As a nonnative speaker, I struggled to write scientific papers in English: Here’s how I learned

I grew up in China and was still developing my English skills, so I was nervous when I emailed my Ph.D. supervisor the first draft of a manuscript. One week later, he sent it back full of changes. At first, I was frustrated that my writing required so much editing. But after I took a closer look, I realized where I’d gone astray. He had shortened many of my sentences and commented that I should avoid unnecessarily long and complicated phrases. The advice was counter to what I’d learned when studying for English language proficiency exams. Showing off complex grammar and advanced vocabulary had always brought higher scores, so that’s how I approached writing. But I clearly had more lessons left to learn.