Quick Introduction: I'm a 24 year old male based in London. I have always...

[Englishlearner25]

Hello all,

I'm a 24 year old male based in London. I have always struggled writing in English, although I feel my standard of writing has improved since moving to London (now almost 6 years) but is far from what would be accepted as professional. Needless to say im very excited to see that such a forum exists and my only disappointment is that i hadnt discovered this earlier.

I'm seeking to improve my letter writing skills. I feel i'm rather inept when it comes to writing succint and professionally worded letters. It is really painful as part of my profession requires me to write a lot of letters and reports and i find that im spending long hours correcting simple grammatical errors or improving the standard of vocabulary.

I was hoping you guys could suggest any books that could be used to improve letter writing skills. Can you also suggest any forums that are more specifically catered to business report and letter writing?

Regards.

[Torsten]

Hi Englishlearner,

Many thanks for joining our forum. Could you please tell me what kind of letters and reports you usually write and whom you write them for? You can improve your writing skills by picking up phrases from people who send you letters. Have you tried this approach?

Also, what do you think of this?

Regards,
Torsten

TOEIC listening, question-response: Do you know whose notepad this is?

[Englishlearner25]

Hello torsten
Many thanks for your response. I had posted a reply yesterday, I'm surprised to see it is wasn’t showing on the page.
Anyway - I agree that picking up phrases from other letters/emails is an effective albeit limited method for improving your English.
I feel the best way to improve my English skills would be via practice which I also feel is the general concensus among fellow english learners.
With regards to my occupation, im a chartered accountant and during the course of my duties I have to write numerous emails to our clients.
Emails are an equal mix of formal and informal correspondence. I feel my writing skills leave much to be desired when comes to writing formal emails
/letters to clients. My main weaknesses are, but not limited, to lack of using impact phrases (idioms for e.g.), poor punctuation especially with the use of commas and incoherent sentence structure which is most evident when Im writing long sentences.
Similar weaknesses could be found in the reports I write. Reports are mainly formal documents with an average size of 1000 words. These reports are
mainly commenting on the business processes of our clients.
The main dilemma I face is that I'm unable to get valuable constructive advice in relation to the standard of English I use in my reports/emails.
I'm looking for a medium where I can speak to people such as your self on ways to improve my writing skills.
I was also hoping to get some advice regarding text books which are specific to improve to business letter writing skills or general writing skills.

[Torsten]

Hi Englishlearner,

Thanks a lot for sharing your experiences. You say that the best way to improve your English skills would be "via practice". What exactly do you mean by that? How can textbooks help you practice your writing skills? Most textbooks are written by people who don't have much business experience so it might be better to read letters and documents that are composed by successful entrepreneurs and professionals. If you start using their language you will get similar results. In addition, you can post phrases and sentences you would like to discuss here on the forum to get feedback from our team. By the way, the best method to avoid incoherent sentence structure is to write short and succinct sentences. People often think they can impress their readers by using long winded complicated sentences to express their thoughts. I think this wrong. A good writer is capable of writing short and clear sentences.

Also, instead of trying to use a large number idioms you should stick to those phrases you know and are familiar with. When you write a document, there are two important elements: 1) content and 2) style. Although both elements are important, the content is what really counts. It's similar to selling a product. When the quality of your product lacks quality and substance, you won't be successful in the long run no matter how good the packaging of your product might be. In other words: Try to focus on WHAT you want to say and you will find ways of how to say it.

So far you have posted very general questions. If you ask us about specific phrases, idioms, punctuation issues, sentence structures, etc., you will get specific answers.

Let me know what you think.
Regards,
Torsten

TOEIC listening, question-response: Where did you get that outfit?

[Englishlearner25]

Dear Torsten,

Sorry for not being clearer. Via practice simply means writing more and more. However, as i had mentioned earlier the problem I feel is the lack of advice or criticism on the quality of reports or letters i write.

I will try to follow your advice especially with regards to content V style. Hopefully with practice writing style should improve.

I also apologise for being ambigious with the text book comment. What i actually meant was a text book which contains a wide array of business letters. A simple search on google generates numerous websites that offer books which are aimed at improving your letter/email writing skills in a business context. I was wondering if you guys would be knowing which ones are the reputable ones. If you rather, i can post some names on this forum and you can help me choose which one could be the most suitable.

I know my posts have been general. I guess i wanted to give a brief introduction abt my self and the general problems i face.

I cant think of anything too specific at the moment, but would it be possible for me to periodically post a short article or a piece of text i have written on this forum and you could help me identify any grammatical errors or weaknesses.

Also would it be possible for you briefly comment in terms of writing quality on the above?

[Torsten]

Dear Englishlearner,

Of course you can post your book titles as well as your texts on the forum and we'll comment on them. That's exactly what the forum is about. You can take a look at this example to see what such a discussion could look like.

Many thanks
Torsten

TOEIC listening, question-response: Good game, wasn't it?