1. Introduction As a significant language output, writing accounts for the largest proportion of TEM-4, which covers 25% of the total exam points. Judging from the statistical result of the previous TEM-4, the writing scores are generally unsatisfactory. Even for a famous school like Fudan University, the scores of the candidates are relatively low. This illustrates that English major students#8217; English writing level has yet to be further improved. Zheng Xiaoxia (2006) found that the weakness of students#8217; writing included a large number of grammatical errors, lack of diversion in sentence patterns, being short of consistency, unclear main idea and loss of logic. Solving these problems will cost students a lot of time and energy with little effect. Annett (1969) proposed that timely and effective feedback played an important role in improving writing level. In process approach, feedback can efficiently help to improve the quality of students writing because students can make several revisions with the guidance of feedback. However, there is no sufficient time for English major students to practice writing and they cannot get immediate feedback. The current situation in China is that a writing teacher teaches several writing classes. It is difficult to respond in time and effectively. With the development of technology, the automated writing evaluation system tries to solve this problem. Modern network technology provides new platform called automated writing evaluation system for improve the situation. Automated writing evaluation system make up for the teacher#8217;s limited energy that giving timely revision and feedback for students to modify their English composition. Students can revise their English composition in accordance with the feedback given by automated writing evaluation for several times. According to College English Curriculum Requirements, English teaching in university should adopt a novel teaching pattern based on modern information technology especially network technique (Sun Xianhong, 2012). In previous studies, automated writing evaluation system can provide students with immediate feedback, individual report of language mistakes, which contains not only the accuracy of the use of word, but also the analysis of structure and content. Therefore, it is urgent to seek for a novel and modern solution to improve situation of English major students#8217; writing. In this thesis, the author would explore how automated writing evaluation system performs in English writing. 1.1Need for the study Writing is both a cognitive and an affective activity. It is influenced by many factors, including writing anxiety, motivation, belief and attitude (Mcleod, 1987). More scholars focused on emotional domain in writing process gradually, some of them found student#8217;s writing motivation played a vital role in their writing and had a positive impact on revising their compositions. Motivation has been widely accepted by teachers and researchers as one of key influencing factors in ESL learning. It is a psychology concept prompting people to devote to a long and tedious L2 learning process (Dornyei, 1998). Motivation not only improves the initiative of students to learn English, but also helps students overcome difficulties in order to achieve the purpose of learning. It is easier for students to master English knowledge and improve their writing skills with motivation (Liu Jingyun, 2005). Therefore, motivation is the key factor in the success of English writing (Pintrich Schunk, 2002). Apart from writing motivation, there is another factor influencing English writing-----self-efficacy. The notion of writing self-efficacy is a branch of self- efficacy proposed by Bandura (1977). According to Bandura (1993), it is a common belief for students that self-efficacy can regulate their learning, master academic activity and determine their aspirations, level of motivation and academic accomplishments. In some degree, self-efficacy can predict people#8217;s performance in some given task. McCarthy, Meier Rinderer (1985) defined self-evaluation as self-efficacy and it was closely related to writing performance, and they found different self-efficacy could result in different level of writing quality, students with high writing self-efficacy were regarded as good writers, experience less anxiety in time limited writing, and their essays were much longer and their writing grades affirmatively higher. In a word, higher writing self-efficacy indicates higher writing proficiency. Hence, the function of writing self-efficacy cannot be ignored when it comes to English writing. In the past several decades, a lot of researchers have been carried out to investigate the effect of writing motivation or writing self-efficacy on writing performance, there are fewer researchers explore the combined effect of the three factors. Automated writing evaluation system as a newly-developing thing for English teaching is controversial and affective factors like writing motivation and self-efficacy in English writing has been paid close attention in several years, it is necessary to explore their relationship and solve the problem of English teaching. 1.2 Research purpose In this study, the author will probe into how English major#8217;s writing motivation and writing self-efficacy will affect their writing performance based on automated writing evaluation system. 2. Literature review 2.1 Theoretical foundations With self-efficacy theory getting increasing extensive attention, self-efficacy gradually reaches to other fields, such as the field of education. Researchers at home use the concept in English teaching and learning, especially in English writing teaching. English writing self-efficacy was derived from Bandura (1993)#8217;s ”self-efficacy”. Mccarthy Rinderer (1985) defined writing self-efficacy as the students#8217; self- evaluation which showed the belief in dealing with writing skills. Other scholars (Graham Harris, 1989) pointed out that writing self-efficacy was students#8217; judgment about their competence of evaluating whether they could finish the writing assignment perfectly. Every phrase of writing process was affected by individual#8217;s emotional factor, so it was naturally influenced by the self-efficacy mechanism. The belief in dealing with writing skills can be called writing skill self-efficacy. Self-efficacy involves the usage of vocabulary, tense, punctuation and sentence patterns and so on. The definition ”the judgment of students#8217; confidence in accomplishing certain tasks” means the writing task self-efficacy. Writing tasks mainly refer to the literary forms of writing such as expository, argumentation, description, e-mail, letter or a report. This thesis adopts Shell's viewpoint which states that writing self-efficacy should be measured from two aspects, writing skills and writing tasks. Dornyei introduced the term of motivation from social psychology into language teaching. Without sufficient motivation, even individuals with remarkable abilities couldn#8217;t accomplish long-term goals. Motivation was probably the most frequently used catch-all term for explaining the success or failure of any complex task (Dornyei, 1998: 117-135). Among various definitions of motivation, the one which was accepted by most researches was that motivation was the process whereby goal-directed activity is instigated and sustained (Pintrich Schunk, 2002). 2.2 Related empirical studies 2.2.1 Related empirical studies of automated writing evaluation system The development of computer-assisted writing technology changes the way of evaluation and feedback in writing practice. The automated writing evaluation system is developed to evaluate written works and provide grade, content, structure, expression and grammar plus personal feedback. The study on Writing Roadmap conducted by Tang Jinlan Wu Yian (2012） revealed that the system had positive influence on writing performance for student#8217;s writing scores increased more than those who hadn#8217;t written on the system. Wang (2004) found that students who wrote better on Knowledge Forum, had better writing attitude and would like to discuss with peers. You Qiliang Zhan Jianfen (2004) pointed out that both teachers and parents were satisfied with the system for its fairness on grading and accuracy on feedback. Studies on Juku automated writing evaluation system ( Fu Zhuqin, 2012, Gu Chenghua and Wang Li, 2012) displayed that students#8217; scores and writing abilities such as writing fluency had improved a lot after the constant writing through Juku automated writing evaluation system. At the same time, He Xuliang (2013) also found that student#8217;s learning autonomy and initiative were significantly improved because of the constant revision and instant scoring from Juku automated writing evaluation system. Many studies have affirmed the high validity of automated writing evaluation system as well as its positive influence on student#8217;s writing while researcher (Cheville, 2004; Ericsson, 2006) still questioned the effectiveness of automated writing evaluation system in their studies. 2.2.2 Related empirical studies of writing self-efficacy Researchers home and abroad have found that there is positive relationship between writing self-efficacy and writing proficiency (Multon, K. D., Brown s. D. Lent. R.W. 1991; Chularut, P. Debacker, T. K, 2004; Pajares, 2000; Zheng Xiaoxia, 2006; Kang Youjin Ren Xiaojuan, 2009). Меir еt. al. (1984) found that there was connection between writing self-efficacy and college students#8217; writing performance. Pajares (1993) Johnson (1996) carried out the research towards high school students and undergraduates respectively and the results showed that self-efficacy was closely related with students#8217; writing proficiency. Besides, the study (Zimmerman Bandura, 1994) towards 95 freshmen showed that self-efficacy had direct and indirect influences on students#8217; writing achievement. That means higher writing self-efficacy can bring more enthusiasm and motivation in writing which promotes higher writing proficiency. In China, recently, more and more researchers focused on the influence that writing self-efficacy had on writing proficiency. Researches (Hu Chunqin, Li Quan Luo Yan, 2006) about the relationship between writing self-efficacy and writing achievements showed that non-English major students who had higher self- efficacy achieved higher writing achievements and writing self-efficacy was positively related to writing achievements. Zhang Mingfang (2008) investigated that writing self-efficacy had influence on senior high school students writing teaching. Liu Yang Liu Feng (2007) pointed out that self- efficacy theory was useful in writing teaching which could offer good feedback for students. Tang Fang Xu Jinfin (2011) found that students#8217; writing self-efficacy and its two factors were positively correlated with their writing performance. Zhao Jiangkui (2011) pointed out that writing self-efficacy was one of the best predictors of writing proficiency. The above reviews home and abroad show that writing self-efficacy is positively correlated with writing proficiency and the predictor (writing self-efficacy) has significant predictive effects on the dependent variable (writing proficiency). Therefore, students with high writing self-efficacy perform well in writing activities and teachers can improve students#8217; writing proficiency by increasing students#8217; writing self-efficacy. 2.2.3 Related empirical studies of writing motivation Different psychological schools, based on different theory, have different understandings on motivation. Behavioral psychologists were the first to realize the impact of feedback to motivation. They claimed that external factors were applied to motivate and strengthen people#8217;s activity in order to achieve expected goals. Since the 1980s, researchers studied on the relationship between motivation and language learning. Bernaus Gardner carried out a study Teacher Motivation Strategies, Student Perceptions, Student Motivation, and English Achievement, which showed that motivation had positive effects on English achievement, whereas attitudes toward the learning situation and language anxiety both negatively influenced English achievement References Annett, J. (1969). Feedback and human behaviour. Harmondsworth: Pengui Books. Attali, Y., Burstein, J. (2006). Automated essay scoring with e‐raterreg;; v.2.0. Journal of Technology Learning Assessment, 4(2), 1#8211;21. Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Ｒeview，84，191-215. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy theory: towards a unifying theory of behavioral change. 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