How long did it take you to write well

[Toz]

The best advice would be to read the appropriate literature and then use that as a model. For example, if you'd like to write like an American from the United States, reading books by English-speaking people from London or Australia, may not be your best bet. For that, I'd recommend that you read books by people from Texas, Illinois, Georgia, California, New York, Florida, etc. Similarly, if you want to write like a British person, I don't think your favorite Mississippi author will be of much help. I recently learned, for example, there's an entirely different spelling that exists in Australia (and other English-speaking places), for a word that sounds and means the same, that I believed could only be spelled in one way. Tires vs Tyres. Both are correct while both are incorrect.

 

[Ravzar]

The best advice would be to read the appropriate literature and then use that as a model. For example, if you'd like to write like an American from the United States, reading books by English-speaking people from London or Australia, may not be your best bet. For that, I'd recommend that you read books by people from Texas, Illinois, Georgia, California, New York, Florida, etc. Similarly, if you want to write like a British person, I don't think your favorite Mississippi author will be of much help. I recently learned, for example, there's an entirely different spelling that exists in Australia (and other English-speaking places), for a word that sounds and means the same, that I believed could only be spelled in one way. Tires vs Tyres. Both are correct while both are incorrect.

This is true in that there is different spelling in American English vs Australian and British English for some words. However, most educated native speakers can easily write in both styles because the spelling rules between the two styles are very easily learned for a native speaker. It would be like asking you to take something you know very well and change it ever so slightly. You could do it with ease. This is true for Australians and British speakers anyway. American speakers would find this hard though to do their spelling like a British person. That is where some of the fake hate of Americans comes in. They live in their own little world!

 

[Rj268]

I am a native english speaker and was a terrible writer. To be honest I still am without the help of Grammarly. Grammarly helps find all my grammar and spelling errors.

My process is to write the article either in Grammarly Premium or paste it into Grammarly Premium and make the corrections. Come back a day or two later and read it to check the flow of the article.

You can get Grammarly Premium for like $15 at this BST https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/1...mium-office-365.1114087/page-16#post-12407225. I have actually purchased Grammarly from this seller and recommend his service 100%. @Ashish196

 

[danishaffiliateking]

I am in the same boat as you. Your question inspired me to search for some help. Here is a nice little site I’ve found.

https://writeandimprove.com

Have a nice weekend

 

[redblackhat]

Do your best and use proofreading service you will see your mistakes and try to avoid them next time. With this method you can provide unique content with low costs.

 

[Toz]

This is true in that there is different spelling in American English vs Australian and British English for some words. However, most educated native speakers can easily write in both styles because the spelling rules between the two styles are very easily learned for a native speaker. It would be like asking you to take something you know very well and change it ever so slightly. You could do it with ease. This is true for Australians and British speakers anyway. American speakers would find this hard though to do their spelling like a British person. That is where some of the fake hate of Americans comes in. They live in their own little world!

While I get what you're saying, it can be much more than just simple spelling changes. In many ways, we speak and write, differently. Here's an interesting article that explains just some of the differences.

 

[Azaan]

Well as a native speaker it came as I grew up, but I had to learn to adapt my English into American English, as my main audience was from the US. If I was to give you a tip, I would say don't solely rely on Grammarly and other extensions of the sort. Grammarly can be very useful, but it can also ruin some sentences with wrongly placed commas and unnecessary word changes.

 

[steroidjoe]

Business English and Argumentation classes in college made me write better, and I still use a dictionary.

 

[hasan7707]

Took me 2+ years of sheer work to tighten up my basic writing, took so long because English is the 3rd language I learned.

Started writing in 5th grade, stopped because it didn't make much sense. Started again after completing 10th grade.

Struggled to craft grammatically correct sentences at one point. Even vented anger + frustrations on this forum for not improving.

But staying the course helped. Change came - brick by brick. But your level of talent also matters, some get good within 2 months, and some in years.

BUT - nobody becomes a competent writer all of a sudden. It's always one word at a time.

All the bits and crumbs DO add up.

T I P -

Hand-copy good writing (copy) to burn them in your brain.

You'll see yourself improving. And be more motivated to do it (if you genuinely want to improve the craft).

And then do it more.

 

[Ravzar]

While I get what you're saying, it can be much more than just simple spelling changes. In many ways, we speak and write, differently. Here's an interesting article that explains just some of the differences.

Good point. Australians and those from the UK grow up on American tv shows and also in many cases American books. We also have our own tv shows and books. It is therefore easier to uunderstand the differences for us. Australians do not use the word closet. We use cupboard. However, everyone here knows what a closet is. We also know what a drugstore is even though we do not call them that. Australian slang is something else though but that is not really English. It is basically another language. American communities have slang too as do UK communities. It is usually a sub set of the population.

You definitely would not be using slang in content online though unless you were marketing to a sub set of a culture. I would suggest though that this niche would be too tough to crack for a non-native. I know there are Australian slang authority sites. I think to run that site you have to be a native. There is just no way you can get it all right being a foreign speaker. It would require learning a third language.

 

[Eternal1912]

I started studying English when I was in kindergarten and then continued my English studies in a local British school for the next twelve years. Throughout my studies, I've successfully taken a number of Cambridge certificates - Preliminary English Test (PET), First Certificate of English(FCE), Certificate of Advanced English(CAE), GCSE, IGCSE & IELTS.

However, now as I look at my old files I can see that I sucked in writing at the beginning, but over the course of two years and about 2,000 articles, I got the hang of it. So, I guess it's a long process that happens over time as you expand your knowledge by reading and writing.

 

[Harlet]

About 22 years. I did 12 years of school then a 4 year law degree in Australia.

I have some admiration for non-native speakers who can write native quality articles. To be honest though, native quality English is very hard. Even the people here who speak exceptionally good English have obvious mistakes in their writing. You can tell it is from a non-native speaker and these people may be relatively excellent at writing in English.

In my experience almost no non native writers that write native content. English is very nuanced, has tons of pitfalls and gotchas, and that is a whole different animal than being able to write well. There's plenty of native speakers of English who couldn't write their way out of a boat after all. Writing grammatically correct articles is easy, but that's different than having a persuasive and interesting 'voice' for your content. Now there are a lot of good non native level writers out there but I typically save that for different types of content.

If you are learning to write just go get paid and starting from 0, I think there are much easier pursuits to earn money online. It takes a lifetime of learning and practice.

 

[ObfuscatedMind]

I am a native English speaker also from Australia. It took me years to learn to write well and even now I still make mistakes.

Grammarly is great even for a native English speaker - it constantly picks up errors in my spelling and sentence structure.

The website I have created, I don't pretend to come across as an expert, but a person who is passionate about the topic. Therefore, visitors are probably pretty forgiving if there are minor errors in the article posts - the posts aren't scholarly articles but are my 'experiences'.

One thing I find that helps, is after writing an article take a break and then come back and read the article out loud. This is how I pick up a LOT of mistakes and paragraphs that are repetitive or just don't flow well.

 

[Toz]

You definitely would not be using slang in content online though unless you were marketing to a sub set of a culture.

Perhaps. However, isn't that entirely the point to marketing -- speaking to subsets of cultures? Think about it... If you're marketing to everyone, then you're marketing to no one.
With regards to not using slang when not marketing to subsets of cultures, I would have to disagree with this as being a general rule of thumb. I have a number of websites and on them, and even the ones about financial things (business loans, credit cards, credit score, etc), I find that properly using slang has appeared to improve my conversion rates. You see, people tend to give more trust to verbiage they can relate to, and I find that people just so happen to relate to the usage of slang.

 

[The Scarlet Pimp]

i learned how to write more gooder at a young age because i was always like reading things and stuff.

 

[kuzuryu71]

Folks, please clarify if you are native or not, or do you know English, or how well had you known english before?

I am not native and english is my second language. I can speak fluently, but speaking and writing is different. My suggestion is just start writing.

Now I write for several major publication at Medium with my own style of writing.

Good luck!

 

[dkv023]

For example, if you'd like to write like an American from the United States,

Yes, I agree.

I am a native english speaker and was a terrible writer.

I think it is easy for you to correct your writing and learn good writing, because you are native.

I am in the same boat as you. Your question inspired me to search for some help. Here is a nice little site I’ve found.

https://writeandimprove.com

I think it is not american version of English. But thanks.

With this method you can provide unique content with low costs.

I agree, but native readers will not appreciate that content.

Grammarly can be very useful, but it can also ruin some sentences with wrongly placed commas and unnecessary word changes.

Maybe because Grammarly doesn`t use american grammar.

Business English and Argumentation classes in college made me write better, and I still use a dictionary.

But you are not a native?

Took me 2+ years of sheer work to tighten up my basic writing, took so long because English is the 3rd language I learned.

What was your English level before and after 2 years of learning? You spent 2 years for hard education?

However, now as I look at my old files I can see that I sucked in writing at the beginning, but over the course of two years and about 2,000 articles, I got the hang of it.

It is strange that you had a problem with grammar after 12 years of education in local British school. So you are confirming too, that 2 years it is period then you can learn good writing?

In my experience almost no non native writers that write native content. English is very nuanced, has tons of pitfalls and gotchas,

I think about it too. But it all depends of quality content. For example, to write simple news (rewrite news), social posts or to write for a big magazine.

I am a native English speaker also from Australia. It took me years to learn to write well and even now I still make mistakes.

I think it is a not big problem for native - grammar. Because you have knowledge how and when put right words, which words is proper in the sentence. Non-natives have no such think.

The website I have created, I don't pretend to come across as an expert, but a person who is passionate about the topic. Therefore, visitors are probably pretty forgiving if there are minor errors in the article posts - the posts aren't scholarly articles but are my 'experiences'.

I don`t know what about search traffic from google. Maybe google wants scholarly articles without errors to bring search traffic to blog.

i learned how to write more gooder at a young age because i was always like reading things and stuff.

And you are a native speaker? I agree the reading is the main point in learning to write correct.

I am not native and english is my second language. I can speak fluently, but speaking and writing is different. My suggestion is just start writing.
Now I write for several major publication at Medium with my own style of writing.

I don`t agree because then you want to say something you must first to think, writing gives you time to think longer, then speaking. How native readers react on articles, written by non-native writer?

 

[dkv023]

My plan was to write articles, which are optimized for low comp long tail keywords. I thougth because long tail keywords are low competitive, articles, written by not good English, can bring traffic. But I think these articles would be have bad behavior factors. It is low comp long tails keywords maybe there is an exception for this situation; I don't know. Of course, such articles will be never be ranked by high competitive keywords. The plan was to write for only low comp keywords. Maybe after writing near 2 years, I could write more correctly. I would have 1000 long tail articles, which maybe would bring traffic. It is an ideal plan to learn to write and to earn a little money (maybe).

 

[steroidjoe]

But you are not a native?

I am a born US citizen. In fact, I think majority of born citizens are troubled at writing, just look at youtube comments, etc.

Keep learning and you'll get far. I still learn with a dictionary, or just type it in Google.

 

[Kraad]

3 months and I can already write decently. But I still can't write good stuff (at least for me).

What helped was practicing an hour a day. Been doing so for a year now.

Carve out time in a day where you will sit down, no distractions, and write whatever comes to mind.