Writing up Research in English: Choice or Necessity

Surgery 1 stated that English was “a heavy burden ” for a large number of researchers from non-native-English speaking (NNES) countries. This issue has recently been discussed in a Nature ’ Special Report entitled “Lost in Translation ” 2. The report addresses the difficulty NNES scientists have in mastering the English language. According to this report, a feeling of “frustration ” permeates the career of some European scientists when it comes to doing and writing up research in English. The same appears to be true for Japanese and South Korean scientists. In fact, for NNES authors, good command of English does not appear to be a minor issue in their doing of science. Also, although they are expected to master the four skills, there is no dispute that the writing skill has a unique place in their academic life. Particularly today, it can be argued that writte