Beyond Duolingo

I do a lot of editing for English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners—mostly essays, admission letters, and resumes for university students and recent graduates. Sometimes this consists of correcting grammar and spelling to polish a perfectly readable document into a gem, and other times the process is more like digging for raw minerals and extracting them for use. I thoroughly enjoy both tasks, and I love achieving an end product that aligns with my client’s true knowledge base and abilities. Sometimes I can see how a writer’s first language influences their word choice and sentence structure in English, which I find fascinating. I speak a little French and Spanish myself, but I’ve never attempted to write an essay in either. I always come away humbled from EAL editing, because whether the writing is better than a native speaker’s (which is often the case) or whether it needs a lot of improvement, the fact is that this person has taken on the challenge of mastering another language. And this isn’t just Duolingo fluency we’re talking about; these are academic papers and professional documents. As a fan of all things language-related, this impresses me no end. And to be trusted by EAL writers to take their rough draft and smooth out all the linguistic kinks is a true honour and pleasure for a word nerd.