Li Excels as an Engineer, but her
Writing is a Barrier to Advancement
Li is a 50-year-old engineer
working for a firm in Seattle. She came to the United States 12 years ago from
China and has held a stable position working on various projects designing
industrial equipment. Her performance reviews are excellent in the areas of
technical skill, speed, punctuality, working as a team member, and attitude.
It seems like a great success
story, but that’s not entirely accurate.
Li has received criticism for her
English writing skills, which she admits lack polish and clarity. “I know what
I want to say, but I can’t put the words in the right order,” she told us. “My
supervisors tell me they know what I’m trying to say, but sometimes I use the
wrong tense, or the wrong punctuation. It’s frustrating.”
She believes she has remained at
the same level for the past five years and she believes it is due to her
inability to communicate effectively to colleagues and superiors. Li has taken
several English classes and they have helped, but for some reason they just
haven’t taken her to the next level.
Six months ago Li discovered Wordzen!
"Since I started using Wordzen,
not only have my inter-office emails improved, I have actually learned so much
from the editors,” she told us recently. “I feel it would be wrong to misrepresent
the revised writing as my own so I told my boss how I use Wordzen as a learning
tool. The first thing she did was sign up for Wordzen herself!”
“My skills have improved every
day, and I feel more confident,” said Li. She added that she hasn’t started
using the voice-record feature yet because she likes to print out the emails
every evening after work and line up her original next to the editor’s revised
copy. “I read them aloud, too. That’s how I learn,” she explained.
Li said she appreciates the fact
that she can learn at her own pace and she can access Wordzen from work or from
home.
Wordzen is a truly unique email
editing tool but it should not be misunderstood to be a language translation
service. It is designed for people who have an advanced ability to speak and
write English but lack the skills necessary to build correctly structured
sentences and then construct a concise and effective email message.
Li’s goal is to advance to the next level by the
end of the year, so she says she uses Wordzen often. “I appreciate that Wordzen
is free, but if they start charging it won’t slow me down at all. I really rely
on it.”
Wordzen is an email editing for people who have a good understanding of English and basic writing skills, but need help putting together a clear, concise message. Wordzen editors check sentence structure, spelling, tone, and grammar.
Click here to watch a YouTube video that will guide you through installing and using Wordzen.Labels: email editing, grammar, sentence structure, spelling
