It is generally accepted that English is the international language of business. You may be able to speak English well, but if you want to get on in business, particularly if you are hoping to get a job that involves travel, you really should brush up on your writing skills. If you just take a few minutes to practice each day and learn the basics of grammar you will soon improve, and you will notice the pay-off when it comes to applying for jobs or simply for making your day-to-day life easier. So what can you do to work on your written English?
Read A Lot: To begin with, one of the most important things to do if you want to improve your written English skills is read as much as possible so you can get a feel for sentence structure, grammar and punctuation. It doesn’t matter what you’re reading, in fact it’s good to get hold of a lot of varied material so you’re also aware of the way that writing styles can change depending on the format. For example, writing a short article for a magazine or writing an email is going to be very different to the kind of English employed for a novel or short story.
Think In English: Many people, if English is not their first language, will tend to think in their own language when writing and then translate it back to English in their head. This is making life more difficult for yourself, as different rules of grammar, idioms and cultural differences mean that your language will end up sounding unnatural. It takes a while to learn, but you need to try to think in the language you are writing in. It’s certainly a skill, but it can make a huge difference to the quality of your writing.
Get Friends To Proofread: If you have English-speaking friends, ask them if they can read through pieces you have written now and then to check for mistakes in spelling, grammar or punctuation. There are bound to be idioms or phrases you are not aware of that might work better in certain passages or sentences, but often these are the kinds of thing you won’t be aware of unless somebody tells you.
Use The Internet: You should take advantage of the vast online resources at your disposal. For example, learning English grammar online is one of the best ways to pick up the rules of written English because there are so many online reference guides, forums dedicated to those who want to improve their written English and daily email tips you can sign up to. If you are really interested in learning English grammar online you can even take online courses so that experienced tutors can help you with your written skills and you can still work as flexibly as you want.
Practice Constantly: Whether you’ve decided to take an online course or learn by yourself, you won’t improve your written English if you don’t practice constantly. Email English friends, write short stories or articles, start a blog – basically do anything that ensures you are writing on a daily basis to keep the momentum up.
Read A Lot: To begin with, one of the most important things to do if you want to improve your written English skills is read as much as possible so you can get a feel for sentence structure, grammar and punctuation. It doesn’t matter what you’re reading, in fact it’s good to get hold of a lot of varied material so you’re also aware of the way that writing styles can change depending on the format. For example, writing a short article for a magazine or writing an email is going to be very different to the kind of English employed for a novel or short story.
Think In English: Many people, if English is not their first language, will tend to think in their own language when writing and then translate it back to English in their head. This is making life more difficult for yourself, as different rules of grammar, idioms and cultural differences mean that your language will end up sounding unnatural. It takes a while to learn, but you need to try to think in the language you are writing in. It’s certainly a skill, but it can make a huge difference to the quality of your writing.
Get Friends To Proofread: If you have English-speaking friends, ask them if they can read through pieces you have written now and then to check for mistakes in spelling, grammar or punctuation. There are bound to be idioms or phrases you are not aware of that might work better in certain passages or sentences, but often these are the kinds of thing you won’t be aware of unless somebody tells you.
Use The Internet: You should take advantage of the vast online resources at your disposal. For example, learning English grammar online is one of the best ways to pick up the rules of written English because there are so many online reference guides, forums dedicated to those who want to improve their written English and daily email tips you can sign up to. If you are really interested in learning English grammar online you can even take online courses so that experienced tutors can help you with your written skills and you can still work as flexibly as you want.
Practice Constantly: Whether you’ve decided to take an online course or learn by yourself, you won’t improve your written English if you don’t practice constantly. Email English friends, write short stories or articles, start a blog – basically do anything that ensures you are writing on a daily basis to keep the momentum up.
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