Best way getting English writing feedback?

Hello everyone,

I'm newly registered member but I have been following several interesting threads posted here since several months ago when a friend of mine registered and made me aware this is a great place not only to find job but for learning.

I'm not an English native speaker but I was educated in a prestige Arts Institute in London, place at which I learned English... or "learnt" according my teacher spanking me for using Americanisms.

Although I have been writing on my mother tongue for several years and writing English items for my friends' websites, I'm unsure of my English level becoming a full-time English writer.

Is there a way to determine it?

I have seen people posting excerpts of full articles asking for criticism but I wouldn't like to get you bored or bothered if my English is as bad as that of some people aboard... don't think I'm doing so bad with my English writing but I would like to hear from someone else than my closer advisor, who I'm afraid is just being nice with me

 

Your above post itself speaks about your english skills, unless it's an exception

Your english writing skills need some improvement, but are quite decent judging from your post.
You can post links to your articles/blogs or excerpts of articles here and people will gladly give you constructive feedback.

 

Thanks for your input

I'm in the process to host upload my persona website that was left in a hosting server that expired months ago, I would then post a link to my work so you can judge on previously written works that will integrate my online portfolio.

I have actually been trying to put up online a blog inside my Yahoo 360º profile but for a reason I can make that service work or I am too blonde to understand how activate it.

Would you suggest me start a blog on a public service like blogger or do you think it would be better install myself WordPress.

As I have made available via my profile, I'm expert in ASP programming language but there is not similar software for ASP and despite I'm knowledgeable in PHP, I'm unsure if WordPress is rather hard to manage as someone told me a while back.

 

I use wordpress and it's easy. Install it and set up your blog.

Now that i've seen more of your "writing", it looks like it needs lots of improvement in certain areas. You need to work more on improving your grammar and sentence structure.

 

See, I believe native English speakers can easily differentiate when someone has a fluent English by either being born in an English speaking country or have polished their writing skills and knowledge in this language.

My friend recommended me a guide to writng style as a way to improve my grammar, but I found it is dated in the early 1900's decades and that led me to another question, is that guide still in use in America?

I want to work on my English in a way I can achieve proficiency as an American writer, since I believe US English is universal and best understood around the world, though I'm aware it has its own set up slang as British English also has.

About WordPress, I will take your suggestion and give it a go as soon as my domain nameservers are done with propagation.

 

You don't say . . .

If you want to learn any language, the methods are fairly the same.

1. Pick a daily newspaper and read it. I recommend the NY Times.

2. Pick a TV show and listen to it.

3. Pick an audio show, such as a radio show or podcast, and listen to it.

As for getting criticism, I wouldn't rely on forums for two reasons:

1. They are full of non-qualified people who will gladly give you advice. Kind of like the homeless guy on the corner telling you how to make millions.

2. Many people try to be overly nice. They are scared to criticize anyone for fear of damaging their standing in the community. A few of us don't give a crap, but we're far and few between.

One idea would be to publish 1-3 paragraphs and ask for comments (good and bad). Make sure you ask for the truth and that you don't mind if someone let's you have it. They will either being helping you or they don't know what they are talking about anyway, so ignore them.

Feedback is how we learn. The pathetic hide behind their safety blanket for fear of being told what they already know or are too scared to find out. And that's why they'll never truly grow and succeed.

American English is superior of course (oh yeah baby, fire away at that one).

Good luck!

 

Thanks a lot for your feedback and I can see by the above paragraph that you my idea. I don't want people feeling afraid to give me a piece of their mind after reading what and how I'm writing but real feedback, as I can see now another approach to forums that I have idealized as the quintessence of living and learn.

I did notice too that I should said "I'm not a native English speaker" instead of "I'm not an English native speaker" and this is something I'm concerned about because knowing the right structure of a sentence, sometime I don't pay enough attention and let my mother tongue rules a phrase construction.

However I believe that those improvment exercises you pointed me at can contribute with my learning.

Staying closer to American sources of reading/listening and getting in touch with native American people for sure will contribute with my goal

 

I agree with marketjunction that you can post a few paragraphs here and let people critique you, but remember that few, if any, of us are experts and many will sugarcoat their criticism.

If your posts here are an indicator of your writing style, here are a few of the first things I noticed:
- Your writing is a little formal and wordy. Web writing is simpler, more casual, and more conversational.
- You sometimes leave out words. For, example "I can see by the above paragraph that you my idea." I'm guessing you meant to say "I can see by the above paragraph that you got my idea." "I'm newly registered member" should be "I'm a newly registered member.
- Prepositions. Sometimes you use the wrong ones. "on my mother tongue" should be "in my mother tongue" and "is just being nice with me" should be "is just being nice to me."

Sharpening your (American) English skills is just a matter of reading, listening, and writing. Check out some English as a Second Language sites. www.rong-chang.com and esl.about.com are a couple of good ones.

 

Your help is much appreciated latoya and I'm bookmarking the sites you are kindly suggesting me.

As I'm reading these posts I'm understandind not only English construction but some of my fears wanting to be a good writer.

At school I was taught that English writing has to be formal when associated to business affairs, while conversational should be only admissible for every day talking to friends and family.

However I have seen this is not the actual style of many journalists and other writers then my concerns increased because I have been writing with formal guidelines in mind despite that way doesn't sound fluid to my hears and even cause me a sort of writer's block when I have to find wordy ways to say something I could make shorter in a colloquial way.

Tonight I'm going to choose some excerpts of my work to bring it to your consideration and criticsim

 

If you want to do web-writing, start off by reading a lot on the web. Read articles on websites, especially those written by Americans. I know it is difficult to break the habits given to you by your education, but believe me when I say that reading voraciously is your only salvation: everything from newspapers to magazines to books are also good fodder for you because you will absorb good grammar and style without realizing it.

 

wordpress is the best blog/cms ware compared with all the application I have used. try it, you will find you prefer wp than any other wares.

 

Thank you for the advice, I will start spending more time reading and learning English than just feeding the gossip with nonsense, my priiority untill past weekend and resulting from a collaborative project I shared with a friend trying to put up online a celebities website in the past.

My domain nameservers have finally propagated and despite it's beyond midnight over here I will try to install WordPress before going to visit Morpheus

 

Poor mother

OK, now from the sarcasm to constructive criticism. I am sure you have the qualities to become a good writer. You can improve by broadening your lexicon, adding the words that you haven't been confident to use before. Reading a newspaper is a good idea but will remain superficial if you don't actually elaborate. Prepare a blank sheet, read the paper and write down all the words you don't quite understand or words that you do understand but are not positive about using in everyday speech.

Then I would suggest you cut your sentences. Long sentences tend to have more mistakes.

But I really think your style is great and if I was (but I am not at the moment) after a collaborator, I'd love you to write content for my blogs! I am not sugar-coating anything - I am pretty nasty by nature.

 

LOLZ, the other day I was concerned about the proper use of "IN" and "ON" and definitely, I have never written on anyone's tongue, hihihihihihiihi

I really appreciate your comments and suggestions and that's for sure I will put them into practice toward improvement of my English writing skills

 

I'd say you could've fooled me that you weren't english first language.

 

Hello,

Your English is not that bad, although I've noticed you confused the words "I" and "me" a lot. Plus, what others have said already.

I've been writing for a few years and learning to write––I don't think––will ever go away. Sometimes, you have to take risks. And every now and then, it's okay to write a run-on sentence, or a fragment, or commit a comma splice. Know what I'm saying? But. The reader should still be able to follow you.

Writing can be fun––whoops!––even if you drop the ball on occasion.

 

I really appreaciate your input, thank you

I'm also aware I may not be using approprately "that" in a phrase like this:

"I want to asssure you that we are going to process the order form"

or "I want to asssure you we are going to process the order form"

Although now I now the same phase can be more conversational expressed this way:

"I wanna assure we're going to process the order form"

Yes, if a reader is still able to follow me and I'm having fun writing and learning, I think I'm following the right pathway

 

The word "that" is a tricky one. For me, it's one of those words that you try to eliminate to polish your writing. I try to eliminate it if the word is just before a noun. If that is before a verb, I leave it alone.

Sometimes I leave the word in if it provides more clarity for the reader.

A good book to read is Painless Grammar by Rebecca Elliott.

 

You're English is very good, but you shouldn't ever use "wanna" in a professional situation! Wanna is a slang abbreviation - it's not even really a word, and would sound terrible if you used it in anything but an extremely informal chat on a forum or something.

And in your first two examples, you used "that" correctly the first time. The second one isn't incorrect, it just sounds better with "that".

 

Thanks Emily for pointing me at these particular points

I will also make sure to get a copy of Painless Grammar since I'm trying to gather a few book on this topic for further reference.

I really appreaciate all advice and feedback.