How to write papers efficiently when English isn't my first language?

Question

I am a PhD student from China. I can read papers relatively fast and get the main point. The problem is that I cannot write efficiently. I don't know how to express myself or I forget the appropriate phrases when writing. Can any other researcher help me solve this problem?

Answer 1

The art of academic writing is essentially the practice of re-writing the same story many times, until the result is "good enough". It takes a lot of persistence and a lot of time to prepare a single paper for publication.

If English is not your first language and you struggle with the correct phrasing, consider using an academic phrasebank to help you. I can also recommend a brief summary of academic grammar. Finally, use English-English dictionaries as much as possible, e.g. the free dictionary, and refrain from using English-YourMotherTongue dictionaries if you can.

Answer 2

A concrete thing to do when writing is to first express yourself in any way you can, no matter how clumsy or awkward it feels, to get something on paper. After you have written a longer text, you can take the time to fix mistakes, find better phrases, reduce unnecessary passive voice and cut up overtly long sentences, or whatever are good and useful practices for you.

If you have collaborators, do this together with them, at least a page or so worth, and discuss the changes you make. This can help you identify things to work on. Even non-native collaborators are helpful, especially if they have a different native language than you do; they tend to notice and be blind to different issues.

A good habit is that when you are checking your writing and you feel uncertainty about an issue, find out how the grammar works or how the word is spelled. You might want to use the stack exchange sites https://ell.stackexchange.com/ and https://english.stackexchange.com/ , where appropriate.

For strategies and tools for improving your English, you might also ask at http://languagelearning.stackexchange.com/ .

Answer 3

I would recommend to polish you English in general a little bit - language exchanges or language tandems with native speakers can help you a lot here. Maybe there are native speakers who would like to learn Chinese in your city? Check if you find platforms for such exchanges in social media or websites like meetup. I found this tremendously helpful for myself.

In a second step I would then go ahead an extract specific phrasing from existing research papers of your field. You will see that researchers use specific phrases in specific situations/sections of a paper. But in order to really do this and use the phrases appropriately I think it might be beneficial to work on your general English fluency a little bit.

Answer 4

Native English speaker here. I used to work in research with researchers whose English was not a first language.

I would suggest focusing on the structure of your writing like Ethan mentioned (I have found Barbara Minto's book The Pyramid Principle quite useful) and if possible get a native speaker to review your English (e.g. you can pay for technical editors or work with English-speaking collaborators).

As someone who has reviewed many writers I have found well structured work much easier to edit than poorly structured writing. This is irrespective if the writer is a native speaker or not (assuming a passable level of English, which I'd say you have).

You may also be suffering writers block, I think processing ideas and expressing ideas (and translating ideas into another language) are seperate exercises best tackled at different stages. When I get writer's block I don't think about how to best express an idea, I simply write "I will write about X now, which proves..." You may write key words in your native language or any ugly, dirty writing trick that helps you stay in the flow of getting your ideas on the page. Then once your ideas are on paper, you can focus on expressing things in readable English.

Please be aware that English is just a pain in the butt, I have worked with many clever people who always get stuck on "an/a" and "he/she/they" and stuff like this. I would in the final stage of writing review these kinds of words.

Answer 5

Writing is a complex topic that cannot be explained fully in a short StackExchange post. Just like it took you years to learn your own discipline, it takes years to learn how to write well. Academic writing is also its own specialized skill.

We could recommend you some books and rules of thumb. But the more logical thing to do would be to go to your university's writing center and ask them for help. You could also ask your advisor or colleagues who are good at writing. They would recommend the same books we would, but you would get much more detailed advice.

Answer 6

Because you are comfortable reading newspapers and extracting what is called the 'controlling idea' from your reading, here is a method for using the controlling idea method to learn how to produce outlines of already written documents. Once you master this re-producing process you will be better prepared to develop outlines for your own writing.

Method- select a scientific article which you understand well. Beginning with the first paragraph, select what you think to be the controlling idea of that paragraph. The controlling idea is the primary idea that the author is trying to make in that paragraph. Then, select in order of importance in supporting the controlling idea, the other ideas [sentences] in the text of the document. When your finished your outline should look like this:

Controlling idea-

-supporting idea 1

-supporting idea 2

-supporting idea 3

concluding idea

Follow this model for each paragraph in the paper. Repeat this process until you can perform the process easily. Then begin to use the same process to prepare to write your own papers. Best of Luck! Charles M. Saunders

Answer 7

Every one of the answers here has good ideas that may work for you. Here is another.

My wife used to coach academic writers. She suggested that one of her clients write his first few drafts in his native language (Japanese), That way he could make sure his ideas were well organized without having to worry about finding just the right foreign words, When he felt well enough organized he would translate his own work into English and polish it with the help of friends and fellow professionals, including those at the writing center at his university.

Answer 8

Writing an academic paper is a complex task. You are dealing with multiple distinct cognitive demands. If you are struggling, you may benefit from breaking down the process into its component parts:

1) Research and learn the information

2) Convey the information in a sequence of words

3) Ensure that the words are clear to the reader

Many second language learners benefit from doing the first two tasks in their native language. As they perform research, they take notes in their native language or some combination of their native language and English. Then they write out at least the outline, but often the whole paper, in their native language. At that point many find it none too difficult to translate their work into English. Afterwards, of course, they will proofread it and fix any problematic expressions using the resources they have in-person or online.