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Subject:Editing as a service From:"Dick Margulis " <margulis -at- mail -dot- fiam -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 11 Apr 2003 12:30:39 -0400
I did not participate in the recent editing thread, because the model suggested by the original post left me cold.
I provide editing as a service. Gimme your doc and I'll fix it. There is no time for a collegial sit-down to discuss the reasons for changes. If you don't want your commas fiddled with, don't ask me to help. When I'm done with your doc, it's finished. In fact, I'll keep the master copy thankewverymuch and give you back a protected PDF to send out.
The way this works in practice is that people who fancy themselves competent writers (but are not) avoid me, despite my friendly entreaties, until their own bosses or customers thwack them upside the head. The people who actually write pretty well but appreciate the value an editor can add send me stuff all the time.
I don't have time to do more than a single pass on most editing jobs, so I don't promise perfection. What I tell people is that I'll catch from 80 to 90 percent of the errors (concept, fact, grammar, style, typo, whatever) in the draft they send me. If they send me something that is 50 percent wrong, they'll get back something that is 10 percent wrong. If they send me something with 10 typos, they'll get back something with one or two typos.
So far, that has been Good Enough, which is a standard that applies in _most_ business situations.
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