Abstract: The academic communication becomes increasingly frequent due to the further development of globalization. Abstracts, especially the English ones, not only provide the core information of a paper, but also build a bridge for scholars from different countries to communicate with each other. This research is to summarize some basic principles of abstract translation in academic papers. Taking non-English majors’ abstracts of graduation theses from Nanjing Xiaozhuang University as an example, this paper analyzes the typical mistakes and reasons from the perspective of grammar and discourse and proposes corresponding strategies in the hope of improving the quality of academic papers as a whole, as well as providing reference and suggestions for college English teaching. The result shows that most mistakes in English abstracts result from violation of one or more basic principles concluded in this paper, namely, accuracy, brevity, completeness and objectivity; the improvement of translating skills needs joint efforts of students, teachers and universities or colleges.

Key words: abstract translation; English abstract; translation principle; academic paper

CONTENTS

Abstract

摘要：

1. Introduction.1

2. Basic Principles of English Abstracts .2

2.1 Accuracy

2.2 Brevity

2.3 Completeness

2.4 Objectivity

3.Common Mistakes in Translation4

3.1 Grammatical Mistakes

3.2 Violation of Discourse Principles

    3.2.1 Unawareness of Differences Between English and Chinese    

    3.2.2 Poor understanding of the Function and Content of Abstracts

4. Reasons and Solutions9

4.1 Reasons for Mistakes

4.2 Solutions

5. Conclusion 12

 Bibliography13

 Acknowledgements15