Unlock Your Writing Potential:
Tips for Confident English Writing Skills

To improve communication, we simply must include writing skills in our goals, strategies and practice. This can be challenging even in a first language, but the difficulty factor can skyrocket in an additional language.

Here at Speechaus, we’re passionate about multilingualism and providing strategies to navigate life in a language that’s not your first. In our latest blog, we’ve taken off our pronunciation that momentarily to provide some pro tips for unlocking your writing potential and confidence!

Alright, you caught us, we could never fully leave pronunciation behind, so we’ve woven it into the information about writing so that you can see the interplay between them. Your pronunciation might just be the missing link for your writing.

Get your highlighters ready; you’ll definitely want to put these strategies to use!

Written communication is essential in today’s world, and is usually our first contact with employers, clients and more. It’s essential that we optimise manner alongside content.

Set a concise goal for the impression you want to make, then choose written devices to match. E.g.,

“I will come across as…

• welcoming and reliable
• knowledgeable and driven
• firm but respectful.” etc

Take this pronunciation example: if an Australian English speaker wants to sound formal, by convention, they could clearly articulate /t/ sounds where they’d usually produce them as tapped or unreleased (like in ‘button’ /bʌɾən/ or ‘hat’ /hæt̚/).

So, once you’ve defined your goal, flesh out how you’ll make that impression. Ask yourself questions like:

• How will I convey my intended tone?
• Will I use/avoid contractions (e.g. “won’t” vs “will not”) to sound conversational/formal?
• Will I keep it concise because I know my reader is pressed for time? Or will I add pleasantries, hedging, and extra details?

Analyse samples that achieve the impression you’re going for: perhaps emails from colleagues, or reports written by managers. Identify which elements make the desired impression and apply them yourself. This blog post by Grammarly gives some great examples of how to produce a confident writing tone, take a look!

Over the centuries, writing has developed its own conventions, but elements of speaking remain. Remember: the purpose of writing has always been to capture spoken meaning.

Text gains conversational flow when word choice and order resemble spoken conversation. However, not all writing should sound conversational!

Dangling prepositions can illustrate our point, i.e. ending phrases and sentences with prepositions like ‘in’ and ‘with’. It’s a touchy subject in the grammar world, but well and truly part of modern conversational English. Grammarly have you covered here too if you need more information.

Imagine you’re doing some recycling at work and you ask a colleague:

“Which bin does cardboard go in?”

The preposition ‘in’ is dangling at the end. Here’s the non-dangling alternative:

“In which bin does cardboard go?”

Although this is grammatically accurate, it adds formality and sounds less natural by today’s conversational standards. This might not be the case in your first language.

So that’s speech, but what about writing? To dangle or not to dangle? If you want your emails to sound like a friendly, casual conversation, prepositions can stay at the end. Observe whether your colleagues/friends do the same. Alternatively, if you’re writing a formal application, place prepositions before ‘which’ to sound more professional.

Above all, make sure you don’t do both, because “In which bin does cardboard go in?” is incorrect!

Technology has made word processing so easy to edit, but planning remains fundamental!

Before placing pen to page, map out your purpose, structure and audience, and anything else the piece needs (e.g. headings, salutations). Planning saves writing time, while increasing coherence, cohesion, and the chance of achieving your goal!

The link between audience and purpose

Your writing goals must relate to your audience. Ask yourself “what would I like the reader to do after reading?” e.g.:

• follow instructions
• sign up for services/newsletters
• come back for more reading
• share your writing with others
• award high marks for grammar and
• vocabulary
• invite you for an interview

Consider the reader’s perspective. Do they have prior knowledge on the topic, unlocking technical vocabulary? How will you capture their attention, and keep it? What makes your piece worthwhile for the audience?

At Speechaus, we always pair theory with practical applications for real-life results. Don’t forget: tangible skills need tangible practice.

This is more obvious with physical tasks; we know a marathon requires training, whereas communication skills can feel abstract, fooling us into thinking theory alone is enough! Theory, structure and practice is necessary for communication growth.

Practise often and deliberately, setting healthy challenges; check out our blog on voluntary discomfort to learn more about the importance of leaving our comfort zone. When you started learning English, a basic diary entry was great practice. Now though, you need practice that matches your current ambitions. Here are some examples:

Confidence emerges when we comfortably meet expectations and flaunt our individual style. Don’t forget a human touch in your writing!

Everything we write is a choice; conviction comes from understanding the options and choosing meaningfully. Consider these parallel pronunciation and writing choices:

What are your examples? A clear rationale benefits confidence and consistency in both pronunciation and writing.

If you often interact in English, the key words you absorb can work their way into your writing. But what if you only know a word in a different language?

Translation technology has come a long way, but isn’t perfect, so we don’t recommend relying on Google Translate. Here are some alternatives:

• Use a language dictionary that provides examples of the vocabulary in sentences, like Word Reference. Look through the translation options using the example phrases to work out which one best matches your idea.
• Apply critical thinking to translation examples using Context Reverso, especially for phrases and expressions. Consider how frequently a translation comes up and whether the example matches your context.
• If a language dictionary gives you a word you’ve never heard, check it’s not outdated. Type “Define [word]” into Google and click “See more” when the definition comes up. A graph will show the word’s use over time. If it peaked in the 1800s, best to find a synonym!

We’ve outlined how you as an individual can increase your English writing confidence, but don’t forget that help is often nearby. Consider who in your professional or social network would be available to give advice, provide samples, or proofread important pieces. Even native speakers should do this, as our writing is a reflection of our workplace.

Advocate for yourself assertively; don’t put yourself down while asking for help! E.g. avoid:

“Could you check my report? I’m sure it’s full of mistakes.”

Instead, highlight your goal, e.g.:

“Could you point out where/how I can make it sound more engaging / natural / professional?”

Think about how you would like to receive the feedback. We’d recommend getting the person to explain their feedback, rather than simply making changes. Keep in mind that native speakers aren’t automatically good at explaining why something sounds right (the team at Speechaus have studied a lot to be able to!), but their points might guide your own investigation.

We could write infinitely on this topic, but we’re taking our own advice and wrapping things up there! As you apply these tips to your own writing, remember that writing confidence allows us to reach our goals while also celebrating our personal flair. Happy writing!

• Hu, J., & Gonzales, L. (2020). English-as-an-Additional-Language Employees’ Perspectives on Writing in the Workplace. BC TEAL Journal, 5(1), 91–108. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.343

• Max Roser and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina (2016) – “Literacy”. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: ‘https://ourworldindata.org/literacy’ [Online Resource]

• Ramadhani, P. (2021). Good Impression in Writing Business Correspondence by English as Foreign Language Students. TIN: Terapan Informatika Nusantara, 2(4), 226-228.