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[[本园活动]] (早已结束!)Issue Writing 002:How to write like a native English speaker ?

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发表于 2008-12-25 22:45:37 | 显示全部楼层
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.
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发表于 2008-12-26 08:26:16 | 显示全部楼层
How to write like a native English speaker ?

  First of all, I deem that it's awfully important to have a positive attitude of learning English which includes two aspects. On one hand, work hard. As we know, diligence is the path to the mountain of knowledge,hard-working is the boat to the endless sea of learning. The guy who want to make great progress should do lots of practices of listening、speaking、reading and writing . On the other hand, be persevering. One would not master English well if he don't keep on doing the trainings repeatedly, as the same with swimming and ballet. It's a bad habit for us that work by fits and starts.
  Secondly, it's useful for us to grasp the correct method of learning. First, eliminate the bottleneck of pronunciation. We daren't recite or initiate a dialogue without a good pronunciation which would obstruct our further learning. We should listen carefully to the teacher's pronunciation and audio tapes, and be brave to practice and imitate it again and again comparing with the correct one. Next, take care of the differences between English and Chinese. They are two systems with different grammas and sentence constructions. We should not read or write English passages in accordance with the Chinese way of thinking. The last one, people gain initiative only when they grasp the rules of things. As long as we study intensively, we can be sure to realize and master the regular pattern of language structure.
  In a word, no pains no gains, we can manage to write like a native English speaker with our great effort.
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发表于 2008-12-28 15:01:46 | 显示全部楼层
To learn to write like a native English speaker , you must first learn the precise meaning of English words, phrases with customary usage, as well as English sentence word order. Foremost among these is the verb.In addition, special attentionthe use of pronouns and articles.
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发表于 2009-1-5 12:20:02 | 显示全部楼层
Guided practice makes perfect!

Plan and Preparation: Listen&Read—Have a study plan for yourself, prepare for each class, become familiar with the general content.
Attendance and Comprehension: Analyse and understand on the details of meaning and structure.
Review and Remenber: Repeat and compare each sentence.Build oral fluency and pronunciation.
Practical application: Review and summarize every section on a regular basis.Extend the contents and use them as possible an you can.[/blockquote][/li][/li][/h1]
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发表于 2009-1-9 20:19:01 | 显示全部楼层
How to write like a native English speaker?
In my opinion, I think that practice and comparasion with the native expressions are the critical. Some one pays attention the importance of reading and listening. I guess that's not enough. You can improve your expression skills only when you write the content by yourself. In the process, you shoud pick up the dictionary and imitate the model sentences and then take down your own content when you cannot figure out how to express precisely. As time past, you can build up the native expressions gradually in this way.
Secondly, we should pay attention to collect the native English expression in our daily reading and listening. Let me take “instant message” as an example, we always get used to translate it to “short message” according to our first sensation. Indeed, it should be “instant message” or “text message” in native English. I learned this native expression from the radio involuntarily.
Lastly, I believe that you can improve your English writing level greatly day by day only when you pick up your pens and practice constantly. That’s why I take part in this meaningful activity and take down my own ideas.
In the forthcoming year, I wish every partner can visit this wonderful English leaning website and communicate with each other usually. Happy new year, everyone!
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发表于 2009-1-17 08:47:51 | 显示全部楼层
Efficiently writing, to some degree, is the most effective way to communicate, and oftentimes the only way to get your message across. Since writing materials are more concrete than verbal information, it is nessesary to keep in mind that any error and mistake should be excluded as possible as you can. Herein I share some tips for efficiently writing with all my friends in Readfree BBS.
Tip 1. Adopt specific writing style according to writing materials
When witing, be mindful of the fact that different writing materials (e.g. scientific paper, peom and assay, news, and magzine etc.) have their own specific styles. So it is essential that you select a topic or an idea that you want to develop further. For example, If you’re writing for your dissertation, you obviously would take a theme or an idea that you need to build on for your chapter. Likely, when preparing the research articles, you should present introduction, materials and methods, results or/and discussion, and conclusion as reqested by journals. Moreover, business letters require different sentence structure and even wording. Therefore, adopting proper style when preparing writing materials is half success.
Some of the most basic tips to remember when writing include (Quoted from Internet with a little bit alternation):
•  Choose written words other than verbal ones, and avoid the use of slang words
•  Try not to use abbreviations unless appropriately defined
•  Steer away from the use of symbols (such as ampersands [&])
•  Dashes are generally used for emphasis
•  Great care should ALWAYS be taken to spell the names of people and companies correctly
•  Numbers should be expressed as words when the number is less than 10 or is used to start a sentence (example: Ten years ago, my brother and I…). The number 10, or anything greater than 10, should be expressed as a figure (example: My brother has 13 Matchbox cars.)
•  Quotation marks should be placed around any directly quoted speech or text and around titles of publications.
•  Keep sentences consice, avoiding to use long and vague sentences.
Tip 2. Practice makes perfect
not all the so-called tips could make your writing understood or effective unless persistant practice is done. There are many resources available to assist with practising your writing skills, including specific books and web sites. Another efficient way is to collect propriate words or expressions from what you read, particularly written by native speakers. The point is that you must digest the powerful or profound words by yourself and try to incorporated them into your writing materials.
Tip 3. The Importance of Careful Proofing
Perhaps the most important thing to remember when writing is to check it thoroughly when it is completed. Is your written communication well organized? Does each idea proceed logically to the next? Even when you think it is exactly what you want, read it one more time. This “unwritten” rule holds true for everything you write – memos, letters, proposals, and so on.
I strongly recommend to make good use of the “search engines” available in the internet, such as Google. If you are not sure the proper usage of a specific word or phase, you could check it through the search engines by selecting the uncertain expression as key word.
No pains, no gains. I hope the goal of writing efficiently as a native speaker does can fulfilled by persistent practice, and proper skills.

You can do it.
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ynylb 该用户已被删除
发表于 2009-1-26 16:15:07 | 显示全部楼层
How to write like a native English speaker?

It should be pointed out the title itself is not reasonable. If you write in a way what a native speaks, then it is not written English but spoken despite you have turned them into a paper, or electronic, form. Written English is a system awfully different from it counterpart. Furthermore, not all writing English are identical. At least the style you could find in a newspaper or a fashion journal has much difference from that of academic writings.

Maybe some readers of this post have already noticed that the second sentence of the first paragraph appears to have been wrong since the two “hostile” words, if and then, were used together. But before drawing your conclusion, just think it again: what is the criterion of judgment? The grammar rule studied in textbook? But unfortunately, by saying “if” and “then” can never be used together the texts are wrong in terms of usage of the two words. Virtually, “if” and “then” are not enemies, but friends as you can find them meet each other in a sentence even in academic writings.

By mentioning a possible mistake in English textbooks, I am suggesting that those texts do teach us a lot that form the basis for our writing, but we should go on learning from native writers rather than stop at the level of middle-school texts. In the beginning of this short post, in hope of reminding the difference between the two English systems I concisely analyzed the possible problem hidden in the proposed topic for this activity of incentive writing.

This post is just for communication with friends in our beloved forum. If I am wrong, please feel free to criticize.
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发表于 2009-2-12 13:33:23 | 显示全部楼层
How to write like a native English speaker ?

Right words, right sentences and right grammar, no problem, but you should be sure that you are right and consistent with the idiomatic English, that is a problem. You need lots of time to study and imitate idiomatic English. Besides this, you need lots of logical practice in order to write like a native English speaker. In other words, you need change your thinking style. The English speakers think in a straight way. They like to come straight to the point. Sometimes we might think they seem to be too straight, too frank, too aggressive or even too rude according to our culture or our thinking style. But that is their way. If you want to write like a native English speaker, you must think like an English speaker. That is the widespread saying: thinking in English. And the best way to thinking in English, I think, is to train youself on logical thinking ability, such as giving definitions, comparing and contrasting, analyzing cause and effect and logical classification, etc. These can help you understand the basic structures that consist most of the scientific and technical English articles and most of the comment articles in other field. And logic, I think, is one of the cores of western culture. If you want to rise to their level, you must find out the differences between your articles and theirs. For example, you can write on the same subject which a native English speaker has written, and then you contrast yours to his, the differences will show sharply. Take the opportunity to study their thinking way, you could learn a lot of things, and your English writing will improve gradually.

So, in my opinion, you should change your thinking style to a native English speaker’s to write good English articles.
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发表于 2009-2-13 00:21:44 | 显示全部楼层
For Chinese people to learn English the most important thing is forget his own language.
First , he must learn words. there is some good ways in very much books. but, you must use more times to do it. If you don’t use enough time ,you will forget it very easy.
Secondly, you must mast the sentens, you can learn it in the leasons you can recite the articles. And you may have a lot of dictionaries and some softwares for example the Microsoft word the google toolbar .
Thirdly , you must read more book, they will make your writing skill improve quickly. You may read some newspapers novels we can learn some grammar. some good articles we must can recite. Also we can visit foreign people ,talk to them ,make friends with them, and send email to them. You can learn more in this way. You will know the news in other county, find out their ideas there consuetude .their point of view in financial crisis, it will improve you interesting quickly. I have a English book <family album usa>, book and vcd .i learn it very hard.
  Learning English requires a lot of motivation. Nobody is going to take your attendance when you aren&#39;t in class. If you are sure you are ready to begin studying, make a commitment.  
The last ,English as a language ,you must use it as possible as you can. You must cost more time on it.The things we do best in life are the things we enjoy doing. If you aren&#39;t having fun learning English, you&#39;re not studying the right way! You can be a serious student who has fun at the same time. Make up your own rewards program to give yourself incentives to stay on task.
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发表于 2009-2-16 20:42:13 | 显示全部楼层
It’s almost impossible for us to speak English like a native speaker. There are too many inevitable barriers to step over like different culture, different tradition, different living environment and so on. But, very luckily there’re ways to improve our accent to be more native.

The most important point is to keep the interest to study and speak English. For many of us, English has become a luxury subject far far away. If we don’t use English because of work, there would be no need to keep on speaking it in our life. So, we will forget everything about English slowly until the last word. We can’t let this happen! Secret? The interest! Only the interest can move us to study and speak English. Everybody has his own reason to hold this interest. What I want to say is, just keep it.

Secondly, listen more! As a moviegoer, I’m sure that the more you listen, the better you speak. Just like everything else, the study of English also has an order. After a period of listening you will grasp the feeling of English naturally. You can develop the nature of English when you have listened much enough. Popular words, native accent and suitable sense don’t come from books, but listening.

The last principle is to practice speaking with foreigners. I can understand that it would be a little shy, but it’s really an effective path to increase the ability of speaking. When I worked for DAVOS in past time, it’s fast I found my speaking of English developed.

Guys, move on from this moment. Just let them have a look how shining we are, how native English we are speaking. Just this moment, just now.
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发表于 2009-2-20 06:23:54 | 显示全部楼层
How to write like a native English speaker ?

Because our long term education in English, most students in China can write words in English. But what about writing natively?

What is native? Dictionary tells us that native means inborn, belonging to or associated with one by birth. English is language. How do people in English-speaking countries learn English? How do we learn Chinese? So, in my opinion, to write like a native English speaker, we should make our English studying environment like native English speaker, such as read native English newspapers, watch native movies or TV plays… Certainly you should practice English writing as often as you can.

Besides, I would like to provide some tips which may help people who like to improve their English writing. First, be careful about using long and complex sentence. The goal of learning language is communication. How to state your opinion clear should be the first aim when you write a paper. Some people mistakenly think that long and complex sentence would make the paper seems more intelligent. But actually, native English speakers don’t like that. Second, try to use active form in your writing. Active form makes you looks active, straightforward, which is Americans like to act like.
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发表于 2009-2-24 16:47:21 | 显示全部楼层
We have been studying English for at least nine years. We read more, write more and remember more, but how many of us can speak fluent English and how many have spoken with a foreigner for at least 5 minutes? It&#39;s common that students don&#39;t pay much attention to the spoken English in China.

  English-learners should begin to pay more attention to their oral English from now on. Certainly we had better speak like a foreigner. I have an opinion that a native-speaker pronunciation helps us a lot. First, it shortens the distance between the talkers. For example, when Yaoming first came to America, his teammates didn&#39;t like to talk to him as Yao took a very strong Chinese accent in spite of his fluent English. Second, a native-speaker pronunciation helps you win in the work. If you work with foreigners, a good communication is very important. Imagine that you are required to make an appointment with a foreign guest while there is competitor, it will be easier for you to make it if you have a native accent while the other do not. Third, to an English learner, it will be easier to learn if you follow the tape or CD.

  In one word, a native-speaker accent helps you in many areas, the job, the study, the family and so on. Don&#39;t hesitate any more! Let&#39;s speak our English out, just like a foreigner.
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发表于 2009-2-24 20:22:45 | 显示全部楼层
How to write like a native English speaker

Writing in English is not very hard for most of us, but writing like a native English speaker is still a big trouble for English learners. There is a long way to become a native English speaker.

We are usually writing in Chinese habit, concerning only if there are spell or grammer mistakes. So after more than ten years , our writing is still in the same point.But in fact,writing like a native English speaker is not a dream, we just need a little change.


Firstly, learners must read and memory some classical English works. Through reading, we can learn the main principles in language learning.Secondly, analyzing the sentence structure is also a good method. The flexible sentence form and word selection will help us a lot.


We will become native English speakers through continuing efforts.
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发表于 2009-3-1 23:28:37 | 显示全部楼层
For native English speakers, this won’t be a problem. But for those of us, who speak English as a second language (ESL), writing posts without grammatical mistakes is a very difficult task. While ESL speakers can write in English quite well, there are hidden problems that are hard to avoid. Usually it&#39;s a silly grammar mistake, or a broken sentence.
The only way to get it is to practice all the time. Don&#39;t be afraid or feel ashamed of your grammar, even those English speakers themselves make many grammatical errors. The most important thing is that we always strive to improve our grammar and do not get down when someone criticize our writings. Learn and practice… that&#39;s the way to master it.
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发表于 2009-3-23 17:56:19 | 显示全部楼层
I just want to share with you my experience of improving my English writing.
Most of the Chinese English learners prefer the "right" words to the "exact" words. For example, my students are quite in favor of such words as "cry", "good", "look", etc., which are "general words". General words are right words, but they cannot present a vivid image. I used to read an essay, which talked about the "exact word", or "le mot juste" in French. Why don&#39;t you use "sob", "excellent", and "glance"? Aren&#39;t specific words more vivid? So this is my first piece of advice: better to use specific words than the general words.
My second piece of advice is to use an E-E dictionary. Some people prefer E-C dictionary, because Chinese explanation of a certain English word is much easier to understand. The problem is that Chinese cannot explain an English word very clearly and exactly, especially when it is an adjective or a verb. For example, I just came across the word of "reassurance", and the Chinese explanation is 放心. The sentence is like this, "I don&#39;t know how to cope with this situation, so I need some reassurance." In this sentence, the word "reassurance" is better to be explained as "restoring one&#39; confidence". For the same reason, when you refer to a C-E dictionary to look for a certain English word, don&#39;t be haste to choose one at random from the words or phrases listed below. Instead, you should be clear about the different use of those words, and choose a right one. It will be better if the dictionary offers sample sentences.
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发表于 2009-4-22 12:33:10 | 显示全部楼层
这个帖子的斑竹也太不厚道了,这都帖了半年了,也不处理,服了
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发表于 2009-4-23 14:53:11 | 显示全部楼层
read native magzines or newspaper.learn the grammer by heart
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 楼主| 发表于 2009-4-23 17:33:09 | 显示全部楼层
~~~~~~~~~~~~活动结束~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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发表于 2009-8-22 02:39:18 | 显示全部楼层
Firstly, reading is the most important basis for writing. One learns to read before he learns to write. The more native articles you read, the easier you can write in native English. Through English reading, you can learn a native expression of one thing or one statement from native writer. Try to write in their way rather than translation of your own languages.

Secondly, try to set a period for yourself as English time. You have to use English at that time even though you are hurry in that time. In this way, you will force yourself to an English writing environment and you will improve your English dramatically.

Thirdly, improve your English accuracy by distinguish antonym and similar expressions. Try to know which one is formal or informal, which one is oral or written English, to which the word or phrase expresses. To achieve this goal, you need to have a good English dictionary which is fit to your level. Remember, use the English dictionary which is also used by native speakers.

Finally, you have to practice writing in English. If possible, you should ask a native English speaker to correct your English. That would help you a lot in your writing and you will try to write in their way after the correction.
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发表于 2009-8-25 17:05:21 | 显示全部楼层
How to Learn English Like a Native English Speaker



When young English children start school, they start off in beginning English classes. At this point they can speak the language and do make mistakes in pronouncing many words. They cannot, however, write the language. This is what you need to consider when you want to know how to learn English. Adult learners often have a hard time starting off with simple lessons and feel that they are missing out on something. You have to start at the beginning because in this regard you are like a child just learning the language.



Most adults are very fearful when they start learning English. They are afraid that they will make mistakes when they speak and write. Making mistakes is a part of learning so when you do make mistakes and someone corrects you, they are doing you a favour and helping you learn. It takes a lot of practice to learn English well and part of that learning process is making mistakes.



Whether or not you are attending school to help you learn English there are many other resources you can use on your own to aid your learning. This includes taking a free online English course where you have access to numerous resources. Lessons are available for all stages of learning and provide you with instruction, practice exercises and quizzes.



Listening is an essential aspect of learning any new language. You have to be able to hear native speakers so that you learn how to pronounce the words correctly. Even if you get listening exercises in class, listening to passages and conversations being read in the online courses gives you more exposure to the language. This is especially true if you are taking English lessons in your home country. By using the resources available online you increase your exposure to the language outside of class.



Over the phone English learning is a wonderful way.Therefore, you can stay at home and learn English in this manner without the expense of travelling to an English speaking country. The best way to learn English is to immerse yourself in the language and you can do this through an online course. Read books and listen to conversations. Record yourself reading the same text and compare how well you are doing. It won’t be long before you are able to read along just as well as the native speaker in the course.



Set a schedule for your study routine and stick to it. Each of your study sessions should include the four aspects of the language ?listening, speaking, reading and writing. This helps to vary the routine so that you are not always doing the same thing. If, for example, you set aside one hour a day for learning English you can devote 15 minutes to each of these aspects of the language. Don’t overlook phone chat learning because these can really help you increase your vocabulary insensibly.
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