English research article (RA) writing is the highest stage for Chinese college?level learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in classroom settings. After mastering English for daily communication, EFL learners need to learn English RA writing preparing for their future academic study in English. In previous research, English RA writing has been much focused on mechanical skills (such as referencing techniques) and linguistic features. Previous writing models are intended to describe the writing process of general writing tasks, rather than RA writing. This paper argues that English academic writing should include three major components: academic language, discourse structure of RA, scientific thinking and reasoning. This study discusses features of academic language, characteristics of the discourse structure of research paper, and the representations of scientific reasoning in RA writing. A tentative model of RA writing process is proposed under the framework of activity theory.