Menjadi Seorang Penulis Bahasa Inggris yang Merupakan Bahasa Kedua Kita (To Be a Writer Using English if It's our Second Language)

To be a writer using English needs  a long process. Especially  if English is our second language. MasKatno Giri is originally Indonesian,  he wants to be a writer especially in Indonesian. Frankly,  it’s too hard. Even though it’s too hard MasKatnoGiri  has little experience  to write in Indonesian media.

MasKatno Giri considers that  writing in English  is harder, because we are Indonesian. But for hard learner, the problems can be overcome.  One of  Maskatno Giri’s  techniques  is by learning, observing, imitating the models of  professional writers.

When MasKatnoGiri is hunting  many references, he could find  many steps  to be writer from a  professional writers. We can try it by following these simple steps.

1. Think about why we want to write in English. Perhaps we think English is more popular and there are more chances for our books to become a best seller, or perhaps we have problems writing in our first language. Whatever our reasons are, if we have made up our mind that we want to write our novels, books, facts, fictions or any article in the English language, then there is nothing to worry about because a language becomes ours if we fully master the language.
2. Examine our current skill by doing a simple test on the internet. Search on the Internet for English literacy tests and choose one which suits our style. If we are living in country where people speak English then we must have an idea how good our English is, give ourself marks out of ten by judging our own skill in conversations and discussions. Once we have found out on which level our English stands, then find the root of our weaknesses in parts of speech such as grammar, spelling mistakes, vocabulary and most of all our style of writing. Writing mostly depends on our talent as a writer so we can easily improve our mechanics.
3. Make a list of things that we need to improve on. For example, if we need to improve our grammar then work out the best way to improve it. If we don't have time to join a class in our area or there is no course for our grammar needs then purchase some good English grammar books from the nearest bookshops. If we are in a condition that we can not afford to buy books then we can use the library. Also get the new editions of the Oxford English Dictionary and a thesaurus.
4. Make a habit to learn five new words every day using the dictionary and thesaurus. Write them in sentences using the grammar we are learning, this way we will learn the right usage of our new vocabulary. At first we might not notice our improvement but by doing this we can put new words in use and soon we will be able to see the difference.
5. Make a habit of listening to the news, it will improve both our English and writing abilities.
6. Start writing short paragraphs. Read our work and give ourself a treat by going out with friends to socialize or buy something new for ourself, this way our writing will connect to our social life.
7. Read lots of books, newspapers, and articles in English. This will help we convert our own writing ability into English writing ability. Reading other books will improve our writing style in English, bear in mind that we can't copy people's work, but we can always learn from reading, reading books might inspire our writing as well.
8. Start writing our story using grammar and spell check on the computer. Also, read our work and be our own editor, work with patience, ask our friends to read our story, get their critiques in order to improve our writing.
9. Talk to people who have English as their first language. This way we can learn how to write dialogue in our story.
10. Complete our work and decide if it is worth trying to publish. If it is, do not hesitate to send it to publishers. Do not worry about making it perfect before we send it because the publishing company has professional editors to do that for we.