing isn’t graded based on how many good phrases are used.

Instead, it’s based on the quality of your content and your writing fluency. Being descriptive and expressive is a bonus, but if you can bring the same points across with simple words, you can ace your composition too!

So do be natural when writing, never use good phrases for the sake of using them because you have spent a lot of time learning. As long as your composition is a written in a clear and expressive manner, it’s possible to ace it!

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  • Useful Phrases

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How to improve your Mandarin Chinese writing

It takes practice to improve your Chinese writing skills, and you are already practicing if you are learning the Chinese language. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a writer, you put more ideas into your thoughts than you think. At the very least, you will send messages in Mandarin to your Chinese friends. If your work requires it, you can also write things such as emails, reports, presentations, newsletters, all in Mandarin Chinese.

Yet many people have difficulty with writing in Chinese, which seems to be a real challenge. However, learning various techniques to improve your writing skills is not as difficult as you think. You can take some simple steps to improve your Chinese writing skills and impress people with your Chinese articles in the short term.

Table of Contents

Read and expand your Chinese vocabulary

Reading materials in the Chinese language is useful in many ways. This is a great way to learn about different writing styles and how to use Chinese words in context correctly. Then you can learn new Chinese words with example Chinese sentences from books, not just word lists.

Tip: Choose a Chinese book or article which you are interested in. Studying should not be boring. Read each text several times to make sure you understand how to use new words and new words in the text.

Book Chinese

Recommended book: Stories of Chinese People’s Lives (中国人的生活故事) Each selected Chinese essay in the book is marked with difficulty ranging from HSK4 to HSK6 according to the differences in new words, sentence length, cultural points, etc. Through reading the series of books, readers can not only intuitively understand Chinese society, folk customs, and culture, but also learn brand-new, fresh, and practical Mandarin Chinese language knowledge.

Improve your Chinese grammar

Grammar is very important because it can make or break the quality of your Chinese writing. For example, “我去上海搬家” and “我搬家去上海”. The sentences have the same characters, but different meaning because of the sequence. You may make readers confuse the meaning if you are not clear about grammar. This makes reading hard work. So always use the proper structure. Also remember to use punctuation. Punctuation is a great way to make your Chinese writing clear and smooth.

Tip: Always proofread your Chinese writing twice. The first time look for general errors, especially those grammatical structures that are very different from your native language like “Ba-sentence” (which can be used to request or order others to do something), and the second time, try to look for those errors related to the specific grammatical point you are currently learning.

Find a Mandarin writing partner

If you can find a Chinese study group on social media, the chances are pretty good that there is at least one other person who is also thinking about how to become a better writer. Although writing is often considered an individual activity, it will be helpful because your partner may find mistakes that you overlooked. Besides, finding a writing partner is also a good way to take responsibility and motivate each other.

Read Chinese aloud

Reading your fresh Chinese articles aloud can help you determine whether they flow smoothly. If they sounds unnatural, add some longer sentences to break the steady, monotonous rhythm. For example, you can change a short sentence “吃饭以后,我去洗澡,这是我的习惯” into a longer sentence“我的习惯是吃了饭就洗澡”. A good Chinese essay always combines long and short sentences to make them sound smooth. If you find yourself in trouble, you may have found a sentence that is too complex and needs to be rewritten. I always recommend reading your work aloud because it works!

Just do it!

Writing in Chinese as a foreigner can be daunting. However, the best way to improve is to take a pen and paper or sit in front of a computer and write. You can start writing from HSK1 for enjoyment, but it’ll be a really useful practice starting from HSK5 . Be prepared to write multiple versions of each text, because even for professional writers, the first draft is not perfect. Remember, practice makes perfect, so now is the best time to sit down and start your Chinese writing!

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improve chinese essay writing

How to improve Chinese writing skills?

Whether you're learning Chinese as a second language or striving to enhance your proficiency in writing, there are several strategies that can help to improve your Chinese writing skills.

Chinese writing is a fascinating and intricate system of communication that has evolved over thousands of years. Whether you're learning Chinese as a second language or striving to enhance your proficiency in writing, there are several strategies and techniques that can help you master this beautiful script. In this article, we'll explore valuable tips on improving Chinese writing , which can benefit learners of all levels.

  • Master the Basics: Before diving into complex Chinese characters and sentences, it's essential to establish a solid foundation. Start with the basics, such as stroke order and pinyin pronunciation. Understanding stroke order not only makes your writing more accurate but also improves your handwriting. Pinyin, the Romanization of Chinese characters, helps with pronunciation and understanding character components.
  • Learn Radicals: Chinese characters are made up of radicals, which are fundamental components that give clues about the character's meaning and pronunciation. Learning common radicals can simplify the process of memorizing characters and enhance your understanding of their structure. Recognizing radicals is like unlocking the puzzle of Chinese writing .
  • Practice Regularly: Like any skill, consistent practice is key to improving your Chinese writing . Dedicate time each day to write characters and sentences. You can use traditional pen and paper or digital tools designed for Chinese writing practice. Repetition helps reinforce memory and improve your writing speed.
  • Expand Your Vocabulary: A rich vocabulary is essential for effective Chinese writing . Read Chinese books, newspapers, and articles to expose yourself to a wide range of words and sentence structures. Make a habit of jotting down unfamiliar characters and phrases, and then practice writing them to reinforce your memory.
  • Embrace Calligraphy: Chinese calligraphy is not just an art form but also a valuable tool for improving your writing skills. The deliberate strokes and balance required in calligraphy help you develop precision and elegance in your Chinese writing . Consider taking calligraphy classes or watching tutorials online to refine your technique.
  • Write in Context: Chinese writing is not just about individual characters but also about constructing meaningful sentences and paragraphs. Practice writing in different contexts, such as diary entries, essays, or creative stories. This will help you understand how characters work together to convey ideas and emotions.
  • Seek Feedback: Constructive feedback is invaluable when it comes to improving your Chinese writing . Join language learning communities, enroll in classes, or find a language exchange partner who can review your writing and provide suggestions for improvement. Learning from others' mistakes and successes can accelerate your progress.
  • Use Technology: Modern technology offers numerous tools and resources for improving your Chinese writing . Language learning apps, online dictionaries, and writing aids can be valuable companions on your learning journey. They provide instant feedback on your writing and offer resources for further study.

Improving your Chinese writing is a rewarding endeavor that requires dedication, patience, and practice. By mastering the basics, learning radicals, expanding your vocabulary, embracing calligraphy, writing in context, seeking feedback, and using technology, you can make significant strides in your Chinese writing skills. Remember that Chinese writing is not just about characters on paper; it's a gateway to understanding Chinese culture, history, and expression. So, take these tips to heart and embark on a fulfilling journey to enhance your Chinese writing abilities.

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How to Write a Good Chinese Essay

Posted by Lilian Li 18133

For any kind of language, the essay is the most difficult thing to do in the exam. Generally speaking, writing articles is just to tell a story, after you make the story clear, the article also is finished. But it also different with speaking. A good article is like a art, is worth for people to appreciate, to taste. But how to accomplish such a good art? I think the most important thing is the three points: attitude, subject matter, emotional.

A good beginning is half done. For writing, material selection and design are not the start. The most important thing still is to adjust their mentality as well. When you decided to write, then dedicated yourself to write, not half-hearted, and your thinking nature won't be upset. Once the train of thought was interrupted, your speed will be slow and the point will be word count. So how can you write down a interesting article with a good quality? All in all, attitude is can decide the success or failure of the articles.

Subject is the biggest problem in our writing. It is from life, but not all people can observe life, experience life. The only point is to write the true things, maybe not so tortuous plots, but can write a really life. Moreover, when you get the subject, there are some tips for students to pay attention:

1. Make the topic request clear: The article should around the topic, pay attention to the demand of genre and number of words, some restrictive conditions and avoid distracting, digression.

2. Determine the center, choose the right material. To conform to the fact that a typical, novel, so it’s easy to attract the attention of people.

3. Make a good outline, determine the general, write enough words.

4. Sentence writing smooth, there is no wrong character, no wrong grammar in article.

Emotion, it is very important. If we compared an article to be a human. So emotion is his soul. Man is not vegetation, when they meet something, there must be personal thoughts and feelings. Sometimes it also tend to have their own original ideas. If you can put your own thoughts, feelings and insights into the article, then this article will be very individual.

Chinese essay is not just meaning some simple Chinese characters and make a simple sentences, it needs the Chinese grammar and sentence structure, if you don't familiar with Chinese grammar, you can learn our Chinese grammar course .

At last, adhere to write diary at ordinary times, it can practicing writing. Try to read some good articles, good words and good paragraphs with a good beginning and end. Learn to accumulate and draw lessons from them.

If you are interested in our Chinese grammar course, you can try our one online free trial , you will enjoy it.

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How to Write a Chinese Essay?

improve chinese essay writing

However, this is not an option.

Chinese essay writing is an important part in GCE O level Higher Chinese Language or Chinese Language exam.

Then, what are the students suppose to write in an essay?   For GCE O level Chinese exam in May 2017, many parents complained about the essay questions set were too difficult ( link ).  However, this is the direction we are heading in O level Chinese and the students need to level up necessarily.

Before we even talk about what to write, we must first know what will be tested.

For GCE O level Chinese exam , essay writing is in section 2 of Paper 1.

In this section, students are expected to choose to write 1 out of 3 questions, and the 3 questions will be  in one of the following categories:

  • 情景文 (Scenario essay writing)
  • 说明文 (Expository)
  • 议论文 (Argumentative)
  • 材料作文 (Material essay writing)

Each category would need students to write the essay using different skill set. Students need to master the required skill set in order to write essays that meet the criteria.

For 情景文 , students need to use the skills of writing 记叙文 and characters descriptions ; for 说明文 , they need to use the skills of expository essay writing ;  议论文 needs the 3 key elements; as for 材料作文 , depending on the question, students will either need to use the skills for 记叙文 or 议论文 .

When students are clear with all these skills, they will find Chinese essay writing a lot more easier.  When equipped with these necessary writing skills , they will be able to focus more on acquiring their language skills.

With our help, we are confident that our students are able to master all these essential Chinese essay writing skills.

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Hacking Chinese

A better way of learning mandarin, 36 samples of chinese handwriting from students and native speakers.

Unlike most other languages, handwriting in Chinese can be regarded as a separate skill. Learning to write by hand is not easy; learning to write well is even harder. In an earlier article, I discussed handwriting in details, including how to improve it as a student.

How to improve your handwriting in Chinese

I have collected more than thirty examples of handwriting in Chinese, most of them from students of different ages from various countries across the world. I also gather some examples from native speakers to show as a reference.

The examples below are presented roughly in the order of time spent learning the language, with beginners at the start and native speakers at the very end. Counting study time in years can be very misleading , but since there is no better way of sorting the samples, I chose to do that anyway.

The purpose of this article is not to make a systematic study of student handwriting, although that would be interesting. Apart from time spent learning, another important factor is what the student’s writing looks like in her native language. I have seen enough student handwriting to feel confident when I say that there’s a lot of positive transfer going on, so someone who writes neatly in their native language are likely to write neatly in Chinese too. Beginners of this kind might write neatly but with incorrect strokes and so on, but penmanship still carries over to learning Chinese.

Speaking of penmanship, it should be mentioned that there is probably a strong selection bias at work here. While not all who submitted their handwriting write well, I think it’s safe to assume that people who like handwriting are more likely to have submitted photos of their handwriting when I asked for it. In other words, the average student probably writes worse than the below photos show.

Chinese handwriting from 36 people, using exactly the same tex

Samples of Chinese handwriting were based on a text from this text adventure game from WordSwing.

Escape: A text adventure game for Chinese learners

Simplified Chinese:

你被关在一个小房间里。你并不记得发生了什么,也不知道为什么被关在这里。你以前从房门的窗口那儿得到食物,但是你用力敲门或者大叫都没有用。你决定一定要逃跑,要不然情况可能会变更不好。

Traditional Chinese:

你被關在一個小房間裡。你並不記得發生了什麼,也不知道為什麼被關在這裡。你以前從房門的窗口那兒得到食物,但是你用力敲門或者大叫都沒有用。你決定一定要逃跑,要不然情況可能會變更不好。

A big thank you to everyone who contributed!

Chinese handwriting after a year of studying (or less)

The first submission comes from the US, and also include  some information about the student. I collected some submissions years ago, so “since the beginning of 2016” actually means less than a year of studying!

Chinese handwriting from a US learner having studied less than one year.

August from Suriname submitted the below sample. He’s 71 and has studied Chinese for one year.

Chinese handwriting from a 71-year-old student from Suriname (1 year of studying).

Thomas Walker on Twitter writes: “Here is my effort. Been studying Chinese for about 8 months. Your site has been a massive help, keep up the good work!”

Chinese handwriting from a student after 8 months.

Chinese handwriting after studying between one and five years

A student from the US sent in the below photo of his handwriting, saying that he’s 51 years old and has been learning Chinese for a little more than one year.

Chinese handwriting from a 51-year-old student after a year of studying.

This is from a 22-year-old Belgian student. She has been studying Chinese for little more than a year:

Chinese handwriting from a 22-year-old student after a year of studying.

The next submission is from a 27-year-old Bulgarian student who has studied Chinese for three semesters in Wuhan:

Chinese handwriting after three semesters of studying the language in China.

From @fenma on Twtitter : “two years, self, no class, no visit, HSK3”:

Chinese handwriting after two years of self-study.

A student from France submitted the following sample, saying “I’m around HSK3, with two years living in China where I self practiced writing despite everybody telling me it’s useless (it’s not; it was super useful every single day, whether teaching my Chinese pupils or writing some unknown OCR resistant character in the street in Pleco). I would practice every day with a cheap calligraphy marker (to force myself to write slowly and purposefully; the difference with using a pen/pencil is like night and day, for learning purposes) in a 10RMB kids hanzi practice book bought in Carrefour and I could totally feel the difference very quickly. I used a pen and wrote as fast as I could to give you something a bit more realistic.”

Chinese handwriting on grid paper by a student after living in China for two years.

Next is a sample from a Peruvian student. She’s 24 and has studied Chinese for roughly three years:

Chinese handwriting from a Peruvian student after three years of studying.

The last sample in this category comes from 35-year-old Norwegian, who has studied four years of Chinese, mostly self-studying:

Chinese handwriting from a Norwegian student after four years of studying.

Chinese handwriting after having studied for five to ten years

Dr. Chuck on Twitter writes: “I haven’t tried learning how to speak it yet, but I’ve studied the traditional writing for fun in my spare time over the past 5 years. My closet is a graveyard of graph paper!”

Chinese handwriting from a student who only learnt how to write, not speak!

Joey on Twitter writes: “I’ve been studying for a little over 5 years now. Hope this helps!”

Chinese handwriting after five years of studying the language.

MissFitti on Twitter writes: “I have been learning Mandarin for my BA and MA in Italy and I am now teaching it at Secondary in England. 5 years at uni in total, and lived in china for 1 year and 6 months :)”

Chinese handwriting from an Italian student after five years or learning.

A student from Scotland sent me the below sample of his handwriting. He says  he’s been working in China for over five years, and have studied Chinese, but had very little teaching on how to write characters. Just like the rest of us, he mainly uses phones and computer for writing Chinese:

Chinese handwriting after living and working five years in China, mostly using phones and computers to write.

A student from the US submitted the below photo with this comment: “I have been studying, and I use the word studying loosely, Chinese for about 5-6 years.  […] My reading skills far outweigh my listing, speaking, and as you can see from my attached text, writing skills. […] Thanks for all you do. I truly appreciate you.”

Chinese handwriting from a US student after 5-6 years of studying.

Brandon Rivington on Twitter writes: “I tried to make it as natural as possible. I’ve been studying Chinese for about 7 years. I look forward to reading the article!”

Chinese handwriting from Brandon Rivington on Twitter, after studying for 7 years.

The next sample comes from a 36-year-old student from Spain, who has learnt Chinese for about nine years:

Chinese handwriting from a 34-year-old student from Spain after studying for nine years.

And another submission from Spain, from someone who is two years younger, but has also studied for about nine years:

Chinese handwriting from a 32-year-old student from Spain after studying for nine years.

A Polish student submitted the below photo of his handwriting and said: “I’m 24 years old and I’ve been learning Chinese for about 9 years. 3 years ago I passed HSK5 and I’m planning to pass HSK6 the next year.”

Chinese handwriting by a Polish student after studying for nine years.

Chinese handwriting after studying for ten years or more

Anna K. on Twitter writes: “Studied Chinese 10+ years, taught it one year. Thanks for your excellent blog and work!”

Chinese handwriting after learning Chinese for ten years, mostly self-studying.

Here’s a submission from Melbourne, Australia (information included). She has been learning for 12 years.

Chinese handwriting from a 63-year-old student of Chinese from Melbourne after studying for 13 years as a hobby.

TranslationRaven writes on Twitter: “Studied Chinese for 12 years in school, didn’t read or write for 8 years after that. Returned to Asia and got my teaching diploma in Chinese after those 8 years. Not sure how I’d categorize myself, haha”

Chinese handwriting from a student who has studied the language for 12 years, although 8 without reading and writing.

Miriam from Germany submitted the below sample:

Chinese handwriting from a 43-year-old, left-handed student from Germany after studying for 20 years.

David Hull 胡大衛 on Twitter writes: “Always been very self-conscious about my sloppy handwriting. Picked up Chinese late- in my mid 20s. Studied in PRC and US. I haven’t been writing by hand for years (except on the blackboard). I’m an asst Prof of Chinese now. Started in the army program at the Defense Language Institute in ’96 (we didn’t do much writing at all). I didn’t have a chance to formally study again until ’01, and by then it was almost all typed.”

Chinese handwriting from a student who started learning in the 90s and is now an assistant professor of Chinese.

The last sample in this category comes from the US. She has 26 years of formal and informal studying behind her:

Chinese handwriting from a US student after 26 years of studying, both formally and informally.

Chinese handwriting from native speakers

Now, let’s move on to native speakers. For people who find some of these difficult to read, please check this article for some advice on how to proceed: Learning to read handwritten Chinese

Learning to read handwritten Chinese

A student, who grew up speaking Chinese with her mother and took a few years of Chinese in school, but then forgot most about it, sent in the following sample. She also writes that “this may be the most I’ve ever written by hand, I do everything digitally now, I practice my writing skills by writing to my mother on my cellphone.”

Chinese handwriting from a native speaker who mostly writes digitally these days.

Vicky Lee on Twitter writes: “I am a little bit shamed to write the Chinese like this? It is only recognizable but far from being beautiful.”

Chinese handwriting from native speaker Vicky Lee on Twitter.

Female native speaker, 30 years old:

Chinese handwriting from a 30-year-old native speaker (female).

This is from a 22-year-old native speaker (male):

Chinese handwriting from a male native speaker, 22 years old.

A native speaker from China, submitted this through Facebook Age ~50. “You are very appreciated to promote Chinese culture.”

Chinese handwriting from a native speaker from China, 50 years old.

A native speaker who grew up in Malaysia, now in her fifties:

Chinese handwriting from a native speaker who grew up in Malayisa.

And another native speaker from Beijing (male, around 50):

Chinese handwriting from a male native speaker from Beijing, around 50 years old.

Here’s another native speaker who teaches English near Shanghai (age unknown):

Chinese handwriting from a native speaker from Shanghai.

Native speaker, female, age around 50:

Chinese handwriting by a 50-year-old native speaker.

Native speaker, age unknown:

Sample of Chinese handwriting from a native speaker.

And an extra submission, provided after the article was published, so actually number 37: “Age 28, live in China mainland, written by Lamy Safari”, originally posted here .

Chinese handwriting by Lamy Safari, a 28-year-old native speaker from China.

Conclusion: Chinese handwriting in the 21st century

I’m not sure if any conclusion can be drawn from the samples shown above; that wasn’t really the intention. If you have some thoughts you want to share after checking them out, please leave a comment!

How good your handwriting is depends on many things, including how good your penmanship is in your native language. Time spent practising and how much you care are two other important factors. If you don’t think your handwriting is very good because you haven’t practised enough, that’s nothing to be ashamed of. In this electronic era, writing neatly by hand is not an essential skill for most students.

For those of you who want to improve your handwriting, I conclude here by linking to the previous article :

https://www.hackingchinese.com/how-to-improve-your-chinese-handwriting/

improve chinese essay writing

16 comments

' src=

The actor 黄轩 posts poems handwritten by his fans on 微博 the blog is called 瞬间MomentX, I find handwritten notes or artistic shop signs very difficult to read

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This is fascinating! Thank you so much for this compilation. There’s something very touching about seeing hand-written notes, it’s hard to explain.

Most of the learners’ notes are easy to read, but on the other hand some of the natives’ notes are hard to decipher for the non-native eye. It can’t only be a question of speed, surely…

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Thomas Walker is by far the best, in my opinion.

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I totally agree. I would be interested to learn his methods. Pen thickness seems to be a major factor. Depending on the day, I can write well with a 0.4mm pen, other days, I need a 0.7mm one.

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Thomas Walker’s is awesome – but the Australian teacher lady is really impressive, too (and she’s not working on handwriting grid paper.) Her English handwriting looks exactly like a teacher – she’s obviously used to being very tidy in her writing.

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Maybe their chinese handwriting is correlated to their english handwriting. They seem to have similar style.

' src=

Yes, that’s a good point. I realised too late that I should have asked people to write the same passage in English as well.

' src=

Native here. Yes, our Chinese handwriting and English handwriting (that is, for those of us who can write English) pretty much correlates to each other in style

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Age 28, live in China mainland, written by Lamy Safari:

https://igonejack.blogspot.com/2020/01/sample-of-chinese-handwriting.html

Thank you for your submission! I added your writing to the article and I will also mention it on social media, including a link to your page.

' src=

Hi, I’m studying in the UK and I have a few people I know from China. I’ve seen what they write a couple of times … it’s some kind of horror. I mean that it is very difficult, I do not envy them. Recently, I read an essay about stereotypes, and still, I will say that they are so true. People who have studied Chinese, tell me how long you have been learning this beautiful language, how long you have been learning to write in Chinese because as far as I understand, one wrong dash and you are writing about something completely different. This is tin, the most difficult language.

Learning to read and write Chinese characters certainly takes a long time, probably longer than learning any other written language. However, we don’t have to exaggerate the difficulty. A misplaced stroke will almost never influence the comprehensibility of what you write. There are specific cases where certain characters differ only in one stroke (position, length, relationship to other strokes), but these aren’t very common, and in context, it’s practically never an issue. That doesn’t make the writing system easy to learn, but it’s not impossible!

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As a native Chinese/Cantonese speaker, I can conclude that people who learn Chinese writes better than natives haha

The range of handwriting among the two groups certainly overlaps! I think this is because penmanship is a completely different skill from other aspects of writing (such as composition). I have had beginner student of Chinese who write very good-looking characters from day one, although of course they still struggle with things that require knowledge of characters, such as how long certain strokes should be, which strokes should touch or cross certain other strokes and so on.

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These all say the exact same thing, and it doesn’t make sense, or seems like a crazy person wrote it. If you’re going to scam people, put more effort into it.

I’m afraid I don’t understand your comment. They’re all the same because I asked people to write a specific passage; the first subheading even says “Chinese handwriting from 36 people, using exactly the same tex”, so what did you expect? The whole point is to use the same text so people can compare how different people write the same thing. Also, what scam?

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How do I improve my Chinese essay writing?

I'm an ABC and I've been learning Chinese for quite a while now, but my essay writing still sucks. It's not that my handwriting is bad, or that I can't memorize the characters. I actually have a pretty solid vocabulary. I can understand most phrases and I can recognize whether the grammar of a sentence is right or wrong. However, when it comes to writing a Chinese essay or story, I just seem to forget all of this and I end up with a mess of "weirdly phrased, un-native sounding sentences" (says my mother). Is there any way or are there any tools that can help me improve my writing skills?

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Tips for improving your Chinese essay writing

writing.jpg

Writing can reflect a writer's power of thought and language organization skills. It is critical to master Chinese writing if you want to take your Chinese to the next level. How to write good Chinese essays? The following six steps will improve Chinese essay writing:

Before You Learn to Improve Chinese Essay Writing

Before you can write a good essay in Chinese, you must first be accustomed with Chinese characters. Unlike English letters, Chinese characters are hieroglyphs, and the individual strokes are different from each other. It is important to be comfortable with writing Chinese characters in order to write essays well in Chinese. Make sure to use Chinese essay writing format properly. After that, you will be ready to improve Chinese essay writing.

Increase Your Chinese Words Vocabulary

With approximately 100,000 words in the Chinese language, you will need to learn several thousand words just to know the most common words used. It is essential to learn as many Chinese words as possible if you wish to be a good writer. How can you enlarge your vocabulary? Try to accumulate words by reading daily and monthly. Memory is also very necessary for expanding vocabulary. We should form a good habit of exercising and reciting as more as we can so that to enlarge vocabulary. Remember to use what you have learned when you write in Chinese so that you will continually be progressing in your language-learning efforts.

Acquire Grammar,Sentence Patterns and Function Words

In order to hone your Chinese writing skills, you must learn the grammar and sentence patterns. Grammar involves words, phrases, and the structure of the sentences you form. There are two different categories of Chinese words: functional and lexical. Chinese phrases can be categorized as subject-predicate phrases (SP), verb-object phrases (VO), and co-ordinate phrases (CO). Regarding sentence structure, each Chinese sentence includes predicate, object, subject, and adverbial attributes. In addition, function words play an important role in Chinese semantic understanding, so try to master the Chinese conjunction, such as conjunction, Adverbs, Preposition as much as you can. If you wish to become proficient at writing in Chinese, you must study all of the aspects of grammar mentioned in this section.

Keep a Diary Regularly to Note Down Chinese Words,Chinese Letters

Another thing that will aid you in becoming a better writer is keeping a journal in Chinese. Even if you are not interested in expanding your writing skills, you will find that it is beneficial for many day-to-day tasks, such as completing work reports or composing an email. Journaling on a regular basis will help you form the habit of writing, which will make it feel less like a chore. You may enjoy expressing yourself in various ways by writing; for instance, you might write poetry in your journal. On a more practical side of things, you might prefer to simply use your journal as a way to purposely build your vocabulary.

Persistence in Reading Everyday

In addition to expanding your view of the world and yourself, reading can help you improve your writing. Reading allows you to learn by example; if you read Chinese daily, you will find that it is easier to write in Chinese because you have a greater scope of what you can do with the vocabulary that you’ve learned. Choose one favorite Chinese reading , Read it for an hour or 2,000 words or so in length each day.

Whenever you come across words or phrases in your reading that you don’t understand, take the time to check them in your dictionary and solidify your understanding of them. In your notebook, write the new word or phrase and create an example sentence using that new addition to your vocabulary. If you are unsure how to use it in a sentence, you can simply copy the sample sentence in your dictionary.

Reviewing the new vocabulary word is a good way to improve your memory of it; do this often to become familiar with these new words. The content of reading can be very broad. It can be from novels, or newspapers, and it can be about subjects like economics or psychology. Remember you should read about things you are interested in. After a certain period of accumulation by reading, you will greatly improve your Chinese writing.

Do Essay Writing Exercise on a Variety of Subjects

As the saying goes, “practice makes perfect.” In order to improve your China Essay Writing, you should engage in a variety of writing exercises. For beginners, you should start with basic topics such as your favorite hobby, future plans, favorite vacation spot, or any other topic that you can write about without difficulty.

For example:《我的一天》( Wǒ de yì tiān,my whole day’s life ),《我喜欢的食物》( Wǒ xǐhuan de shíwù,my favorite food ),《一次难忘的旅行》( yí cì nánwàng de lǚxíng, an unforgettable trip ) etc.

Generally the writing topics can be classified into these categories: a recount of an incident,a description of something/someone, a letter, formulate your own opinion on an issue based on some quote or picture etc.

Takeaway to Improve Chinese Essay Writing

Keep an excel spreadsheet of 口语(Kǒuyǔ, spoken Chinese) –书面语(Shūmiànyǔ, written Chinese) pairs and quotes of sentences that you like. You should also be marking up books and articles that you read looking for new ways of expressing ideas. Using Chinese-Chinese dictionaries is really good for learning how to describe things in Chinese.

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improve chinese essay writing

Multimodal Scoring Model for Handwritten Chinese Essay

  • Conference paper
  • First Online: 19 August 2023
  • Cite this conference paper

improve chinese essay writing

  • Tonghua Su   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8869-1664 11 ,
  • Jifeng Wang 11 ,
  • Hongming You 11 &
  • Zhongjie Wang   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9084-7373 11  

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14187))

Included in the following conference series:

  • International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition

1279 Accesses

Essay writing plays a critical role in Chinese language skill teaching. With the smart education becomes a hot topic, the demand for automatic essay scoring (AES) has been emerging among teachers and students. Existing works frequently ignore the impact of the visual modal during the scoring process, such as writing quality in terms of neatness or legibility. This paper addresses the problem with a visual-textual integrating perspective and proposes a deep learning based multi-modal AES. Specifically, implicit alignment algorithm is presented to cohere the distinct visual modal and text modal. Methods are tested on a large-scale dataset consisting of over 4000 essays including HSK publicly available samples. The results show that multi-modal AES reduce the MAE of scoring from 1.13 to 1.06, and the implicit alignment algorithm reduces it further to 1.01.

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Full-page handwriting recognition and automated essay scoring for in-the-wild essays

improve chinese essay writing

Understanding Lexical Features for Chinese Essay Grading

improve chinese essay writing

A Prompt-Independent and Interpretable Automated Essay Scoring Method for Chinese Second Language Writing

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2020AAA0108003) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 62277011 and 61673140).

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Tonghua Su, Jifeng Wang, Hongming You & Zhongjie Wang

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Osaka Metropolitan University, Osaka, Japan

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Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, USA

Richard Zanibbi

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Su, T., Wang, J., You, H., Wang, Z. (2023). Multimodal Scoring Model for Handwritten Chinese Essay. In: Fink, G.A., Jain, R., Kise, K., Zanibbi, R. (eds) Document Analysis and Recognition - ICDAR 2023. ICDAR 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14187. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41676-7_29

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    Recommended book: Stories of Chinese People's Lives (中国人的生活故事) Each selected Chinese essay in the book is marked with difficulty ranging from HSK4 to HSK6 according to the differences in new words, sentence length, cultural points, etc. Through reading the series of books, readers can not only intuitively understand Chinese society, folk customs, and culture, but also learn ...

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    Practice writing in different contexts, such as diary entries, essays, or creative stories. This will help you understand how characters work together to convey ideas and emotions. ... Improving your Chinese writing is a rewarding endeavor that requires dedication, patience, and practice. By mastering the basics, learning radicals, ...

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    Tip 9: Keep a Word Bank. Start building a Chinese vocabulary word bank if you do not already have one. Collate the good phrases and idioms used by others. You can start noting down good phrases from the textbook and also from the comprehension passages you have completed.

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    Problems in your Chinese essay writing? Learn to master one of the methods of essay writing in less than 3 minutes.Listen to what Teacher XiaoYan has to shar...

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    2. Determine the center, choose the right material. To conform to the fact that a typical, novel, so it's easy to attract the attention of people. 3. Make a good outline, determine the general, write enough words. 4. Sentence writing smooth, there is no wrong character, no wrong grammar in article. Emotion, it is very important.

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  18. How do I improve my Chinese essay writing? : r/ChineseLanguage

    Maybe try posting your writing in r/WriteStreakCN . Copy a sample paragraphs in a textbook and substitute words to develop a sense of flow. Later on you'll be able to make your own from scratch. It's a lot like cooking. I'm an ABC and I've been learning Chinese for quite a while now, but my essay writing still sucks.

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    Chinese EFL learners' writing competencies in English were evaluated using two IELTS writing tasks adapted from "Collins writing for IELTS" (Williams, 2011). The pre-test task required students to write an essay expressing their viewpoint on the potential negative impact of media coverage of celebrities on children.