（早已结束！）Issue Writing 002：How to write like a native English speaker ？

涂于德

How to write like a native speaker? People’s opinions differ a lot. Yet one thing in common for many people is to remember lots of things to bring your English to a higher step. Seemingly to quite a large number of people, big vocabulary and colorful good sentences are only achieved by the act of memorization. However, many a person still can never write as well as a native speaker does. Why is everything like this? Perhaps we only do the whole work as a parrot does! We just read it from our memory and take everything for granted. To read without reflection is like eating without digestion. The potential writing materials are only kept still there, which can do nothing good to the training of our writing skills. As for me, to recite and to try to remember what we read is the basic step for our writing work, but it’s far from sufficiency. For writing well like a native speaker, we need to do the following as well to train our English thinking as a native speaker:
      To ask is at least as important as to read.
      Don’t just read everything from the beginning to the end. Stop after reading a few lines, paragraphs or chapters, and try to ask you yourself, what you think will happen next and how the writer keeps the plot going on? What this phrase or sentence means here, in such complex context? How to arrange various writing materials in a better way? If the plot development is beyond your expectation, you may ask what leads to all this? To ask helps you think further, which is important for a beginner!
       To communicate as often as you can with a native speaker.
       It helps a writer a lot to communicate with a native speaker about what you read, what you see and what you hear. To share your experiences, opinions and even stories you read with foreigners will bring you surprising joy in return. Idiomatic expressions, overall arrangement of writing stuff and especially the exclusive English thinking. What a native speaker expects from a certain material differing greatly from ours is the key to help correct our chinglish writing habit!
       Without a native speaker, why not ask the Internet for help?
       Nowadays, more and more Internet websites offer face to face English chatting practice. For example, you may type in “www. youtube. come”. Equipped with a necessary video-camera, you may see the person you are talking with(If you’d like to, you may also keep you unexposed, only to see the other.). What you need to do is talking, thinking and analyzing your talking course with native speakers. Though it’s hard for you to find differences between your sentences and the native speakers’. Those differences , which need analyzing and thinking again about, really brings something good to our English writing!
       Singing in English does good to our native-like writing, too. Not only the words in the song, but the rhythm and the exotic feelings as well. “Apple”, for example, is one of my favorite. Type in “www. apple. com” , “Download”, “iToNes”, then everything goes well, only to remind you that those colorful kinds of singing stuff is not entirely for free.

yuanxq

　　　　How to write like a native English speaker ？

　　English is extremely important for us all. Most of us have learned English for many years. Someone even started to learn English from primary school. But it is still very difficult for us to write like a native English spearker. However, it is not to say we can not do it. Everyone has his own methods to do it. The following is mine.

　　In my opinion, the only way to write like a native English spearker is to read and listen to a lot of native English materials and then write a lot. The process of reading and listening is an knowledge-accumulating process, and the process of writing is practice process. After long time of these two processes, you will succeed in the end.

　　We can read articles and books written by native English speakers, listen to native English listening materials such as tapes read by native English speakers, watch TV plays or see films played by native English speakers. All of these activities are a preparation for writing.

　　Besides, you should be determined to write more. Skill comes from practice. Only after plenty of practice can you write like a native English speaker.

　　Here is a piece of old saying. Where there is a will, there is a way. I may you succeed.

艺人他

I will tell you several good ways to write like a native English speaker .
First Original English Movies , Influence of Watching Original English Movies on English Learning, the film is a very good English teaching materials, the materials will let you master the real and effective language skills to communicate with foreigners and write like a native English speaker. Films-select some English films from tapes and VCD and try to understand them. If there are Chinese subtittles, don't look at them first. Then you watch them again and scan those words on the screen.
Second listening to the radio, If you can understand what you hear in the language, you will feel comfortable and confident,You are free to do other things while listening - having breakfast, preparing to go to class, having a picnic, even jogging! In short, anything except intellectually demanding tasks such as intensive reading.There are many ways for you to improve your listening ability. The problem is to insist on doing it. Where there is a will, there is a way.
Third read English-language newspaper, Newspaper as good reading materials can widen our sight and richen our knowledge. It supplies us with a variety of news every day. It tells us the political situation of the world.
In a short, learn English there is no simple way,what you need to do is to listen more to see more and to read more.

How to write like a native English speaker?

The topic calls for a lot of thinking. My considerations of this issue consist of three parts: first, I'd like to revisit the concept of "idiomatic English"; second, I will present my opinions of the obstacles in acquiring idiomatic English; and then I would share some tips and tricks of writing like a native English speaker.

I. Idiomatic English Revisited

How do we say "didao yingyu" (地道英语) in English? There are several answers. The answers are different in terms of the different understandings of the adjective "didao". You might use "real" as several modern dictionary publishers put on the covers of their products, because they want to stress that their dictionaries are based on corpora. Real English, according to them, is the type of English we need to try to acquire, for it is what the native speakers use. "Didao" may also be interpreted as "authentic", emphasizing that the type of English under question is authentic, not artificial. This is more or less synonymous with the choice of "real". Still, there are a lot of people who would like to use "idiomatic" to mean "didao" in the Chinese sense. For them, language use can be creative, but it is even more conventionalized. Language should be used in a way the speech community uses it. Simply put, you need to use language according to the habit of the people who use the language. If native speakers do not use a certain expression, although it is grammatically acceptable, it can hardly be regarded as idiomatic English.

As one of the key pals cicerocicero said in this thread, it is somewhat logically confusing as the instruction gets "write" and "speaker" wrongly together. However, the other side of the coin is that we have gotten accustomed to the habit of using "speaker" to refer to a person who uses a language in its oral and written form instead of merely speaking that language. In other words, "a native English speaker" has become conventionalized and idiomatized to the extent that its exact meaning can hardly be retrieved from the sum total of its components. It has gone beyond its literal use. That is sort of an "idiom"!

II. Obstacles in Writing Idiomatic English

Idiomatic English is what every Chinese learner of English want to achieve. But this is no easy task.

First of all, most of us began to learn English at a quite late age. The critical period has passed already, and for that reason, it is hard for us to pick up English as native speakers do. We speak, live and think by our mother tongue — Chinese! What we do reflect our thinking. What we think is ultimately based on our language. Or in other words, our understanding of the world is shaped by our mother language. There is no way out to escape the influence of our mother tongue!

Second, we learn English almost in a displaced environment, China, where English is not a language we live by. We have seldom chances to expose ourselves to the native environment. For lack of sufficient input and output, it is no great surprise that we can hardly write idiomatic English.

Last but not least, English and Chinese are two poles-apart languages, as Xu Mengxiong (许孟雄) put it in a preface to a book, so much so that the transfer between these two languages are more negative than positive. A lot of elementary learners of English suffer from the one-to-one correspondence conception between English and Chinese. I happened to know that a high school student used "ill down" to mean "fall ill", which is apparently the Chinese style of thought in English words.

Though it is not easy to write idiomatic English, we can write native-like, if not native, English, as many scholars have set examples for us. Qian Zhongshu (钱钟书) spoke and wrote pretty good British English; Lin Yutang (林语堂) wrote a bunch of influential English novels; Gu Hongmin (辜鸿铭) used his English to argue with native speakers. These examples show that hard work with approriate methods can help us acquire good and idiomatic English.

III. Writing like a Native English Speaker: Tips and Tricks

1. Read widely and write regularly

It pays to read widely and with a purpose. For Chinese learners of English, reading is still an important way of gaining English information. Without enough input, successful output is almost "mission impossible".

Writing to learn is also an important tip. Writing regularly will surely activate our passive vocabulary and put recoginition English into real use.

2. Increase contrastive awareness

As Lu Guoqiang (陆国强) pointed out, English values connectives while Chinese often adopts verbs to structure its sentences. Consider the following sentence in Chinese:

小汽车迂回盘旋，穿过村庄，爬越峡谷，沿着一条因解冻而涨水的小溪行驶。

When we want to express such an idea in English, we need to discard the verb-prominence feature in the Chinese version and resort to such connectives as prepositions, participles. In so doing, we may come up with the following good version:

The car would through the village and up a narrow valley, following a thaw-swollen stream.

Contrastive linguistics between English and Chinese has a lot to offer. We may benefit a lot from this in helping us become more aware of what is Chinglish and which is more acceptable.

3. Practice back translation

For an adult Chinese learner of English, mental translation is inevitable. It is often a trap because many Chinglish phenomena are probably caused by this habit. However, if you use this method wisely, you will learn a lot. For example, you may select a famous book in Chinese and its English translation by a native speaker. Upon reading the Chinese original, you try to put it into English; and then compare your version with the version given by the native speaker. Spot the differences and try to learn from the differences. If you do this purposely on a long-term basis, I am sure you will write better English in your future. Moreover, in doing this kind of practice, your Chinese will also be improved.

May I conclude this essay by providing a pair of sentences for back translation:

版主开贴讨论，版务劳心费力，我谨以这份拙贴聊表谢意，请笑纳！
As a token of my gratitude for all the moderator has done for us in organizing this thread of discussion, I would like to present this post as a small gift.

ozoner

Helpful Tips for English Writing

Learning to write in a foreign language is not easy. With practice and guidance though, it is possible to improve your writing skills as a base for written communication.

Learning and using a new language is not easy. Language is not only about words. It is also about eloquency, delivery, expressions, mannerisms and other figures of speech. Punctuation, grammar, tenses all make up the different dimensions of writing a language.

The English language can arguably one of the most complicated languages in the world. With few consistencies, its wide vocabulary and plenty of rules, a non-native speaker who has learned to use the language, whether written or spoken, has achieved something significant on the communication frontier.

There is always room for improvement for both native and non-native speakers. This article is geared for those who use English as their second language. However, fluent English speakers and writerss may relate to the following tips.

Read, read, and read some more!
The benefits of reading are plentiful. One of them is to help improve your writing skills. Whether it is a novel, journal, newspaper, textbook or glossy magazine, reading will widen your vocabulary. You will also be able to familiarise yourself with sentence structures, correct grammar, the art of punctuation and the general structure of writing.

Keep reading and you will find that your ability to write will slowly flourish.

Keep words simple.
It is easy to get lost in the wide vocabulary the English language has to offer. Many non-English speaking students fall for the trap of choosing boombastic words over simpler words. Boombastic words are those which are usually longer and sound more technical. There is a danger however, of the words being used out of context. Also, too many BIG words in a sentence can sound like a plea of deperation to get noticed.

For example, "the heart is an important organ of the human body," can be misconstrued as "the fortitude is a momentous organ in the personage's anatomy."

Here, the word "heart" is substituted by a word that defines the word "heart" as "bravery." "Momentous and "personage" too should not be used in this sentence.

Keeping words simple helps you deliver the message you want conveyed quicker. It also reduces the risk of making mistakes.

Maintain short sentences.
The longer the sentence, the more vulnerable you are to making mistakes. Keep sentences short - five to ten words per sentence is perfect. All writers run the risk of becoming overly enthusiastic to get many points across at one time. Top tip: use many sentences.

Take a look at this sentence: The entrepreneurial development centre, founded by ZM and Associates in 2002, encompasses various workshops for aspiring entrepreneurs and has particulary been extremely popular amongst female students from neighbouring univerisities.

The sentence can be broken down into three shorter sentences: The entrepreneurial development centre was founded by ZM and Associates in 2002. The centre has been active in carrying out workshops for aspiring entrepreneurs. These activities have been particular popular amongst female students.

As you can see, the three points have been broken down into three sentences.

Learn how to use punctuation.
The art of punctuation is wonderful. It reflects creativity in your work and makes it an interesting read for the reader as it will help hold his or her attention. Questions marks, exclamation marks, brackets, dashes, semi-colons and colons are just a few punctuation tools that you can use, in addition to the essential comma and full-stop.

It is not possible to describe each and every single instrument here but learning when and where to use the different tools will allow you to write more effectively.

Do not become over-reliant on automated language assistance.
This is important. Automated systems are there to help you but they are not always effective. In fact, they could act to your detriment. Spelling checks will not highlight typo errors of correctly spelled words. For example, "holy" and "holt" or "quiet" and "quite".

Using an automated thesaurus lets you run the risk of using words out of context, as illustrated in the second point, (keep words simple), above.

Refrain from becoming a copy-cat.
It is easy to feel intimidated by another person's writing skills. Even professional writers, with years of experience to their name, do have the tendencies to wish they could write like "someone else".

It is important to remember that writing is as personal as the way we speak. Everyone speaks with a different voice, a different tone and displays different mannerisms. The same is applied to writing. The way you write reflects your personality and trying to change it to imitate someone else will have adverse effects on your work.

What you can do is to learn to write more concisely, creatively and confidently through practice. Just as reading is important, an effective way to improve your writing skills is to practice, practice and practice writing.

Do not plagiarise!
Plagiarism is a crime. Whatever you do, no matter how desperate you are, do not plagiarise! You will be at a liability and distrust in your work will black list your credentials. By subscribing to plagiarism, even by simply copying and pasting another person's work into yours, you will create an apparent gap between the other writer's writing skills and your own. You will easily be caught.

Writing need not be difficult. With a few simple pointers and a fair amount of practice, you will soon be on the way to learning the art of written communication, even if the English language is not your mother tongue.

liguoan807

Good topic but a little too good! And it's definitely a big discussion.
Actually,what is native?Watch FRIEND,you'll find that the natives are free talk and there are few whole setences. That is what we talk in our mother tongue,after all,languages are for communication.Try to make it simple and let others know what is going on. To write as a native does,just read as many masterpieces as possible, especially those works of nowadays.They are the pulse of today.Read and simulate! It's the first way to learn a language.As the saying goes that:"Interest is the best teacher!" Do it, and do it with your interest!

jinjin1996

To be frank, I have no patience with most of the posters above. I mean I only read one or two sentences and skiped the whole stuff. This is to say not that I am a better writer more "like a native speaker", but that I know I could benefit little from reading them through. The reason is simple--I could easily figure out what is going to be the next.
  But there are exceptions--I said "most of", right?--and that is what sswtj, 白马西北驰 and cicerocicero have kindly brought to share with us. I will not comment on their works here for understandble reasons. Nevertheless, if you, the readers of this poster, happen to have roughly the same judgment as mine I would still be glad to infome you that you have already come across one of the secrets of good writing, English or Chinese as it may be. That is, originality.
  On reflection, I worked out another reason why I could hardly stand reading most of the posters through. Redundancy. Yes, that it is. In Chinese culture redundancy occasionally serves emphatic purposes as can be seen in the four-character idioms "如火如荼", "高瞻远瞩", and "水深火热". However, in Western traditions unnecessary expressions are usually taken to be a sign of contempt for one's wisdom or intelligence as talking with an infant or a fool might suggest. Consequently, conciseness is particularly emphasized. Good English writers are always those that mean in as few words as possible. So the classic statement goes: "Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a mechine no unnecessary parts." (William & White 1999: 10)

William & White. The Elements of Style (4th ed.). New York: Longman, 1999. Available at: http://www.zshare.net/download/15299339ac5ddb/ or http://rapidshare.com/files/99758254/7359237112497814657.rar

jinjin1996

More on How to Write like a Native Speaker
  If the question permitted of only a one-word answer, I could possibly suggest "imitation". If two words were required, I would argue for "just imitating". If, however, the upper limit were set to three, then I would throw back my shoulders and cheerfully announce: "try to imitate".
  "Imitation" is a noun. It can refer to either an act or an instance of imitating, but neither of them entails the intentionality of the doer. "Just imitating" is better. It exhibits somewhat the perseverance and will-power behind the action. Yet the word "just" sounds suspicious too--Imitating blindly is not something to be encouraged after all. "Try to imitate" now seems to be the best answer possible, at least, among the three candidates. "Try" implies a process, a process in which various approaches, methods and techniques are attempted, evaluated and fine-tuned, a process of hard work and effort, and a process of desire for success.
  But "what on earth are you precisely imitating?" you may ask. Well, this is another question, I should say. And this question may call for a whole book to give even a moderate answer, not unlike, say, the one we are presently dealing with.

helenpisces

How to write like a native speaker?

In Linguistics, writing is one of the four skills of language competence. In respect of developing language competence, there are several braches of theories in this field.

According to Stephen Krashen, vocabulary is important for acquiring a language. His Input Hypothesis assumes that people acquire a language by understanding messages, more accurately, “comprehensible input”. He argues that the competence in spelling and vocabulary is most efficiently attained by comprehensible input in the form of reading.

According to another competing theory, The Skill-building Hypothesis, “we learn language by first consciously learning individual rules or items, and gradually through drills and exercises…” In vocabulary building, the SBH Hypothesis involves “learning words one at a time, by deliberate study, and may include analyzing their parts, their prefixes, suffixes, and roots and exercises…”

The third theory is The Output Hypothesis. According to OH, we learn language by producing it. We learn rules by trying them out in communication. If we want to know if a rule is correct, we communicate with native speakers. If the communication goes on well, we confirm the rules as good; otherwise, we deny them.

Stephen Krashen argues, in both OH and SBH, students learn language rules and apply them consciously. Comparatively, in IH, students acquire language unconsciously. IH argues that, “more comprehensible input, aural and written, results in more language acquisition.” Studies show that better writers read more outside of school, and children who perform better in vocabulary test has more comprehensible input.

In summary, believers of SBH may practice writing by memorizing drills, phrases and writing skills; those who hold OH may write more articles and show them to foreigners. But if you hold IH, you may read more authentic materials to develop your competence in writing. In my view, reading materials is a more interesting, effective way to learn vocabulary and make your writing more foreign-like.

andy10000

How to write like a native English speaker？This problem could be traced back to why it is hard to write like a native speaker. Firstly, narration and description in Chinese seem to a bit more ornate than in English. The expression of some idiom and items would be rather different between the two countries. in Chinese , 刀子嘴豆腐心，if asked to translated into English, should be barking dogs never bite. Here it compares “barking dogs” with “kind heart”. The understanding of the cultural difference is essential to write like a native speaker. The second point is Chinese and English-speaking people seem to look differently on the use of set phrases and expressions. Good English writing encourages originality and discourages “clichés”. However, Chinese more favor flowery sentences. The later one tends to use generalized and beautiful sentences, words, while the former one tends to be specific. Last but not the least, cultural differences result in stylistic differences in Chinese and English writing. A foreigner emphases facts and figures, whereas Chinese tends to speak more theories, reasons, and ignore figures, and facts, etc. A good command in English has been one of our dreams. It can not only give us an insight into the difference of countries, but also bridge the gap between our culture and theirs.

junminzh

How to write like a native English speaker ？

Almost all English learners share a common dream--- to write like a native English speaker. Interestingly, the fact is that writing is still a big trouble for so many English learners, either a new beginner or an experienced user of English.

The most embarrassing fact is that after learning English for more than ten years, our students still find no approach to master a fluent English, which cannot even satisfy themselves. As far as language output is concerned, the most significant is speaking and writing. As for writing, the following reasons may explain the bad situation our students are confronting with.

The first and the most important reason is that our education leaves our students a strong trend over study. After experiencing the school study for years, they all learn to avoid making mistakes, almost in any study aspect. When they write in English, the first principle they adopt is to escape mistakes. The result is that they will use simple words or sentences, which can hardly match the native language.

The second one is the cultural influence. Culture shock is also shadowed in language learning. We can find hinds of Chinese cultural elements with our English writing. One element is our thinking style and habits. For example, westerners think over problems in a more practical way, while we Chinese are good at reasoning or pondering over issues. Another one is the word choice. A dependency on our own culture will lead to a confusion of understanding to native speakers.

No doubt that there must be other factors influencing learners’ improvement on English writing. Under consideration of these unavoidable factors, the following suggestions are given.

Firstly, learners must make it clear that we are learning something. There is no reason being shy. What you need is to open yourself to speak, to write. Mistakes or errors are the necessary parts in the learning process. No one will laugh at a learner’s errors.

Secondly, it is necessary to master certain principles in language learning. Writing, as a special part in English learning, should be emphasized with certain learning strategies.

Recognizing that there is a task to complete or a problem to solve, language learners will use whatever strategies they possess to attend to the language learning activity. However, whereas experienced language learners can approach language-learning problems in a systematic way and are usually successful in selecting appropriate strategies to complete a language-learning task, novices may be less efficient at selecting and using strategies to task.

It is quite hard to be perfect with language learning. It is not reasonable to require your own English to be perfect. Just try to express your ideas in your own words. Once you find your ideas are quiet clear in your writing, your English will be good enough then.

forest2087

How to write like a native English speaker

To write like a native English speaker is not as merely simple as you think. First of all, you need to treat English as your first language. You need to live in an English speaking environment. This way, you’ll gradually transplant yourself into the culture. Once you have absorbed the culture, you’ll have a slight different culture identity. You’ll become interested in the history of the country you live in. You’ll watch more local TV shows which are in English (ie. News, Sitcoms, Comedies, Reality TV) rather than foreign shows even if they are in your mother language. When you passively taking in all the slangs, clichés, and jokes around you, you’ll be more comfortable to write stuff around you in a format that is taken up by your memory. Say someone told you a joke in English, it should be much easier for you to remember it as in English rather than your mother language. Same goes for all the other information you take in from day to day. After years of interactions with the people, the society, and the culture, you’ll be able to think like a native English speaker, and before you know it, writing would be as easy as reciting your memory. Slightly different for creative writing though… Creative writing requires a substantial vocabulary which would allow you to accurately express your zeal on the subject that you’re writing about. Therefore, you need to read a lot before you write. High-class journals, Shakespeare, modern novels, poems and the Bible are all part of the reading material for the training process. After all, writing is no easy job, you have to read, listen, interact, and practice.

lyf2000

Perhaps as is known to all , it is hard for us to write like a native English spearker.How to write like a native English speaker ? I have no experience ,I just talk about some viewpoints.
As far as I am concerned, my viewpoints is as follows:
Firstly, basic skill. Basic skill is essential.Listenning,reading,writing and speaking;we will not loosen them for ever. Listenning,we should listen to Tv,radio,native’s lecturer; Reading,newspaper and all kinds of magazines writen in foreign language are good teaching materials; writing and speaking are imitating. Imitating is the important first step,is the starting point. In brief,no basic skill,no native English.
Secondly, tool.Tool is necessary. Internet is the best tool.We can learn a lot
On line. You can ask all kind of questions,you need not feel a liittle shy.
There are a lot of material,such as film , television program ,electrolic books,dictionary and so on on line.If you can use internet well,you have a good teacher.Nowadays internet is especially indispensable for us. Moreover, interpersonal relationship is essential.You can learn something you have never heard.
Finally, practice.Practice can teach you all.We will make use of what one has learned. Practice will tell you the degree of learning.
Moreover,we should be self-confident and diligent.

Michel2kme

If you want to write like a native speaker you should follow the following steps:

There are four skills in learning English which are reading, listening, speaking, and writing.

The most important thing you must bear in mind is that reading and listening are inputs whereas speaking and writing are outputs. In other words, if you want to improve your speaking and writing skills you should first master the skills of reading and listening. There are some ways that you can do so, which I will try to summarize.
1) Read as much as you can. But your reading must be active. It means that you must think about the structure, unfamiliar words etc as you read. There is no need that you stick to some complicated grammar structures or try to understand all the unfamiliar words you come across, but the fact that you see them for the first time and recognize them whenever you see them for example in other passages or books is enough. It would be better to prepare yourself a notebook so you can write down the important words or structures in it. To begin reading, I recommend the Penguin Readers books. They are classified by level of difficulty.

2) As for listening, there are two options:

A) Aside from reading, you can listen every day for about 30 minutes.

B) You can only concentrate on your reading and become skillful at your reading, then you can catch up on your listening.

I myself prefer the latter because when you are skillful and native-like at reading, your listening skill grows automatically. Since you have lots of inputs in your mind, you can easily guess what the speaker is going to say. This never means that you should not practice listening.

For listening I recommend cartoons or some movies that are specially made for children. Their languages are easy and do not contain complicated phrases or slang terms. Or if you are good at listening you can listen to VOA or BBC programs broadcasted every day. Again the thing to remember is being active in listening and preferably taking some notes.

If you follow these pieces of advice, your speaking and writing will improve automatically, and you can be sure that with a little effort they will become perfect.　

cheers

How to Write Like a Native English Speaker

  As the most popular languange in the world, with the development of globalization, English plays more and more important role in our life. We pay much attention to it and spend plenty of time learning it. Most of us have learned English for more than ten years and can write right words, right sentences and right grammar in English. However, as anybody can see, many of us can not write like a native English spearker. Why? How to write like a native English spearker?

  This is because many of us pay not enough attention to using the idiomatic English and discriminate spoken English and written. In other words, they lack practice in this kind of writing. So if you want to write like a native English spearker, you must pay more attention to this problem.

  Another necessary work for those who want to write like a native English spearker to do is finding some standard articles or books and learn to write as their authors do. This, in my opinion, is the best way to attain your goal quickly. This kind of articles or books set an good example for us.

  At last, I want to say that the key to your success is perseverance. If you persevere with writing, you will succeed in the end.

janeliuyang

How to write like a native English speaker ?

   Writing ability is very important to learn english. And writing is one of the most important english skills, so it is essential for us to train our english writing ability. But how can we improve our writing ability ,especially how can we wrirt like a native English speaker? I find there are 3 basic points.
   The first one is we should imput many many native English resources, like we can read a lot of English novels,English paper,English magazine and so on. If we insist on contacting these native e Engish resources, we can get many useful material.
   The second one is we should find every chance to write with foreigners especially Englishman.Like we can email with foreign freinds, we can join English bbs and the like.If we do like that ,we can practise oue writing ability. I always join some good English bbs,and join in them to discuss some hot topics in English. I find it is very useful for me to improve my Engish writing ability.And we can write right words, right sentences and right grammar in English.   
   The third one is we can learn some English writing strategies. These strategies can make our English writing more native. When we use these strategies,our writing can fit to English thinking.
    Those are 3 points that I want to impress. And if we do like that , we can write right words, right sentences and right grammar in English. So It is easy for us to write like a native English spearker.

20072007

This topic, I think, is very interesting and useful.
In my opinion, when you(Chinese students) write, you'd better pay attention to the following 4 points.

First, before starting to write, you try to answer this question: who is your reader or listener? do they understand your writing or purpose?
Second, try to learn some writing skills, esp, to learn how foreigners write, how do they develop a paragraph or a passage?
Third, when writing something, you'd better avoid the interference of your mother tongue (avoid Chinglish). A good way is to keep reading original articles or novels.
Fourth, learn and study the foreign culture, which influences the writing mode or thinking pattern.

liumx2000

I would like to criticize on the very topic itself.

Not every native speaker can write! Contrary to the belief that a writer's pen will follow his/her way of speaking exactly, there are differences between speaking and writing. Sometimes you may even find a writer that cannot speak a word!!

Therefore, ask not how to imitate a native (ie how to act like native), but rather think in a native way. I believe thinking is the very essence to write.

Of course, it is easier to say than do, but then again, why do we want to be another person? We shall decide what we can do.

nicholas_xu

It seems the topic is unclearly stated. I'm not sure whether it means "how to write English articles like a native English speaker" or "how to write articles in other languages (eg. Chinese) like a native English speaker". But since most guys wrote their own paragraphs on "how to write English articles like a native English speaker"...I have no intention to be the minority...

How to write like a native English speaker ？

Before writing a composition, it is usually essential to form an outline in mind. As we intend to write like a native, it is imperative that we learn how the natives think in advance. Accordingly, the structure and organization of our articles will be similar to the natives'.

After being able to write in an agreeable format, we can then move on to some subtle issues.
First, we should imitate the natives' handwriting so as to make articles appear to be the done by the natives.
Second, attentation should be paid to the standard usage of particular expressions. Phrases like 'long time no see' are generally considered non-native. In addition, expressions as 'all in all, in a word' are thought unnecessary.
Third, scrutiny is required to modify the grammatical flaws as natives seldom make this kind of mistakes in writings.

To tackle the above issues, we'd better resort to the friendly native speakers. Channels as friends and internet (especially foreign bbs) will be of great help. If these channels are unavailable, English learning bbs like taisha and gter could be a satisfactory last resort.

As the stereotyped saying goes, 'when there's a will, there's a way'. Hope everyone can achieve this goal in the coming future.

yinglv

How to write like a native English speaker ？
First, we should think like a native speaker, which means we should kown the thinking ways and expressing ways of English native speaker, and this need accumulation in our reading, listening and watching.
Second, We'd best recite some excellent English sentences,.
Third, Write more speak more.