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Topic : Re: As a writer, how can I avoid exposing myself as a non-native English speaker in my texts? I am a Japanese student learning English, and one of my current goals is to learn to write texts - selfpublishingguru.com

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First, what you have written is very good, similar to (and honestly, better than) I've seen coming from native speakers of the language. That said, there are some ways you could have tweaked what you've written to have made it seem more natural.

Some examples:

and one of my current goals is to learn to write texts in such a way
that no reader will realize I am not a native speaker.

...and one of my current goals is to write in such a way that no one will realize I'm not a native speaker.

Here, for instance, a native writer would rely more on context. Saying "texts" and "readers" is redundant; if you're discussing writing, by default you're talking about writing text. If you were talking about poetry or song lyrics or advertising copy, something other than what we'd refer to as "text", then you'd specify it. Similarly, since you're talking about writing, you don't have to use "readers" in reference to other people. You're communicating via writing, by definition (unless they're using text-to-speech software) the others you're communicating with must be readers.

but the focus of my question is on avoiding exposing myself as a
non-native speaker rather than on merely writing good.

...rather than merely writing well. That's a simple grammar mistake.

which are my Achilles heel at the moment

...which is my Achilles' heel at the moment (or Achilles's, opinions differ). In any event, simple grammar error.

To write like native speakers, I strive to recall and use expressions seen or heard by me before rather than to construct my own expressions.

What you've written isn't wrong by any means, but it comes across as somewhat stilted. Someone writing in a more natural style would probably say have written something like:

To write like native speakers, I try to remember and use expressions I've seen or heard before rather than construct my own.

Word choice. Many non-native speakers either always use very simple
words or sometimes make weird word choices, choosing rare words for no
reason.

Amusingly, you've nailed it here: using "weird" is something a native speaker is likely to do. In a more formal style, someone might use "unusual" or "strange", but using "weird", at least in my dialect of English, comes across as very natural.

That aside, something that would alert me is not using contractions.

I am a Japanese student learning English, and one of my current goals
is to learn to write texts in such a way that no reader will realize I
am not a native speaker. I am humbly seeking advice on how to reach
that end.

To clarify, I do not intend to become a great writer...

...and grammatical constructions that I am sure about.

I would be grateful...

Not using I'm, I don't, and I'd would make me wonder. Even in formal settings, using I am constantly would stand out.

As to how to improve, and since you are specifically talking about writing rather than speaking, I'd say read a lot, fiction and non-fiction, but most importantly read contemporary material. Writing styles can change significantly over time, and if you don't want to seem anomalous now, you need to read what is being written in recent years, not something from decades past. Bontë and Austen and Dickens wrote very well, as obvious examples, but no one would write like that now.


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