Native English speaking writers - how to find them (to contract out)?

Essaywriting, are you a native English-speaking writer?

More and more people who live outside of the English-speaking countries speak and write very good English. My English teacher was born in Sweden and his English is better than other professors I know.

Newsflash: The reason the question was asked is hardly because anybody doesn't already realize this.

Do you think the last post on the previous page of this thread represents "very good" written English (and without several obvious clues that the author isn't a native speaker) by someone whose representation of himself or herself as an American is truthful?

It depends. Have you ever been to Southern Texas or rural Kentucky? If so, you may realize that some Americans from these region cannot properly spell the word 'beer' (in spite of them drinking it every day). So being born in America versus using English language is meaningless and cannot be compared. The post on the previous page could well be made by a person born in the US, believe me.

The reason the question about that poster's native language was asked is that his or her post contains several very obvious indications that the person speaks English only as a second language, despite designating himself or herself as an American "Freelance Writer."

Your response to that question having been asked was to point out that some people who learn English as a second language speak it better than many Americans.

Nobody doubts that even mediocre ESL writers probably speak and write better English than uneducated rural Americans who can't spell the word beer. Presumably, nobody looking for a professional American writer wants to pay hard-earned money for work produced by either of them.

I have no problem with ESL writers who represent themselves honestly and I have a good professional relationship with several of them on this forum. The three principal writing mentors in my life (father, uncle, and high school English teacher) all happen to have learned English as a second language. So, thank you, but I really don't need you to explain to me that some people who learn English only as a second language can speak and write it very well.

According to your profile, you're currently a student. Why are you arguing with people here who have probably been writing professionally since you were (literally) in diapers. My suggestion to you would be to spend a lot more time here just reading and learning and a lot less time pontificating, especially about professional academic writing.

I prefer an educated ESL writer than a writer who was born in America but can't spell simple words like beer.

"Beer" is easy to spell. "Coffee" can be tough for people in some countries: simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Bart_vs._Australia/Quotes.
Jeez... why don't you just hack my posts and misplace all of them? Vendetta, Sarah?

It is not impossible to hire a native English speaking writer using online channels. However, it is difficult to verify the credentials of the writer which would prove the ability of the writer to write in native English. Perhaps you should look into hiring a writer in person instead? That way you can give the writer a writing test, right in front of you, which can help you prove his native English speaker writing claims. While it might sound impossible, you can actually complete such a work interview / test via Zoom or FB chat.

You're obviously ESL, yourself, as NinjaWarrior has pointed out several times, based on the specific types (and frequency) of obvious ESL mistakes in at least 600 of your 757 posts.


This is one of your siliest suggestions. First, fewer than 5% of my clients are anywhere near New York State, let alone actually in NYC or anywhere else close enough to me to make that even possible. More than half of my clients aren't even on the same continent as I am. Second, the only "writers" who might have the time and patience for this other nonsense about taking a remote "test" are, precisely, the most desperate and totally inexperienced ones that every client hopes to avoid using. Third, most clients wouldn't even know how to "test" someone's English to distinguish ESL from NES or how to identify the tell-tale signs of (otherwise) good ESL writing that any NES professor would recognize immediately.

As long as they're already on this forum, prospective clients who are capable of identifying typical ESL mistakes can simply read through forum posts to identify real native-English-speaking writers and distinguish us from (even fairly good) ESL writers (like you) who still don't know when to use the articles "the" and "a" properly and who don't know when no article is required, at all. As always, the most reliable ways that NES clients can protect themsevles against being duped into using an ESL writer are to: (1) order a very short project, first, as a "test"; or (2) simply ask the writer to talk to you very briefly by phone, just to verify the writer's real location and lack of any foreign accent.

When one considers that students these days rely on AI to write their research papers and other essays, the need to actually find a way to test the ENL writer's ability has become a thing of the past. While AI does sometimes sound like an ESL writer got the paper done for the student, AI forces the student to rewrite aspects of the paper to better suit their writing style and needs. So they actually contribute their own voice and writing talent to the paper, negating the need to use an ENL writer. The paper becomes the actual voice of the student, which means his revisions make the paper work better for him rather than if he had to hire an actual writer then have a need to get several revisions from the writer until his needs are actually met.

I'd suggest that "voice" is the least important concern with AI writing, because current AI writing programs typically provide essays that are totally devoid of substantive content and full of totally made up content by virtue of what AI experts refer to as AI "hallucinations." I'd also suggest that if one simply conducts the relatively small amount of due diligence necessary to identify a reliable NES writer, there will be no revisions necessary to about 95% of projects, and 99% of any projects actually requiring a revision won't need more than a single revision.