Objective　To verify the effect of English newspaper reading teaching on improving students' writing ability. Methods　Forty students in Binzhou Medical College choosing English news-paper reading as elective course were enrolled as experimental group while 40 students not choosing English newspaper reading as elective course were enrolled as control group. English newspaper read-ing was introduced into the selective course and www.pigai.org was employed to do online real-time composition writing. Differences in pre-test （before online real-time composition writing） and post-test （after online real-time composition writing） scores were compared by paired t test and P<0.05 was considered statistically different. Results　There were statistical differences between pre-test and post-test scores in experimental group （t=-17.590， P =0.000）. There was no statistical difference between pre-test and post-test scores in control group （t=1.347， P=0.186）. There were statistical differences in accuracy， complexity， fluency and coherence of the composition between pre-test and post-test in ex-perimental group. Conclusions　English newspaper reading teaching plays an important part in im-proving medical college students' writing ability. After a semester of English newspaper reading， the writing ability of students had obviously improved in language accuracy， complexity， fluency and co-herence.