Xiaoming Li, now a college English teacher, says that before she came to the United States as a graduate student, she had been a “good writer” in China—in both English and Chinese. Once in the United States, however, she struggled to grasp what her teachers expected of her college writing. While she could easily use grammar books and dictionaries, her instructors’ unstated expectations seemed to call for her to write in a way that was new to her.

Of course, writing for college presents many challenges; such writing differs in many ways from high school writing as well as from personal writing like text messaging or postings to social networking sites. If you grew up speaking and writing in other languages, however, the transition to producing effective college writing can be even more complicated. Not only will you have to learn new information and new ways of thinking and arguing, but you also have to do it in a language that may not come naturally to you—especially in unfamiliar rhetorical situations.