Proofreading

Why Us

The Answer
We are your answer to outside help.

Fact
Business Fact: Americans typically shun products with broken English

End
Footnotes

There are several types of text errors:
Typing:
  Spelling errors
  Punctuation errors
  Grammar errors
  Typos
  Repeated words
  Missing words
  Repeated phrases
  Missing phrases
and even
  software induced

Formatting:
  Text mis-aligned,
    then went
    unnoticed.
  Accidentally moved
    then went
    unnoticed.

Links fail when:
  Link to page was
    moved
    deleted
    renamed

Website Management software does not correct for changes to link to files within your own website.

Your website may be made up of several separate sub-websites and therefore, not all managed at the same time.  Links are treated as outside links.

Make Money Showing Us
OUR MISTAKES!

We want to have zero errors on our website!

In spite of the fact that we proofread, we too are prone to make the same "accidental" errors as anyone else.  Our own proofreading is also prone to missing the errors.

I'm sure we have blundered too.  Help us find them and we will give you a cut on your first bill with us.  In fact, it is easier to spot someone else's errors than it is to spot your own.  Therefore, we can help each other.

For every grammar error, missing word, misspelled word, or extra word type of error you find on our website, we will give you 2% to 5% off of your total first time proofreading bill up to 50% off maximum provided that we decide the proposed error(s) are of value, that we implement them, and that the changes are displayed in published form for 7 consecutive days.  Should we change our website in such a manner as to no longer need the proposed errors, then the value of the proposed error will be zero.  We will not change our website to eliminate use of a correction, only in the rare case that we no longer use a page and you just happened to find an error on the page just before we eliminate it.  Just for finding it, we will give a consolation and possibly full credit.  It is just that we do not want to lose out should we redesign our website.  The chances of missing out on a credit would be slim so don't hesitate.

Grammar errors are worth 2% to 4% for each error (see below).  Contested grammar errors must be backed up with an American English reference book, printed or revised within the last 20 years.

Do not be alarmed, if you are confident that you are correct, then we could very easily agree and you still get your discount.

Our intent is also to encourage your business.  So if you are considering using our services, you might be surprised just how easily we will allow the discount just to get your business.

We, like anyone else, don't always place our commas where we later think we should have earlier.  So, we will entertain your ideas on commas but we do not give a discount if our commas are different from what you might have used.  Why?  Different people have different opinions in regards to commas.  Some rules are pretty clear, others are not.  Rather than argue the point, we say drop it.   To us, it is the same as debating religion or politics.  No thanks.  We will listen to what you have to say, and we might change ours if we agree that we missed one but we will leave it at that.  Happy hunting!

Step 1.  Make arrangements for us to proofread your material (web pages, manual, brochure, etc.).

Step 2.  Choose a method of letting us know:

Up to 50% off: Each grammar error is worth 4%, all other errors are worth 5% off.  Send the number of errors located, the URLs, the descriptions of the errors, a screen capture of your entire desktop (PrtScr to the clipboard, then pasted into a standard MS BMP file, JPEG, or GIF file) displaying our original screen in a maximized browser window, and the date and time of the capture.  Failure to comply with all details will result in no reduction in your total price.

Up to 25% off: Each grammar error is worth 2%, all other errors are 2.5% off.  In an unencrypted file, send the number of errors located but not the URLs or the descriptions.  In an encrypted file, send the URL that has the error(s) on it, the description of the error, a screen capture of your entire desktop (PrtScr to the clipboard, then pasted into a standard MS BMP file, JPEG, or GIF file) displaying our original screen in a maximized browser window, and  the date and time of the capture.  Do not send the encrypted password along with the file.  Only send it when we tell you what your charges would be otherwise.  Failure to comply with all details will result in no reduction in your total price.

It is not our intent to deny you credit for finding our errors.  If you find them, then you deserve the savings!  We have tried to simplify the method in order to not hold up your own order.  If you wish, we can create a signed agreement and contract clarifying any details, however, due to extra costs involved, we can only give you a maximum of 10% credit towards your total bill.

Understand that as we find our own errors, we will make corrections and republish.  Your corrections  must be processed 2 days prior to our republishing of our website pages.  Send your e-mail "return receipt requested" so that you can see when we opened the e-mail.  We will publish any changes of our own before processing any correction e-mails.  We will process your e-mail message ASAP afterward.  If you have not heard back from us within 24 hours, then please contact us to discuss your corrections.  You will be able to verify if the error(s) you have found were corrected before your e-mail was read.

The entire decision as to the value of the proposed errors is with our company only.  Whether we will incorporate any proposed errors into our website is at the discretion of our company.  Keep in mind that we want to correct any errors so we have little reason to reject obvious corrections to our mistakes.

You agree that our company, its employees, contractors, or business associates, are not to be held liable in any way for non-acceptance of any proposed errors submitted, or our refusal to deny you credit for proposed errors submitted.  You submitting any proposed errors to us shows your agreement with these terms and conditions.  Your sole recourse is to air your opinion on a public forum that we may also respond to.  You agree that in this unlikely event, that your submission to any public forum can only be made along with a response from our company.

We can find the mistakes that others often overlook.  Let us proof your website or other documents.  If you are involved in e-commerce, do not embarrass yourself with typos, spelling errors, missing words, poor and missing punctuation, etc.  Did you know a period and a comma follow Latin abbreviations when preceding more text, e.g., like this?  There are a lot of rules that are easily broken.  Even if you are an English major, you will most likely make mistakes.  Until you have someone else proofread your documents, there is a good chance that they will go unnoticed by your staff but not by the rest of the world.  All of us make some mistakes, I know I do.  Some proofreaders are better than others.  From past experiences, I can tell you that we find errors in documents that others had given the thumbs up to.

There are only a few companies that do what we do and have a web presence.  We have reviewed the known sites and are now convinced that we can do a better job.  We found improper English, punctuation, and even spelling errors, all on a site that professes to be able to check your website.  The spelling errors I can understand.  Very likely, they modified the page content but forgot to run spell check again.  What bothers us is the blatant misuse of the English language.  This indicates that the same errors on your website would go unnoticed.

Common error types are listed in the sidebar to the left

We are your answer to outside help.

We can help correct these errors and reduce your risk of embarrassment, lost revenue, and legalities.   I personally have been in all areas of computers since the 70s, from, computer software, typesetting, right on up to website development, and e-commerce.  We understand the problem, the issues, and needs of your business' website.

Most of the problems are simply found by reading.  A lot of errors will just pop-out from the page.  To truly check that same page more thoroughly, we also need to use the latest tools to help locate spelling errors, and cases of common misused grammar.  We don't take the tool's word for it either, they are just an aid to help point out possible errors.

For web page content, we can usually capture the actual text from the display, or from viewing the source.  For MacroMedia^® FLASH™ like web pages, we will need the text source version of the web page to process the data electronically.  We have found that there is no one software package that can reliably take care of spelling and/or grammar, we have to use several.  I have collected and monitored these tools since the late 70s.  They are getting better but we are not there yet!

I am surprised at how many web pages didn't even get the spell check treatment.  I prefer that step to have already been done.  We can run spell check but it still takes time to document the error or correct it.  Face it, you are better off if we run spell check and find nothing.  That allows us to get to the "hidden" errors such as misused words, punctuation, etc., sooner.

We can take the original HTML source files, interrogate the text portions, and make corrections in our copy.  Alternately, we can look at the website text and document any errors in a file.  We can return the corrections as corrected copies of the original HTML files (as text) or as a file of corrections for you to make.

Copies of Original Files:  If you chose to receive files, we encourage you to compare the files (as text files) with the originals using a good compare program to see the errors and the corrections that we make.

Documented Errors: Getting the corrections in a file or on paper is possible.  Explaining where an error is located takes the most amount of time to get your corrections.  That translates to, it costs more to get your corrections.

Currently, we are a small group.  We have not found very many people that can do what we do to the degree that we can trust his or her judgment and results.  This means we can become limited in the amount of work we can process.

We are human, and as such cannot even guarantee that we will find all errors on your website.  We will probably find more than you suspected however.   Unless you already have the very best tech writers and text tools, we will probably find errors.  We like it best when you have gone through everything and are thoroughly convinced that there is nothing to be found.  Why?  Because we still find them, and believe me, they are there.  We have not found any websites that contain at least 1,000 words to be error free.  If your entire website is a single home page with very little text, then you might not need our services.  If it is anything more, then you probably do.

What you can do beforehand or on your own

Please review your website in its entirety to correct any problems, especially missing links^†.   If you still have not found any errors, please contact us.   Even though you may find errors, you may not find the ones that we find.  Regardless of how thorough you are, multiple sets of eyes are more likely to see the errors that the others miss.   Ever notice a mechanical drawing?  It has a drawn by, checked by, and finally an approved by line, ...  and for good reason!  An inaccurate mechanical drawing could be costly.  Your website is similar to the mechanical drawing.  It should be checked, and rechecked.  The exposure to the public is far greater than for most mechanical drawings, and with the possibility of even far greater risk!  For your users, these can range from simple frustration, to loss of customers, and even to liability!

Why your website may have errors

First off, you are human.  You are going to make mistakes.  You do, we do.  We might make less than some because of our education, background, or experience.  Because we proofread does not mean that we do not make mistakes.  We do the same as others do.  We get a second set of eyes to check ours before it is published.  Even with two sets of eyes, we sometimes miss an error.  What we have realized is that if we had not let a second set of eyes look over our text, we would have more errors.  Do not let this discourage you, we can find more errors than you think.

Many websites refer to the "webmaster" as a single person, further endorsing the common fact that most websites are authored and maintained by a single person or single set of eyes, and perpetuates the idea that a single person is all that is needed.  The "checked by" person does not exist in most cases!  The webmaster IS the "approved by" person.  Others in the company often submit pages to be published but the webmaster has their hands full just getting those pages published.  There is no time for review.  The review was to have already been done by the person submitting the information.   Alas, now it is too late.   It is out on the web for everyone to see.  This exposes your company to a great risk.   If you are working alone as the sole webmaster, then you probably already know that you cannot catch everything.  Get an unbiased person's look at your website.

Why choose us?

We are lucky to have someone that acquired a keen eye for noticing typos, spelling errors, misuse of words, etc.  This is actually a rare trait.  It has plagued him to some degree but it benefits the ones that take advantage of it.   Do yourself a favor, take advantage of it.  We have gathered others that have been trained to notice the same things to ensure we leave no stone unturned.  We can make a difference.

The Contract

Review the contract that will allow us to get started helping you leave a better impression on the web.  Feel free to contact us to arrange for a special contract to allow us to monitor and point out errors on your website in the future.  If you are not the person who can make a decision in these matters, please contact your supervisor, or pass the information to someone who can make the decision.

In order for us to do work for you, we require a signed contract before we can transfer any specific information (corrections, errors) to you about your website.

A contract can be signed to:

1) Point out problems already noted on your website (without requiring an entire review of the website).   This form is the simplest and least expensive, and often can help correct other problems on your website that we have not noticed or have not been exposed to in our current surfing.

2) Point out any problems found on specific pages or unique URLs^‡ on your website.

3) Point out any problems found on the entire website.  This is a more complete review and requires us to review all pages on your website.   In order to do this, we need specific URLs provided as browser links to actual pages, or we need the actual pages provided to us as files.   If the files you send are not already published on the web and accessible by the general public, then we require you to sign a release in order to review the content.

4) Point out any problems found on your website in the future.   This gives you perpetual protection against any plaguing errors.  We will need to know about upcoming changes to your website, or you must accept the fact that any newly published data may contain errors until we can review and respond to the new content.  Without knowing what has changed, we will need to review all content unless you can inform us of the changes.

Turnaround Time

Due to the amount of time required to adequately review an entire website, we need to know specifics, such as how many pages, amount of content on the pages, etc., to make an estimation as to how long before we can return the results of our findings.  We work on a first-come-first-served basis.  Usually, we can give an idea of the turnaround time.

Not a Webmaster Replacement

Please note, proofreading is not a replacement for the webmaster.  We do not change your design.  We merely point out mistakes already found, or we can look for mistakes.  The design of your web pages is your own decision.

Your design is your design

No one likes to be told how they should do their website a different way as if that would make it better.  If that happens to you, simply tell them, "I might do it differently six months from now, and I might have done it differently six months ago, but this is how I did it now."  We don't want to give you our opinion of how you should do your website, we just want to help you with your current design to make it the best it can as far as the proofreading is concerned.  Without affecting the overall design, there are some good sense pointers that can improve any design.  We will give these but no more unless you ask.

Secured Pages

Some websites require a logon and password to access portions of the website.  If you wish to have us review pages that we normally would not have access to, then we need to make arrangements to allow access to the pages, or you will need to e-mail us the specific web content.   Before doing so, you should sign a release allowing us to view the content.  We can sign a non-disclosure agreement to satisfy most issues.   We provide one of our own in order to cover both you and us.   We suggest that you review our non-disclosure agreement or prepare a non-disclosure agreement of your own.  We are not interested in your technical information or trade secrets.  We are only interested in correcting your typos, spelling, etc.  In other words, the same things anyone could notice.  These are the types of things that could reflect negatively on your website and the company.

We are not overly interested in working on web content that is not intended for public access.   In fact for several reasons, we prefer not to work on non-public web content.  The hassle of signing non-disclosure agreements is the main reason.  Your non-disclosure agreement must be reviewed by our attorney.  This takes time, and it costs more to do so.

We reserve the right to refuse certain work

As a general rule, we do take on work using a non-disclosure agreement written by your company.  However, in some cases, we reserve the right to refuse work for pages that we would not normally have access to on the World Wide Web and therefore would require signing a non-disclosure agreement.  Some reasons for why we would not sign a non-disclosure agreement are:

a.   The technical information we would be exposed to would be in areas of our own interest and therefore might prove to be a burden to ensure that we did not use any information in other work that we do, or could do later on.

b.   The non-disclosure agreement was too vague to specify specifically what or how a breech of the agreement could come about.

c.   The length of time that the non-disclosure covers.

d.  Other miscellaneous reasons.

If you feel that we are beneficial to you for your other pages and you would like us to review your "hidden" or technical pages as well, we can sign an agreement that protects us.  Feel free to contact us to arrange for any specifics.

Proofreading was not the necessity 20 years ago that it is today.  For a look at how proofreading has become necessary and why, click here to read the history.

Be sure to read other pages in this series:

History (or how did we get into this mess?) (Page 2)

Future (or where are we going?) (Page 3)

Americans shun products with broken English (Page 4)

Footnotes

^† Footnote 1. We cannot correct your broken or outdated links, we can only let you know that they exist.  The reference may have moved or been deleted.  Without a reference as to what they were linked to previously, we would not know what to link it to again.  Our primary interest is not to correct or point out bad links.  There are plenty of software tools that can do that easily enough.  We also have those tools and can perform this task provided we have the same information as your webmaster.  Generally, this is a task better left to the current webmaster.  Again, our interests are the things that slip past spell checkers and your current reviewers.

‡ Footnote 2. Some URLs can remain the same as shown on the address bar but have different content displayed on the page (frames).  We are referring to different pages, even if the URL displayed stays the same.  Some URLs do not change when content does as a result of actions taken such as clicking on a link.  Without knowing what causes each page to be shown, we need your assistance in specific actions to create each displayable page.  The simplest method is to provide the actual content as an html document.

For any of these issues, please send e-mail.

MS Word 2000
The application of choice for creating printed documents

MS Word User Tip:
AutoCorrect can change typos into words that are spelled correctly but not the word you intended.  We see it all the time.  It happens to us, and it happens to you.

Be sure to read
"History (or how did we get into this mess?)"

"Quotes from History section:"

Up until recently, the professionals have been responsible for all published text.

"Unfortunately, anyone could become a typesetter"

"Also, anyone could become a writer"

"The webmaster cannot catch them all.  You need outside help!"

Be sure to read
"Future (or where are we going?)"

"Quotes from Future section:"

"Babel is about to end"

"Flawless speech proofread realtime!"