Your writing skills are equally as important as any other business skill you’ve got. You use written communication when you’re sending emails, proposals, reports, and so many more business documents. That’s exactly why you have to polish your writing skills and keep them intact. But, what happens if you need to write in a foreign language?

Even though you’d need practice even for your native language writing skills, it is definitely harder to master foreign language business writing. Luckily, we’ve decided to help you and we’ve put together this ultimate guide for boosting your business writing skills in a foreign language.

Let’s break it down together and take a closer look.

1.    Read & Learn

Your business writing skills aren’t going to boost themselves. You need to invest the effort into active learning and updating your knowledge.

Whether you’re writing a resume or a project report to your superior, you need to actively work on improving those writing skills.

The best place to start is to read quality content in the given language, preferably closely related to your industry or niche.

Here’s what you can read:

• credible business magazines
• dissertations
• articles
• blogs

As you read, pay attention to all the useful details- from the selection of vocabulary to sentence structure.

Learn as you read and write down anything you find useful and new.

2.    Improve Your Grammar

In professional business writing, there’s no room for grammar mistakes. If you make one, you’ll be considered sloppy or unprofessional.

This is why you have to:

• constantly brush up on your grammar
• expand your grammar knowledge
• test your grammar and find weak spots

You can even take some language lessons to make sure you’re improving every day.

3.    Outline & Rewrite

The first copy should never be the final copy. That’s the rule even if you’re not writing in your foreign language.

The truth is, you need to work hard on creating the final copy of whatever you’re writing. That includes:

• an outline
• several drafts
• rewriting and rethinking

4.    Keep it Short & Concise

When you’re still insecure about your business writing, you should always aim at leaving as little room as possible for making a mistake.

The best way to do so is to keep your writing short and concise.

Here’s what that implies:

• no fluff words and repetition
• take out anything redundant
• share only the important, valuable information

If you write like this, you’ll be focusing on the most important information you’ve got to share. This will help you invest more energy into writing like a professional, and less energy into looking for mistakes.

5.    Use Writing Tools

Business writing in a foreign language can be tough, especially when you’re insecure. But, there are online tools for every language out there that can help you improve your writing.

For example, if English isn’t your native but you have to do business writing in English, we’d strongly suggest you use tools like:

• Grammarly
• Thesaurus

They can help you proofread and edit your writing, as well as find the right words to fit your context.

This will be a great foreign language practice for you.

Look for online writing tools that will help you improve your writing and use them for as long as you feel the need to. This way, you’ll have the support you need and will be able to learn on the go.

6.    Read Out Loud

When it comes to being proficient in a foreign language, we tend to make more mistakes when we’re writing rather than speaking.

This is because in speaking, we don’t think too much but we use the language constructions we’re familiar with and feel comfortable using.

This is exactly why you should read out loud what you’re written to be able to:

• check if it sounds natural
• see if there’s something you could formulate better
• check the overall quality

Reading what you’ve written out loud is a great way to find the weak spots and further improve your written copy. It’s an exercise you should do with all your business writing.

7.    Ask For Help

There’s nothing wrong with asking for help, especially when you’re still in the process of learning. That’s why you should think of a way to have someone check your writing and give you a hand.

It could be anyone:

• a language exchange partner
• a colleague you trust
• a friend who speaks the language proficiently

You could even turn to a college paper writing service if you want a true professional to take a look at your writing and help you improve it.

Final Thoughts

Boosting your business writing skills in a foreign language requires some strategizing and a lot of hard work. Still, with the right guidance, you’ll be one bit better in it every day.

Use the tips we’ve shared above to improve your business writing skills and become more proficient in a foreign language.