It is a classic dilemma for any Japanese student of English: with a deadline fast approaching, how to go about writing an essay when the target language is not the student's native tongue? Many assume it is easier to write an essay in their native language and then to translate it into English. In fact, this may be much more difficult than writing an essay in English from the beginning. Writing an essay in the target language from scratch may seem daunting at first, but it may save time and heartache in the long run.

Essay forms in English and in Japanese are not the same. Since the basic form of an essay in English (introduction-body-conclusion) is very different from the standard Japanese ki-sho-ten-ketsu (begin-inform-develop-conclude) format, a direct translation of an essay in Japanese will normally have to be rewritten in the introduction-body-conclusion format, which can easily cause many headaches.

Many sentences in English are deductive in nature while sentences in Japanese are inductive. Think for a moment about how often the word 'because' is used in English -- sentences using 'because' involve deduction.