Self-reflection is a large part of the learning process. Sometimes it’s easy to lose perspective when we’re working so hard to level up our skills, that we forget to appreciate how far we’ve come.
I always encourage my English language and writing coaching clients to reflect on what they’re learning and how they’re improving.
I recently finished 20 hours of Writing Coaching with a client who went to university and has worked for many years in English-primary contexts. She’s conversationally fluent and writes in professional English every day. However, she knew she could learn to write better.
In this client’s self-reflection, she explains what she’s learned better than I ever could. Why? Because she sees the results in her own writing on a daily basis.
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Self-evaluation of my time in this coaching program
My original goal was to improve my business writing in English. The most progress I think I have made is to be better aware of being more concise, succinct, and impactful in formal writing. I’m also more aware of the difference between formal versus informal writing.
Some means to meet the formal writing goals are:
- Use more active voice instead of passive voice.
- Use verbs instead of the noun format of those verbs. By the same token, use impactful verbs rather than general ones such as “make”, “have”, “do” etc.
- Use as few words as possible unless I want to be polite and soften the tone.
- Use transitional words to guide the audience and make the writing flow more smoothly.
- Avoid pronouns such as “it” to be clearer and less wordy. For example, instead of saying “It is critical for us to finish the work tonight”, say “We must finish the work tonight.”
- Compound adjectives and nouns are useful for simplicity as they can save lots of words. The same is true for complex sentences with subordinate clauses.
Other areas I feel I could still improve are:
- Structure
- When we write an article or a paragraph, we should start with a well- thought out structure and use transition words for a smooth flow. The same is true in the sentences.
- Keep only one meaning or topic in a standalone paragraph. I should have multiple paragraphs for multiple meanings. Ideas in paragraphs should have a parallel structure.
- Parallel structure within the sentence using verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc.
- Choices of words
- For formal writing, I must spell out 1 through 9 with some exceptions (for example, if we are writing cooking instructions or recipes, in which case numbers would stand out more clearly than spelling).
- For formal writing, I need to spell acronyms out fully the first time.
- Small words make big difference. I need to practice more with prepositions by reading or using them in my work, and I can look them up in the dictionary when unsure. For example, “check someone out” is totally different from “check on someone.”
- Ensure the subtle difference between similar words, for example, “could” vs “would,” “twist” vs “adapt,” “tend to vs intend to,” etc.
- Sequence of words
- Bring the defining words closer. For example, “I quickly repeated the decision we had made.” vs “I repeated the decision we had quickly made.”
- Inversion, for example, “Not only would the company get more competitive, but the union could also gain a better reputation.”
- Punctuation marks
- Quote mark after the period of a sentence.
- Comma splice – I strongly feel that I still have a lot to improve.
- Colon and semicolon – Another area that I still need to get better about.
Tools and means to help with English grammar, vocabulary, expression, punctuation, verb phrases, etc.
- Grammarly
- Read the writing out loud to catch mistakes.
- Read more native speakers’ material but be careful to differentiate formal writing from casual emails or speech etc.
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Interested in learning how Writing Coaching can help you level up your professional English skills?
Click here https://globalnomadenglish.com/language-coaching or contact Stephanie.