Writing academically in a second language is a genuinely different skill from writing academically in your first one, not a lesser version of it. These are the patterns worth watching for specifically, based on what comes up most often in editing.
Article usage (a/an/the)
If your first language doesn’t use articles the way English does, this is usually the single most frequent correction in an edited draft. A rough rule that helps more than it hurts: use “the” when you and the reader both already know which specific thing you mean; use “a/an” when you’re introducing something for the first time; often use no article at all with plural or uncountable general nouns (“research shows,” not “the research shows,” unless you mean one specific study).
Tense consistency across sections
English academic writing shifts tense by function, not just by chronology: literature review and methodology are usually past tense (what others found, what you did), while ongoing claims and your discussion of implications shift to present tense. Keeping this consistent within each section, even if it changes between sections, reads as more polished than defaulting to one tense throughout.
Sentence length isn’t the same as sophistication
A common instinct is to write longer, more complex sentences to sound more academic. In English academic writing, clarity is valued more highly than complexity. If a sentence needs to be read twice to be understood, it usually needs to be shortened, not admired.
Read your own writing aloud
This catches awkward phrasing that looks fine on the page but sounds wrong when spoken, especially idiom and word collocations (which words conventionally go together) that don’t always translate directly from another language.
Our Non-Native English Support service focuses specifically on these patterns, with feedback explained so they’re easier to catch yourself over time, not just corrected silently.