The Analysis of Grammatical Cohesive Devices in the Abstract of Academic Discourse

Coherent writing skills have a strong correlation with the quality of English writing. Abstract, as a relatively independent and complete discourse form that condenses the content of academic discourse, can predict and dominate the content and structure of the main text. This paper collects a total of 40 academic paper abstracts in the discipline of applied linguistics, 20 from Chinese students and 20 from international scholars, to compare the different distribution of cohesive devices between Chinese student writers and international Journal writers. Based on the study, we find that there is no significant difference in the frequency, type, and control of cohesive devices used by Chinese students and international scholars. But Chinese students overuse some types of cohesive devices, especially in the use of the conjunctive device “and”. The use of “I” has never appeared in the corpus of Chinese students and the usage of “we” has been used by Chinese student writers and international Journal writers. This paper also shows that Chinese English majors actively keep up with international journals and have a sense of international writing in the process of learning writing.