When we talk about the skills required for a job; multilingualism is usually considered an important skill for employment in international companies. Around 6500 languages are being spoken around the globe. Out of these 6500 spoken languages; English is considered the most important, as it is the third most widely spoken language. It is being taught in over 118 countries and is considered the most common language for trade and business. Apart from that, English is also the language of science, media, internet, international communication, diplomacy, tourism, computer, and education. Either you have personal or professional reasons; you must learn to speak and understand good English; it will provide you an open door to the world and help you to communicate with people worldwide. 

Therefore, many people focus on how to improve grammar in English speaking. Knowing English increases your chances of securing good job opportunities in overseas multinational companies around the globe. So, learning English is considered vital for socializing, work, and entertainment; as most films, TV shows, books and music are published and produced in English. Therefore, understanding the importance of English will help you out in achieving your goals. 

Learning English can be a little tricky and time-consuming but it is very valuable to open doors of opportunities. It can be a challenge to learn English; here are some great points for you to improve your English. 

1. Motivation: Motivation is the key to success. If you want to achieve something, you’ve to be highly motivated, to begin with. The same is the case for learning English; never stop and work regularly. Even if you learn just 10-15 every week, just learn it properly.
2. Be Fearless: Being confident is very necessary and an interesting thing. Don’t be worried or shy about making mistakes. You’ve to stay confident; if you want to be a good English speaker.
3. Practice: Practice makes a man perfect. Even if you aren’t so good at speaking or understanding English; continue to do it every day. This will help to eliminate the fear factor and help you to be more confident. 
4. Set new goals: Set goals for yourself, decide how many words you want to learn in a week. This will help you to do the extra study to improve your English.
5. Dictionary: Don’t hesitate to take help, if you can’t remember the word or its meaning; simply go and check your dictionary. 
6. Ask people for help: The surrounding people can help a lot in influencing you to do something. Tell your family and friends about your will to improve your English so they can push you to study more.
7. Focus the mains: The main skills in English are; reading, writing, speaking and listening. Make sure to work on all of them to improve.
8. Consistency: Stay consistent even if you’re studying only one hour per day. But stay consistent. 
9. Keep a journal: Keep a journal to determine your improvement.
10. Write a notebook: Keep a notebook to write newly learned words in it. Review your notebook twice a week.
11. Memorization: Try and memorize the words and give them a shot for a vocabulary test. It helps you to sharpen your ability.
12. Sign up for English lectures: Learning new things will never get old. The same is the case for learning English. Go and take lectures from YouTube of other platforms and engage yourself in it to improve.
13. Don’t skip: If you haven’t studied all day; busy in work or anything. study at night before sleeping. 
14. Example sentence: After learning a new word, try to memorize it along with its example sentence. It will help you to remember the word and its use more accurately.
15. Test yourself: Keep on testing yourself, time to time. You’ll get to know if there’s any improvement.
16. Go for Future: Always keep in mind, why are you learning English. What is the bigger picture? How will improving grammar in English speaking is going to help me?
17. Short-term goals: Set easy and short-term goals to learn English. Appreciate yourself after achieving and focus on the next.
18. Long-term goals: Long-term goals help to motivate and continue to strive.
19. Help yourself: Help yourself by creating a good atmosphere in which you want to learn. Study not because you’ve to. You’ll understand things better if you learn because you want to.
20. Get help: If you’re having trouble understanding anything, go for help. Ask your teacher, classmates, or the internet.
21. Review: Keep reviewing your progress report throughout. Repeat the words and review them at the end of the month.
22. Understand yourself: Try and get to know yourself, understand what works best for you. Which method or way is better for you?
23. Figure out your Pattern: Predict and work on your pattern. How you learn things more effectively.
24. Regular breaks: Just like other studies. Learning English can be stressful too. Take regular breaks and boost your will to continue.
25. Don’t hasten: Don’t move quickly to the next levels. Start from the beginning, give time to each section. From word spellings, synonyms, antonyms, and meaning to the grammar section.
26. Go for downloads: Download your favorite English TV shows, and watch them over and over again. It will help you better to catch information you might have missed in the first attempt.
27. Watching TV: You can simply stick with watching TV shows directly on air on TV. But it only allows you to hear and understand at the moment, you can’t repeat it. Therefore, this is for students of improved level in English.
28. Be a reader: If book reading is your taste, then read good English books, novels, magazine or the newspaper. 
29. Start with basic: If you’re having trouble reading high-level books, begin with the basic English books. They will have easier words.
30. Newspapers: Newspaper is a good source of information, but it can also help to improve English. Try and determine passive constructs.
31. Be smart: If there’s a new word, and you don’t know the meaning of it yet. Don’t be confused. Look at the context and other words and try to guess the meaning of the word.
32. Stick with General: Don’t worry about understanding every word in the sentence, look at general meaning first.
33. Dealing with new words: When you learn a new word, think of all its other forms as well as its meaning.
34. Continue learning: After learning new words and improving vocabulary, don’t stop there. Learn prefixes and suffixes as well.
35. Practice English: Don’t hesitate to test your English skill whenever you can.
36. Think in English: With continuous practice of English skills, try and think of statements and thoughts in English. Don’t go with thinking in your language and then translating it into English.
37. Root words: Learn root words. They help a lot in guessing the meaning of words.
38. Be Practical: Just like driving a car, you just can’t learn driving from reading books. You’ve to practice it by actually doing it.
39. Listen and talk: The basic method to engage yourself in improving grammar is simply through talking. 
40. Write blogs: Write a blog for the public, and let people read and understand. Get feedback to determine whether you conveyed your point accurately.
41. Improve your ways: Don’t get stuck in correcting grammar and spelling. If you’ve something in your mind just pour all the ideas and thoughts on paper. Then think of the structure and finally, in the end, write your piece using good grammar.
42. Punctuation: Punctuation is very important, keep a close eye on that. It can change what you’re trying to say.
43. Songs: Listening to English songs can improve your hearing skills, listen along with lyrics and understand the lyrics better.
44. Sing along: Improve your fluency and intonation, listen to English songs and sing along. 
45. Look for Alternatives: If you’re having trouble in face-to-face conversations, go with the text in chat rooms and community sites.
46. Copy the tone: To develop a good sense of English sentences, try and repeat few sentences you heard.
47. Surround yourself with English: Even when you aren’t in the mood to study, play the radio, or stuff in English. Although if you aren’t actively listening to it, you will still be training your ear to understand English.
48. Dictation: Just like childhood, listen to words through the computer, TV, or friends and try to write down what you heard.
49. Record your Voice: Almost most people try to avoid hearing their voice. Be experimental and record yourself. Point out your mistakes in pronunciation and rhythm.
50. Search for stuff: Use the internet to good effect, search English lectures and listen to them. Try reviewing their speed and intonation.
51. Use English/English dictionary: While looking for a word’s meaning, check it out in the English/English dictionary as it will help to keep you in understanding the word in English.
52. Improvise: Predict your level of progress and get help accordingly. 
53. Stay independent: You can get help from the dictionary or the internet, but it shouldn’t be your teacher. First, try yourself and guess the meaning of words rather than being dependent on the dictionary.
54. Stay positive: Being positive helps you a lot in boosting your confidence and will. Don’t give up.
55. Enjoy it: Enjoy learning, look for ways you find learning English more interesting; Movies or games.
56. Relax it’s just words: Take two deep breaths before you say something. You speak better when you’re relaxed.
57. Appreciation: Keep looking at the beginning, it will help you to determine how far you’ve come.
58. Age is just a number: You are never too late to start learning English. Don’t make yourself feel bad. Start it right away.
59. Avoid bad habits: If you’ve bad habits like laziness and procrastinating, cover them up. Don’t allow them to distract you.
60. Be patient: Don’t be disappointed if you haven’t gotten the results, you wanted yet. There may be different reasons behind it.
61. Match your Level: Stay at your level to use different resources. Don’t go with too difficult or too easy exercises.
62. The accent isn’t everything: Don’t worry about having a perfect accent. Keep your cultural identity.
63. Diversity: There are many types of English; British, American, and so on. English is English, none of these are wrong.
64. Expand your Knowledge: Even you’re good at one type of English still look for others, stay aware of the differences in American and British English.
65. Use cards: Writing words down can help a lot in the situation of need. Just like presentations, you can pinpoint the accurate words to remember the topic.
66. Label stuff: Labelling your household items can be a pretty good activity.
67. Sticky notes: Use sticky notes and stick them around your home after writing reminders on them to help yourself.
68. Intuition: Go with your common sense; first guess. Just be confident in guessing the meaning of the words.
69. Gather your thoughts: Before speaking, take a second or two and gather your thoughts. It’ll help you to go with the flow.
70. Meet new people: It happens quite often that we get confused in front of new people. Meet new people and have a conversation with them in English. Make efforts to stick around other English speakers.
71. Debate: Discussing and sharing your point of view helps a lot inactive speaking. When you’re discussing your thoughts with a group of people; a lot of people are going to judge your viewpoint. Debate sessions also help to improve communication skills.
72. Importance of grammar: Grammar has an important role in the understanding of English, only learning and getting the meaning of singular words isn’t enough. Therefore, keep practicing and improving grammar.
73. Verb tenses: Tenses are very important in processing the actual meaning of words and sentences, so continuous drill to improve is necessary.
74. Irregular verbs: English involves a lot of irregular verbs. Practicing and understanding these verbs helps in complex sentences.
75. Keep up the work: Don’t take a long break or pause while learning English, you will decrease your level. So, consistency is the key.
76. Don’t lose hope: There are bad days for everyone, don’t be put off by a bad test score. Sometimes it happens with students that they have the ability and understanding to pass the English test, which still ends up with low scores. So, you’ve to believe yourself and try again.
77. Success story: After completely achieving your goal/target, tell others about your progress; the steps, and ways that helped you more.
78. Have a partner: Learning can be easy when you have a friend involved, it’ll help a lot when you’ve someone to practice with.
79. Pronunciation: Remember the basic stuff of English; the way you write English isn’t the same as how you pronounce it. 
80. High levels: After improving your level from the beginner spot to the upper one, keep in mind that it takes more to improve at high levels to learn English.
81. Don’t be over smart: Understand and decide which situation is appropriate to use the words and phrases you have learned, it’s alright to use slang with friends but you can’t do the same in a business meeting. So, don’t be over smart.
82. Difference: Understand the difference between English in textbooks and movies. The English in the textbook is usually more formal, so to learn casual English watch movies and TV shows.
83. Idioms: Learn idioms, they are fun to use.
84. Don’t get stuck: One of the things which can put you off while learning is plenty of half-finished books/activities waiting to be learned. Simply take care of it and don’t start another one, if you haven’t finished the previous one.
85. Exams: Exams are good to put a little pressure on yourself. So, signup for an English language exam. It’ll help in determining the progress level too.
86. Make use of the internet: The Internet is a very useful source to learn anything you want. So, while learning makes full use of it. Learn new articles on how to improve your English or how to be a good English speaker.
87. Estimate yourself: Give yourself time and think about your weak and strong points. Write down the weak points and work on them to improve those weak areas.
88. Work on mistakes: After English tests, analyze the results and work on the mistakes to improve them. Try and unlearn those mistakes.
89. Article: Using the correct article is considered as the basis of English grammar, start from there.
90. Take short naps: Sleeping is a healthy activity, after short naps you’ll feel a lot fresher and can learn English in a better way.
91. Be prepared: To get more fluent, practice more. Give yourself more time on what you’re going to say. Image the other person and predict his words and actions to help yourself.
92. English courses: Take an English course to improve your flaws and weaknesses.
93. Keep reviewing: When you are on an English Course, give your 100%. Review the classwork after classes, do your homework as soon as possible. Be prepared for the class.
94. Cultural experience: Try mixing with people from different regions and countries, it’ll help you to challenge yourself in understanding different accents and pronunciation techniques.
95. Sentences: Try to find example sentences after learning every new word.
96. Move abroad: Look for a job or internship abroad, it’ll help to improve your English level and communication skills according to different regions.
97. Qualified teacher: Don’t hesitate to take help from qualified teachers. They’re there to help us in getting better, so don’t miss the opportunity.
98. Target shortcuts: Nobody can learn all of the English levels, but don’t worry about that. Keep on trying, look for shortcuts that can certainly help you in improving/learning without wasting much time.
99. Stay Focused: When you’re on your right path and going in the right direction, don’t get distracted. Eventually, one day you’re going to be a good English speaker.
100. Place matters: Look for a comfortable and quiet place to study. You need to be somewhere where no one is coming to bother or distract you.

The post 100 Things You Can Do to Improve Your English appeared first on Linguix Blog.

Here are some practical tips to help you write whatever it is you require.

Read

The inspiration to write nearly always comes as a result from reading. Without exception, all great authors were or are insatiable readers too, and the two actions go hand in hand. If you almost never read, then you are never going to see combinations of words written down. This will affect your ability to write. So, seek out examples of different types of writing, from short stories and novels to emails and articles, to see what good writing looks like.

Pay attention to what you read

When reading, look past the content to see how the author has combined words to create his or her sentences. Notice the varying length of the sentences, and the use of punctuation and paragraphs to separate ideas. Try to mimic the style in your own writing, as there is no need to reinvent the wheel.

Think about punctuation

A lack of punctuation, or its incorrect application, is one of the most important mistakes people make with their writing. Think of an instant message that has no commas or periods and therefore becomes an undecipherable piece of mumbo jumbo! Punctuation organizes ideas in your writing, and the result is something which is easy for the reader to digest. And it really all should be about the reader.

Think about the reader

Unless you are penning a diary that is for your eyes only, the purpose of your writing is for someone else to enjoy or be informed from. So, think about the reader in everything you do. Just because the idea is clear in your head, it doesn’t mean that this is true for the reader! In everything you write, keep the reader at the front of your mind. Your stream of consciousness will not necessarily make sense to anyone else.

Signpost your writing

Along with punctuation, one of the best ways to make your writing easy to follow is to use what are known as ‘signpost’ words. Just as signposts give you clear instructions when you are on the street or driving, these words help the reader navigate the text. Example of clear signpost words are first, then, before, finally, in addition, with plenty more examples besides. Technically they are adverbs and sequencers, but all you need to think about is their function, which is to guide the reader between ideas and show the relationship between them. Note the use of these words in the things you read.

Think about the value of words and ideas

Everything you write should add value and have a purpose. If what you have written is just ‘filler’ – unnecessary words and ideas that do not contribute anything to the main idea – then just get rid of it.

Practical steps

The tips so far have been general in nature. The following are more specific to the steps you must take when writing.

Get words on the page

Getting started is always the hardest part, so just get words onto the page: any words! Think about the purpose of what you are writing, so write anything connected to that. You can organize your ideas later.

Order your ideas

Once you have all your ideas on the page, you can start to rearrange them into a logical order. The great thing about using word processing tools such as Microsoft Word is that you can cut, copy and paste to your heart’s content, rearranging things as many times as you like. But…

Don’t overthink it!

Changing things too regularly will leave you unsatisfied, and it will be difficult to settle with a final version. Does your writing achieve what you set out to achieve? If the answer is ‘yes’, then don’t keep procrastinating.

Re-read what you write

This is very important. When you have finished, make sure you re-read everything. When doing this, check for common errors such as spelling mistakes, the wrong use of punctuation, and any grammatical errors. If you are not sure, ask someone else (we will talk about this later). After a while you will become aware of the common mistakes that you make, so…

Use a checklist

Have a checklist which includes all the relevant points on this list and keep adding to it as you notice the typical mistakes that you make. For example, if you often write ‘there’ instead of ‘there’, make sure that this is one of the points on your checklist so you can look for this in your writing.

Read it aloud

Reading what you have written aloud, perhaps to another person, will greatly help in understanding if your writing flows naturally. If no one is available to listen to you, consider recording what you read aloud and then listening back.

Get someone else to take a look

Get someone else to proofread your writing. You can use a friend or colleague, or even a professional proofreader. These services don’t cost a lot and can be really useful when starting out. You won’t need to use these forever, but do ask the proofreader to highlight your mistakes, and then you can know what to look out for in the future.

Have a break before you come back to it

It’s easy to get stuck in the middle of writing, or to not feel motivated to re-read what you have written when finished. For this reason, park it, and then come back to it later. It’s amazing how leaving a little bit of time to pass in between these activities can help you see your writing with a fresh perspective. You will more easily spot any mistakes, or will be able to finish sentences that you found tricky the first time round. Sometimes we just forget the word we want to use, so taking a break can help you refocus.

Use a useful writing assistant, like Linguix

There are a number of fantastic writing assistants out there for you to avail of, one of which is Linguix, an AI-based writing tool.

Once you have downloaded the app (there is a free extension for Chrome), Linguix will give you recommendations while you write based on its library of contextual data. Linguix also avails of more than 2000 context-based grammar rules that can help you produce great sentences, and it then helps with typos and spelling mistakes, once again accessing a huge data library, this time with more than 9 million suggested edits.

Linguix also gives you definitions and synonyms of any word you highlight and can be the help you need to produce fluent, immensely readable writing text.

The post Tips for Writing appeared first on Linguix Blog.

Language is used to communicate, so no matter what your level of English, just keep speaking.

However, there may be typical mistakes that you make. Again, that’s okay, but here are just a few things to look out for:

For or since

This is a common mistake in English. Unlike ‘for’, which can be used with nearly all English tenses, ‘since’ can only be used with the present perfect and past perfect tenses, with the former being more common. Let’s give an example:

“I have been living in London since 2012.”

“I have been living in London for seven years.”

Clearly these two sentences express exactly the same idea, but ‘for’ is used to express the duration of time (seven years) whereas since is used to convey when the action began (2012). The result is the same, but these two words, ‘for’ and ‘since’, cannot be interchanged. So, avoid…

“I have been living in London since seven years”. – Mistake

Prices, and punctuation

Unlike in many other languages, English tends to put the currency before the number, so five dollars would be written like this:

$5

Not

5$

Obviously, we say five dollars, and that is what we would write when spelling the words, but with the currency symbol, put it before the number.

Then, when expressing thousands and millions, as well as decimal points, we use the totally opposite system of commas and decimal points (compared to many other languages) to do this. So, in English…

$5,000.75 – correct

5.000,75$ – incorrect

Capital letters

In English, the rules for capitals are strict. We use them at the beginning of a new sentence, and for what we call ‘real’ nouns, meaning names of people, places, companies and organizations (Victoria, France, Apple, the United Nations, etc.). Other than that, the only other exception is the pronoun ‘I’. There are really no other major instances where a capital letter would be used. Notice how that differs from your language, and don’t confuse the rules.

Lend or borrow

These two words, along with their structure, cause all manner of problems, mostly because they don’t translate too well. Note that direct translation is the cause of the majority of language mistakes.

Lend and borrow are actually the same action, just told from different perspectives. It only matters who is the subject of your sentence, and who is the object. Let’s look at an example.

Tom has money. Sarah doesn’t. Sarah needs Tom to give her some money, which she will then pay back to Tom. In this case:

A: “Tom lends Sarah some money.” But,

B: “Sarah borrows some money (from Tom).”

The word ‘lend’ requires an object (that is why the name Sarah is necessary in sentence A), but borrow does not (that is why ‘from Tom’ is in brackets in sentence B).

But they express exactly the same concept, so you can use whichever form you wish. This often causes issues in asking the question, but note again that you can use either form:

“Can you lend me a pen?”

“Can I borrow a pen?”

Tense and time word complementation

Often the correct verb tense in English is dictated by the time word. The time word can be placed at the beginning of the clause (the subject + verb idea) or at the end of it. So, for example:

“I went to the park yesterday.” Or…

“Yesterday, I went to the park.”

Problems arise when the time word does not suit the verb tense. Here are a couple of examples:

“I wear a shirt tomorrow.”

“I’ve been to Spain last year.”

In both of these examples, the verb tense (present simple and present perfect, respectively) is not suitable to the time word (tomorrow and last year). First of all, it is important to learn which time words suit which tenses (most of these are obvious). Secondly, it is a good idea to put the time word at the start of your clause, and in this way you can let the time word dictate your verb tense accordingly.

For example, in this sentence…

“I have been to Spain last year.”

It is likely that you began speaking intending to inform the other person that you have, in fact, been to Spain, but suddenly you decided to tell them when as well. But because you had used the present perfect tense, you could not add a time word at all (saying how many times would be fine, however!).

“I have been to Spain. I went last year.”

Last year needs a past tense, of course. However, if you get in the habit of using the time word first, you can avoid these mistakes.

“Last year…”

Now all you can do is use the past tense. This helps with reducing these types of tense and time word complementation mistakes.

Subject-verb agreement

I / You / We / They + eat.

He / She / It eats.

Any confusion here is what we would call a subject-verb agreement mistake. For example,

“He eat.” – mistake

This mistake is also typical with single and plural nouns and the verbs ‘is’ or ‘are’. For example:

“He is…”, but…

“We are…”

And of course, when using plural nouns, the verb form should always be ‘are’. For example,

People / Children / Men / Women are… (not is!)

Countable / Uncountable nouns

This is another typical mistake usually caused by translation. Countable nouns in English are simply nouns that can be pluralized. For example;

1 x pen, girl, man,

2 x pens, girls, men

Uncountable nouns simply cannot be pluralized. For example,

Information, advice, water. Never 2 x informations, advices, waters (all mistakes!)

And then, of course, you must be careful with the complementation.

“Information is…” (never are).

The positions of adverbs

There are many types of adverbs of English, and different types of adverbs go in different positions.

However, the most common form of position for adverbs in English is in what is called ‘mid’ position – between the subject and the verb. For example,

“I always eat porridge for breakfast.” (Not, “Always I eat…”)

If there is an auxiliary verb, put the adverb between the auxiliary and the verb. For example,

“I will probably go to the party.” (Not, “Probably I will go the party.”)

And when the sentence is in the negative form, that can change the position too, so…

“I don’t always eat porridge for breakfast.”

“I probably won’t go to the party.”

The verb ‘to be’ can also cause the position of the adverb to change.

“I am always hungry in the morning.” But, “I always eat porridge for breakfast.”

The best thing to do is to take note of example sentences, and copy the structure.

False friends

False friends are words that look incredibly similar to words in your language, but in fact have a different meaning. For example:

The word ‘librería’ in Spanish would translate into English as ‘bookstore’, not ‘library’, which is a place where you can borrow books (or they lend you books!).

 The Italian word ‘parente’ means ‘relative’ in English (a member of your family), not ‘parent’, meaning mother or father.

 The French word ‘eventuellement’ is the same as ‘possibly’ in English, not ‘eventually’, which means after a long period of time.

You can see how you might get into trouble by seeing an English word that looks like a word in your language and assuming it is the same. You can’t buy books in a library, for example.

The post 9 Common Mistakes to Avoid in English appeared first on Linguix Blog.

Start with the relevant details

English language resumes tend not to include photographs, which is a common practice in many other countries around the world. In fact, in countries such as Britain and the United States, the less personal information that is included at the beginning of your resume (or CV, as it is called by the British), the better.

So, what should you include? Your name, your abbreviated professional qualifications, your contact details, and any links to professional media sites, such as LinkedIn, or if you have an electronic portfolio accessible somewhere, for example. These details are relevant to your work only.

What shouldn’t you include? Your age, your marital status, your gender, whether or not you are a parent, and links to social media sites such as Facebook. These have nothing to do with your ability to do the job, so there’s no need to include them!

As you can see, there is really not much to include here at all.

Tailor your resume

Now, this may come as a surprise, but you shouldn’t really have just one resume. If you only apply for one job then maybe one resume is sufficient, and the same is true if you post your resume on your LinkedIn site, but it is not uncommon to apply for half a dozen roles at least.

If you do this, then it is vital that your resume is tailored, or adapted, to each and every role. No two jobs are exactly the same, are they? So that means the relevant skills and experience that you highlight will need to be adapted to suit the requirements of that role, as well as the organizational culture of that particular business.

That’s a lot of work, right? Yes, but looking for and securing a new role is like actually having a job ­– just one that you don’t get paid for. Don’t expect a great new job to fall into your lap, and be aware that one standard resume that you flood the market with is unlikely to be the answer. Instead, you need something unique and relevant to the specific role you apply for. Each and every time.

Include a great personal statement

A personal statement, also sometimes called a personal profile or executive summary, is the part of your resume, immediately after your personal contact details, that briefly explains why you are the perfect person for the job. Including this section – which is usually a couple of shortish paragraphs in length – is not common in all cultures, but has become as essential component of English language resumes.

Put yourself in the shoes of the hiring manager or recruiting consultant. Sometimes it is possible to receive literally hundreds of resumes for one open position, so why would you, or how could you, spend a lot of time going through each and every one, trying to dig out the relevant information?

That’s the purpose of this personal statement: an opportunity to present in just a few lines why you are the perfect person for the job. State who you are, what sets you apart, and what defines you for the role at hand. It’s a sales pitch, but with the relevant information to back it up.

It is the persuasiveness of these lines that will encourage the hiring manager to read on. Or not.

Format it

Your resume needs to look good! Of course, content is important but if your resume is laid out and formatted in such a way that it looks messy and is difficult to read, then the hiring manager may lose patience and overlook you, even though you may be the best person for the job.

Don’t let this happen. Use standard templates that are available on the web, look through plenty of examples, and ask other people’s advice. Show it to family and friends and take their feedback on board. The general rule is to keep the format clean and concise and ensure that your resume is always easy to navigate around in order to quickly find the relevant information, which means using clearly defined headings.

Make sure it’s well written

Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and punctuation oversights are just not allowed on a resume. Of course, there is no law against it, but this is a document that sells you, and what do these mistakes say about you? That you are careless, and do not take the time to proofread. Even if English is not your first language, and perfect English is not expected for the role, at the very least you must take the time to show you put in maximum effort to make your resume as perfect as it could be, which means proofreading it, even if it costs you. You have to speculate to accumulate, as the old adage says.

Fortunately, there are also great online tools, such as Linguix, which can perform the task of proofreading and offering corrections for you. Linguix will point out spelling and grammatical mistakes, offering you alternatives and even synonyms if you would like to mix your language up a little bit. Why not see the improvements it could make to your resume?

Highlight relevant skills and experience

Remember how we spoke about tailoring your resume to the specific job? Well that means that your relevant skills and experience need to be adapted accordingly. You can do this by changing the order of things, bringing certain things to the fore and relegating others.

What is certainly recommended is using the job specification of the job you are interested in to inform this part of your resume. Make sure that your skills and experience, as listed, match the requirements of each and every job that you apply for. Once again, no two jobs are exactly the same, which is why these changes are necessary.

Quantify your achievements

In each previous role that you mention (the highly relevant ones), it’s really important that you talk about your achievements in your role. Sure, you may want to start with your duties in that position, which is definitely relevant, but be sure to leave plenty of room for what you can call ‘successes’ or ‘major achievements’.

With these, which can be bullet-pointed, try to quantify your achievements as far as you can. So, if you were responsible for helping increase turnover, for example, list those numbers. Or if you oversaw an increase in staffing, also include those figures. Numbers stand out on a resume among the text, and also help to put a mathematical slant on your experience and performance, which appeals to many hiring managers. It’s all about producing a combination of skills and achievements that relate to the role you are applying for.

Make it the perfect length

Two pages, delivered back-to-back, or on separate sheets if you prefer! Obviously, it matters not if it’s an electronic document, which nowadays resumes nearly always are. It’s still round about two pages – that’s the perfect length.

Sell yourself, but in the right way

A resume, like it or not, is a sales document, and the product is you. However, the selling should be done with the persuasiveness of the formatting, relevance and suitability to the job that is being applied for, with the job specification always clearly in mind. Using persuasive language, such as meaningless adjectives and rolling out the same clichés, such as being a great team player, adds nothing. Always think about what sets you apart: using the same old tired selling points doesn’t achieve that.

Include a cover letter

The cover letter these days is more than likely a cover email. It matters not, because the principle is the same. We have published previously on how to write a good cover letter, and given you a step-by-step guide to doing just that, but you may ask how your cover letter differs from the personal statement: the third point on this list.

The personal statement makes no mention of the specific company you are applying to, whereas the cover letter will, speaking in particular about where you saw the advertisement, and why you would be a good fit for the company and its culture. The personal statement will speak more in relation to the role itself. Other than that, there are plenty of similarities, although the cover letter may provide a little more detail.

A great cover letter/email will, in many cases, be the prompt to get your resume read. Don’t waste this opportunity. 

The post 10 Tips for Writing a Great Resume appeared first on Linguix Blog.

There are others still who are nervous about grammar: they fear that their grammar is inadequate, and therefore fear the criticism that will come their way if they reveal their work to others. This can be hugely detrimental in terms of exposure to that person’s writing.

But what does it take to become a better writer? Teachers will often point to grammar being central to the point, whereas the students themselves may feel that too much emphasis is placed upon such concerns: after all, in the world we live in, the ideas of how we communicate are more fluid, and the lines between what is correct and what is not is becoming more blurred than ever before.

But contrary to what some students believe, teachers do not sacrifice the quality of ideas and content at the altar of grammar readily. It’s just that, on occasion, bad grammar simply gets in the way of good writing. So how can you improve it?

Learn what good grammar really is

When we say that people have bad grammar, what we are really saying is that they probably don’t know how to express their idea in what would be considered the correct way using the laws of written English. It is not a lack of ability holding someone back, but just a lack of instruction.

The solution, then, is to learn. There are fantastic grammar books available on the likes of Amazon, or you could even avail of a composition class which will cover the important points. 

In every single person’s writing there are things that the individual does well, and others things that they do not so well. It’s a really good idea to get your writing assessed so your most common grammar mistakes can be identified, and examples highlighted. From there, with the help of a good self-reference book such as English Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy, you can seek to fix the mistakes that are specific to you. Starting at the beginning of a huge grammar book and working though can be overkill, though.

Instead, seek out the grammar that really applies to you. Look at the examples, and then complete the exercises. From there you should then attempt your own sentences applying the rules, because it’s only through application of your learning that you can see if the necessary lessons have been learned.

Combine sentences

There is a place and a time for short sentences. They can be powerful through their brevity. But short sentences do not help you learn how to improve your grammar. The solution is to complete activities where you combine sentences in ways that are grammatically correct. Note that there is always more than one way to go about it, but combining sentences into larger ones is a great way of assessing if you have the necessary tools in your English grammar toolbox to complete the task at hand. Let’s look at an example:

I’d never been there before. I loved it anyway.

Now, of course you could combine these two sentences easily with a word such as ‘but’, yet this hardly challenges your grammar:

I’d never been there before but I loved it anyway.

So why not see what else you can do – something a little more sophisticated, perhaps, such as inverting the clauses:

I loved it anyway, despite having never been there before.

In this particular example you are applying a knowledge of several grammatical points, namely clauses, conjunctions, complex sentences, and punctuation.

As another example, write out three or four sentence using I. For example:

I live in Chicago.

I like ice cream.

I’m 22 years old.

I’m a vegan.

Now, can you produce a single sentence that combines all of these ideas. As always there will be more than one way to do this. Here’s an example:

I’m a 22-year-old native of Chicago who loves ice cream despite being vegan. 

What could you come up with?

Remember that long sentences are definitely not always better. But the reality is that they are sometimes required, especially in academic writing, and it is the practice that you get in combining the sentences that is valuable here.

Keep on writing

Studying grammar and completing grammar-focused exercises is important, but the only way you can truly apply what you have learned is by writing. And it really doesn’t matter what.

Read

It is no coincidence that most of the best writers are or were voracious readers. Through reading we truly get a sense of the language and all its intricacies. Read as diversely as you can, and you will begin to appreciate the limitless number of styles that exist, and the mastery that great writers have over the written word. It inspires, and it teaches us in equal measure.

A pro tip: Linguix can help you to learn new words while reading online. When you encounter an unknown word anywhere on the web, just hold Alt and double click on it to see its definition:

Write, and then read it out loud

Great writing has a wonderful flow to it, and the best way to get a sense of your own writing and flow is to read your own text out loud. It doesn’t have to be to someone, just to yourself. It’s amazing how often you can improve on a sentence by reading it aloud to yourself and noticing something that just wasn’t apparent on the page only. Words and sentences are meant to be heard as much as written, after all.

A pro tip: Linguix allows you learning new words while writing. The Linguix Web App and browser extensions have a built-in AI-fueled synonyms-selection engine. This feature allows you to see synonyms of English words. Just hold down the Alt button and double-click on a word to see a list of its synonyms. 

Utilize online tools

Obviously we live in a digital age, so it would be remiss not to mention some of the great resources that exist online to help you in our goal of mastering grammar.

GrammarBook. A great source of grammar learning, with quizzes aplenty that can be completed anywhere, anytime.

Linguix. Our AI-based writing assistant helps identify mistakes in your own writing, and recommends how improvements can be applied.

Purdue Writing Lab. Another fantastic online resource which provides numerous free grammar, research writing, resume writing and other related resources. 

No one is perfect

There is one last point to take away. Never be ashamed of your grammar. No one has perfect grammar, and it is a skill that even accomplished writers seek to improve over the course of their career. Never stop learning and seeking to improve, read and write as much as you can, and never see it as a chore, but instead as an opportunity to improve. 

The post How to Become a Better Writer Through Improved Grammar appeared first on Linguix Blog.

Although not an easy thing to achieve, learning to speak English like a native can have a number of significant benefits, like opening up a whole host of job opportunities that are normally reserved for native speakers (air traffic control, for example) and you will be able to speak with and be understood by native English speakers of all nationalities. Last but not least, it will add to your own confidence in speaking the language. So how do you go about learning to speak English like a native? Here are five practical steps for you to follow to achieve this ambition.

Familiarise yourself with different accents

First of all, if you want to speak English like a native, then you need to decide which native. That’s because no two English speakers have identical accents: there are so many diverse influences on the accent that we have with that no two people can be said to have exactly the same one, and that goes for every language, not just English.

But is doesn’t really matter which accent you want to develop, because the skill is to become accustomed to all of the varieties that are out there, particularly the ones that you will come into most regular contact with. One thing to remember here is that no native English speaker can understand easily all other native speakers, because everybody has difficulty with strong accents of one variety or another.  Familiarity is the only thing that can help you understand an accent, and because everything starts with understanding, you must expose yourself to as many different accents as possible when commencing upon your journey to speak like a native.

Imitate

If you want to start speaking English like a native, then start imitating. You will have to eventually. But a little word of warning here: when you are speaking with a native of the language, try not to imitate the words they say by repeating them back, unless you have expressly asked permission to do so first. The reason for this is it can sound a little disrespectful. If you check first, and they are happy, then fire away!

But instead you could use the incredible array of online materials to copy native accents: a really good tip here is to record yourself saying the words and then listen back to hear how close your pronunciation is to the original. And don’t forget to hone in on the accent that is your priority too.

One more thing here: practice in the mirror and look at the shape of your mouth. One strong reason for speakers failing to pronounce words properly is because they do not move their mouths in the same way that the original speaker does, and in English you really do need to move your mouth and tongue to get those native sounds. Study how the speaker moves their mouth, and you should do the same.

Pay attention to connecting sounds and rhythm

One of the biggest challenges faced by learners of English is the ability to discern what the individual words are in a full sentence. That is because no native English speaker separates their words the way that a computer voice would, for example, and the result is a mixture of sounds that can be hard to distinguish. There are some key tricks to learn here:

Connected speech: This is the habit of joining the consonant sound at the end of a word with a vowel sound at the start of the next word, which means that the second word sounds like it begins with a sound which actually belongs to the previous word. So, for example, the words ‘an apple’ sound like ‘a napple’ when a native says them.

Linking sounds: Also, when particular sounds join together in a sentence, an additional sound is needed to link those two sounds naturally. For example, when the words ‘I’ and ‘am’ are together (as they frequently are), the linking sound /j/ naturally forms between them, so it sounds like ‘I yam’. The result is that the listener is hearing ‘words’ that don’t exist, so the first step is understanding that this habit exists, and the second is to imitate it in your speaking.

Remove sounds: When the same sound comes up against itself, the sound joins together. So, in the sentence ‘I met Tom’, the ‘t’ at the end of ‘met’ and the ‘t’ at the start of ‘T’ become one and the same. The sentence then sounds like’ I me Tom’. Copy it.

As for rhythm, no two languages are the same in this respect. French and English, for example, have a totally different rhythm, and this usually manifests in the syllables that are stressed within words and then within a sentence. For example, ‘I went to the cinema’ would sound like this in a natural English rhythm – 00oo0oo (‘0’ represents a stressed syllable whereas ‘o’ represents an unstressed syllable). Recognize where those stressed syllables are in native sentences, and copy them.

Use colloquialisms and slang

Definitely one of the best ways of sounding more natural in your English is to use more native sounding words, such as phrasal verbs (I get on with my brother, for example, meaning you have a good relationship with him), and colloquialisms (I was stopped at the club’s door by the bouncer, meaning the security guard). Slang is a form of colloquialism, but you have to be very careful with slang as often it is used by narrower groups, and sometimes the words can be impolite or even occasionally, offensive. Learn the common colloquialisms of the particular English you want to speak, and actively build it into your vocabulary.

You can enhance your vocabulary with Linguix Synonyms and Definitions feature. First, when writing something on the web, you can quickly access the list of synonyms of any word you type:

When you encounter an unknown word anywhere on the web, just hold Alt and double click on it to see its definition:

Use idioms

Idiomatic expressions are another nice way of sounding more ‘natural’ in your English, but a word of warning too: using too many idioms sounds forced, and sometimes the idioms that you learn are not commonly used anyway. A good example here would be the expression ‘It’s raining cats and dogs’. Although every native English speaker will understand this idiom, next to no speaker would actually say it anymore, so it would mark you out as sounding quite unnatural if you did. A tip here would be to make a note of the idioms that you hear in your day-to-day dealings in the language, and start to use them yourself.

A pro tip: go check our list of 9 English idioms that will get you speaking like a native

And there we go, five practical steps to follow to start speaking English like a native. Although it is not an easy thing to achieve (and not even necessary these days), there are ways of making it happen. Above all, enjoy speaking the language, and have plenty of conversations with people who use it – if they are native speakers themselves, then even better for your journey.

The post 5 Practical Steps to Speaking English Like a Native appeared first on Linguix Blog.

This becomes even more important when you look at statistics. On average, a modern worker will receive somewhere in the region of 120 emails per day, while it has been estimated that last year saw approximately 7 trillion emails sent. That’s a lot of emails.

Yet the fact remains that the vast majority of people do not know how to write suitable and impactful emails, and so how many of those aforementioned 7 trillion were truly effective? In the ever-changing modern workplace, the art of effective email writing is not widely practiced, yet at the same time can be easily achieved by following a few practical tips.

Let’s commence a look at how, in a few simple steps, you can begin writing emails that will be the envy of the office.

Keep the email as brief as possible, and be succinct

No one wants to open an email and immediately be faced with an essay! The first tip is to get straight to the point, but at the same time always being polite. What exactly are you requesting or offering? If there is a call to action, what is it? Don’t leave important information buried in the middle paragraphs of a long-winded email. Be concise, be polite, say what you want to say, and that’s it!

If you have separate requests, include them in sperate emails

Instead of listing unrelated actions, include every individual request or offer in a separate email with a clear heading. This not only helps in keeping emails concise, it also assists in making information much easier to find at a later stage. The alternative is having to browse through a number of stodgy, over-long emails, which is a waste of time.

Use clear headings

This point is relevant to not only the subject line of the email, which of course will make the all-important first impression on the receiver, but also the individual paragraphs in the email itself. This not only clearly states your intentions, but also makes things a lot easier to reference and find at a later stage, both for the sender and the receiver. Once again, this can save a lot of time.

Make clear references

If your email refers to previous correspondence, be sure to include it, or at least reference it by clearly using the date and subject line. There is nothing worse than an email that alludes to an earlier message, yet is unclear what that communication was. If it is part of a chain, clearly keep it so, and do not change the heading. If you are starting afresh, then adapt the heading to show that.

Do not use abbreviations, slang, or over-familiar language

Know your audience. Emails leave an impression, and that impression will be of you. So, do not leave the wrong opinion by sending an email as you would a text message to a friend, and be careful not to come across as over-presumptuous or over-friendly, at least until a clear relationship has been established. And make sure you are polite too – it is not uncommon for people to interpret brevity as rudeness, so although it is important to be concise, do not forget the all-important ‘pleases’, ‘thank yous’ and so on.

Include timeframes if possible, and respond within adequate time

Have you ever heard someone complain that their email wasn’t responded to? Have you ever made that exact compliant yourself? Then do not delay. If you require more time to respond, then send a simple message stating this. If you cannot assist, also make this point clear quickly. If you require action within a certain period of time, then also politely state this. Nobody enjoys being ignored or left hanging!

Always proofread your email before you send it

This may seem an obvious point, but it is incredible how many people don’t read through their writing before hitting that all important ‘send’ button. From that point on, what you have written becomes a permanent record, so why litter it with spelling mistakes, poor punctuation or anything else that may reflect badly upon you? Use Linguix to avoid such problems!

Not to mention the old mistake of sending it to the wrong person!

By following these simple tips, effective email writing is within your grasp.

The post How To Write Effective Emails: 7 Practical Tips appeared first on Linguix Blog.