February 27, 2010
So, you’re an ESL student dumped onto an English-speaking workplace. Chances are, you have no choice but to learn how to write business English effectively, lest risk being unable to perform your job well.
Business writing is different from other types of writing in that it’s a little more formal and requires you to produce material with a professional tone. If you’re going to work in an English-speaking country, there’s no escaping it, as most professions (especially white-collar ones) will require you to write in that manner.
To help you out, here are a few tips:
1. Learn to write English in a more formal, straightforward manner. To be on the safe side, it’s best to aim for a more formal tone, rather than find a more balanced writing style. Sure, you might not end up writing the most interesting emails or memos, but you’ll sound professional doing so.
2. Write to your audience. Always know who you’re writing a document for. If it’s an email to a co-worker along the same rank as you, a little less formality might help you establish better rapport. For a report that you’ll submit to superiors, though, you may want to dispense with the pleasantries.
3. Be clear and to the point. No need for literary devices for business writing. Sure, it might help for proposals and other materials intended to sway opinion. But you’ll be teetering a fine line and it’s best not to rock the boat, especially if English isn’t your first language.
4. Arm yourself with a good English language software. You’ll need it, especially when it comes to cleaning up writing mistakes and improving your overall facility.
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 18, 2009
Cliches are the bane of many ESL speakers, especially when writing. Since they’re not attuned to the nuances of a language, many tend to misinterpret what many of these “clever-sounding strings of words” actually mean. As such, when you see them use it, the whole thing is often painfully taken out of context.
If you’re an ESL writer, we highly recommend staying away from using cliches in your work. While they make your writing sound “more mature,” they’re completely unnecessary. As someone whose English facility isn’t at the highest levels, it’s more important to express yourself in a clear and unencumbered manner. You can worry about sounding like a native later.
When you’re putting together emails or any form of writing intended to be viewed by other ESL speakers, it’s important to keep the same thing in mind. While cliches like “we’re on the same page” or “on the dot” makes sense to you, it might not read the same way to other non-Americans with a mere eight months of language software training under their belts.
At the end of the day, clear and direct writing will always trump clever word construction. If you want to be an effective ESL writer, stick to that and leave the fancy wordplay out of your arsenal until such a time when it’s warranted.
September 22, 2009
It’s tough having to use English as your second language. Even harder, when you need to compose documents using it. Being able to write effectively isn’t beyond your level, however. Provided you can manage a halfway decent conversation in real life, you just might pull the writing thing off too.
Use a writing software. So you don’t have the greatest skill set. That doesn’t mean you can’t employ the proper tools to get you through. A writing software should manage the job handily. Used in conjunction with your language software and a couple other writing guides, English composition should prove easier than you expect. At the least, your ears won’t bleed.
Keep sentences short. Since your sentence construction isn’t likely to be perfect, keep them as short as you can manage. Try to stick with either simple sentences or those that combine two clauses, nothing more.
Watch your subject and verb. When putting sentences together, place the subject and verb as near to the start as possible. Try to keep them as close to each other as well. You can vary this at certain points during the text, but try sticking to them as much as possible, as this structure does read much better and is less susceptible to error.
Use bullet points and numbered lists. Bullet points and numbered lists help you keep statements short. Heck, you might even get away doing it with bad punctuation, all without affecting the reader’s overall understanding of what you’ve written.
Want more? Just read the rest of the site, as we regularly feature English writing tips for second language learners.
August 28, 2009
It’s not easy composing business documents when English isn’t your primary language. More than stringing together sentences to get your point across, you frequently need to deliver the message in a right tone – lest risk being misunderstood.
If you’re an ESL writer and need to foster better written communication, always consider the tone with which you write. The following ideas, along with everything you’ve learned from your language learning software, should prove a good start.
Show confidence. In many cultures, confidence is construed as arrogance. For many native English speakers, this just isn’t so. As such, don’t be afraid to confidently deliver your message. If you have a point, state it. Don’t apologize or make excuses for anything you say. Show confidence in your ideas and your readers will follow.
Show courtesy. In English writing, you temper the confidence with courtesy. If you’re polite and mannerly, you can deliver you statements full of conviction without putting your readers on the defensive.
Use emphasis appropriately. If a particular statement or idea needs to be emphasized, place it in a short sentence. The longer it goes, the less the impact that your statement carries. If you need to expound, you can use following sentences to explain it further.
Use non-discriminatory language. As you may not be endowed with a large vocabulary yet, this may prove a bit tricky. Use the thesaurus feature of your language software to find alternatives to words that either show or imply gender when a neutral one is better. Similarly, you’ll need to avoid terms that can be considered demeaning, statements that stereotype individuals and information that slot people because they fit in a certain demographic.
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