Checking Your English - And Creating a Professional Image

How often have you judged something simply because it was...badly done? Think about someone in a job interview who has made an effort to make sure her clothes fit, are clean and look smart. Compare her to someone who comes in with their shirt hanging out and ketchup on their tie. Who would you hire? It is a fact of life that we judge others based on first impressions. Just as you might pass judgment on someone who looks scruffy, people will pass judgment on how well you write.

You don't need a prodigious vocabulary, a meticulous understanding of English grammar rules or extraordinarily elegant diction in order to write effective letters, emails or documents in English. However, you do want to make sure that your writing does not come across as scruffy and badly done. Below are a few simple tips to help you proofread and edit your own writing to make it sound more professional:

• Ensure you run a spell-check and grammar-check on your text to weed out any typos and grammar mistakes.

• Do use a thesaurus to help you use a varied vocabulary and avoid overuse of certain words.

• Try reading your text out loud to yourself. Does it flow? If you stumble over a sentence or are gasping for breath because it's too long, chances are so will your reader.

• Re-read, re-read again and re-read once more just to make sure. If it is an especially important document you are working on, ensure you have a colleague or friend proof-read it too.

• While they can never replace the thorough eyes of fluent English speaker proofreading your text, try using a more in-depth English checking program. As well as providing spelling and grammar checking tools, software such as this English writing solution can offer templates and English tutorials.

For more information please visit: http://www.1clickwriter.com/

Anne Ray is a writer and editor.
Her background is in sociology and she has extensive experience writing academic texts, news articles and creative pieces.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/writing-articles/checking-your-english-and-creating-a-professional-image-908956.html