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| How do you write in a foreign language? |
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Welcome to this tutorial on writing in a foreign language from the Lansad platform.
Writing is an essential part of your studies at university and in many professional contexts. Whether you have to produce a summary, a dissertation, an article or a covering letter, all these tasks call on a range of skills that you need to develop. The following advice is designed to help you build them up step by step.
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Whatever the reason for your writing and whatever form it may take, it’s important to remember that there is no universal recipe for successful writing, but there are a few strategies that can be useful for writing in a foreign language.
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L’écriture d’un texte est un processus qui s’étend dans le temps.
Ce processus peut être divisé en trois phases: Une première phase de planification, une seconde qui consiste à faire un premier jet puis à retoucher le texte et une troisième où l’on effectue des contrôles et des réajustements pour une version finale.
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All writing, whether it’s a simple note or a thesis, needs to be planned.
Before you write :
You need to have an idea of what the text will contain.
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- Try to summarise your knowledge of the subject, and why not exchange your ideas with others, to enrich them?
- Bear in mind who the text should be aimed at: your teachers, students, readers of a general or specialist journal?
- Also think about the purpose of your writing: Should it inform? Describe? Report? Argue?
- Style is also important: should it be formal, informal or colloquial?
- And of course, don’t forget to think about the structure of your text beforehand.
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During this first phase, as throughout your learning process, it’s important to remember that to write well, you need to be an attentive and critical reader. As you read, look out for things that catch your eye and that could be useful to you, such as words, expressions, sentence structures or usage that differs from your mother tongue. Make a note of them to build up a personalised repertoire, a bank of models. In other words, find writings of the same type as the one you are aiming for, use them as inspiration and adapt them to your situation, as you did for the covering letter at the bottom of this page.
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Try to formulate your ideas in the target language even if, at first, you feel that you are not expressing yourself adequately. And if a word, expression or other element doesn’t come to you, simply write it down in your mother tongue. You can refine your text later with the help of tools.
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During this first writing phase, don’t worry so much about grammar.
Focus on the content and structure first, and come back later to work on a more precise correction.
It’s a good idea to leave your text aside for a while.
After this time, reread your text from the point of view of the recipient and check the content and structure. Is the information or argument clear and detailed? Is the order understandable? If not, make any necessary changes.
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Thirdly, check the grammar and vocabulary. For grammar, you can use a checklist (for example: do I respect agreement, are the sentences well structured, do I master the use of past tenses). You can also create a personal list, based on your needs and recurring problems. For vocabulary, use a unilingual dictionary or thesaurus.
Once again, leave the text to one side, because when you’re writing, it’s during breaks that you do the revision.
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To check your production, you can ask other competent people around you for their opinion on the content and structure of the text.
Rework the text, paying particular attention to the mistakes you tend to make, and remember that :
- The introduction must arouse the reader’s interest ;
- The text must have a clear structure ;
- The connections between ideas must be explicit ;
- Concrete examples help the reader ;
- Unnecessary repetition tires him out.
Before submitting your text in its final version, give yourself time for several re-readings to gain the necessary distance and control. No text is perfect in its first version. Above all, writing means writing and rewriting.
Give yourself time:
When you’ve written a text, leave it for a few hours, or even a few days, and revise it again, asking others for their point of view: your peers, your tandem partner, may have an outside view that quickly perceives aspects that you wouldn’t have thought of. |
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You can learn to write by reading, but the transfer is not automatic. You need to go through a number of stages and practise, so try to find as many writing tasks as possible that correspond to your level. For example, take notes when you read or when you listen to something and write about it. This will help you overcome the fear of writing in a foreign language, gain confidence in your ability to express yourself and, above all, clearly improve your writing skills.
Use every opportunity for real exchanges. Write to and exchange emails with acquaintances, friends and teachers. Or take a text that interests you and summarise it in writing.
Ideally, you should be able to send these writings to a third party who can give you constructive feedback on your work.
on your work. |
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| In addition to professional and academic writing, you can also engage in a correspondence project or a long-distance exchange with a foreign interlocutor, tackling themes that are specific to you and encouraging feedback on your work at the same time. As part of the exchange process, by submitting your own texts, your motivation to learn will increase and you will enjoy discussing subjects that you have freely chosen together. Without any external pressure, this type of activity gives you feedback on your work and allows you to see how much progress you have made. |
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