Re: Who is an ESL writer?

Subject: Re: Who is an ESL writer?
From: Lauren <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:26:26 -0700

On 3/27/2013 4:21 PM, Robert Lauriston wrote:

I think the term's used most often by ESL teachers to describe
students in their writing classes.

That is probably more accurate. I based my answer on assumptions from what was stated about writing for a non-native English audience.

There's no special term for technical writers who write for non-native
speakers. Many of us have to write for a worldwide audience.

In looking back at the question, now I cannot determine if the "ESL Writer" is a technical writer or an SME sending something to a technical writer. I tried to view ESL Writer in the sense given of the "challenges of managing offshore teams and ESL writers."

I guess I need to know more about the context of how the term ESL writer is being used. The follow-up post stated, "Why then should I categorised as an ESL?" That seems insulting. Why would a writer be categorized as ESL when English is the native language? Is Indian-English somehow removed from American- or British-English? To classify a writer as ESL under these circumstances suggests that American-English is also ESL to British-English.

A technical writer is a technical writer. I thought an ESL writer is one who writes for those who have English as a second language. Apparently, it is for those who write in English as a second language. There is a website for it that only makes the categorization of ESL writer seem worse. http://eslwriter.net/








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References:
Purpose of Tech Comms today: From: Janoff, Steven
RE: Purpose of Tech Comms today: From: McLauchlan, Kevin
Who is an ESL writer?: From: Reshma
Re: Who is an ESL writer?: From: Lauren

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