Is it possible to improve on your English language in your late 30s? [closed]

Solution 1:

It is possible to improve almost any skill at almost any age, and thirty is not very old at all.

Even though you have a reasonable grasp of English I would suggest that you look into ESL course providers to see if any of them offer improvement (as opposed to beginner) courses, either face to face in your area or on line. Structured teaching will get you much further than the imformal methods you are currently using.

As a start, though, I suggest that you try to write shorter sentences and to separate your text into paragraphs. This will make your writing more readable and help you to organise your thoughts.

Solution 2:

I edited what is now the first two paragraphs of your question, and left the rest alone, except for breaking it into several paragraphs.

Did you learn anything from studying my edit? If you did, I think you would benefit greatly from a writing class. If you didn't, you may need an ESL class, but I don't think you need to learn all the gibberish, as you put it.

I'm not an English or a writing teacher, so I am no expert in fixing your problem. However, I have edited much worse examples of writing than yours (and from native English speakers) into coherence, and they learned to write better by example.

I second the comment that you would probably get better advice on the Writing SE. The people there should know what kind of writing class you need, and the sort of places you could get it. Also, they could probably give you advice on what to avoid.

As for it being too late in your late 30s to learn how to write better: nonsense! You are still young, and you are motivated, and you probably have good work habits.

Solution 3:

It's certainly possible. The potential difficulties I can see are motivation and feedback. You need a goal, something you want to put into words, and you need someone competent to address the weaknesses. Reading rules and following them is all very well, but that doesn't necessarily lead to good writing, just to correct writing; the difference is often where the clarity comes in.

As you're from a technical background I assume/suggest that you start by working on your technical writing. Do you have reports or documentation to write on aregular basis? There are techniques for breaking these down and organising them that will help you more and sooner than trying something completely new. I've come across them from the point of view of writing scientific articles, but they would have been very helpful when writing technical material in industry at an earlier point in my career.

One key thing: editing. The best (technical) writers are good at editing their own work, but it's easy to pay too little attention to this step.