Academic Writing Tips for ESL Researchers
Practical academic writing guidance for non-native English speakers: common language patterns to fix, journal submission tips, and resources to help ESL researchers publish successfully.
Guide
More than half of all manuscripts submitted to international English-language journals are written by researchers whose first language is not English. Language barriers are real, but they are addressable. This guide covers the most common English language challenges for ESL academic writers, practical strategies for writing more fluently, and resources to improve the submission-readiness of your manuscripts.
Most common ESL academic writing errors
Research on ESL academic writing has identified consistent patterns of errors across language backgrounds:
Article misuse: incorrect or missing use of 'a', 'an', and 'the', the single most common ESL error
Preposition errors: 'study of' vs 'study on', 'associated with' vs 'associated to'
Calque constructions: word-for-word translations that produce non-idiomatic English
Verb form errors: incorrect use of gerunds vs infinitives
Tense inconsistencies: mixing past and present tense incorrectly across sections
Overlong sentences: complex ideas packed into unwieldy 60-word sentences
Awkward compound nouns: 'blood pressure measurement technique improvement study'
Academic hedging language
Academic writing requires appropriate hedging, which is language that signals the degree of certainty of your claims. ESL researchers often either over-hedge (sounding uncertain about everything) or under-hedge (making claims too strongly). Standard hedging expressions include 'may suggest', 'appears to indicate', 'is consistent with', 'potentially', 'to our knowledge'. Match your hedging language to your evidence quality.
Article use: the most common challenge
English articles (a, an, the) present the greatest difficulty for speakers of languages without articles (Asian languages, Russian, Arabic, Turkish). The basic rule: use 'the' for specific/known items; use 'a/an' for introducing new/general items. Reading extensively in your target journal and noting article patterns is one of the most effective ways to develop article intuition. CheckMyManuscript's language checker specifically flags article patterns.
How to improve your academic English
Proven strategies for ESL researchers:
Read extensively in your field in English, especially papers in your target journal
Use academic phrase banks (e.g., the Academic Phrasebank from the University of Manchester)
Have a native English-speaking colleague review your manuscript
Use grammar checking tools (Grammarly, ProWritingAid) as an additional layer
Consider professional English editing (Scribbr, AJE) for your highest-stakes submissions
Use CheckMyManuscript to validate structure and compliance after language editing
Requesting English editing as a journal condition
Many journals (especially Nature family, Elsevier, and JAMA journals) will accept a scientifically strong paper with language issues and request professional editing before acceptance. The cover letter can acknowledge English as a second language. Some publishers (Elsevier, Springer) offer author language services at journal submission. Journals rarely reject papers solely on language if the science is clearly communicated.
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Frequently asked questions
For high-impact journal submissions, professional editing is strongly recommended if English is your second language. The return on investment (higher acceptance rate, faster peer review) justifies the cost for important papers. Services like Scribbr, AJE (American Journal Experts), and Editage are commonly used.
A paper can be desk-rejected if language issues make the science unclear. However, if the science is clear enough for reviewers to evaluate, most journals will ask for language revision rather than reject. Strong science with moderate language issues is typically preferred over weak science with perfect grammar.
Yes: the Academic Phrasebank (University of Manchester) is an excellent free reference for standard academic phrases. PhraseUp helps with phrase construction. Many universities offer writing centers with free consultations. Reading published papers in your target journal is free and highly effective.
CheckMyManuscript identifies specific language patterns common in ESL manuscripts: article misuse, tense inconsistency, missing hedging language, and sentence structure issues. It also validates structural and compliance requirements, giving ESL researchers a comprehensive pre-submission check before investing in professional editing.