And why those with English as a first language still need training in writing papers.
Scientists approach me with a variation of this statement all the time: “I struggle to write great papers because I’m not a native English speaker.” Hands up if this thought has run through your head before! I don’t blame you if it has. It’s become accepted wisdom that being a “non-native English speaker” means that you’ll likely struggle with your academic writing. At the same time, many believe that writing papers is easy for “native English speakers”.
Today, I aim to shift your perspective slightly. Instead of hiding behind the labels of native and non-native English speakers, I want to encourage you to focus on the actual writing problem that you are experiencing. This little mindset shift should ultimately help you improve your scientific writing and make the whole writing process feel a lot better. (Because writing shouldn’t feel awful!)
First, let’s discuss the phrase “native English speaker”. What are we really referring to here? Traditionally, a native speaker of English used to be someone born in an English-speaking country, like the US, UK, New Zealand, Australia, or Canada. But how about children who have learned English at a young age in a different country, perhaps because they attended a bilingual school or because English is widely spoken in that country (like India or Singapore)?
In reality, the distinction between native and non-native English speakers isn’t clear-cut. Linguists now prefer the terms “first” and “second language”, a first language being a language acquired in early childhood, and a second language one acquired later in life. To me, even those descriptions aren’t very meaningful because they don’t reveal anything about the speaker’s language abilities.
“Academic English is nobody’s first language”
The other problem with ascribing your writing problem to the fact that you aren’t a native English speaker is that speaking and writing are two different things. As the linguist Ken Hyland puts it: “Academic English is nobody’s first language”. Even a highly regarded poet will struggle to write a scientific article if they have never done it before. There is a specific way to write papers, structural conventions and specific words and phrases to use. This has an important implication: The labels native (or first language) and non-native (second language) English speaker also don’t predict someone’s academic writing ability.
If you are someone whose first language isn’t English, I want to give you hope. You too can learn how to write in academic English!
If you are someone with English as a first language, I want to give you hope too: It’s normal to struggle with scientific writing even as a native speaker. Hyland reports on papers that found that writers with English as their first language still experienced writing anxiety and frustration and that they needed to do a similar amount of emotional work when producing writing. This very much agrees with what I have observed working with scientists all over the world!
While writers with English as a first language still require training in writing papers, I do acknowledge that they have an advantage over others: They are less likely to make spelling mistakes, may have a larger vocabulary and often a better concept of correct English grammar. If the Latin alphabet and the subject-verb-object sentence structure is new to you, you’ll face an additional burden when you attempt to write scientific papers that first language writers don’t need to worry about.
Nevertheless, writing great papers is more than mastering English. And what is sometimes forgotten is that it is about communicating clearly rather than elegantly. Thus, someone with a vast English vocabulary may even be at a disadvantage when they attempt to communicate their scientific findings clearly in a paper: They may use a lot of synonyms that confuse readers or use words that the international scientific community isn’t familiar with.
What really is a well-written paper?
What’s even more important: Writing a great paper goes beyond clearly describing findings and scientific facts. What makes or breaks a well-written paper isn’t correct grammar but a coherent internal structure. In my work with scientists, I focus on developing and examining that structure and the underlying scientific story. I teach scientists to first define what I call the key story elements of a paper and to structure the different paper sections based on those key story elements. This foundational work (not being completely free of spelling mistakes) is what makes your paper communicate your findings effectively. Or – to turn the argument around: If a paper doesn’t tell a clear, concise and compelling story, it isn’t “well-written” even if the English is impeccable.
The bottom line is that writing a great paper is a skill. A skill that every scientist who wants to be successful needs to learn at some point in their career – regardless of the languages they speak more or less well.
If, so far you have always attributed your writing problems to your status as a “non-native speaker”, think again. Is that really the reason for your struggles? What do you actually need help with? Would you perhaps be able to publish in better journals, receive more citations and (most importantly) enjoy the writing process if you understood better how to tell a story in a paper?
And if you are a “native English speaker” who is struggling with writing papers, please don’t feel ashamed. Writing is hard for all of us.
