As a French native speaker I imported a lot of habits from that language into my practice of English when I started to use it in a professional or private setting. Turning the tables, when non-natively speaking French friends are asking me to correct their French texts, they are usually well written from a grammatical perspective but the way to organise ideas, the expressions used and several other aspects of the language are sometimes very dissonant. The ways of expressions are even so strange that it requires professional skills to “fix them” – for me it’s much easier to start form scratch again. (That said, there is many occasions where it is perfectly acceptable to submit non-natively-sounding texts when they obviously originate from non-native speakers. In these cases, I just correct the grammar.)

Some nice people pointed out a few things I could do to improve my communication skills, and I added my own findings to the list. These recommendations part of what I used to improve my communication in English, but there is probably plenty of other little techniques that can be used instead of these. It somewhat worked for me so I share this as a material to fuel a personal reflexion on this. Maybe nothing will fit you, maybe you will find this useful. And I hope very much for the last!

Table of Contents

Improving general expression

  • Use short sentences. Usually sentences with one or two propositions are enough. Avoid sentences with a lot of propositions. Not only these complex sentences are unusual in contemporary English texts but writing shorter sentences focused on one idea or on the relation between two ideas really improves the clarity of texts.

  • Be terse. Use adjectives and adverbs with parcimony. But use them!

  • Be informative. Avoid expressions that do not convey informations. To give an example, math lectures are filled with “it is clear that …” or “it is trivial that …” which can usually be removed without changing the quality of the information conveyed by the discourse. Every group of people has its own similar gimmicks.

  • Prefer affirmation over negation. Affirmative sentences are easier to formulate and to interpret as negative sentences. Avoid irony and sarcasm, as they can easily be misinterpreted when used by a non-native speaker. (More generally, while I occasionally enjoy sarcasm and irony I really think they do not belong the workplace, whichever the language is. Especially in client context or in international context.)

  • Use present tense whenever it is possible, which is, almost always.

Improving written expression

  • Read a lot of texts from the same kind as what you want to write better. In the case of scientific or technical communication there is an overwhelming choice available so you may want to pick a few authors whose style you like and put them in good place on your reading list. For more personal writings there is not that many sources available.

  • When you proof read your own texts, actively ask yourself if you use short sentences, if they are terse, informative and affirmative.

  • When you read other people’s texts, take some time to read carefully a few paragraphs and ask yourself if they use short sentences, are terse, informative and affirmative. How could their texts be changed to acquire these qualities?

  • Be terse II: Avoid parenthesis, footnotes and any kind of diversion. If a bit of information does not deserve to be in the main part of your speech maybe it can be entirely skept?

Improving oral expression

  • Listen to a lot of talks or discussions from the same kind as what you would like to deliver or take part of. For talks, there is many talks available on YouTube and other similar platforms. It is a good idea to prepare a little playlist where you can store interesting videos and listen to them when you have some time.

  • Practice. It is certainly intimidating to give talks or run discussions in a foreign language, but it is very possible to practice in a safer set. For talks, it is possible to prepare and repeat them, it is also fine to ask some friends or colleagues if they want to play the public and give feedback. For discussions, it is possible to focus on listening in the beginning and more active in smaller groups.

Improving listening

  • Listen regularly to short programs. For use of language in common situations, sitcoms are fine but maybe boring tools. News are rather hard because of the lack of global topic. Specialised communications in a field you are familiar with are a very good starting point.

To Cæsar

Valuable recommendations here are most probably from my PhD advisors, Laurent Manivel and Nicolas Ressayre, or from Michèle Audin’s “Conseils aux auteurs de textes mathématiques”. The rest is from elsewhere or from me.