Written by Xinyi Wang
When I started my first year at UCI, I did not think writing would be a problem. Sure, English is not my first language, as is the case for many international students and scholars, but I had been learning English since grade school. As a student in Material Engineering, I had some rough idea about what’s expected of me. I knew I would need my math skills and I was prepared to make full use of my trainings in science. But it wasn’t long before I realized how much more time I spent on writing, on a daily basis, than I had expected. And I struggled. Abstracts, proposals, emails, presentations, reports, not to mention the full journal papers that are usually 20 pages long. I am almost embarrassed to confess that I once had to spend half an hour researching the Internet, trying to put together an appropriately worded email to someone who might be interested in funding my research. It was hard. But it was even harder to seek help, when the first step required me to admit to someone that I struggle at one of the most basic tasks in life – to communicate like the adult you are expected to be in an academic setting. And that leads to my first piece of advice for my fellow English-as-a-second-language friends – don’t feel embarrassed.
Ask for Help. You Are in School.
I know it’s a cliché. But people are always genuinely impressed when you speak their native language as a foreign language speaker. I for one never fail to be impressed by someone speaking Chinese in front of me, when I know they’re not native speakers. Even more impressed when they speak imperfectly or with accent, because I know they made an effort. It is only natural that we don’t feel the same when it’s the other way around. Nothing’s more humiliating and depressing than babbling like a child in front of the professor who advises you on your thesis. I was lucky to have a very caring and considerate advisor who sensed my unease when we were reviewing my research papers together. At first, we would spend the first 30 minutes of our meeting just to correct every grammar mistake and awkward syntax on my paper. He told me how impressed he was with my writing, despite the superficial mistakes. And I learned a lot from the mistakes. Sometimes it was ten times more efficient to have someone teach me how to make a sentence sound right than to try figuring it out myself. It makes me more confident as well, since my progress was validated by an authority. Moreover, some of the problems with my writing are rooted in my earlier education and my cultural background. It’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, for one to realize those problems by oneself. For example, teachers in my home country discourage addressing the thesis of an essay directly. It may not make much sense for American writers, but that is a tradition originated from ancient Chinese prose, for which presenting your argument directly upfront is considered obtuse and immature. That’s why having someone review your writing is especially beneficial. I highly recommend Graduate and Postdoctoral Scholars Resource Center’s Writing Consultants. The process of making an appointment is easy and the meetings are pressure-free. They are just amazing.
Read More to Write Better
One of the biggest differences between academic writing and other writings is the audience. Most likely, your audience is a relatively exclusive group of experts who are well versed in the field you’re writing on. Unlike journalism or fiction, your primary goal is to inform. It probably doesn’t hurt that your writing on High Entropy Alloy and Its Corrosion Behavior also entertains people — if you’re one of those people, I’d really like a conversation with you – but you should always aim to convey your ideas as clearly and concisely as possible. That is why obvious mistakes like misuse of prepositions (in, on, at), random articles appearing before nouns (a, an, the) and incorrect punctuations are simply bad. Because they distract your audience. Each tiny mistake takes away a little credence of whatever point your paper tries to make. I remember my English teacher used to make us memorize rules for using prepositions. But I struggle at coming up with the correct one when I need to anyway. It got better for me over time and I have no doubt that it’s because I have read more texts in English. I am no expert on the complex organ that is the human brain, but I think mine likes to learn a new language like a baby does. That is, to immerse myself in the linguistic environment. Now, I could watch YouTube videos in English for 12 hours a day – I try not to, and I wish I have the time – but the more efficient approach would be reading high quality contents in English. I recommend the New York Times for anyone interested in learning the various aspects of American political life. The subscription is free with a UCI email address. That’s about $100 a year in saving and many of my friends don’t even know about it.
Some Other Tips
- It’s another cliché, but that paper you’re procrastinating on really takes more time than you think.
- If you write more, you’ll write better. Take notes while reading academic papers. I use BoostNote to take notes. It’s free and syncs to all my devices.
- It goes without saying that you should never plagiarize, but it is a good idea to adopt other writers’ style and structure.
- Be careful with hyperbole. It is rarely correct to claim something is the “best”, “biggest” or “greatest” in an academic paper. Making a dubious or wrong claim is very undesirable, to say the least.
- Keeping a formal and disinterested tone makes your argument more convincing.
- No one has the “best words”. Use only the vocabulary you are comfortable using. Big words are usually not very useful in academic writing.
- Expand your vocabulary to avoid weird repetition and awkward syntax. It’s another good reason to have an extra mind go over your draft. We are bad at detecting our own mistakes.
The truth is we’ve all seen great papers that can be improved. I found readers of academic papers to be very forgiving when it comes to minor mistakes. For me, writing is inherently stressful—the thought of strangers reading my work, judging. But I always try to give myself some confidence. I did it just fine last time.