Any successful nonenglish speaking author here?

[wordpanther]

English is not my first language. I have ghostwritten more than 2000 articles in more than 200 niches. The money that I have earned as ghostwriter, I have invested in four different online income sources. I joined this constant content website, simply to test whether it is possible for non English speaking authors to succeed here. My first article was rejected yesterday with the usual editorial comments. To avoid any grammar mistakes, I had sent my article to a professional editor first. I am retired Indian scientist. It is possible that I might have used words awkwardly. It is possible that the writing was not clear enough. How can I improve it ?

I request all the forum members to help me. I know that there are a lot many talented Indian writers. They will like to improve their English writing skills. However, there is no way out. If any non English speaking author has succeeded on this website, I will like to communicate with him. If there is any such person, then, please give us info. Let us know how you could turn your Indian English into US English.

If I cannot find a way of improving my English writing skill, I do not find any interest in remaining on this website. Instead of forcing Ed to get rid of me after two more submissions, I should better close my account myself.
wordpanther

[Ed]

If you are looking for a way to improve your English, there are many other sites designed with less rigorous requirements that are ideal for honing writing skills. However, the only way to improve your English is through practice - a LOT of practice. Practice includes not only the act of writing, but also reading sources respected for their adherence to writing rules, getting feedback from native speakers, learning from mistakes, and curbing long-ingrained bad habits. The web is full of great outlets for all of these - including forums where questions can be asked and critical feedback gotten. Improving written skills also requires an attention to detail, in not only how ideas are expressed, but in various technical areas of writing, like capitalization and punctuation. The advice is the same for anyone - native or non-native English speaker.

Unfortunately, Constant Content is not a good place to practice because we expect writers to come to the site with their writing tools already sharpened.

If you decide to embark upon the journey required to improve your written English skills, I wish you well.

Thanks,
Ed

[Lysis]

Wordpanther, a professor of mine gave me some great advice before I took the GRE, and it helped me a ton. His suggestion was that I could improve my vocabulary and writing skills for the verbal and essay section of the GRE without really studying, and ya know what? It worked!

This is what I did:
Read one or two articles from a journal of medicine (you said you're a scientist, so I assume you have access to them). Or you can read an article or two from Scientific American, which is an AWESOME magazine. If you read 1-2 articles a day, it doesn't even feel like studying. You improve vocabulary, better your English, and learn something to boot.

Don't read blogs. Blogs are horrible if you're trying to learn the rules.

Then, if you'd like to practice, I suggest Helium. It's not known as the best place, and it has a bit of a negative reputation, but I just started there recently because of a friend, and I have to say I like writing there for practice. You won't make any money, and the rating system is not perfect, but you can get feedback. Anyone who writes there is required to rate articles, and some people (I do it) will give feedback to authors. For instance, I sent feedback to an author who used "most probably" in the text. That phrase is indicative of a non-English speaking writer, and it's an awkward phrase. You get to sit in the editor's seat to evaluate writing and see the mistakes people make, so you know to avoid it!

[Ed]

Sorry to disagree, but I would be hesitant to suggest that those who want to learn how to express their ideas naturally read medical journals or other scientific journals. While these may be good for studying for the GRE, they are not really great sources for learning how to write. The people who submit to such journals are scientists/investigators first - they are writers out of necessity. Similarly, the articles published are chosen for the research/findings rather than the writing skill of the author. As a final note, sometimes words in these journals are used in ways that are specific to the discipline and are not necessarily used in the same way they would be used elsewhere.

Better sources for those wishing to improve the readability of their writing include magazines that cover a wide variety of topics from well-respected authors, like The New Yorker or Harper's or comparable online magazines with editors who place the same priority on the quality of the writing as they do on the topic being written about. Even the non-news sections of some print or online newspapers are a great starting point.

Thanks,
Ed

[nichewriter]

The Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) is one of the best newspapers, IMO. The articles are well-written and I've learned to improve on my writing style by reading it every day. I usually end my day curled up in my chair reading the paper version (I love the Personal Journal).