I’m not too bad at casual writing but when it comes to sales, especially to sell my skills, I keep feeling like I lack a certain grace or flair with words.
Chat gpt can help with suggestions but I always find anything I write with its assistance feels, well, robotic in a way. Awkward.
So I’m reaching out to you for your inspirational word material out there. English isn’t my native language so I’m hoping to improve it further with your suggestions. Authors? Websites? Perhaps eloquent YT creators I can learn from transcribing what they say?
Thanks
Native English speaker here - my English teacher at school always used to say that in order to write well, you need to read well.
That probably doesn’t help you in the short term, however! But, yes - finding “good” authors you enjoy is a good way to go.
As someone with the opposite problem, too formal and not very good at casual writing. Truth is, formal writing is robotic and in today’s context it is regarded as awkward except in a few places. Most of the samples online that the bots are trained with are overly formal examples. 99% of cover letters are never published online, so that’s an area they’re lacking. What they have access to is the awfully generic slop that’s impersonal and meant to sell online workshops about writing cover letters.
There’s a very difficult task in making formal writing feel natural and warm. I would advice instead to aim for transparency. A cover letter is supposed to highlight a match between your skills and personality, with the company role’s needs and work culture. It’s not a cold sales pitch, you must show that you did your due diligence about getting to know the place before applying for the job. As long as it sounds like the genuine you talking, not a façade, it doesn’t has to be too formal, just keep the content and vocabulary professional. How you would talk in the workspace with a coworker that you don’t know too well yet. A cover letter is more like corporate flirting than lawyer speak.
As for material, read the basic common sense guides online, but, and it is a big but. Also read a lot in general, specially in English as it isn’t your first language. Unlike LLMs humans are actually intelligent and we can use experiences from other contexts, and good writing in general shares common principles across all genres. Even if every genre has specificities, they’re usually an addendum or exception of general good writing. Variety is the spice of life.
I don’t think anyone will be able to give you general tips that actually help. You should find someone willing to edit you. That’s the best way to improve at writing.
Read lots of literature. Find fiction that you enjoy and read it every day.
I don’t really know what people are doing to enrich their vocabulary and fluff up their language to be honest; my vocabulary and writing all stem from high school. However, my experience is that in order to write well, you need to read a lot. Learn what works for others, consider why it may not work for you, and pick up the good bits. If all else fails, open a dictionary, pick a word every day, and try to use it in a sentence before going to bed, just so you learn more synonyms and specific terms.
I’m pretty sure that when it comes to job applications, most people are probably using AI these days. Unless you think you can beat AI, it doesn’t hurt to let the some kind of AI go over your text and steal some or the good bits.
I’m not asking how to broaden my vocabulary, rather how to incorporate the flair associated with this type of writing. I’m not entirely opposed to AI as help, and in fact this works well for me to get plebe jobs if I want - but I want to step up. And yes, I one hundred percent think good human writing beats AI. I believe AI is too easily spotted nowadays, and using my own voice would give me an edge.
I was hoping for specific authors recommended or similar but instead most replies are to pick just anyone and a thesaurus.
