Native English Speakers

To all of you writers who claim to be native English speakers,

It does not matter whether your mother language is English or not. It does not matter whether you are a native English speaker or not. What matters is that you are fluent in English, and that you know how to write. Isn't not like everyone whose mother language is English knows how to write.

</rant>

I've been on the lookout for writers lately, and a lot of people label themselves as "native English speakers", thinking that they will have an advantage over someone who is from a non-english-speaking country. And their sentences are 30 words long, without a comma. You know what I mean.

 

A lot of them also flat out lie about it. Many so-called "native English speakers" actually aren't here. They just use the term because it's what a lot of buyers here ask for.

 

That s so true!!! I myself know a lot of people who fool their clients, or even like to write things like:
Location: Canada
which is a pure lie!!!

Another means of getting away with it legally, a way that is clearly used by such work hungry guys is to claim having Native English writers in their team......Booo!!!!

Even if you are not a Native English speaker, prove your mettle guys! If you are good, I am sure you would get loads of clients who would be ready to judge the worth of your work, time and effort and hence reward you accordingly!

 

Very good point OP. There's a big difference between someone who claims to be a native English speaker, and someone who can actually write well, whether they're English as first or second language. I am constantly hiring writers and run into this issue quite a bit.

 

Thumbs up to the OP. I am not a native English speaker nor I claim to be one

 

Anyone applying for a writing job with "I am a native English speaker" either isn't one, or is an amateur trying desperately to get work. I don't know why people bother advertising for a "native english speaker". It's irrelavent. Check samples of their work, check whether their PM is written in proper English and grammatically correct. That's all you need to know. Case closed.

 

Ace is right.
As long as you look at a selection writing samples and some testimonials first, you usually can't go wrong. You can also tell what sort of writer he or she is from your communication with them. If they make spelling and grammatical mistakes in their emails or messages, they're writing will probably suck.
If you're still not sure... you can always check their out their past posts her at DP.

 

my native tongue is hebrew, but i think i write in English better than many American's I've seen, might be the fact that i bother spellchecking my typing(but i never have typo's, almost) Proofreading is important.

 

There are terrible English natives who can't string a sentence together, and learned second language English writers who are more skilled with the language than people I know in life (I am actually English). Fluency is what is important.

I think buyers sometimes expect that just because someone is a native speaker they will be skilled with the language. For those buyers, I genuinely suggest they try and decode some of the emails I get from school friends, all of whom grew up speaking English but still can't make themselves understood.

 

A client should be able to tell the quality of a writer through their communication before taking the project. If they can't write an e-mail properly, what chance have they got of writing an article or piece of web content to native English standards?

 

The amount of times I've asked for 'native English speakers' and still have people applying for work in broken sentences... It is just ridiculous, and a huge waste of my time.

 

Don't know how people benefit if a person is a native english speaker or not as long as the article is good.

 

Currently it's not simple to find a real "native english speker" because many people from India, Philippines, Bangladesh, etc. ask for work proclaiming themselves as native english speaker... and then a real good one is obscured by these false writers!!!

 

99% of all DP writers disqualify themselves with their completely unproffesional PM's.

 

Yes, this is the problem. To start off, native english speakers are "declaring" themselves so as to avoid being group with the crappy writers from the above countries (some are good, most are subpar). However some idiots are choosing to jump on the bandwagon and leech off this tagline.

Either way, a buyer will be able to know whether the writer is of quality once the work is delivered. So the crappy ones will always be found out sooner rather than later.

 

I see this topic bounced around so much that I'm SERIOUSLY tempted to start a service that would critique and correct article examples for people who want to improve their english.

One thing I know from having worked with so many non-native English speakers in my television and radio work (it's a long story) is that you can't just make corrections and be done with it, you have to explain WHY something doesn't work in print. It's more about actual teaching than correcting.

But I stall out when I try to set a price structure for such a service. What I think is appropriate doesn't sound like anything these writers would be willing to pay for--even if the mentoring were in depth and very educational.

That's the rub, innit? The fees....

 

No Joe. Don't do that. I get paid far more to fix their work than they get paid to write it. I love writers who struggle with the English language.

 

I'm tempted to rep myself as a native English speaker from time-to-time (and I am one. Born in California and been in the states my whole life) but for the most part I have stopped doing that. A lot of clients really do want native American or British inhabitants simply because it "makes sense" that they would write well. However, a look at literature itself shows that some of the greatest writers aren't native speakers.

It's all about quality and how you represent yourself, always. Like you guys said, if you're fluent in English and you have a nice style, who cares where you came from?

 

Well, clients who are smart enough to know their legal protections may be different with writers in other countries would (or at least should) care.

 

The minute you read what someone has written, you know if they're fluent in your language.