Common Non-Native Speaker Writing Patterns to Eliminate
TOEFL Independent Writing at 24+ requires academic English that avoids the systematic patterns that ETS raters identify as characteristic of non-native speakers at the Band 20–23 level. The five most consequential patterns to eliminate: (1) Direct translation syntax — sentence structures from L1 that produce grammatically correct but unnatural English: 'The teachers are the people who are having the important role in the education of society' (unnecessarily complex relative clause) → 'Teachers play a crucial role in education.' Simplify over-elaborate syntax. (2) Repeated use of 'I think' and 'I believe' — at the 24+ level, signal your perspective through the argument itself rather than through constant first-person hedges; use them once in the introduction and once in the conclusion at most. (3) Formulaic conclusion that simply restates the introduction — 'In conclusion, I agree that... because [repeat body points].' A 24+ conclusion should restate the thesis in different language and add a 'so what' implication. (4) Imprecise quantifiers — 'many people,' 'a lot of,' 'a great number' — replace with specific references: 'the majority of,' 'a substantial proportion,' 'researchers have found,' or an invented specific statistic in a named study. (5) Verb-noun collocation errors — 'make a decision' is correct; 'take a decision' is British English variant acceptable but not natural in American academic contexts. 'Do research' is informal; 'conduct research' is academic register.