ESL English Editing Service

Natural expression in English

When writing for English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, a natural tone is desirable in all writing, but whether a formal or convivial tone is also desirable depends on the context. Say you’re practicing composing a letter to a pen pal or writing a diary entry, you certainly wouldn’t want to use the same tone as in a journal paper covering letter or a letter of application for a job! The reverse is equally true, you wouldn’t want to write to a pen pal in a stuffy overly formal tone that gives the impression that you’re a robot.

Editing goes beyond simple proofreading while including that service by checking over grammar, spelling, punctuation and improving both the tone and clarity. A full ESL editing service will check the content of your work and suggest places where content should be expanded upon or refocused in ways that can help develop the logical consistency of the full piece, the persuasiveness of arguments and even suggest new areas for the writer to explore in case there are facets of the case the editor believes could add weight to a supposition.

Responding to the writing brief

ESL covers a broad range of topics; typically, essay writers are asked their opinion on a topic, they are often prompted with three potential answers and they have to choose one they consider the best. There are several common mistakes in this form of essay including speaking in purely hypothetical terms, meaning that the essay writer gives no solid reasoning based on either empirical research or the anecdotal experiences of the writer or their acquaintances. This can leave the essay as nothing but a collection of loosely gathered supposition without any real-world basis to which the writer has affixed their argument.

Another common problem is when the writer is asked to choose between three distinct options but instead chooses two, all three, or a fourth option they introduce themselves. This is a little finicky because this can be appropriate with sufficient setup and a lenient examiner and the purpose of ESL essays is really to gauge the writer’s capability rather than their actual opinion; however, an important part of ESL is reading comprehension and if a question specifically asks the writer to choose one option from those presented, unless they can also demonstrate that they have read and understood that instruction, then writers will generally get marked down for not following it.

All of this advice is common sense to native English speakers with training and experience as part of an ESL editing service but may seem obtuse or unnatural to non-English speakers.

Another inherent problem in TOEFL (and similar) work can arise when writers lose sight of the fact that they are actually trying to showcase their full capabilities (or potential) in their writing and use repetitive or dull language to convey their message without considering how the careful implementation of idiomatic nuance can earn them a higher grade in their assessment.

Applications and communication

Job and course applications are another area of ESL writing. In this, politeness and brevity are important (note that accidental innuendo is a rare but potentially disastrous consequence of the incautious use of phrasing in this circumstance) and there are many important rules and guidelines to consider when composing a cover letter to be sent alongside a CV. For example, while there will be some minor overlap between the information each document contains, the cover letter should only briefly summarize the aspects of your candidacy that best suit you for the position.

If you have employment or academic experience in a useful area associated with the position on offer, this should come in the introduction, followed by how excited you are to be working, studying, or researching alongside or under a person at the institution who inspires you. Note that this has the dual benefit of complimenting the staff who already work at the institution while also implying that you have carefully researched the position, meaning that you are not just sending a ‘boilerplate’ cover letter and that you actually care about the position for which you are applying.

As a final note, you should only briefly mention your hobbies and interests towards the end of your CV; these should not make any appearance in your cover letter.

Another commonly overlooked area in which ESL editing services can be remarkably important is instruction manuals. IKEA took the radical step of removing written language entirely from their instructions to help with localisation, relying instead entirely on pictograms to inform customers how to assemble their products. This approach certainly has merit; however, this approach is insufficient for many products. For those that require detailed explanation in words, Google Translate is often employed and comes up short because phrasing can easily be misinterpreted when not reviewed by a knowledgeable expert.

This can lead to either hilarity such as in the infamous case of the terribly translated Zero Wing [1] or serious difficulty and mistakes, potentially leading to injuries or worse if furniture or electronics have been improperly constructed.

The value of another reader

Overall, even people who are extremely proficient in English language will happily consult with an ESL editing service to ensure that their work rises to an exceptionally high level of proficiency and to ensure that it employs naturalistic nuance and idiom where appropriate so that their work will stand out among their competitors.

Reference

[1] “All your base are belong to us” 2016, YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQE66WA2s-A