英文网站分析批注版

英文网站分析研究
Chapter one
1. Introduction
Universities pay more attention to the importance of propagation among the
foreigners as well as among the masses in China. Therefore English web pages
appear in websites of universities. Theoretically, the English web pages are
translated from the Chinese edition and should be faithful to the original. But as a
matter of fact, in doing propagation we must consider our audience. To a certain
degree, the English web pages are made for foreign scholars, students studying
abroad and foreigners who want to cooperate with the universities. The maker of
English web pages ought to consider whether the foreigners have the background
and interest which Chinese readers own or not. To have an intimate understanding
of the condition and quality of English web pages of the universities in Henan
province, I take eight universities in Henan as examples for research by comparing
web pages of foreign universities. Then difference could be found in content, in
structure, in culture and so on. The results strongly suggest that there are many
errors exiting in English web pages of universities in Henan province. The author
also tries to find ways to tackle these problems.
Chapter two
2. Parting these errors into five kinds.
2.1 Errors in contents
The purpose of the English web pages of university is to introduce the university
to foreigners. But most web pages are not authentic and the styles are different from that
of universities in abroad. Surfing the English web pages, foreigners mean to know the
teaching facilities and current situation of universities. However, the English web pages
give more useless information to foreign readers. Universities in China spend lots of
paragraphs to describe their history just like what they do in Chinese edition. But these
contents are strange to foreign readers. Henan Polytechnic University is an example how

universities make such an error. In its English web page, it introduces nine used names to
readers, using 87 words. In fact, these used names can not give readers any information
about the present situation of the university. The Henan University and the Anyang
Normal University also make the error. The former introduces five names and the later,
four names.
[1] It is situated in Xinxiang, a famous city ……where the famous Muye battle once
took place. (Henan Normal University)
In the sample, it cost about 44 words to describe the city where the university
located, which are not important to readers. It is easy for foreign readers with
different customs to feel tired and impatient. From another angle, not everybody in
China knows the battle in history, let alone the foreigners.
[2] Many famous scholars, such as Fan Wenlan, Feng Youlan, Luo Zhanglong, Mao
Lirui, Jiang Liangfu, Ji Wenfu, have taught here.(Henan University)
Sample two is taken from the web page of Henan University. Twenty-four people
are mentioned in the page and they are from different kinds of field in China. This
phenomenon always appears in the web pages. To Chinese readers, this so- called
famous people are important information, which can present the actual strength of the
universities. However, most of the foreign readers are not living in China so that they
have no idea about these persons. They are somebody for us but nobody for the
foreigners, so the information is useless.
2.2 Errors in structure
The introductions to universities are too long and include substantial content,
which are caused by the following reasons. Firstly, most of the English web pages are
simply translated from the Chinese editions without any alteration. Secondly, the
structure of the introduction is unreasonable. There is only one headline in a page which
is filled with words and sentences. So it is hard for readers to pay attention to such
complicate and long pages and to find the information they need. Following is the
?about Yale University?.

Yale University comprises three major academic components: Yale College (the
undergraduate program), the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the professional
schools. In addition, Yale encompasses a wide array of centers and programs, libraries,
museums, and administrative support offices. Approximately 11,250 students attend Yale.
In Yale University?s introduction, it spends 45 words in introducing itself. In that
of the University of Melbourne, there are 110 words. Astonishing, the words used in
first page of overview in Henan Normal University are 1050 while the number of that in
Henan University are 664. The information in these two universities involves in history,
geography, administration, research and so on.
2.3 Errors in cultural translation
2.3.1 No explanation for unique culture that only exists in
Chinese society.
As we mentioned above, most of the English web pages are translated from the
Chinese web pages word for word. As a result, the English web pages include some
special terms only existing in China?s socialistic society.
[3] China began with a new developing period in its history after the Third Plenary
Session of the Eleventh Central Committee. ( the introduction to Jiaozuo University)
[4] Three were elected to enter “Hundred-Thousand-Ten Thousand Talent Project”,
(from the introduction of Jiaozuo University)
[5] A national “211 project” key university co-built by the Henan Provincial
Government and the State Ministry of Education On July 10th, 2000, the new
Zhengzhou University was founded through the merger of three universities:
( Zhengzhou University)
[6] The university has undertaken over 80 scientific research projections in succession
of the “863”, “973”,( Henan Normal university)
The underlined words and phrases mentioned in the above are unique terms
existing in Chinese society with special meaning. The Chinese name of the former is 十
一届三中全会。It was a meeting held by the National People?s Congress (NPC). The
third and the fourth are respectively called 211 工程学校 and 国家高技术重大研究
计划项目(863)和国家重大基础研究项目(973
)
in Chinese. Foreigners without the
background can not get any information from these words. So in the English web pages,
there ought to be note on these terms. This kind of mistake can also be found in the web
pages of The Henan Polytechnic University.

2.3.2 The conflicts between different values.
[7] The national leaders Jia Qinglin, Li Changcun, Luo Gan, Li Lanqin, members of the
Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau of the CPC Liu Yunshan, etc, have
visited Zhengzhou University respectively. The leaders of the State Ministry of
Education, Henan Provincial Communist Party Committee, and Henan Provincial
Government frequently come to visit the university. Under the care and support of the
leaders from the higher level, the university has achieved trans-normal development in
the areas of intellectuals? cultivation, academic disciplines, faculty, new campus,
teaching scientific research, etc.
Four national leaders and governments of various levels are talked about in
sample seven. In web pages of Chinese universities, words such as communism and
socialism are often used. It is well known that the political systems, world outlook and
values in China are different from those of western countries. So when the makers make
pages, they would be aware of the politically sensitive words and publicity word with
Chinese character to avoid the conflicts in cultures and values. Most universities are
supported by the governments of different levels in China. Generally speaking, the
higher the level of the government is, the better the university it supports is. People from
western countries have contrary points of view on that. The truth is that most famous
universities abroad are private universities or supported by foundation. And the word
?public? can implicate that the university is supported by government.
2.3.2 Exaggerating itself
Most of the universities would like to say that they are ranked in the top universities in
the world or China and what contributions they do for the country, even for human beings.
However, there are short of evidences and data to support them. This exaggerating act
will be disgusted by foreigners who prefer to emphasize truth.
2.4 Linguistic errors
2.4.1 Chinglish and rigid diction
[8] synthesis training school( Jiaozuo University)综合性学校
[9] Brief introduction to Xinxiang Medical University简介
[10]The teaching equipment is worth 69.19 million Yuan RMB. (Xinxiang Medical
University) 元人民币

Most of the words and phrases in web pages are strange to people from English-
speaking countries, because the collocation of these words and phrases are not idiomatic.
In sample eight, universities are not modified by synthesis training school but
comprehensive university. The word brief in sample nine would be cut off because the
introduction in foreign web pages is designed to give more useful information to reader
with little sentences and the “brief introduction” is translated from Chinese word by word.
The Yuan and RMB in sample ten also make the mistake appearing in sample nine. These
two words have the same meaning and they are the units of money in China and often
used together in Chinese. So this phrase is typical chinglish and RMB ought to be
omitted.
2.4.2 Using more complex, long sentences and confusing structures
without logic
The sentences written by English-speaking people are concisely structured.
However, long and complex sentences are popular by Chinese people. For foreigners,
the difference is an obstacle to understand the article written by Chinese. Because these
structures are complex and the logics are ambiguous.

[11]With a total area of more than 320,000 centimeters of which the building area covers
120,000 centimeters, today's Jiao Zuo University possess of lots of teaching instruments
and equipments being worth of 30,000,000, 620 teachers, more than 6000 students form
the whole country, 13 departments, 26 specialized laboratory, 12 scientific research
stations, 3,000,000 books stored in the Library, which is not only the absolutely necessary
qualification for teaching, but also the solid foundation for the developing in the near
future.( Jiaozuo University)

Let other errors aside, there being 80 words in one sentence filled with two
complex clauses and one independent clause in sample three.

2.5 Other errors
2.5.1 Difference measure in size
[12] The university, with a construction area of 787 thousand square meters, covers

an area of over 4 300 mu.(Zhengzhou University)
Zhengzhou University in sample twelve is one of the universities, which use mu,
the unit of area in China, to tell the readers the size of the universities. It is ignored that
the units used in China are different from that used in western countries. For example,
people in western countries prefer Fahrenheit to centigrade. The same kind of error also
happens in the English web pages of the Luoyang Normal University, Anyang Normal
University and Shangqiu Normal University. To tackle this problem, the “mu” can be
replaced by ?acre?, ?hectare? and ?square meter?. Numbers are used together in Chinese,
but there are commas behind the number of the thousand, of the million, and of the
billion in English. So the ?4300? in the previous paragraph should be added punctuation.
That is to say, the right form is ?4,300?. This kind of error will be discussed in the next
part.
2.5.2 Spelling wrong and misusing of the punctuation mark and
so on caused by carelessness
A great number of universities do not pay attention to the details of making web
pages. So the mistake is obviously and easily found in spelling word, punctuation and
typography.

[13] School of Surveying and Land Infomation Engineering (Henan Polytechnic
University)
[14] Higher Institutions Key Research Bases for the Study of Humanities and Social
Sciences of the State Ministry of Education (co-sponsored by the the State Ministry of
Education and Henan Provincial Government) (Zhengzhou University)
[15] Minsterial and Provincial Key Institutes of Scientific Research (Zhengzhou
University)
[16] xinxiang Medical University The university campus covers 1.158 million m? , among
which architectural areas are 73.07 million m? .
In sample thirteen, mistakes are caused by spelling the wrong words. The typist
or writer in sample fourteen does not check up the page carefully so that the word ?the?
is repeated. The first letter in one sentence should be capital letter. In one of the Henan

University?s pages, there exist seven mistakes. ?International? is spelt as ?intemation?
because the typist regard ?r-n? as ?m?. So is ?government?, which is spelt wrongly as
?govemment?, ?Student? as ?studehts?. Misusings of the plural of noun and the form of
verb in the third person also cause mistakes. The plural of university is spelt as
?universitys?. There are seven mistakes in the page, and three of them appear twice. The
problem is worse in Henan Normal University. In its first page of overview, 11
mistakes can be found with two different mistakes take place twice.
Another mistake is caused by misusing of the collocation. The word staff is often
used in the web pages. But many universities do not use it correctly, such as Zhengzhou
University and Shangqiu University.
[17] The university has a teaching and administrative staff of 1,300 of which 56 are
professors, 260 are associate professors and 230 have doctor or master degrees.
The right collocation is staff members or members of staff. The other problem is that,
when one word has to be part into two parts in two sentences in web pages of Jiaozuo
University, there are lack of hyphens.
2.5.3 Misusing of Preposition
The collocation and grammar of preposition in English is more complex and
popular than that in Chinese. People in China often make mistakes in using preposition
under the influence of Chinese custom. Though most of the use of preposition is fixed,
we ought to choose perfect preposition in accordance with specific conditions.
Reading the English web pages of Jiaozuo University, we can find the preposition
?in? in front of the ?year? is missed in the whole article.
[18] Introduction of Zhengzhou University
[19] The introduction of Anyang Normal University
The prepositions used in the sample seventeen and eighteen are wrong because ?to?
collocates with ?introduction? but ?of? does not.
[20] Its influence is becoming much stronger among universities of this field.
?In the field? is a collocation so the preposition ?of? in the above sentence should
be substituted by ?in?.

2.5.4 The wrong spelling of names of places
Generally speaking, the names of places in China are treated as one word so that
the first letter of the word should be written in capital letter. That is to say that 郑州 is
not translated to Zheng Zhou or Zheng zhou in English, but Zhengzhou. However,
Henan province is spelt as He Nan province in Jiaozuo University?s web pages, and
Xinxiang Medical University as XinXiang Medical University in its English web page.
Many people in China have the common sense that Henan belongs to China. But under
another circumstances, foreigners do not know where Henan is and which country it
belongs to. To avoid such misunderstanding, we can not omit the national name when
we do translation.
Chapter three
3. Conclusion and suggestion
3.1 Conclusion
Nine universities are discussed in my research, including one key university
(Zhengzhou University) and two universities (Henan Normal University and Henan
University) among the best of the successful universities which own perfect English
majors in China. All of the universities have excellent English professors and teachers.
However, the qualities of the English web pages are not satisfying. The reason for the
phenomenon is that the leaders of universities do not attach enough importance to make
English web pages. Another drawback of these web pages is that their contents are not
renewed immediately. Let me take the English web pages of Jiaozuo University as an
example. It has not been renewed since it was established in December, 2006. What is
worse is that it is taken from the internet, but not made by the university itself. So the
information it provided is out of time and lack of significance.
3.2 Suggestion
Through analyzing the reasons leading to these errors, some ways to work out
solutions can be found.
3.2.1 Deepen the leaders’ understanding on the importance of

English web pages
Leaders should devote much attention to making and maintaining the English
web pages of their universities. The fact of the matter is that the unsatisfying web pages
have bad influence on the impression of the universities. It is better for leaders to order
English experts and teachers who have a good command of English and masters in the
field of international communication to take part in the making of web pages. Because
some certain objective rules should be complied in translation. In addition to that,
adequate funds and service would be supplied by the university. The English web pages
will no longer be the ornament of the university.
3.2.2 Increasing the quality and ability of translators.
English and Chinese are two different kinds of language. So the translator may
easily be affected by his mother language, which leads to the occurrence of chinglish.
To translate a well-done article well, translators have to have the ability to make good
use of these two languages, especially in the vocabulary, in the grammar and in the
structure of sentences. Because there are many differences between these parts in
Chinese and English. Qualified translators must be able to tell the different and
common things between the two languages. What is most important is that the
translators need completely understanding on the original meaning of the source
language, the characteristics of the literary works and background of the history. That is
to say, the translator should try his best to have a wide range of knowledge. They can
surfer the web pages of universities in overseas to get to know their situation and to
study the styles used by these pages.
3.2.3 Considering the readership while doing translation
The English web pages are designed to service the readers. Therefore, the
acceptability are put into considering. When translate Chinese web pages, translators
can delete, rewrite, or add something according to the style of English web pages in
overseas. They can also renew the web pages under the suggestion of the people from
English-speaking countries after they established the web pages.

3.2.4 Getting better understanding of culture in China, England
and America.
We do not only translate the language, but also the culture of China. The culture
carries on much information that can?t be found in western countries. It is China?s
socialistic system that makes China different from other counties. So when translating,
people ought to avoid the conflicts between cultures.
3.2.5 Checking up the web pages carefully and decreasing the
number of the mistakes
A plenty of the mistakes caused by carelessness can be avoided. So the English
web pages should be examined more times. It will be better if the typists do well in
English.