Today, I would like to share some more spelling helper tips. This is what I love and one of the few things I have confidence and sureness in.

Last week alone, I noticed several instances of:

no
know

being used incorrectly on web pages and blogs. Okay, if you use twitter or text a message, you will often use the shorthand “no” when you mean “know”, just as we use C for see and 2 for to, two OR too, but in any other context, no is a reply in the negative OR short for none, as in ” I have no idea”, etc.

The other know is a short version of KNOWLEDGE, as in “I don’t know.

Probably the next often one that I catch is seen and scene . Seen is the past tense of saw or see, as in, for example, ” I have seen the light. Scene is a place, like “the scene of the crime.

A detective might say, “I have seen the evidence that the perpetrator left at the scene of the robbery.”

One I do not see used often but comes to mind is sheer . This would be an adjective and one of its meanings is see-through. Its sound-the-same word that could be confused with it would be shear as when the wool is shaved off of a lamb.

Maybe surprisingly, two words that sound exactly the same that I rarely see used in the wrong context are our meaning “belonging to us” and hour which is “sixty minutes”, but that might be because the meanings are SO obvious that no one seems to get them mixed up.

My last set of words today is except and accept and I see these mixed up a LOT.

The word except is used where you want to signify an “exception” or and exclusion. “We are going to visit all of the relatives except Aunt Lucy, as she is sick.”

Accept means that you will take, allow, settle for, etc. as in, “I accept your challenge,” or “I am glad to accept your proposal.”

I am willing to accept part of the package, except for the broken glasses.”

I hope these little tips and examples are of some help to my readers.
I love proofreading and editing and knowing that a lot of online bloggers and webmasters cannot afford to hire someone to do these simple fixes for them makes me glad to share some of my very limited, but SO important, knowledge with them.

I really and truly want to see you present yourself and your business in the best possible light and although, admittedly, a lot of your visitors might not notice errors, or even CARE if they do, if even ONE potential client or customer is turned off by grammar and / or spelling errors and leaves your site with a bad impression, that is one too many!

I am fast and efficient with this service, as my satisfied clients are happy to attest to AND generally manage to proofread and edit from 4 to 5 pages or more per hour. Do NOT let the $20 per hour rate scare you off – I do not piddle around and waste YOUR time OR mine and get as much as it is possible to accurately get done in your hour AND the job is not done until YOU are satisfied, so you have nothing to lose and more time to do what you like to do or are best at to gain.

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

Guest Post by Tricia Spencer

Business and Personal Writers Need Proofreaders

The Benefits of Using a Professional Proofreading Service

When a written document’s first impression means the difference between success and failure, a professional proofreading service can save the day.

Whether it’s a sales flyer, a business proposal or the next great American novel, any written presentation can fail if its message is sabotaged by avoidable typographical and grammatical errors.

Read more at Suite101: Business and Personal Writers Need Proofreaders: The Benefits of Using a Professional Proofreading Service

thanks, Tricia

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

Hard to believe that January is already GONE and tomorrow starts February of this fresh, new year! I have no idea where the time went to and everyone I talk to agrees, it just FLEW~!

I know a lot of bloggers, online business owners and others who I am involved or connected with who seriously need at least one more hand or even one more head. Why not give the “gift of time” to someone you know that has so much to do they feel they will never catch up?

Or, even give the gift of time to … YOU! All of the experts advise to outsource the busy-work or tasks you do not want to do or that drain your time so that you can be free to concentrate on what you love doing the most and/or are best at. This is a wonderful way to test the waters, as they say, with having your own Virtual Assistant .

Take my help, for example … Love to write blog posts but hate the actual posting? I can easily do that for you and love doing this. Until I have a designation on the site for that purpose, you can just use the Schedule a Product option and tell me what you want me to do for you.

I see a lot of really informative, beautiful and entertaining blogs and web sites but they are full of typos and spelling & grammar errors – this is my favorite task of all so you can hire me to proofread and edit your pages so that you can showcase your work in its best possible light.

If you offer seminars, blog talk radio or other shows, do webinars, etc. it is a great idea to have those audio recordings transcribed and yes, I do perform this service . Plus, as an added bonus, your file is triple proofread / edited before I consider the assignment to be finished!

This option is often over-looked by web masters, coaches, performers, etc. because they offer a down-loadable mp3 or other file for people to listen TO, but I can tell you from not only some of the shows I have transcribed but also those I have just attempted to listen to, a lot of times it is hard to hear every word, especially with talkers who talk over each other, run on sentences that should be cut into paragraphs, start one story and then interrupt his or her own flow by going in another direction entirely and so much more that you might not realize unless YOU were trying to type it all up for a file people can read!

The other way I can help you save some time for the fun things you want to be able to do is with assistance with your Social Networking maintenance. I can search for others in your chosen niche for you TO connect with, weed out those you would not care to associate with, send hello, welcome and thank you messages to those you want to connect or interact with, etc. and free YOU up to just do the fun part; the interactions and conversations. This is another service that is not yet designated on this site but can be scheduled with just a message to me.

I plan to offer help setting up Face Book and Face Book Fan Pages soon – I am still learning my way around them myself but as I learn, I will be glad to share that expertise as well as help you set up and maintain a Twitter account and/or a professional networking presence on LinkedIn .

If you are needing help with any of the above mentioned Social Networks, just let me know and we can work things out – I have insisted on keeping my name and reputation clean and honest for over 11 years on the net so you can rest assured your passwords and log in information are safe with me and if in doubt, feel free to contact any of my wonderful clients who will be glad to vouch for me.

If hours of assistance is out of your budget, or if you are just curious about how much time a helper really can be, I have reasonable and highly competitive rates and you can try “just an hour” or just one project. I do offer discounted rates on bigger or long-going projects, so this might be the option you prefer. I am easy to work with and love what I do and think I can safely say it shows with the service I give my clients and the tasks I perform for them.

Have a wonderful, love-filled, Happy Valentine’s Day and I am “wishing” you the Gift of Time for this holiday and every other day.

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