（早已结束！）Issue Writing 002：How to write like a native English speaker ？
We can write right words, right sentences and right grammar in English. However, it is hard for us to write like a native English spearker.How to write like a native English speaker? Please share your experience or comment with us !
We greatly appreciate your reponse to this activity!
Best regards,
Macauor
Requirement:
1. At least 200 words.
2. Around 2 scores for each post. How to write like a native English speaker?
As far as I am concerned , I recite a lot of writing structure in the book:, for example
1)first, second, third, last
2）firstly, secondly, thirdly, finally
3）the first, the second, the third, the last
4）in the first place, in the second place, in the third place, lastly
5）to begin with, then, furthermore, finally（强烈推荐）
6）to start with, next, in addition, finally（强烈推荐）
7）first and foremost, besides, last but not least（强烈推荐）
8）most important of all, moreover, finally
9）on the one hand, on the other hand（适用于两点的情况）
10）for one thing, for another thing（适用于两点的情况）
Secondly, I always recite plenty of beautiful paper such as :
This picture shows two people reading the announcement on a billboard, and being shocked at the message. This is because the billboard is advertising a "Sale of Dead Bodies." The cartoon is a criticism of the careless use of simplified characters. Obviously, the advertiser wants to inform people of the sale of something else-not dead bodies! But we don't know what it is, because the three characters which make up the message are used incorrectly. Nowadays too many people not only do not take enough care to write properly, they even invent their own simplified ways of writing.
Simplifying the old, complicated characters has been a great benefit, enabling people to learn to read and write quickly. But we should stick to the standard simplified characters, make sure that we use them properly, and definitely not make up our own simplified characters. Otherwise, what was intended to make communication easier could result in making it more difficult.
Thirdly: I always make use of the figure of speech such as parody:
I provide an instance for you: Where there is will there is a way
I change in my writing on discussing examination: where there is an examination, there is a cheating.
Ok, now time is limited ,I will wait for the others answer happily.
The mastery of a foreign language well requires my painstaking effort. Many bridges can be drawn to my writing issues. Here are several inseparable aspects for me to improve:
Firstly, accumulating. I mean “language accumulation”. This work can help sharpen our sensitivity towards the foreign language. We should be more familiar with useful phrases, English grammar and basic sentence patterns and learn to memorize whenever we could and keep them in mind.
Secondly, paraphrasing. It allows us to read more good articles carefully and keep short notes. Then try to rewrite in our own words the ideas taken from the original. By comparison, we can reduce our writing gap through more practice. Some new viewpoints and novel ideas are also obtained as a byproduct while we integrate the borrowed ideas into our restatement.
Thirdly, thinking. Instead of plagiarizing most sentences of the English books and web sites, successful writers always learn to think in the language. Much more attentions should be paid to how to organize ideas logically rather than the beautiful words individually. Unless our thoughts are clearly expressed and ideas well organized, we cannot reach the main purpose of writing.
In a word, it is of much importance to improve my English writing ability. As I am a non-native speaker of English, common writing problems are inevitable and undesirable. Though I cannot guarantee that these methods will magically improve my writing at once, I firmly believe that long perseverance means victory. Since my English writing is less than successful, I might do well to try some of the techniques outlined above. Only in this way can I cross an important threshold in my English writing into a new stage. How to write like a native English speaker?
English is viewed as a foreign language for us Chinese. A good mastery of the language, I believe, is the ultimate goal to attain for any serious English learners. Everyone of us has been dreaming of writing like a native speaker? But many of us feel puzzled and frustrated at what they can do to achieve the aim. Let’s first start from what difficulties they encounter in their efforts.
Firstly, vocabulary. Vocabulary can be said to be the first difficulty a beginner might meet with. Being the building block for a language, Vocabulary is key factor to a good and beautiful writing. Without adequate accumulation of vocabulary you cannot fully and clearly express yourself, nothing to say idiomatically. So the first block to overcome for a successful writing is to remember words as many as possible. For example, Winston Churchill, the late British priminister, owe his success as a great orator and writer to his grasp of many words like a walking dictionary.
Secondly, idioms. Every language has its unique idioms. They are generally culturally loaded and foreigners cannot figure out their meaning, let alone use them.
Thirdly, culture. Language and culture are closely related. Language learning must be accompanied by its cultural acquisition. But a culture of a nation cannot easily acquired in a day.
To be a successful writer, you must overcome these difficulties. Here I share some of my experience.
Doing reading extensively. I spend a great deal of time reading the articles written by native speakers or specialists in English in newspapers or magazines. By doing so, I come to gain “a sense of English language”. I began to gain a feel for which sentences are “good English” and which are not.
Practice makes perfect. As you can see, I’m often very active in joining in some writing activities in this Forum. Only by practicing frequently can you learn to use it and finally master it.
All in all, there are no shortcuts. Doing all these things require your time and perseverance. Put your heart into it and success is around the corner. For non-native speakers, including me, the most difficult thing is to think as a native speaker when they are writing. Here are some tips I would like to share
First, read more. One benefit of reading is to help us improve writing skills. Whether it is a novel, newspaper, or textbook, reading can widen our vocabulary. With reading, we will also be familiar with sentence structures, correct grammar and the general structure of writing.
Secondly, try to write shorter sentences. The longer the sentence, the more mistakes you will make. Thus the safest way to write as a native is to write with shorter sentence. In my view, five to ten words per sentence is perfect. So break down long sentence when you are writing.
Thirdly, practice more. Just as reading more is important, practicing more is also important. Writing English is the same as writing Chinese. The most effective way is to learn to write more concisely, creatively and confidently through practice.
Last, write with your own way, that is to say, don’t always be a copy-cat. writing is as personal as the way we speak. Everyone speaks with different tone and different voice. The same is applied to writing. So be confident to write in your own way. I think there are three ways for us to write like a native English speaker.
Firstly, Chinese people must master the English language. As the saying goes, sharp tools make good work. Of cause, this is a very tough thing. You shouldn’t bank upon beginners in English to write a tunnel's English article. Another important thing is one should have a comprehensive grasp of the subject he involves in. Strong knowledge of English and broad skills of specialized field are essential conditions for one to write a good article.
Secondly, Westerners probably do approach or look at matters in a different way from most Chinese in many situations, so it is very important to think adopting Western way. Does not understand the Westerners thinking mode, regardless of the language foundation of basic skills has the multi-depth, one cannot write tunnel's English article.
Finally, also it is our uppermost concern right now to write in English writing styles but not in Chinese styles. 1. Do not use too many adjectives. Adjectives, of course, are necessary in good writing. But if not used with care, they can have the opposite effect -- quickly kill interest and produce boredom. 2. With reasonable care of the use of set phrases and expressions. Good English writing discourages what are called "trite expressions". 3. In persuasive writing, the idea is to let the facts speak for themselves. In other words, the facts themselves should be able to convince the reader.
Generally, if we can do all of the above, I am sure popularity we will write a good essay named tunnel's English article instead of translations of Chinese. For learning to use English, or any language, the general rule of thumb is: learn first and then practice. And you have to spend lots of time on them. This applies on both writing and speaking. But you need to figure out what you need before you get started. Just some examples. Watching sitcoms like "Friends" are very helpful for learning everyday oral English speaking since unlike in some dramas, characters in sitcoms speak the way people speak in their everyday lives. There are plenty of phrases and ways to express oneself to learn. Besides, sitcoms are comedies. This takes the boring part out. If you want to learn how to write technical papers, read papers in your field of interest. Learn the terminologies and the structures of the articles. If you want to learn how to write newspaper articles, read newspapers then. Just like writing technical paper case, try to learn the words they use and the structures. The list goes on and on.
Then there is the other important part: practicing. Practice while you learn. Otherwise you will forget what you learned. Remember to use one or two bit of the stuff you just learned at a time. And be patient. You will have to spend lots of time before you see the improvement. Learning a language takes time. There is no other way around.
Basically two most important things are: knowing what you need and being patient. One of the most popular questions you will find on an “English Corner” type board is: “How do I go about learning English well?” You will also find the related question:” How can I become so fluent that I can speak and write like a native-speaker?”
There is actually no need for you to ask someone else that question; you only have to ask yourself the following hypothetical question.
If a foreigner were to ask you: “ How do I go about learning Chinese well? How can I become so fluent that I can mimic the speech and writing of a Chinese?” what would you have said to him?
You probably would tell him to read a lot, listen more and practice writing and speaking as much as possible. On top of that, you would tell him that knowing a bit of Chinese tradition, culture, history, myths and legends, folklore, children’s rhymes …, will all contribute to his proficiency in the language.
So, there you have it. You do not need to go around asking other people how you could become proficient in English. You have the answer all along. All you need to do is to apply those same principles you would have given to this foreigner and apply them to your own situation.
I am not here to endorse or condemn any particular method of learning. One must realize that different people would thrive under different techniques. (However, I do object to certain hypes and misleading promotional methods used by certain schools.) Just remember the old saying:” All roads lead to Rome” “ All you need is to follow the principle of.
The following are two follow up posts in response to queries and comments from readers. hello, you are great. i am moved that a lot of people now discuss this topic,and give thier opions.and i can learn from those advise. i hope many person come in and go ahead... Writing like a native English speaker is my ideal and I am always doing my best to do so. But it is a tough task. To tell you the truth, till now, I have not made it yet.
Many English articles that we have read are not native, and so are our textbooks that we have used since our childhood. What the teachers speak in the classroom is not native, and so is what we listen to in our daily life. This is bad to realizing my ideal.
The usual way I learn the native use of English is to compare it immediately after learning with what I have accepted. In doing so, it can impress upon me the native English usage. It really works, which is proved by my practical using.
Another way to writing like a native English speaker is to think like a native English speaker. As a matter of fact, what we write is what we think. We should try our best to think like a native English speaker.
At last, I want to point out that the key to success is perseverance. I have made up my mind to work hard on it time and time again, but I failed because I can not persevere. I am sure if I really persevere, I will succeed in the end.
Bless me, please. Thank you. How to Write in a Foreign Language as a Native Speaker?
Ge Chuangui (葛传槼), an eminent educator and dictionary editor, once complained that it was impossible for the Chinese to speak English as well as a native speaker. That is the case for writing in a foreign language, because writing is more difficult than speaking, even for those who write frequently and in their mother tongue. It is, however, worth trying since it may prove to be a rewarding endeavor.
Drawing on my personal experience as a learner and a teacher, I am glad to share several points with you, and ready to hear your opinions and follow your suggestions.
My first suggestion is to base your writing on reading. Apart from those books related to one’s profession, literary works seem secured at the top of the reading list, while my suggestion is to read more poetry. The experience of reading poetry may do good to your mastery of a language. It can sharpen your sensitivity of a certain language, including its grammar, idiomatic expression, and the way of existing. For instance, the process of interpreting the following poem by Robert Creeley is also a process of discovering manifold secrets of English language:
I Know a Man
As I sd to my
friend, because I am
always talking, -- John, I
sd, which was not his
name, the darkness sur-
rounds us, what
can we do against
it, or else, shall we &
why not, buy a goddamn big car,
drive, he sd, for
christ's sake, look
out where yr going.
My second suggestion is to make a pen friend who is a native speaker of the language you want to write in. If you have difficulty in doing so, you can take part in an on-line forum to communicate with the native speakers. I recommend this one: http://forum.wordreference.com/
As for those who aim to past a certain examination, my suggestion is to exercise writing with a pen, but not with a keyboard. These two ways of writing are quite different. Furthermore, to write in ink on paper is a pleasurable method to focus one’s mind. If one is addicted to writing with a computer, one will feel uneasy to write on the answer sheet.
My last suggestion is to keep on writing every day for no less than five minutes. The importance of practicing to a skill is needless to elaborate. It is not time for words, but for action.
[Welcome to join us at: http://www.readfree.net/bbs/read.php?tid=4622621] To speak and write as a native English speaker are extremely difficult for us. I would like to share my personal experiences about how to improve it.
Firstly, we must learn the basic vocabulary, sentences and grammar. This is first step we need to do for learning English.
Secondly, keep on listening. We can listen to tapes, vcd or broadcast, TV…..
Thirdly, try to do some translation. From the beginning we can start from some simply sentences we learnt. The translation may help us improve the ability in using the language.
I like the book English 900 very much and for these years I have read it many times. It has great help to improve my English when I was in the basic stage of English learning. All the sentences are very simply but in standard and idiomatic expressions. I repeat the sentences after listen, I translated the English sentences into Chinese and then translated the Chinese into English, until I can speak out or write down the correct sentences quickly.
Finally, reading as much as possible and take it as a long-term job, which can help sharpen our sensitivity toward English. We can read books, articles or news papers from native English speakers widely. It would be a great help for us to understand the way in which these native English speakers think and express. At the same time, it can improve our vocabulary, and we can learn more idiomatic expressions
To sum up, if we can keep on doing exercises of leaning, listening, reading and translating, we can accumulate more and more vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, and can speak, think and write as if we were a native English speaker. How to write like a native English speaker?
I believe if one wants to excel in writing then simply write like a native English speaker is not enough. Good compositions, articles or journals are not always necessarily written by native English speakers. In fact, if you skim through The Economist, some exceptional articles were actually written by journalists or columnists who have English as their second language. Writing is not something you can mimic; you need to find your own style, find what you are passionate about. When you desperately want to express yourself on something you are passionate about; words, phrases and paragraphs will flow out of your mind naturally, assuming you have descent language skills and follow the syntactical and grammatical rules. One other important aspect of good writing would be shameless. That’s right – shameless! For example, when you are writing the essays for a scholarship application, you absolutely need to put your best words on the paper and brag about how astonishing and extraordinary you are. If you simply followed or mimicked the essay of a native English speaker, I doubt you would even be considered for the scholarship. Writing is all about release your zeal to dazzle the reader after all… .
As we all know, writing like a native English speaker is very important to us especially when we contribute scientific articles to oversea scientific journals. But how to? As far as I am concerned, the following items are the key to it.
Firstly, we should be in a native English environment. If we are not in a natural native English environment, we should be in a man-made native English environment. Otherwise, our goal will not be attained. This is a vital premise.
Secondly, we should import as many native English as we can. If we want to export more, we should import more. If we do not import native English, we will not export any of it. This is an obvious truth. We can recite useful expressions and even articles. If you do not want to recite, you can memorize native English usage by reading aloud time after time. Then you will also be able to memorize it.
Thirdly, we should practise writing English articles as much as we can. Obviously, if we want to master something, we must practise using it again and again after we learn it. This is because of the law of memory.
Finally, I should say the most important item is we must keep on writing. If we can not persist in writing, our writing ability will shrink inevitably. How to write like a native English speaker?
To write like a native English speaker, what should we do?
Before answering this question, we should distinguish between the question mentioned above and the question that how to speak English like a native speaker. These two different questions should be considered and answered in different ways. In addition, it may be necessary for us to take a look at what and how the native English speakers do while they are writing something.
Although what and how the native English speakers write depends much on certain factors, such as their own writing habits and their purposes to write, some words can be included as steps to a successful writing:
Firstly, words. By “words”, I mean we should not only broaden our vocabulary, but also discriminate synonyms. To know which words share the similar meaning is an indispensable step to use them correctly. A thesaurus will help us a lot. Besides, we should also pay appropriate attention to idioms.
Secondly, sentences. To make sentences, separate words and expressions are not enough. Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English and Google provide us a way to check whether what we write is correct.
Thirdly, paragraphs. Paragraphs consist of relevant sentences which should be organized in a logical way. There are many differences among paragraphs with different contents. For example, to explain something and to describe something can not share the same writing style.
Fourthly, articles. To organize a successful article, we should pay attention to the style and the purpose thereof. As we know, formal and informal articles can not be written in the same way.
Following the theoretical tips above, we should practice more by reading articles written by native speakers, learning writing skills of native speakers and thinking about what we need to improve, therefore to write like a native English speaker. How to write authentic English?
-- a reverse mode
Befor the discussion, I will present my thoughts upon this discussion in the other way around first as, to be bravely frank, I will point out to macauor the initiator that hardly do we say "to write like a native English speaker", which is logically confusing as it gets "write" and "speaker" ( "oral" and "written" English) wrongly together; moreover, "as" is usually preferred to "like" in the very phrase.
Ok, then, let me, a humble student of English for about a boring and painstaking 20 years around, come up more straight with my idea.
It sounds strange but factual: the more you want to be authentic, the farther you are away from your target. And it's not uncommon for us to see many believers of the myth of "a perfection like a native speaker's" are let down -- their painstaking efforts are just beating the air and the best suggestions (including those put forward in the posters above) seems meet no expected results. Why?
Here lies the explanation: the so-called "grammatically-correct Chinglish" rather than English proper in composition comes mainly from your "life's grid" -- a term adopted by linguists to show any person's thinking mode is confined and moulded by his living environments, such as background, experience, others aound, etc -- and which is unchangeable and has nothing to do with your sheer determination.
With this in the mind, what you can do is, instead of keeping murmuring to yourself that "I should write like a native speaker", to WRITE NOT IN A TYPICALLY CHINESE WAY, which is enough and easier. How's so? Let me illustrate with an example, according to the contrastive linguistics, a Chinese sentence has an overwhelming tendency for verb use, while an English one choose to dwells its weight and focus mainly on nouns and prepositions, then, if it occurs what you want to mean “他在操作机器”, "He's at the machine" comes rightly before "He's operating a machine", as the latter is done in a typically Chinese way. See? Here's the way the authentic English comes! How to write like a native English speaker ？This problem often exists on the way of our learning English. How to solve this problem ? Next we shall talk about it.
We are Chinese, and we are native Chinese. When we received education from getting into primary school, we have been contacting Chinese culture. However, we study English through learning the vocabulary into our memory. At school, we realize British or American culture only a little. And we have little chance to communicate with foreigners. Because of all kinds of limit, we could not communicate with native English people at first hand. But we can read English chefdoeuvre to understand English culture. It is good for us to write good passage.
Also we can make friends with foreign people through the internet . Talking with them and sending emails with them could make us know more about English. As more and more knowledge of English is cumulated, we could write better and better article like a native English speaker. language situation is very important for us to learn English . So we must get hold of every chance to enhance our speaking and writing ability.
Rome wasn't built in a day. We should make full use of every chance. Although we could not communicate with foreign friends, we could read English newspapers or look through foreign websites as well. If we work harder and practice more, we could come to the top. How to write like a native speaker? It is essential for us to discuss it. Writting with native thoughts, sentences is our craving goal for many years. now i will express my own opinions.
Firstly, we must master more and more words and vocabularies. Especially adv. , since the majorities of native people have the apt to add adv to the sentence so as to expressing vividly. so accumulating a large quantity of words is our first step to creep the summit of moutain.
Secondly, we should pay attention to the expressed way of sentences. the grammer we have learned has a lot and complexity. for better to use it, we must read many native newspapers or professional article in order to absorb the excellent and native expression. what's more, writing the daily article is so different from the professional paper. the fomer one is always witten orally, and the later one seriously and formally.
In the last, only writing a native article is not our final target. so we still practice our listening ability. what we get the result is not difficult, we just need to listent more materials and try my best to catch the meaning of them.
I hope what i suggest will have a good effect on your english learning. i think if we work together, we can enjoy our share, and enjoy our improving english. How to write like a native English speaker?
It is rather a tough job for a person to write as well as those native English speaker do.According to my point of view,the learning progress can be divided intoserval interactive stages as follows:
Stage One, reading and imitation.To read,imitate and recite the good writting samples of English-speaking countries' best writer is the very preliminary stage one has to go through.Then you have to analyze the basic structure of these classical and typical sentence commonly used in daily writting to obtain the sense of language through your daily reading and reciting.
Stage Two, the accumulation of cultural background knowledge.It is barely enough merely to recite some sentences to be a good writer like a native.I don't deny the importance of reciting and reading of paragraphes.But it cannot only be treated as the way of curing headache when the head aches , the foot ache and cure the foot.Anyone who want to write something well organized in good formation and in compliance with the tradition of that country has to take the research of culture into consideration.It will be conducive by large margin for one to acquire some cultural knowledge about the myth and literary allusions of that English-speaking country and anything of the same kind prior to the writting.
Stage Three,constant practice.There is a very famous chinese old saying which goes,"practice makes perfects".It tell us the importance of practising what you've learned and give us a rather clear instruction.Everyone should have confidence in himself or herself and have the faith through contant practice in all aspects one can attain the skill to write like a native or even better than a native.Don't forget to share what you've learned with your friends and classmates,and exchange the experience with each other.
So finally I come to my conclusion:to write like a native English speaker, one should exert oneself to systematic training from time to time.No one is born with that skill,and through persistent training one may get what he or her dreams of. Firstly, I want to claim that the system of teaching English of school is not good for non-native English learner. I only knew how to read English and translate English article into Chinese. The main task of English lesson seems how to corret grammar mistakes. The ways to learn English are all passive ways. So we just accept all kinds English knowleges but use them. That is the worst point.
Secondly, I want to talk about the language's action. In fact, mastering English seems to be so hard that lots of learners feel pains when they think of English. So the motivation to study it is just because of pushing out of exam or going abroad. If you don't like to to do something. it is hard to imagine that you will do it best. In my views,the basic point is wrong opinion about language's action. The reason that we learn English is not in order to pass exams, not for master thousands words. The real action of language is a tool to communicate between different natives. The real reason to study language is just to master a tool to communicate. So after we leave school and exams, we should be clear this point first. Then you will get motivation as well as good ways to improve your passive school English, that only can meet examsa but communicate, the basic action of master language.
Thirdly, after you are clear the main task to study English, you need to change your ideas about studying. There are so many methods to study English. You may puzzle which one is best. I think that it depends on what way you like to do. I just introduce the way that I study as reference. Of course, I declare it first that it may be suit for you and not suit for you.
That is all for my experience of writing English.