Can using an English editing service really increase my firm's bottom line?
What do you mean by style and usage faults? What makes for effective written English?
What is this English editing process you've referred to? What does it entail?
If you write carefully and read what you have written, you should be able to eliminate most grammatical errors. And with a good spell checker, misspellings should be minimized. However, your style and usage faults (confusing words, hyphenation and word division, etc.) will still tend to outnumber your grammatical errors by about 30 to 1. Even college-educated native speakers make most of the errors listed under Editing Out (Some of the Things We Watch For). If you want to write well, you will have to learn not just grammar and spelling but also the secrets of professional editors and top writers. You will have to learn to write clearly, concisely and effectively.
If your firm advertises and markets products or services in English-speaking countries (a denomination which now includes more than half of the global market), then it is highly likely that effective writing can increase both its revenues and profits. To put it concisely: Careless copy costs customers. And if your firm enters into legally binding agreements in other countries, the main benefit of clearly drafted documents could be minimization of losses (rather than maximization of profits). Properly drafted legal documents are like doctors and lawyers: You never really need them until something goes wrong. And as with any other insurance policy, they eliminate worries while things are going well.
Another consideration is this: If your firm’s employees spend an inordinate amount of time and energy trying to get their letters, memos, reports and legal documents "just right," then perhaps it is time to consider outsourcing some of the editing work to a professional service. The resultant increase in productivity will decrease your costs of doing business and add to your firm's bottom line.
Effective writing involves getting your message across with the greatest degree of clarity and concision. Many of the most common style and usage faults involve either misuse or overuse of language. Too much is said that adds little or nothing to the message, or what is said is confused rather than simple and direct, precise and clear. It is often a case of "less is more." When we use fancy or obscure language to mask muddled thinking, we weaken our writing. Effective English is plain English - straight-forward, concise and clear. It gets to the point and emphasizes what is truly important. Then it concludes. See also: Editing Out (Some of the Things We Watch For).
The following is also worth considering:
"Most people only have two writing faults: first, they can’t write; second, they think they can."
Samuel Langhorne Clemens
(a.k.a. Mark Twain)
We can revise your business documents so that they clearly, concisely and effectively express your ideas and accomplish what you want them to. We can also improve the layout and design of all your business documents, whether for use in print or on-line. Your business documents are a reflection of you and your business. Improved business documents result in both improved sales and the improvement of your business image in today's English-speaking global economy.
Though we work very fast, we always divide the editing work into at least three sessions. First, we paste your text or document into a word processing program and read through it once to get a sense of both your subject matter and the quality of your writing. At this point a decision is made as to whether the job entails light editing, heavy revision or a complete redraft.
In the second phase, the actual editing begins. The editing can take anywhere from half an hour to several days, depending on the size and nature of the project. The final steps come later, during a final proofreading and review of all the text and documents. There is a break between the actual editing and this final phase so that everything can be re-appraised with a fresh eye.
That is the basic process, but of course each job tends to have its own requirements to which we adapt this process.
You shouldn’t. At least not for translations, everyday writing tasks or normal correspondence. But perfecting your written English can take years. Not many of us are like Joseph Conrad, who became a world-famous novelist writing in a language other than his mother tongue. Okay, perhaps you don’t need Conrad’s degree of literary perfection. But if you value efficiency, clarity of expression, conciseness and the effective use of language, then we can likely teach you a thing or two you’d never learn in school. And if writing in English is not one of your strengths, we can definitely assist you in presenting your ideas clearly, correctly and effectively. And our online editing services can be a real life-saver when difficult assignments and encroaching deadlines begin to make your life unpleasantly stressful.
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