Advice to Those Who Do Not Speak or Write English as a Native Language

Some of this advice may also help those who have become lazy after years on facebook.

I want to say some things to you that you might find insulting. I do not mean it to be, and if you are serious about achieving better results on steemit you will read this whether or not you feel insulted.

As your writing stands, do you realise that you will probably not be included in a curation post? Your content may be good, but if your English is not good enough you are being held back from the recognition and other rewards you crave.

One good way to learn a language is to keep writing in it. Having people around you to encourage you helps a lot. Joining a good discord group may be just the encouragement you need.

Note that I did not say you will never be included. That is up to you. I want you to know that if you are serious about being a good steemian I appreciate your efforts and I sincerely hope to see a post from you soon that screams "Pick me! Pick me!"

Someone asked me today, "I would also like to know in term of my english, what is the area that I need to fix?

I replied, "Sometimes you use the wrong word, like 'term' when it should be 'terms'. 'english' should be 'English'." It's not much but it is a start.

The first step I recommend is that you get the browser plugin Grammarly. Even I use it. You can set it to whichever flavour of English you prefer. It won't help you much with the differences in phrasing, you will just have to learn them as you go along. Grammarly will help you with spelling and some punctuation errors. It won't tell you when you miss the space after a period. I have to proofread afterwards to catch that one.

Once Grammaly approves your text you need to proofread it yourself. Make sure you don't have any missing or extra spaces around your punctuation.

Check your phrasing - the way words are arranged. There is no easy shorcut to this that I am aware of. We say things in an odd way compared to your own language. The best I can recommend is that you read a lot from people who are regarded as quality writers. Note where their structure differs from your own. If you see the same odd structure more than once remember it.

There is a lot more advice I could give you if I could remember it. I do think this should get you pointed in the right direction. If in the next six months I curate at least one of you who takes this advice I will deem it time well spent. I am hoping for more than one.

Trust me, I'm a doctor.

Looks like we are in for a nasty spell of wether.