How to Master Writing as a Second-Language English Journalist: Building Trust, Engaging Readers, and Showcasing Expertise

As a non-native journalist, your English level might generally be good, yet you may be frustrated that your English writing skills are insufficient to publish regularly in English and work for global media outlets.?

Therefore, you’ve tried to read a lot in English and studied grammar to death. You’ve even invested money and time in English courses, yet you still don’t have the English writing skills to achieve your career goals. If this is you, I’m going to explain why this might be happening.?

The limitation of general language courses is something I realised from personal experience in 2012 in my hometown, Salisbury.?

I applied for an admin position at an insurance company that needed someone with good German language skills.

This was my chance to apply my passion for speaking other languages in a professional context, so I was delighted to be called for an interview.

The best part of the interview was when I talked to a German native speaker?about the great time I had in Freiburg, Germany.

The German lady was very impressed with my level, so I felt I was close to passing the interview. There was just one final challenge…

I had to write a business letter in German. So, I sat at a desk and read through the task. I suddenly tensed a little and felt my confidence drain. I had never done German business writing before, and I was struggling to find the right words.

And what about the format and set phrases to get the appropriate style for a business letter? No, unfortunately my general German courses had never covered these things. So what could I do?

Unfortunately, I got stuck and only wrote the minimum, hopeful this was enough to pass the task.

It. Was. Not. Ten minutes later, my heart sank when I was told that I hadn’t got the job because my German business writing was not fluent enough. So why am I telling you all this?

Because maybe like you, I had taken courses in a foreign language and had reached a good level. But those courses weren’t specialised enough to reach my goal at that time. If I had known better, I would have taken a business German writing course, and to be a second-language English journalist, it makes sense to take a journalistic English writing course. Think about it.

What you get from a general English course:

• It crams you full of grammar based on your supposed general English level. But you already know some of the structures, and there are others you may rarely use in your journalistic writing.
• It force-feeds you vocabulary on topics you may not be interested in writing about, and language to manage everyday situations that you probably won't use in your journalistic writing.
• It might help you write emails, but it won't help you develop a journalistic writing style.

Of course, when non-native journalists take general English courses, they get better at English. But this is rarely enough to get published in English and hired by international media companies.?

If these are your goals, you should consider working on the following three areas of your journalistic English writing.?

1. Building and using the right words in your articles to show expertise and captivate readers.

How did Alexandra go from limited confidence in her ability to explain concepts in her content writing to a firm belief she now has the tools "to improve significantly"?

WhatsApp chat with Alexandra:

Alexandra is a dedicated professional content writer with advanced English and a love and passion for writing about language learning.

But unfortunately, she was suffering from a lack of confidence, feedback on her writing, and a proven process for building vocabulary.

She felt unable to explain concepts well enough and write more insightful articles so she could apply for better-paid content writing jobs on bigger platforms.

Yet, by following the guidance in a course aimed at journalists and suitable for content writers, Alexandra can now activate useful vocab in her memory.

This means she can use it in her writing to create an impactful message for her readers.

She also has the life tools to learn and use the lingo related to language learning (her niche).

So, she can show her expertise and position herself as an authority on the subject. And there's more…

Alexandra has received valuable feedback on her articles regarding word choice, so she can explain language-learning concepts with more precision and punch.

All this will stand her in good stead to get better content writing jobs.

If you want to make similar progress with your English writing, you should take four action steps:

??????i.?????????Build and learn topic vocabulary, collocations and phrases so you can find the right words to show expertise and assert your authority on your specialised subject(s).

?????ii.?????????Build and use figurative language, like idioms, so you can captivate your readers.

???iii.?????????Build and use phrasal verbs to help write with a natural, conversational style.

???iv.?????????Get valuable feedback on your articles regarding word choice, so you can communicate your message with more precision and punch.

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2.????Learning only the grammar you need to write clearly and eliminate the errors in your texts, so you build trust with editors.

How did Beatriz fix her English grammar to advance her international journalism career?

Beatriz’s experience:

At the beginning of 2023, Beatriz was starting a job at an international organisation in Madrid, where she had to write reports in English. This was a great opportunity, but she was anxious, and here’s why.

She told me “I don’t want to let them down.” She was worried about the grammar in her writing, and she felt she lacked practice. So she knew she had to take an English course, but she wanted something that best fitted her needs so she could maintain her editor’s trust.

In Grammar for Journalistic Writing, every week Beatriz wrote articles relevant to her work, which was a basis for targeted training.

Her articles were used as a basis to diagnose her grammar mistakes, give her interactive feedback so she fully understood how to correct them, and assign practice exercises to reinforce the correct grammar. And Beatriz was delighted with the results of this process, including the feedback from her boss:

“I got very positive feedback about my articles now. So, I feel that I have done something very important in my career by joining Pete's writing lessons.”

So if you want similar results, take these three steps:

I.???????????????Identify the grammar errors and gaps in your knowledge that are preventing you from writing clearly and correctly.

II.?????????????Get feedback to fully understand them and fill in the gaps.

III.???????????Do guided practice to eliminate errors and clean up your writing structures.

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3.????Developing a journalistic English style that is easy to read and engaging.

How did Zsófi overcome her writing insecurities to produce clear, concise and impactful writing?

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Zsófia’s story:

When I first chatted to Zsófia in January of 2023, she had taken a university course where she learned general vocabulary and grammar, but she was far from satisfied with her journalistic English writing.

When asked about her English writing, she told me it felt “not that clever.”

She felt she lacked the knowledge and skills to use the right words. She would write hesitantly as she tried to translate from Hungarian to English in her head, and kept pausing to check words in a dictionary.

In her 8-week course, Zsófia “gained a deeper understanding of how to express my thoughts more concisely and clearly,” which included something we especially dedicated time to.

Building and using strong verbs was something we took seriously because it helps journalists engage readers by writing with energy and concision. Why?

It allows writers to show, not tell, eliminating the need for additional words, like adverbs, and painting a vivid picture of their story.

We also looked at some techniques to make Zsófia’s writing readable and relatable to her audiences:

“Pete always gave me valuable feedback and provided me with strategies to make my sentences sound more natural.”

So if you want to advance your writing skills like Zsófia, two things to consider are:

I.????????????????Boosting your readability by being direct, avoiding long and complicated sentences, and choosing the level of formality to relate to your audience.

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II.??????????????Engaging your audience by being economical and selective with words. For example, cut out redundancy and favour strong verbs.

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To sum up, by working on these three areas of your journalistic English writing, you will increase your chances of getting published with English-language media outlets.

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PS: If you want help working on your journalistic English writing, send me a LinkedIn direct message. I’ll be happy to give you more info on my programme.