Can a Non-native Speaker Become a Good Writer?

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can a non-native english speaker become a good writer

If you’re a non-native English speaker like myself, you might think: can I become a good writer?

Well, you can be anything you want as long as you’re ready to improve along the way.

Let me tell you I strive to be a better blog writer every day; it’s surprising to see how bad I was at blog writing almost five years ago.

You might not find me fascinating at blog writing, but trust me; it gives me goosebumps when I even think about my writing quality back then.

If you’re starting out, you don’t have to go through the same situation I went through.

Reason?

The number one priority of a blogger should be helping readers out.

And that’s what I’m going to do right now.

Spoiler Alert: You might laugh at those strategies, but some of you will love them.

In this blog post, I’m going to share some of the easiest and best ways to improve your blog writing even if you’re a non-native speaker. You’ll be amazed to find out that I’ve personally tested these things along the way.

So, get ready to turn things around.

Are you ready?

Here we go:

1. Watch Netflix

Are you serious, man?

Netflix?

Yup. Netflix.

You might be thinking: I watch Netflix all day long; how on earth is it going to improve my blog writing?

Right?

Well, pick up your favorite genre of shows. There are a bunch of categories on Netflix. Start following your favorite show. Don’t start off watching a thousand Netflix series at the same time. Take it easy. Go with a one at one time.

The science behind this strategy: Netflix is ads-free. You don’t get interrupted. The chances are, you would have your headphone on while watching it. If the show interests you; you’ll be dedicatedly following it. It means you’d try to understand the plot and follow-up till the end. I don’t say to watch hours and hours every day. Even 1 hour is enough. You’ll notice that:

  • Your sentence building will get better
  • Your vocabulary will improve along the way
  • Your perspective will change on things
  • Your overall English speaking and listening skills will enhance

All in all, it does help if you want to take advantage of Netflix.

2. Read Top Blogs

Have you ever stumbled upon a top blog just to find out what’s going on? The chances are, you have done that, whether to read out something interesting in a specific niche like technology or to catch up on the latest content on a specific blog.

Either way, it’s good. Don’t stop. Keep doing that.

In fact, choose, at least, three top blogs and subscribe to them via email newsletter. Follow up every time they send a newsletter. Open it up, and go through the newsletter, and read the relevant/interesting content.

The reason behind reading the top blogs is that you’d get to see the write-ups of some highly successful contributors, bloggers, and writers over there that would have excellent skills and expertise. As a result, you’ll get to read some quality content on those top blogs.

Observe:

  • How they start off the blog post
  • How they end the sentence
  • How they start the paragraph
  • How they use punctuation marks
  • How they use quotes
  • How they refer to the resources

It will help you improve your blog writing. I promise.

3. Read Books

I’m not kidding. Hear me out.

Do you know every book that gets published goes through a complete editing process before printing?

So, besides the content of the book that is coming straight out of the author’s mind; there is much more in it that you can cash in on from a blogging standpoint, and that’s writing skill.

I’ve read:

  • Give and Take by Adam Grant
  • Crush it by Gary Vaynerchuk
  • Unlimited Power by Tony Robbins
  • Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

I’m telling you based on my personal experience. I’m reading books, and they’re helping me in expressing my views and sharing my thoughts in the blog posts in a better way.

It’s pretty much like following your favorite blogs; you don’t have to read the books you’re not interested in, just because I said to read books, pick your favorite ones instead, and JUST READ.

4. Use Grammarly

One of the ways of improving your blog writing is using a grammar correction tool like Grammarly. I couldn’t emphasize more. The way Grammarly helped me in fixing up my small writing errors and made me realize my writing mistakes, it’s phenomenal.

I’m currently using the premium edition of Grammarly — I’ve used the free edition, though, but the premium edition has blown my mind. Don’t get into the free vs. paid edition debate, just start using, and upgrade if you want to try out. I’d like to mention that the premium edition doesn’t have a comparison with the free edition from a quality and efficiency standpoint.

It’s true that there is still room for improvement in my writing, but I’m glad that how far I’ve come now.

Here are some of the benefits of Grammarly:

  • It highlights your grammar errors
  • It points out the inappropriate word and provides a replacement
  • It helps you in sentence building
  • It corrects your spelling mistakes
  • It tells you about the repetition of the words

So start using it.

5. Watch YouTube Vlogs

It looks crazy. Right?

I don’t say watch all day long. I hardly watch a couple of them on a regular basis, in fact, I’ve subscribed to dozens of vloggers on YouTube. Find the vloggers, search on YouTube, and look at the YouTube recommendations. If you have a YouTube account, you might have subscribed to a few vloggers.

Start following a few on a regular basis.

The idea is that vlogs are like reality TV. However, you may not like everyone’s content. That’s fine. Just scroll through YouTube and keep looking at the featured channels on the YouTube channel’s homepage. You’ll find a bunch of them.

What’s the point?

The point is that you’ll find those vloggers talking to the camera and sharing their real-life stuff. You, being a blogger, could learn how they’re speaking and expressing themselves, especially if English isn’t your first language. I learned a lot from watching vlogs.

In fact, Jack told the same thing in his video about improving English by watching vlogs.

So start watching vlogs.

6. Listen to the Podcasts

I can’t tell you how excited I am for sharing this tip with you.

Let me say this way: nothing even on this list would benefit you more than this one.

Just start listening to the podcasts. If you use iPhone, go to iTunes to find the podcasts and if you’re on Android, download the Stitcher app and find the podcasts right away.

I’ve noticed that when you listen to the podcast on your phone, the words are easy to understand, and if the topic does interest you, it just gets better.

I can’t stress enough.

7. Practice Every day

One of the ways of improving your blog writing is doing it every day. Just practice every single day. In fact, Ryan Biddulph said the same thing during his live video on Facebook. He also emphasized writing 500-1000 words on a daily basis.

I could have added a different point to end this list, but I wanted to share that it does make a difference when you write more.

The reason is that when you write more, you tend to work more on improving your craft.

You can’t get better at writing a blog if you write but don’t publish it.

Just let it go.

A lot of successful bloggers told me that, in the beginning, they were afraid of publishing content, they thought that they’re not good enough — but ultimately they went through the process of publishing, learning, and getting better.

Trust me; I do the same thing: I write and try to get better every day.

That’s what you need to do. Just write.

Let’s end this

Listen up.

I shared seven ways to improve blog writing.

I’m convinced that there could be tons of more ways to improve blog writing.

If you have got a few, do share with me in the comments section.

I just want to say that LEARNING is such a fantastic thing that it only makes us BETTER.

I’m fascinated by the fact that since 2009, I’m learning something new on a consistent basis.

Whether you want to build a career in blogging or just want to blog for fun, you got to pick one of these methods to get better at it.

I try to improve my blog writing every day.

What’s your best advice for me and other readers who want to improve blog writing?

Share with us!