The following ten misconceptions1 are very common among ESL students of all levels. Read each statement first and think/discuss whether you feel the same way. Then read the explanations and suggestions.
Writing well is never easy, even for native speakers of English. If you are a beginning level ESL student, translating from your first language is very natural, but relying on translation in intermediate and advanced levels will affect your learning negatively. Imagine how you would handle a 30-page research paper or a 10-page business report a few years later. You would probably not have the time to transfer ideas between two languages, but more importantly, your readers would most likely not be able to understand your ideas completely because no two languages could be translated word for word without losing meaning and clarity in the process. Therefore, continuing to translate from your native language will NOT make your English writing better. On the contrary, the opposite is true.
For the same reason, heavy reliance on a bilingual dictionary is not a good idea, either. Learning to form, process, and express ideas in English takes time, but it is a skill that can be trained, developed, and acquired. Now is a good time to change the habit of translating. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to break this habit.
When you write in English, start with the vocabulary and sentence structure you know, no matter how simplistic they may sound. Gradually you will build your skills in thinking and writing in English. Be patient with yourself and learn to accept imperfections. Over time, you will surely see the improvement. For your readers, it is much more acceptable to have a simple but comprehensible piece of writing than one that they cannot understand well.
Sudden moments of inspiration may occasionally occur, but you cannot count on them when your writing assignment is due the next day. Instead, just start writing! Once you start jotting down your thoughts, more will follow. The key is to get started. It is perfectly fine if the ideas in the beginning do not seem good enough. Good writing takes time, so do not wait till the last minute. One way to stay on track is to schedule backwards, starting from the due date and allowing enough time for editing, revising, drafting, outlining, and brainstorming.
Occasional googling is fine, but if you rely on Internet information for an assignment, you will experience many potential disadvantages:
You will easily fall into the temptation of plagiarism - copying other people's work and taking it as your own.
Your thinking will be limited by what you read.
Your writing will not show your unique, interesting perspective.
You will not be improving your skills steadily throughout the semester.
You will not be able to do well on in-class writing exams.
In a way, it is true. You may have a lot of information about general topics like vacations and holidays. However, good writing is less about how “broadly” you can write about a topic but more about how “deeply” you can write about it. Therefore, narrow down a general topic to find a unique angle you can write from. There should always be a clear, sharp focus on your writing. When you pick a topic, ask yourself first:
How much more do I know about this topic than most of my classmates?
What unique experiences and/or knowledge do I have about this topic?
How will my readers gain a new level of understanding about this topic or about me through my writing?
For example, it is fine to write about a wonderful vacation (happy family time, beautiful beaches, good food, etc.), but most people have similar experiences. Therefore, if you want to stay on this topic, try a different way and write about unusual vacation experiences, such as an interesting conversation with a hotel staff member, or an unexpected scene reminding you of your childhood.
Here is another example. It is common to write about the best inventions: cell phones, computers, airplanes... These are good topics if you are able to make your writing interesting and insightful with your experiences or knowledge. However, it is more fun to write and read if you select a topic that most people do not think about, like hair color or the garbage disposal. Of course, you need to have used those products in order to write well.
Plunging into drafting seems like a time saving way to finish a writing assignment, but the result is not ideal in most cases. Prewriting activities like brainstorming can lead to many surprising discoveries you are often unconscious of. Another essential step of prewriting is outlining. Without an outline, some common problems will occur, for instance, the mismatch of the main idea and the supporting ideas, lack of sufficient details, overlapping details, and illogical order of information. With an outline, you can catch and fix those problems more easily before devoting your efforts to the draft of your paragraph. Prewriting is a good investment of your time.
It is great to have new ideas! In order to stay on your topic, do this: As soon as you have a new thought, insert it in your outline to see if it fits. If it does, include it in your writing. If it does not, ignore it. The following questions will help you decide:
Does it support the main idea?
Is this a major supporting idea or a specific detail?
Where should it go in my writing?
Has something similar already been included?
This statement is far from the truth. Tutoring is for every student. In fact, students who are doing very well use this free service more often than others, which is one of the main reasons for their continued success. Every student has strong and weak areas in writing, and there is always a way to write better. At many colleges, free ESL tutoring is offered by experienced teachers. They can address your individual issues in writing. Tutoring is highly recommended to all students and is well worth your time.
While many professors may point out or correct most errors in the first writing assignment, they often do not do so in the later assignments. One of the goals is to train you to become independent writers; therefore, professors usually mark the types of errors, for example, fragments and wrong verb tenses. They expect you to learn to correct the errors by yourself. As the semester goes on, you will become more and more comfortable identifying and fixing mistakes on your own. It is important to communicate with your professor regularly with any questions you have. You will be happy to realize that you are becoming more and more independent in writing. That is a very powerful feeling to have!
Your professors and ESL tutors are the best people to help you because they can explain what, how, and why. Of course, your family and friends can provide quick help when you need it. However, most of them do not usually know the specific requirements of your assignment, nor are they trained in explaining the rules and usage to you. While they have the best intentions, they sometimes do the assignment for you without helping you understand why it should be done this way. If you often rely on the help of your family or friends, one of the consequences is that you lose the benefit of learning from your mistakes and thus fail to improve your writing skills as expected in the course. Besides, you may not do well on in-class writing exams. Furthermore, you will not be prepared for your future college level courses. Your writing skill is for you to “own”, a skill that you will need and value for a lifetime.
A lot of writing is involved in advanced reading and writing courses, and without a good command of grammar, it can be very challenging to complete them successfully. As explained earlier in this unit, academic writing requires formal and standard English, which is extensively explained and practiced in grammar classes. Although a good mastery of grammar does not necessarily translate to perfect writing, it is the foundation of good writing in ESL and college level courses.
It is common to run out of fresh ideas or not to understand sophisticated vocabulary and sentence structure. One solution is to read more. Good writers are almost always good readers. Reading provides good material – research findings, literary characters, news events - to make your writing detailed and interesting. Besides, critical reading produces critical thinkers who can often address a topic in depth and with a unique perspective.
misconception: noun, a wrong idea
"1.5: Ten Most Common Misconceptions about Writing" is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Connie Mathews, Elizabeth Stein, and Mary Elizabeth Wilson-Patton from a document "Building Academic Writing Skills (Cui)," which was shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Lin Cui. Adapted by Laura Paciorek.
Do you often translate from your native language to English when you think, write, and speak?
Do you find it hard to write your paragraphs and essays without translating from your native language?
Have you had challenges in making other people understand you?
If your answer to any of these three questions is a yes, you may want to learn to think and write in English through the Non-Stop Non-Translation (NSNT) free writing approach. It is one of the most effective ways to practice thinking and writing without translating. Free writing may serve different purposes, such as generating ideas and expressing viewpoints. However, in this NSNT approach, the goal is to help you think and write in English. As you gradually train yourself not to rely on your native language in your thinking, you will be able to speak, read, AND write more naturally in English.
1. As you have learned in this unit, the purpose of writing is to communicate your ideas accurately and effectively. As no two languages are exactly the same, your meaning usually gets lost or misinterpreted to some degree during direct translation from one language to the other. Consequently, your writing may confuse the readers or cause misunderstanding.
2.. When you formulate ideas in your native language and then translate them into English, the process takes longer than when you deal with only one language. As you prepare for your academic study in the U.S., you will be required to read and write a lot. You will not have enough time to complete your assignments within the time frame set by your professors if you have to translate most of the time.
3. Old habits die hard. This saying means that it is hard to break an old habit. The longer you rely on translating, the harder it will be to quit the habit. At this level of English, you are in a good position to start switching the language in which you normally think when you are writing in English: from your native language to English.
1. Prepare a notebook just for this practice. If you choose to type, set up a special folder or file on your computer. Record the date. You need to write or type in English nonstop so that you will have no time translating from your native language to English. Try three minutes, four times a week, and then gradually increase the duration and frequency as you feel more comfortable. Set your timer if needed.
2. You may decide on your own topic or choose one of the topics provided to get started. If you start rambling or end up writing something totally different, it is OK! The most important is that there is only one language – English – in your mind.
3. If you run out of ideas, just keep writing. You may write “Oh, I don’t know what more to write. Need ideas… 2 more minutes…” If you are really stuck, just write “Monday, Tuesday…”, or “January, February …”, or even “one, two, three…” Do not let the tip of your pen leave your notebook page, or do not stop typing.
4. Do not worry about grammar and spelling. Do not stop to check your dictionary. The purpose is not to produce perfect writing, but to think in English. If you want to correct mistakes, do so after you complete the NSNT practice for that day.
1/15/2022
My first time to write like this. teacher said no stopping, it’s hard, but I’ll try. The first topic my feelings about this new semester. I feel writing is hard, but important. I want to take college classes after ESL. I want to practice good writing. What else? No stop now, keep writing. One, two, three, four, five, Oh, yes, writing. I took writing 3 last semester, I did well. I want to learn more and take this class. what else to write? no stopping, no translate, it’s hard, no native language, keep writing, writing. My language different from english, no translate is hard. Many mistakes but teacher said don’t worry about spelling, grammar, just keep writing. I feel uncomfortable with mistakes. Teacher say no stopping and no translate most important.
The above is a very typical example in the first few days or even weeks of your NSNT practice, but soon you will feel much more comfortable and have more ideas to write about, all in English!
It takes time to acquire this new skill, but if you keep practicing, you will be well on your way to thinking and writing in English. It may take some students a semester or even a year or more, so do not feel discouraged if you do not see progress right away.
Just like working out, it takes consistent effort to strengthen muscles.
Choose one of these writing prompts and use it to practice the NSNT method. Your instructor may ask you to do this activity more than once, using a different prompt each time:
How do you feel about this first week of the semester? What are your plans for this semester?
How are you going to study differently this semester from how you studied in the past?
What is your classroom like? Describe it.
If you are taking this course online, describe your surroundings (your house, room…).
What does “academic honesty” mean to you?
Which of the ten misconceptions about academic writing is the most relevant to you? How are you going to improve in that area?
What are your expectations of this course?
(Spring Semester) Do you have a New Year’s resolution? If yes, describe it. If no, why not?
(Spring semester) What was an interesting event during your winter break? Describe it.
(Fall semester) What was an interesting event in summer? Describe it.
"Non-Stop Non-Translation Free Writing" by Connie Mathews, Elizabeth Stein, and Mary Elizabeth Wilson-Patton was adapted from a document "Building Academic Writing Skills (Cui)," which was shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Lin Cui. Adapted by Laura Paciorek.