Strategies for Overcoming the Writing Challenges of ESL Students: First Draft

FIRST DRAFT

The ESL student is on par with the native speaker. 

The Components of Good Academic Writing Are Universal

Regardless of whether you are writing in your first language or your fifth, the same components of good academic writing apply: accuracy, clarity, conciseness, objectivity, continuity, content, organization. It’s about having something new and worthwhile to say and then taking great care and thought in how to express your ideas. In this sense, ESL writers are on par with native-speaking writers.

I often find the ESL student’s writing easier to edit than the native speaker’s writing. Why is this? Because the ESL writer is often a good writer who is able to incorporate all the important principles of academic writing. Thus, when editing, I am not faced with a morass of inarticulate or randomly organized ideas, but rather the need to correct phrases (e.g., “nervous breakdown” rather than “nerve break down” or “she was a straight-A student” rather than “she received A’s throughout her classes”), word choices (“end” instead of “endpoint,” “adaptable” versus “bendable,” “sculpting tool” versus “scalpel”), and grammatical errors.   

Improving Your Writing Takes Effort and Practice—Also Universal

Learning to write well can only be accomplished through effort and practice—just like learning a sport. With time and effort and a willingness to learn, not only do you increase your ability and improve your skills, but you build your confidence.

Write Clearly and Cleanly

All students need to learn to write in a way that (1) communicates their ideas to their target audience and (2) is easy to comprehend. If you are an ESL writer, I encourage you to make an extra effort to write clearly. Strive to keep sentences and phrases clean and not overly long or complicated. Avoid long introductory phrases or nouns overburdened by too many adjectives. Stick to vocabulary that is commonly used in your field. Too many people think that academic writing means writing formally in a way that is far from natural, using words that are known by few, and making overly complex sentences by stringing together too many ideas, examples, or just being overly wordy. (For example, one could argue that my last sentence is too long at 43 words.) In truth, when I read the essays of “hotheads,” I become distracted from the writing by my awareness of how insecure these writers are because their main objective is really to show me how smart they are. In other words, they do not really care about what they are writing about—they just want to show off.   

Take Frequent Breaks

Forcing yourself to sit for hours at a time is not productive. Our brains need a chance to refresh—just like athletes need to give their muscles time to recharge. So, make sure you take a break at least every hour or hour and a half. 

Next week, second draft!