Writing in English on the Web

Writing in English isn't easy

Not even for most of those who speak the language fluently.

It's even harder for those for whom English isn't their native language.

In this article, I offer a secret. The secret is this:

Your writing in English doesn't have to be perfect. It can be just as appealing by being charming.

The secret to being charming appears below.

Of course, successful web content has to appeal to two audiences.

• Your visitors
• The search engines

The article describes how to charm your visitors. For information on charming the search engines, click here.

By Steve Barancik (Here are my professional writing credentials.)

Do you have an English language website? Do you lack fluency writing in English?

Then guess what: there's an elephant in the room. Actually, there's an elephant on every single page of your website.

Wikipedia defines, "The elephant in the room," as "an English idiom for a problem that [is very obvious] but which is ignored for the convenience of one or the other party."

In other words, an "elephant in the room" is something unpleasant that everyone notices but no one mentions. They don't want to embarrass you. They would rather just leave.

Do you have an elephant on your website? If you struggle speaking English - or writing in English - chances are you do.

To an English-speaking visitor, your website probably sounds "not quite right." Your visitors may be leaving as soon as they arrive. They may think you don't know how to write.

But you do know how to write. You're fluent in your own language and you've worked hard to become fluent writing in English.

I've been contacted by numerous non-native English speakers at my own website who ask, "How can I learn to write like you?"

You probably can't. I've been speaking English since birth and writing professionally for nearly 20 years.

But why would you want to write like me, or like anyone other than yourself for that matter? You see, here's the thing about elephants in the room:

If you acknowledge them, they tend to go away.

It's true! When you don't acknowledge the elephant in the room, people tend to roll their eyes and whisper behind your back. They think you don't know how you sound. You don't know how you write.

But if you do acknowledge the elephant, all of a sudden you're accepted! And liked! And if you can acknowledge the elephant with humor, even better.

Visitors are much more comfortable with a host who is capable of laughing at himself or herself! In fact, they will probably begin to find your English "charming."

Instead of "broken."

Wouldn't that be great?

So how do I acknowledge the elephant?

There are as many ways to acknowledge the elephant as there are websites and web authors. You could say,

"I hope my English is not hurting your ears."

Thought it might be funnier to say,

"I hope my English is not hurting your brain."

Or you could mix it up a little, to make it still more awkward:

"I hope your brain is not hurting from my English."

You could also say,

"Think of me as your New York cabdriver. If I could speak better English, wouldn't you wonder why I didn't have a better job?"

Or,

"Please feel free to laugh at my English. That is how I will know you are still there."

These are all just examples. You will surely do better and be more convincing if you write them yourself. And you probably want to express your awareness of the elephant more than once on your website. It would be a good idea to do it near the top of all your entry pages.

It would be even better to express it differently on each of these pages.

Something amazing happens when you acknowledge the elephant

Not only do your visitors forgive your English and learn to enjoy it, but once the elephant is acknowledged it frees you to worry a little bit less about your English writing.

Why? Because you're no longer struggling to fool your visitors into thinking you're a native-speaker. They probably didn't believe it anyway!

In fact, maybe you can have a little more fun writing in English once you've acknowledged the elephant. You might even choose to make your English a little more entertaining - as long as you're sure it will still be understood.

Of course, when writing web content, there are two types of writing that are important.

• The written English that your visitors will read
• The written English that the search engines will read

Chances are the search engines aren't grading on grammar (though they probably are grading on spelling).

Of course, they're looking for a certain mix of keywords and content that, to a large extent, results in ranking some websites highly and some not so highly.

If your website isn't ranking highly, you need another kind of writing in English help in addition to what this article is offering. (And also some incoming links, of course!)

So what's YOUR language?

• French?
• German?
• Spanish?
• Dutch?
• Italian?
• Chinese?

For a page that leads to more sitebuilding resources, visit here.

Best of luck to you!