Awkward Writing as the Problem of Russian Learners of English

Abstract

The abstracted article highlights the research targeted at improving students' writing with a focus on its rhetorical aspect. With this aim in view, the author has studied students' compositions classifying the most typical errors under several headings. Part of the research concerning unclear and incoherent writing was featured in the author's previous articles published in recent years. The abstracted article focuses on the problem of ease and awkwardness. The research was based on the experiment that followed three stages. At the initial stage the author observed the students' writing and classified the rhetorical drawbacks into several categories. The next stage involved instructions on the qualities that, interacting with each other, constitute the notion of a good style. The final stage comprised the students' feedback, which was suggestive of their progress in written compositions. The author singles out typical errors, illustrates them with examples from the students' compositions, and tries to find out the causes of awkwardness in students' performance. As follows from the observations, the major reasons of awkward writing are mother tongue interference and students' carelessness. The first manifests itself in wordiness and word for word translation; the latter in the overuse of repetition, undeliberate rhyme, and unintended alliteration. The students' feedback leads to certain improvement at the end of the experiment.