Do you know that writing skills are quite underrated and called a passive skill? Do you also know that writing is now vital to the digital world? There are some essential skills you need to possess to improve your English writing, especially for a non native native writer.

So who is a non-native writer? A non native writer is a person who writes in a language that is not his or her mother tongue.

The essential writing skill is editing which might pose some difficulty to a non native writer. Be assured, there is nothing to worry about, we will be discussing the editing skills that will teach you how to get better at editing.

Editing will help you gain better access to more professional opportunities and make you as valuable as the native writers.

Let’s dive into the top 8 editing skills you need as a non-native writer.

1. Grammar And Syntax Skill

The usage of correct grammar cannot be overemphasized. It is very important to make use of correct grammar as it will provide clarity, make it easier for people to read. This might pose a problem for a non native writer but here are some writing improvement tips:

Read Widely

Reading can cause a lot of headaches, but it is one of the most common to improve on your grammatical skills, you have to read, read and read. Reading books, journals, novels will help improve your grammatical skills subconsciously.

Use Grammar Manuals

This term might be strange to you. A grammar manual is a book containing an account of the grammatical rules for the proper usage of a language. Making use of grammar manuals will help you to improve your grammar skills.

Write More With Correct Grammar

Well there is a well known saying that practice makes perfection. Writing more with correct grammar will help improve your writing skills and correct usage of the target language.

Read Aloud 

Reading out loud for a non native writer will help improve both spoken and written grammatical skills. Reading aloud is a great writing tip as it will help point out your grammatical errors.

Practice With Others 

Speaking with a proficient user of the target language will help improve your writing skills. It will also make it easier for you to speak and understand the grammar of the language.

2. Vocabulary Literacy

Vocabulary is the key to reading comprehension. Inadequate knowledge about the vocabulary of a language will make understanding difficult.

It is very important to build up on your lexicon( that is, a mental dictionary) as a non native reader. This will help to improve your editing skills  as you will be able to employ the usage of those words as deemed fit.

It is also important to learn new vocabulary and how to use them correctly in both spoken and written form of the language. You should also be able to integrate all the forms of vocabulary  in order to improve your writing and editing skills.

3. Good Spelling

It is very essential to learn your vocabulary with its spellings.  Good spelling will help you gain more value as non-native writer. Incorrect spellings can lead to misunderstanding in your writing.

In order to improve your editing skills, you should employ the use of a good dictionary to check for spelling errors, be consistent with spellings of some words (instances are the British and American spellings).

You should also learn the standard of frequently misspelled words. A proper spelling will also improve your credibility and professionalism and will  certainly save you some embarrassment.

4. Punctuation Proficiency

It is very crucial to make use of good punctuation as it helps convey ideas accurately. Here are some writing tips on punctuations:

Use Apostrophe Correctly

This is sometimes overlooked as misappropriate usage of the apostrophe can change the intended meaning.

Know Where To Place Quotation Marks

You have to ensure that it is a quote written as uttered by the quoter without change in the order of the words before employing the usage of punctuation marks.

Distinguish Between A Colon And A Semicolon

The two are misappropriately used. You have to ensure that you can distinguish between the two.

5. Clarity And Simplicity

Clarity and simplicity helps improve your writing skills. You should avoid the usage of jargon in order to decrease your reader’s confusion to the barest minimum. The usage of more technical terms may lead to confusion.

So, as a native writer, it is very necessary to avoid the usage of technical terms except when necessary such as distorting the meaning of the message omitted..

A non native writer also lacks the intuitive knowledge a native speaker possesses and also his proficiency. Therefore, you should  ensure there are correlations in your usage of words and vocabulary.

6. Proofreading Skills

It is important to develop your proofreading skills as it will help your editing skills. Here are some tips to improve your proofreading skills. Reading out loud is a way to check out for errors which may have not been discovered in writing.

Making a list of some of the mistakes you commonly make can help improve your editing skills. You should also make sure to double check everything. And you can also read the text backward, if it might sound crazy but it helps point out errors in spellings.

7. Style Consistency

Consistency in style includes such aspects such as grammar, punctuation, vocabulary choices, etc. It is very important to maintain a consistency in style as a change in writing style may disrupt the focus of the reader’s.

An abrupt change in the style may make the content lose its context and disengage the thoughts of the readers.

It is important to stick to the style of writing used at the beginning to the end of the content.

8.   Sentence Structuring 

Sentence structuring is  a very important editing skill for non-native writers. The subject must agree with the verb. The capital letters must begin a word, names first must be capitalized regardless of its position, the question mark, exclamation mark or full stop must end a sentence.

Your sentence must also express a complete thought or idea. Sentence structure proficiency shows the ability to use a language which gives more leverage to a non native writer.

Conclusion 

You already know how writing is getting a lot of approval due to the fast paced world. It is very important to possess certain editing skills in order to compete as a non native writer of a language. These skills are very essential as it enhances your competency and professionalism.