Business Writing Course

[Susan Loudermilk <slouderm -at- falcon -dot- tamucc -dot- edu>]

Mike,

I have taught ESL students for many years from many different areas of the
world.  The main issue I believe, is one of experience.  As others have
pointed out, they usually know the rules of grammar better than I do, they
just have not had as much experience as native speakers practicing and
learning the nuances of the language.  You also have to be careful about
how the course is set up because if they feel singled out based on their
language skills, you will go into a class with alot of negative feelings.
I always make sure that I place a great deal of value on what they have to
say as writers, and place the delivery issues on a different level.  Show
them how you deal with these issues and why you have to.  They are not
writers so they really won't care about editing issues.  With that in mind,
I think the point someone made about having a tech writer, or someone to do
the final editing in spite of what you teach the writers, is always
necessary.  Even those of use who speak English as our first language know
that we'd better have someone else check and double check our writing
before it goes out.

Susan Loudermilk