The FLTRP-Cup English Writing Contest GDUFS Selection has successfully come to an end after going through a Preliminary Heat on Sunday, 13 October, an Intermediary Heat on Saturday, 19 October, and finally the Finals on Saturday, 26 October to test the candidates’ competence respectively on Narrative Writing, Argumentative Writing, and Expository Writing. Fu Heng from School of English Language and Culture and Yu Haichang from School of International Business and Trade are to proceed to the next stage, competing on behalf of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies against their rivals from around the province in the Guangdong Provincial Contest, which is to be hosted in Zhongshan University on 10 November, while the 28 other finalists have respectively earned a place in the final Ranking List except for Chen Wanjing, who probably failed to hand in her composition before the Closing Time.
This most influential English Writing Contest, initiated and sponsored by the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, has been hosted in GDUFS for the first time this year. A number of 609 students, including both English majors from the School of English Language and Culture, School of Advanced Translation and Interpreting, School of English and Education, etc., and college English learners from School of International Business and Trade, School of Western Languages and Cultures, School of Law, so on, have registered for the Preliminary Heat, which proved to be so competitive that 100 candidates were allowed to enter the Intermediary Heat to compete for the 30 places in the Finals on Saturday, 26 October.
Another factor that has made this writing contest uniquely impressive is the adoption ofwww.pigai.org, an online grading system, which allows the candidates to write online with dictionary support and gives its grading feedback with detailed comments on Content, Organization, Diction, Grammar, Logic, and other parameters, as well as suggestions for corrections and improvements only seconds after the candidates hand in their papers. One candidate reported that she made use of the system to practice writing every day ever since she registered for the Writing Contest and learned about the advantages of the grading system.
By the way, the managing director ofwww.pigai.orgMr. Guo Yongsheng promised to keep this system accessible to all college students free of charge, even after the English Writing Contest.
