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December 3, 2009
Before he became a famous writer, Ernest Hemingway started his career as a young reporter for the Kansas City Star. It was there that he received a very basic style sheet that contains four simple rules. What did it say?
- Use short sentences
- Use short first paragraphs
- Use vigorous English
- And be positive, never negative
If those items sound familiar, that’s because you’ve likely heard them repeated numerous times in many writing guides. They’re as basic for good writing as it gets.
“Those were the best rules I ever learned in the business of writing,” Hemingway recounted years later. “I’ve never forgotten them. No one…can fail to write well if he abides by them.”
As an ESL writer who’s still struggling with the written aspect of the English language, following the above guidelines can be the best thing to keep in mind. Even with the lack of a full facility in the vernacular, you can end up with prose that reads well if you follow them in your own work, coupled with a good ESL assistant software.
Why do they work so well?
- Short sentences are easy to read, allowing you to make fewer mistakes while never losing the reader at any point.
- Short first paragraphs are easy to digest, making it easy to begin reading anything you put to paper.
- Vigorous English may not be up your alley yet as an ESL writer. But if you can manage it, your text will read alive and powerful.
- Positive statements are easier to understand than negative ones, apart from helping you come up with more powerful arguments.
November 23, 2009
Need to brush up on English marketing terms for a project, meeting or an upcoming trip? Here’s a list of common marketing vocabulary that every ESL speaker should have learned from their business language software and are keeping in their arsenal.
Brand. A noun that denotes a type of product made by a particular company (e.g. “Our brand of soap was first in sales last year.”)
Brand Identity. A noun that encapsulates how a company wants consumers to see their products. Are you a luxury item, a product for technical types, a bargain or something intended for women?
Brand Image. In contrast, with “brand identity,” this refers to how consumers actually perceive your products (e.g. “We need to change our brand image.”).
Launch. A verb that’s used to refer to the introduction of a new product, along with a complete advertising and marketing effort (e.g. “During the launch of our new product next month..”).
Consumer. A noun that refers to a person who buys the company’s products (good and services)both in retail and wholesale (e.g.”Our consumers were unhappy with the price hike.”).
End User. A noun that refers to a consumer who uses a product, instead of selling it (e.g. “The end user feedback was very positive.”).
Market Research. A noun that describes the process of collecting and processing information about customers, primarily concerning their feelings and attitudes about a particular product (e.g. “Market research indicates that consumers want more of the old version.”)
Public Relations. A noun that refers to the act of creating and maintaining a positive image for your company in the eyes of both customers and the general public.
November 20, 2009
Need to write a document in English, but your second language skills may not be up to par? Don’t worry all that much about it. There’s probably an editing service that can help you.
Editing services, especially those geared towards students and ESL speakers, are seeing increasing growth online. With English establishing itself as the international language for business and many other endeavors, it’s not surprising to see a rise in the number of people requiring editing services in the vernacular.
Fees typically range from $20 to $30 for minimal editing (basic proofreading for short documents) all the way to several hundred dollars for longer, more involved work. As you can see, it’s not cheap, making it less of an option for regular day-to-day correspondences and similarly mundane tasks.
For more important documents,such as when you’re a foreign national applying for a position in an American company, the price is absolutely warranted and we highly recommend you take advantage of them. After all, a well-written application essay really could make the difference in your application process.
With less-significant items, though, such as regular correspondences with American friends, you may want to hold on to that cash and invest in a language software for writing instead. These all-in-one English writing software can take your badly-worded, low-level English text and fashion it into something better. Sure, it won’t make you sound like a professional writer the way some editing services can, but it should iron out many of your mistakes.
Of course, you can always just call upon an editing service every time you need text run over. Prepare to spend a good amount of cash, though.
September 25, 2009
Looking to improve your ability to write in English? You’re not alone. Many native speakers, not to mention second-language users, continue to struggle with the writing aspect of English, even though they’ve been using it for a long time (perhaps, even all their lives).
The good news is, there are plenty of resources available to help you improve your English writing capabilities. Here are a few of them.
Desktop-based language software. Want the best way to bring your written English to the next level? An all-in-one language tool should help. Even better, you can learn by application, as you watch it point out mistakes, fix them and improve on your own writing.
Books. There are probably a million and one books about writing. I’m not exaggerating either. Being one of the longest-standing art forms and one of the most enduring communication methods, writing has seen a wide and varied share of guides.
Writing Classes and Workshops. If you live in an English-speaking country, you can literally walk into any college and find one of these scheduled. If you live elsewhere, you will likely find them too, as English has entrenched itself as an international language for many fields of endeavor.
Online. There’s a literal flood of online resources on writing. If you seek them out, you’ll probably end up overwhelmed, more than anything else. The real problem is not finding, it’s figuring out the good ones from the bad.
Others. There are many more avenues you can pursue when you’re trying to improve your writing faculties. Regardless of which one you choose, the important thing is to apply yourself in acquiring the skill. It’s not easy (nothing ever really is), but if you put your heart into it, you should be seeing some improvements within a short time.
September 12, 2009
It’s difficult enough to ask for help using email. Add in the fact that you’re not a native speaker of the language you plan to use and the challenges can add up. If you’re an ESL speaker looking to seek help over email using English, here are a few things you may want to take note of:
Ask nicely. You’re asking for a favor, not doling out your awesomeness. Nobody who receives your email needs to give you a response. Play nice and you just might get one.
Use a proper format. English speakers are used to receiving emails with short paragraphs, tight sentences and readable fonts. Do the same.
Shorten the pleasantries. You may feel obligated to try and butter up the recipient since you’ll be asking for a favor. While that could work, it’s a bit difficult in your case when you’re not that well-versed with the language. Sometimes, you might end up messing up the relationship by saying something wrong. None of this will happen if you keep pleasantries to a minimum and just get to the point. It’s okay to butter up a little. Just don’t do too much that you end up hanging yourself with your own compliments.
Language software helps. Use every English language software tool you have at your disposal. A spell checker should keep your writing free of bad spelling; a grammar checker should keep your sentences tight; a translation tool might assist you in clearing up some things; and a thesaurus can help you find the perfect word.
Basically, you have to ask nicely, write with a reader-friendly layout, get to the point and use a good language software. Beyond that, I’d just advise you to practice English more.
September 8, 2009
When you’re in a foreign country and trying to learn the language, the best way to bring your studies up to speed is to interact with native speakers regularly. Of course, getting locals to tolerate your broken speech long enough to actually understand what you mean is easier than done, especially in many parts of the world where people can handle English in some roundabout form.
Many English speakers in foreign countries just tend to speak English anyway, regardless of what the local vernacular is. As such, people will tend to assume that you’d rather interact in English than struggle in their language, so they put on their own English hat (there are more people using an English learning software than you think) when you try to speak with them.
Rather than carry on doing what’s easy, it always makes sense to just go ahead and ask them if it’s okay to speak in their tongue because you really need the practice. Most people will actually acquiesce. A great majority of people can appreciate a foreigner who makes the effort to speak the local language.
If they’d rather communicate in English because your facility in the language is painfully inadequate, don’t give up just yet. Try engaging them on a more involved level, telling them how you’d like to learn the language because you’ve been hoping to ask a local lass out to dinner or that you’ve been meaning to work there by next year. This way, you’re not only pestering them for practice, but getting them to empathize with your particular story.
In case they want to go the English route because they want to wax their English skills, you can even make a compromise. They speak in English, you speak in their language – benefits both ways. In the event it really just wouldn’t fly (such as when they’re being rude about it), then just speak in English. Just don’t forget to go through the whole thing again with the next local you end up bumping into.
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