Writers' Lab: Writing Academic English for Non-Native Speakers

Your first abstract has been accepted, and you are feeling overwhelmed with joy as you’ll be able to present your work for the very first time to an interested audience.

But then you stop for a moment and realize that you’ll have to write in English

You’ll have to write in good, academic English

Academic writing is a skill all PhD students need to learn during their program, and writing in English as well as in your institution’s language both are part of learning how to write like a fully-fledged researcher.

1. Take a course

Most universities offer courses to brush up the English skills of their graduate students, as they are quickly realizing that the majority of the high-impact journals require English publications. If your university provides you with this opportunity: don’t doubt for a moment and enroll. You’ll benefit from such a course in many different ways. You’ll thank yourself when your paper deadline is quickly approaching.

If your institution does not offer English writing courses, don’t panic. Your library might have some valuable books on academic writing. If you pick up a book, don’t sit back and relax. You’ll need to actively implement the insights of the book, and learn while you work your way through it. Consider the insights from such a book like a course – and spend time and effort on improving your writing.

2. Master the technical vocabulary

Make sure you are using the correct English terms for all technical concepts you are describing. You might have all your lecture notes in your native language, and not be fully aware of the English subtleties in technical terms in your field. When in doubt, pick up an English textbook from the library and review the technical terms from your field.

3. Know the pitfalls

Avoid the typical grammar mistakes that are used in English – it’s just not acceptable to make these beginner mistakes in academic publications. And while we’re at it, you might consider subscribing to the Grammar Girl to improve your writing.

By the same token, get an understanding of the false friends between your native language and English.

4. Learn from examples

Select some papers from your literature review that you consider good examples of technical writing. Look for examples in which the narrative flows, the sentences are clear and the general concept of the paper becomes clear as it is explained very well.

Study the structure of the sentences, the paragraph transitions, the use of past and present tense, and the use of active and passive voice.

5. Practice makes perfect

Practice your writing in English from the first day of your PhD. Even though these pieces of text most certainly won’t make it into your dissertation, it is important to find your own voice by writing very often.

Here are a few examples of writing in English you can start very early on:
- a summary of a paper you read
- a critique of a paper you read
- a preparation report for your experiments
- an overview of your goals and planning for your PhD studies
- keep a research blog

6. Surround yourself with English

Besides writing, your general language skills will take a wing and soar once you familiarize yourself more and more with the language.

Reach out to the international students for conversations in English. Read papers, online news, blogs, fiction,… – everything you can lay your eyes on. For spoken English, watch the news on an English channel, or watch TED-talks.

7. Ask for advice

When you are writing your first publication, don’t be afraid to ask senior researchers for advice. Inform if your university has a service to support your writing by providing feedback. Sit together with the senior PhD students for coffee and listen to their advice on writing.

We all come in at the beginning of the PhD process with the task of learning how to become an independent researcher – a task that comprises many non-technical skills. Senior researchers are aware of the doubts of their starting colleagues, and will want to give you a helping hand and some advice every now and then.

How are you improving your English writing as a non-native speaker? Share your experiences in the comments section!

This post first appeared on The PhD Lounge

Writers' Lab: Writing for non-native speakers

As a non-native speaker, you face additional challenges when preparing an academic publication. The author of this guest post is Evelyn Cowan from Enago, a company specialized in English editing and proofreading for scientific manuscripts. She agreed to share some of her best advice for non-native writers of English.

 


The academic style of writing, as opposed to informal writing, involves the expression of a paper/article/essay’s meaning without blocking the reader’s sense of clarity. Hence, it is always best to simplify the language, formulating sentences without heavy wordplay, which in some cases could lead to the muddling of meaning. Even simple misused homophones, words with similar spellings and/or pronunciation but with different meaning such as its/it’s and affect/effect, may alter the impact and meaning of the written word. It is always best to reconfirm the meaning of a given word to avoid its awkward positioning.

The best ways to avoid this is to follow seven simple steps for writing academic papers. Though it is not an in-depth analysis of the writing skills needed in the academic style, it builds a fair idea on what is needed.

1. The first most important task is to select a manual of style/style guide (Chicago/APA/AMA/ASA/MHRA/MLA…). This will streamline the form your paper needs to follow.

2. Always try and list your idea/argument before framing it. This would help understand its order of importance, enabling a simplified, comprehensible flow of the paper.

3. It is not mandatory to have complex sentence constructions in your paper. Thus, the readability could be enhanced by simple and concise sentences.

4. Avoid using abbreviations without defining them in the first instance. Though the use of parlance is common, only technical papers encourage the use of abbreviations or words known in a particular field.

5. Use the right punctuation to avoid loss of meaning, abrupt endings or long continuous sentences. The right punctuation is necessary for a clearer, meaningful sentence, which may otherwise disrupt the flow of the entire paper.

6. Another important rule of thumb is the appropriate choice of words as it is important for the meaning of the written word. The right choice of word also makes an impact with the reader and enhances the readability of the paper.

7. Finally, get your paper reviewed by someone fluent in the language to highlight any gaps in meaning or content due to incorrect use of any technical aspect of the language. Also, developmental changes may be suggested by them, giving you greater insight for future references.


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About Enago:
Enago is the world's leading English editing service provider to ESL authors. Enago's professional editors are native English speakers and subject area experts with an average experience of 19.4 years in academic editing in the areas of medicine, engineering, economics, physics and more. Enago has been consistently delivering high quality, i.e., 100% error-free edited manuscripts, to its clients in a timely manner for meeting its ultimate objective of academic paper acceptance in international journals.
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