Can you believe we have a fresh, brand new year? We can accomplish
lots of new tasks and make new dreams come true.

It is 1-1-11 – that is so awesome! What do you plan to achieve with this fresh start you are getting? I am determined to make regular and loyal updates to my blogs, here and for my ezine of almost eleven years,
Rim Digest at Rim Digest blog AND my newest that I had wanted for years: Healthy Living, which is the one for my Health & Wellness Products Superstore.

I wear many hats, only one of which is of a Virtual Assistant , specializing in proofreading , editing , transcriptions and social media assistance.

As a proofreader, I bring to the table one of my all-time pet peeves that was drummed into my head by all of my English teachers in both grade school and high school AND later in tech school where I got my degree in Computerized Medical Office Technology.

Some of my editing clients prefer I leave it “as is”, so I do, but the article in
Daily Writing Tips , which I am using with their permission, really sums it up for me!

A Person Is Not a “They.” Neither Is an Army.

So you want to be politically correct, you want to be inclusive, and you would never assume that every nurse and every teacher in the world is a “she.” Right?

Right.

But sometimes this worthy thought leads us to perform some very clumsy gymnastics. Consider this passage from a guide for a doctor’s front office staff:

Show the patient how to use their medicine.

Does this patient have three heads with three mouths through which to ingest medications? Or maybe the patient is using a medication produced by several Big Pharma companies?

We can see the impulse behind this absurdity: whoever wrote this document didn’t want to suggest that every patient in the practice was a “he.” Or a “she,” unless the doc’ was a gynecologist. But this good intention led to a moment of bad grammar: pronouns need to agree with their nouns.

We have several alternatives that honor our desire for inclusiveness without sliding into the ridiculousness. One obvious strategy is simply to make the noun plural:

Show patients how to use their medicine.

Another is to change the pronoun (his, her, its) to an article (the, a, an):

Show the patient how to use the medicine.

Or, if it works in the context, we can change the singular “medicine” to the plural:

Show the patient how to use medicines.

Each of these approaches allows the writer to make sense without offending anyone’s sensibilities.

Remember: in U.S. English, collective nouns are singular:

Zappit Electric just raised its rates. (Not “their rates”)
An army travels on its stomach. (Not “their stomach”)
The jury returned its verdict. (Not “their verdict”)

Not so in the Queen’s English: Brits see collective nouns as plural (e.g., “The jury returned their verdict”). But when you’re writing for a U.S. publisher, corporation, government agencie, and similar entities, take singular verbs and singular pronouns.

What do you think? Do you use *they* in this way and find that you are happy doing so?
If was editing YOUR work, would you feel I was maybe too nit-picky or would you appreciate the fact that I really CARE how your writings come across to those of us who ARE picky when we are reading?

I would love to hear your comments and opinions!

If your web pages, blog posts, reports, sales pages, books, etc. are not grammar and spelling error free, why not contact me and we can get them all into shape for this brand new year!

Spelling & Grammar Errors Are Costing You Business!

Remember, I am a Virtual Assistant who LOVES to do editing, proofreading
and transcription assignments along with research, blog posts, article submissions
and social media maintenance!

Why not Schedule a Project now?

Editing services are a great addition to your writing team. Luckily, for a lot less than the usual rate of someone performing this service alone, often your Virtual Assistant can help you with this task.

In the past most editors were employed by publishing houses. Today, there is a wealth of enterprising editors who run their own editorial services businesses.

The services they offer run the full gamut of editing processes employed by the big publishing houses in the business. These include project development, manuscript consultation, copy editing and proofreading, among others.

In the olden days, when a publisher decided to publish what a writer had just written,
the writer simply handed the manuscript over to the publisher. This manuscript would
then follow the typical publishing route of procedures.

Line editors will check for grammar, punctuation and problems in format and other copy-editing concerns. The acquisition editors may help shape the general direction
of the work.

Developmental editors are sometimes hired by authors (and the publishers,
at times) to give shape to the work and make it marketable.

However, most editors will not bother to check the facts written in the manuscript.
Until recently, everybody assumed it was the job of the author.
Or, perhaps someone hired specifically to do that job.

The facts

Good editors will clean up all the sloppy details in the book (changing of names,
conflicting character traits, etc.) including misplaced adverbs and dangling participles.

However, he or she is not usually obligated to find out if airplanes were already around
in the 1800s. He or she assumes that the author knows that fact and the reason why
it is included in the story in the first place.

Who should be responsible for the checking of facts?

Fact-checkers

Aside from engaging the services of an editorial service group, an author must have his book quality-tested by an expert reader. This reader does nothing but double-check on supposed facts in the manuscript.

Fact checkers are hired to work on travel guide books, historical fiction and some other literary categories and genres. Travel books have hundreds of thousands of statistics
on sizes, hours, prices, and phone numbers.

Few travel publishers hire fact-checkers, relying on the authors for the authenticity
of all their entries.

Almanacs, dictionaries, atlas

Ideally, a writer must have some fact books in his library for references – encyclopedias, atlas maps, almanacs, dictionaries and many other guide books. This is especially true
if his work deals with some history or science or some other specific topics and professions.

Authors

After the fact-checker and the line editor have finished their jobs, the author must go over his work one more time. Of course, some unavoidable circumstances happen.

Phone numbers in travel books go out of kilter when area codes of places are changed, restaurants close down, and names of streets and airports are changed.

Disclaimers on the copyright page can sometimes help but if the authors had re-checked
one more time just before the book was printed, the error may have been averted.

Fortunately, the good news is that all of the editorial services groups today are more savvy than ever before with fact-checking and heading off other potential publishing disasters.

When I do editing for my clients, I proofread and fix any errors I find and often either reword unclear phrases or at least suggest changes to ease the reading and understanding of the work.

When asked to, I happily research names, places, facts, etc. as well.

Remember, I am a Virtual Assistant who LOVES to do editing, proofreading
and transcription assignments along with research, blog posts, article submissions
and social media maintenance!

Why not Schedule a Project now?

The goal of any article writer is to have his or her articles
read and loved by readers; however, there are some cases where
this is more important than others.

Many internet users, namely webmasters, use articles to create
back-links to their websites. These back-links are used to increase
website traffic. The only problem is that many article directories
only allow links at the end of an article. This means that for you
to benefit from article distribution and back-linking, your readers
must make it to the end of your article.

If you are a webmaster who is using this technique, it is
extremely important that you go the extra mile to ensure
that your articles are interesting and easy to read.

Speaking of interesting, the best way to determine whether
or not your article is interesting is to be sure that YOU like it.

After you have created your article, you will need to proofread it.
(Remember that I can do this for you at a very affordable rate.)

After you have thoroughly proofread your article, you are urged
to review it one more time. This time, you will want to examine
it as a reader, not the article writer. If you find your content
dry, dull, or boring, there is a good chance that your readers
will as well.

An article that is easy to read is also important.

You can write a captivating article, but if it is difficult to read,
it won’t do you any good. When it comes to easy to read articles,
grammar is an important component. Whether you are planning on
selling your articles, using them for your own personal use, or
submitting them to article directories, you need to take the
time to proofread your articles. Many internet users claim
that the number one turn off is articles that are poorly written.
There is no quicker way to lose a reader than to have an article
that is poorly proofread.

In conjunction with readable articles, grammar wise, it is also
important that you examine the words that you use. To sound
professional, many article writers use big, technical sounding
words. This is okay to do is some cases, but it is typically
advised against. The only time that you should use big,
technical words is if you are writing an article that will be read
by experts in the same field. The second biggest turn off for
readers is content that regularly contains words they do not
know or understand. In a way, this is similar to creating dry,
boring content. If your readers cannot understand exactly what
you mean, they may find reading your article to be useless
or a waste of their time.

The best way to write captivating articles is to write from your
heart. When it comes to article writing, even just a little bit
of creativity can go a long way. Creativity is what can turn an
otherwise boring article into one that your readers will not
only enjoy reading, but one that they may also recommend to
others.

P.S. When writing articles, creativity is extremely important.
Even if you do not consider yourself to be a creative person,
you are urged to sit down and brainstorm. You may find that
it is the best way to develop captivating article ideas.

I am running an unadvertised special where you can have from
one to an unlimited number of web pages, blog posts, profiles,
book pages or any other readable document proofead & edited
for ONLY $1.00 per page! NO job is too big or too small,
if this is a special you want to take advantage of, just
shedule a project and we can work out the details.

Remember, I am a Virtual Assistant who LOVES to do editing,
proofreading and transcription assignments!

Jan Tallent
Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance

573-775-4520 jan@tallentagency.com