Learning English Part 5: On Writing Well

Among different English language skills, writing may be the one skill that takes the longest time to perfect. After all, it is easier to miss pronunciation and grammar errors in conversations, but spelling or grammar mistakes tend to really stand out when people spot them in emails and documents. 

This leaves some of us in a dilemma: we may feel that our writings are error-ridden, but we also cannot afford to wait till our writing is perfect before applying for jobs or making inquiries in writing. So in this issue we have decided to share some tips on how to immediately improve our writing.

Tips to immediately improve our writing:

1. Keep it simple and prioritise clarity. Sometimes, when we want to demonstrate our language skills, we might be tempted to include complex sentences and use big words to impress our readers. There is one problem in this strategy though: no matter how good an English writer you are, the more we write, the more mistakes we will make. 

A short, direct and accessible text with no obvious mistakes will leave a better impression than a long, rambing text with mistakes. In fact, clear and concise writing is not only good for those who are learning to write in English, but even native writers can improve their writing this way. (Oxford University Careers Service also recommends its graduates to use Plain English to write better cover letters.)
So, let us aim at accuracy and simplicity instead of length, and keep our sentences short and our grammar simple! 

Tip: How to write plain and simple? 

1. Write shorter sentences. Try to refrain from using more than two commas in one sentence. Put a full-stop and start a new sentence whenever possible. 

2. Write simpler sentences: 

1. Use few relative pronouns (ie. which, that, who) when possible. 

2. Keep the actor (noun) in the sentence close to the action (verb). Write “Jonathan sent me the file” (active voice) instead of “the file has been sent to me by Jonathan” (passive voice). 

Consider the following examples: which one sentence is clearer in terms of meaning? 

• I am reading this book that Samuel, the brother of Anna, who is my best friend, has lent me. 

• I am reading this book that Samuel has lent me. Samuel is the brother of my best friend, Anna.

…at least there is little confusion about who our best friend is now. If you want to learn more about writing in plain English, this Grammarly blog article offers good basic rules to keep the language plain and precise.

2. Use the right words and follow language norms. Switch on the writing programme’s spell check (British English). Search online to check the meaning of any idioms or expressions used in the writing, if we are not very familiar with them. And be mindful of language rules and conventions: for example, always begin a sentence with a capital letter and use capital letters when the convention calls for it. (For a brief guide to which terms we need to capitalise in English, please refer to Larry Trask’s "Guide to Punctuation: Capital Letters".)

3. Always proof-read your writing. When proofreading, do not focus solely on spelling and tenses. Pay attention to the grammar consistency and sentence structures as well: if the first part of the sentence is in past tense, don’t switch to present tense in the second part of the sentence. Or, is there a chance that this particularly long sentence might confuse the reader? If so, split the sentence into 2 to 3 shorter sentences to simplify the text. 
For important writing such as cover letters, CVs, or work reports, finish them before the deadline and return to the writing a bit later to check them for any issues. We can also consider asking our English-speaking friends to help us with proofreading. 

4. Research to write effectively. Effectiveness in writing is not only about correct grammar, it is also about how well we communicate our ideas to the reader through what you write. So, for example, if we need to write good cover letters: 

1. Start with an online research on the target audience (the company and the field) and find out what traits they are looking for in an employee. 

2. Then we can research the type of writing by looking into how to write cover letters. There is plenty of advice and samples on cover letters we can find on online career guides (like Prospects or The Open University’s Career and Employability support). 

3. Draft our own cover letter by starting with points and outline, then work on the whole piece. 

4. Customise our cover letter for each job application as much as possible. As companies have different business cultures and missions, updating parts of our cover letters to show our knowledge of the company and why we are the best fits for the positions will improve the effectiveness of our cover letters.

Tip: Resist the temptation of hiring cover letter-writing services, copying online sample templates, or using AI to write your cover letters for you. Many experienced human resources professionals can tell whether a cover letter is the job applicant’s own work. If we are worried about our cover letters, asking someone or a generative AI programme to proofread them, edit them and to give us feedback on our writing  will be a more ethical and acceptable way to do this. 

In short, for materials we need to write right now, just focus on polishing what we can do. We may be amazed by how much our writing can readily be improved just by paying more attention to proofreading and simplifying the sentences. So don’t let what we cannot yet write get in the way of writing what we can!

For suggestions and tips on how to improve our writing in the long term, stay tuned for the next update of our “Learning English” series!