I know some non english webmasters.They have websites writen in english because Google Adsense is not avalabile for their language, or in their language are not enoguh ads yet. Their writing is not 100% corect, because as you know every language has his own traps, and you need time and experience to learn something perfect.So when you are on web, and you want to present quality content, you can't, not because you don't know very well the domain you are in, but because you make little mistakes ( spelling, grammar, words with another sense, etc ). What can this webmasters do ? I'm one of them, and maybe you recognized me because of my writing. Need advices. Thanks
Also, watch TV! You can learn a lot about english from your favorite TV programs, commercials, etc. We did this a lot for our spanish class. Hope this helps! Damien
If you want to write content yourself you'll just have to improve your english. The fastest way to do this especially for writing is by taking a class. Honestly taking 1-1 classes is the best way. After that training schools will be your best bet. Your looking to improve your writing so watching tv won't help you too much. If you just want high quality content perhaps you should hire a english major still in university, or just hire some other content writer. If you choose to go with 1-1 classes you need to meet at least 1 and a half hours per class, and have 2 classes per week (with hmwk). I'm speaking from 2 years of experience as an english teacher (teaching english to chinese).
I lots of materials in english, but this improves only my vocabulary. I know , but I need to be perfect, either my visitors will think that I'm someone who don't know how to write. I don't want to hire anybody, I just want to make my own content.If I'll hire someone for all my life, where I'll be ? klown - I want to improve my writing as soon as posibile.What should I do, to have a maximum impact in short time ? Thanks for replyes
like i said hire a 1-1 tutor and tell him thats your goal. he should be able to create class plans specifically for your needs. also keep at least 2 classes a week at an hour and half.. that will keep you learning and remembering things.
I am not a native English speaker but I write most of the content of my sites myself. If the content is of high quality then a few grammar and spelling mistakes don't really matter in my opinion. There are several topics where I would never outsource the writing because even with my not perfect English I can write much better quality content than most writers (with quite a few grammatical and spelling mistakes, but still the quality will be high in terms of the information provided), simply because it is what I have studied. The funny part is that some of my sites even get some traffic from my spelling mistakes It is very difficult for a non native English speaker to write a grammatically flawless article, no matter where or what he has studied. That of course doesn't mean that you don't need to try and improve your English skills.
When I started a website some time ago, I did some mistakes, and some of my users complained to me that I don't know to write corectly, etc.
Try to get a good content writer to correct your work and comment on the corrections. It is important that s/he comments on the edits. You may want to decide if you want to "sound" UK or US. Study the corrections and comments that the writer makes and work the "fixes" into your next batch of content. Your writing will improve gradually to the point when you don't need an editor.
I actually offer "revision and rewrite" services as a native English speaker, as well as an actual English teacher. Please send a PM if you are interested. I can also arrange a discounted rate for work obtained through this forum. My website is linked through my profile, or can be reached at internetauthor.net, if you are interested in rates and samples. Thanks! Rebecca
Someone adviced me to take pieces of articles, or news, or anything that is writen in english, and rewrite. Is this a good exercise ?
It would be a good exercise, but it might not get you to where you want to be. To get the maximum benefit, you would need to have someone come in after your rewrite and help find mistakes. The idea of a tutor would fit this scenario nicely.
I honestly don't see how it will help all that much unless you can compare it to your own work and understand some of the "whys" about the differences. It also depends a lot on who wrote the article .. how good a writer they are. I recommend that if you do look for top quality writing to imitate, that you look at articles on some of the more important websites. Examples might be bbc.co.uk, usatoday.com, msn.com etc. Those sites have a very broad range of topics for you to look at as well. Find a topic that you are familiar with Look at/copy just the headline Write an article that goes with that headline Then go back and compare your article with the original Try to understand the whys of the differences If you have a tutor, this is a ready-made excercise for your tutor to critique
it's always hard to write (and talk) in a non-native language. I've learned english almost by myself (using the crap they teach in school as a base) and then i've just tried to learn from everywhere i could. I had my plystation, and in the beginning the games were all in english, and most of them even without english subtitles. So, basically i started to watch movies and relate the vocabulary they used with the subtitles, playing videogames and relating it to what it was happening in it, and, of course, i joined a forum (sports forum) where i developed my english as much as i could. Probabily the hardest part is when you find things like "lol" or similar stuff, that you can't find in any dictionary. but it takes time, i think i've been learning for 6 years now and my english still sucks pretty bad, but it's just a matter of time, just hold onto everything you can....
Well, you can hire someone to proofread your website and make sure the english is correct or help you rewrite the text. There are freelance proofreaders/writers who will do that for you.