Written English appears to be a problem with many of us, and I know quite a few people who have tried reaching out to so-called experts to get this problem sorted. Somehow, it doesn’t work out as expected.
Does any of the following sound familiar:
Note that in the example above, I haven’t corrected the other mistakes. The sentence still is problematic, but it is already better than it was earlier. Some days later, as you read up on something related to upgrades, you will realize that an upgrade is either performed or implemented. And then you can go back to the entry and update it as follows:
We’re still far off from a perfect sentence, but no one reading the updated sentence will have any doubt on what you are trying to say.
Does any of the following sound familiar:
- You attend a course that claims to teach you how to write, but you are taught almost everything except that!
- You ask “experts” to edit your work, and they leave the page bleeding red with underlined mistakes and comments that you don’t understand, and cannot fix.
- You ask these guys what the error is and how to fix it, and they stare at you as if you were from some other planet. “Go look up a book of grammar,” they say. Thanks! As if I didn’t already know that! It feels kinda demeaning, and you are still none the wiser.
This is not a get-rich-quick kind of guide. This is a rigorous and structured set of tasks which, if and only if performed correctly and consistently, is guaranteed to sort your writing problems out without any involvement or intervention from anyone.
A Little Theory First
What if I told you that you already have the language skills you are looking for? It just needs to be brought to the appropriate part of the brain. Let me show you how this works:
Competence Vs. Performance
A linguist called Noam Chomsky coined two terms associated with human understanding of a language: Competence and Performance. In very simple terms here’s what they mean:
- Competence: The summation of everything we know about a language. This helps us understand what others tell us using that language.
- Performance: Our actual, practical grip on that language when it comes to creating sentences all by ourselves. Performance is always a subset of competence.
When we hear what someone tells us, or when we read something, we do so with all our competence. Thus, we are able to understand words that we typically never use when we speak or write. Consider the following sentence from an internal security announcement. It appeared after a list of the security-related responsibilities that each employee has:
“It is critical for all of us to understand this delineation of responsibilities.”
When you read the sentence, you understand that the word “delineation” means some sort of listing out or differentiation, and you move ahead in the passage. But … when was the last time you actually used the word “delineation” in your mails? I can’t remember when I used that term last, for sure!
What works for word choice also works for grammar and style. Thus, when you read something that someone else has written, you are able to spot mistakes of language and style. But when you write, you make the same mistakes, right?
Clinching Evidence
When you read something that you yourself wrote, like a week or so ago, you see errors in your own writing! You may not be able to spot all the mistakes you make, but then nobody said that writing must move directly from being error-prone to 100% error-free sparkling Shakespeare or something! Also, like we saw in the beginning, if someone like an expert were to come in and list out all the mistakes you made, you may not even be in a position to understand the mistake, let alone correct it. So basically, the expert list of issues is pretty much useless. What you want is a list of errors that your competence can identify. You will find that you will be able to quickly correct such mistakes too! You will understand the problem, and thus, will be able to remember the solution: The mind learns primarily by association!
The Trick to Rapid Learning
This trick applies to learning a language as well as any other skill, because the same competence-performance rule governs pretty much everything we know. For example, I cannot act, but I can spot bad acting.
The trick is two-fold, really:
- Trust your own understanding of what is correct, especially when you are reviewing something you wrote earlier.
- Transfer this understanding from your competence (what you know) to your performance (what you can do), and you will improve geometrically!
Here’s How You Can Do It
If you look carefully at
the two points that comprise “the trick”, they translate into the following key
tasks. At a very high level, this is what you need to do to take your language skills to the
next level.
- Read something new every day. Anything, as long as it is in English. If you are an expert in Operations, you may want to review whitepapers or tutorials on tools and techniques on how you can do your job better, or if you are a software developer, you may want to read articles on the latest developments in your areas of interest. Or anything, really, as long as it's structured writing.
- In a notebook that you maintain specifically for that purpose, describe what you read that day in your own words. Try and put in examples from your own life or work that substantiate the points made in the text you read. Ideally, this essay should not be longer than two foolscap pages.
- Keeping a 10-day gap, review what you wrote. For example, on Day 11, review what you wrote on Day 1. You will find errors in your own writing, if there are any. Some errors may clearly be errors; some others you may have a “bad feeling” about. Ignore the bad feelings. These are errors that your mind is unclear about. It will take you lots of effort to identify the problem, and even more time to implement the solution.
- List out the error types associated with all clear / obvious errors in a separate Word document and review any grammar source of your choice to understand the error, identify the error type, and to learn how to correct it. Add that information adjacent to the error. Keep this file safely in your hard drive. Your document should be structured as follows:
| Error |
| Error Type |
| Correct Sentence |
| “We will be doing in rolling fashion.” <Date>: Doing what? |
| Missing Object: Doing must be followed by the action that is being done. |
| “We will be doing the upgrade in rolling fashion.” |
Note that in the example above, I haven’t corrected the other mistakes. The sentence still is problematic, but it is already better than it was earlier. Some days later, as you read up on something related to upgrades, you will realize that an upgrade is either performed or implemented. And then you can go back to the entry and update it as follows:
| Error | Error Type | Correct Sentence |
| “We will be doing in rolling fashion.” <Date 1>: Doing what? <Date 2>: "Doing the upgrade" sounds wrong. | Missing Object: Doing must be followed by the action that is being done. You don't do upgrades; you implement / deploy them. | “We will be doing the upgrade in rolling fashion.” "We will be implementing the upgrade in rolling fashion." |
We’re still far off from a perfect sentence, but no one reading the updated sentence will have any doubt on what you are trying to say.
|
Brief Note About Errors and Error Types Error types identify the type of error associated with an actual error. Therefore, for example, in the sentence in the table above, "... doing in rolling fashion." has three errors:
You may need to refer to a good book / web site on grammar to get this information. But the key thing is, you know where you are wrong, you know what you are searching for, and you will know you have got the information you need when the sentence reads better after you have made the changes recommended.
|
- Next day, do your daily reading, review your writing from 10 days ago, and add new error types to your tabulated list. When you start your writing for that day, keep your list of errors open on your screen. Check for the identified errors and correct them as you write. You will be surprised at the difference this simple step will make to your output.
| When you read something you’ve written, you see many errors, but these errors are of may be four-five types. Once you identify these error types, you can check for—and correct—these mistakes as you write, and suddenly, a major chunk of your errors will disappear! |
- Continue doing this on a daily basis, in the following order:
- Read something new for at least 45 minutes.
- Review what you wrote 10 days ago and add to your error list.
- Write a summary of what you read, checking for and correcting errors like the ones in your list.
- Ensure there are as few breaks in this daily pattern as possible. Ideally, this must be done every day, regardless of whether it’s a weekday, a holiday, or whatever. This is most important. Reading, reviewing, and writing every day must become a daily habit!
How It Works
It’s pretty tough when you start. There’s little motivation to go through with this. You have tried so many things; they never work. You have better things to do with your time, assuming you have any to spare in the first place. And so on.
But if you are able to break through these barriers and perform these tasks on a daily basis, here’s what will happen:
- Your list of clear and obvious errors will stop growing after about a month; you will have captured most of the types of mistakes you tend to make.
- In about two months, you will not need to look at your list. You will have got your list of mistakes by heart, and you will stop yourself as you make the mistake, write the correct form, and move on.
- In about three months:
- The correct forms will become second nature to you. You will not pause to check yourself anymore; you will simply write the correct form and move on.
- New error types will start suggesting themselves. This will be because as you read and write more, and as more and more of your competence moves to your performance (in vocabulary, syntax, or choice of words), your competence shall grow to keep the ratio between your theoretical and actual abilities (Remember: The glass is always half-full!) Add them to your list as they surface.
- In about six months, you will stop making most of the language mistakes you tend to make, and your list of errors shall evolve from pure grammar issues to issues of style and choice of words. You will still be far from being perfect grammatically, but your readers from across the world will be able to understand you without any conscious effort.
In about a year:
- You will make very few language mistakes, and your comms will be extremely easy to understand.
- You will have read so much in the 12 months that it will show in your work, and in your confidence.
One can only go North from here. Continue reading, reviewing, and writing; make it a life-long habit. There’s no downside to this ... at all!
