The VALUE of a WORD

A few weeks ago, I attended the SDL Innovate 2010 Conference held in Santa Clara, California. The conference's main topic was on localization, internationalization, translation, and the use of DITA/XML to enhance this process.

For those of you who are confused and lost already, this conference was about documentation. How to create it, how to reuse the contents, how to make the contents acceptable to a target (local/international) audience, and how to use technology (DITA/XML) to make all this happen.

DITA? (Darwin Information Typing Architecture)
XML? (eXtensible Markup Language - Similar to HTML and a component in XHTML, which are subsets of SGML. Document markup languages that are used for print (SGML) and web (HTML)... XML with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and DITA are replacing HTML for most applications because they have more flexibility.

Anyway... back to the point of the conference and what I'm finding applies directly to me. Much of the conference was centered on DITA. The reuse of document components. Storing the document components in a component content management system (CCMS) or (CCM) or (CMS). A big point was that to avoid redundancy and costs in translation and documentation in general was to ensure that each word used has a specific value in communication, if it doesn't have any value, then delete it. Wow. The value of a word. Let's look at that!

The VALUE of a WORD

Words have value. For someone writing to communicate, the VALUE of the word in making that communication happen is something to consider.

Is the word "dead-wood"? Is it redundant? Is it unnecessarily complicated or vague? Does it contribute more to wordiness rather than meaning? If it's any or all of these, the word should be deleted or replaced with a word of VALUE.

This is perhaps the ESSENCE of technical/scientific writing/editing (in the best form). Unfortunately, more and more coming out of academia with high-falutin' degrees churn out bafflegab and gobbledegook... writing that is totally unreadable and indecipherable.

As an EDITOR and WRITER, I can help scientists, engineers, technical folks, and yes, even academics fix their prose such that it is readable, while retaining the meaning and content intended.

The point? If your writing is filled with *static*--words that are not contributing to the meaning of the document, then you are losing your audience.

If you don't care about your audience or whether they understand your thoughts and meaning, then fine. Go ahead and write the gobbledegook and academic bafflegab you were trained (maybe) to produce.

But if you want your writing to shine, either learn how to write well... or hire an editor who can not only polish your work to make it shine, but also act as a mentor for your writing such that eventually you'll be able to write well on your own.

Yes... this was a blatant "sales pitch" for my editing services! :-) If you feel you'd like help with your writing, drop a note so we can discuss what I can offer to you.

Does Anyone Proofread Their Signs Anymore?

I've never experienced a "Monglian" BBQ. Someone obviously noticed and added the "O". But really. Why not do it right instead of this half-attempt? Ah, well.

Proofreading seems to be a lost art. No one is doing it anymore. Even in the sign making business. You see signs everywhere in which someone could have made a better impression if they had just proofread what they had put on the sign. It's bad enough when the name of the store is spelled incorrectly, but how about if the phone number or street address of the establishment is wrong?

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The Demise of Readable, Understandable English--From a Reader's Viewpoint

It's sad.

In my daily running around, I see flyers, brochures, huge banners, technical manuals, magazines, newspapers, non-fiction books, and novels peppered with typos, spelling errors, and grammatical gaffes.

I belong to "professional" groups--some of them groups for writers and editors... and I see typos, spelling errors, and grammatical errors in the posts. Some of these errors are things like misused apostrophes and subject-verb agreement. Things that are simple enough that they should have been caught. Aaargh!

And yes, I, too have occasionally had butter-fingers and have hit the "send/submit/enter" button without noticing that I misspelled something or that I missed a word. Typing fast on a laptop when being distracted by the dog wanting to go out or my wife fussing with me to come to dinner is a major hazard in creating perfect text--at least for me. However, writing in a forum or fooling around on the web while on the couch at home is different than when working on a professional job. As a writer, I value an extra set of eyes (another trusted reader) to view my text to ensure that I haven't made any serious gaffes. As an editor, I offer that service to my fellow writers.

I'm disappointed that companies in the U.S. don't seem to care about the editorial quality of their publications, their internal documents, and their customer-facing documents any more. They are so concerned about "saving money" that they no longer see the need to pay for U.S. based "editorial professionals" to help them with their documents. If they DO decide to get their documents written or edited, more and more are not only outsourcing their documentation, but they are offshoring it--sending it off to India. What they get back may be what resembles English, but it usually reflects the difference in culture and languages (the folks in India retain the English of the old U.K. Colonial times... and this makes for awkward reading for U.S. readership--some of the old U.K. expressions don't quite translate well into U.S. English).

Whether or not you liked the above comment doesn't matter. It's a fact. If you try to read some of the offshored documents, if you are a native U.S. English speaker, you will see and know what I mean. This is similar to the documentation that accompanies products made in China or Japan (or Romania or Italy, for that matter)--they find someone in the village who has "learned English" in the local high school or technical school... and they assign the person to "translate" the assembly or operation instructions into English. That person does it frequently enough, and they can market themselves as a "technical writer" or "technical editor" or "translator"--then they get more gigs doing the same for other products. If you've ever bought a VCR or other contraption, just check the user's manual to see what I mean.

Hey, more kudos to the person for giving it their best shot. I've taken Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and Mandarin in high school and college... and yeah, given enough time with a bi-lingual dictionary, I could probably translate a user manual, say for a VCR, into Japanese, Russian, Spanish, or Mandarin. But I guarantee that the receiving end of that manual would be rolling on the floor laughing their butts off at how incompetent and hilarious my "translation" would be. Well... the same goes for stuff coming in OUR direction.

You need a final editorial check by a native-speaker of the target language to review the doc for accurate and readable English. If you want the target readers to be in the U.K.--then get a U.K. editor to review it. If you want the target readers to be in the U.S.--then get a U.S. editor to review it. That's the only way to keep your documentation from being trashed by your customers--your end users.

Will it get worse? Perhaps. That's why I offer my services to help companies improve the quality of their documentation.

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How Did I Get Into Writing? It's a Story. Once You Get Itchy Fingers, You Have to Write!

Yup. These folks should have found a "Frien" to proofread their banner.


Okay, I admit it.

My Mom and Dad were both English grammar and composition teachers--and I wasn't too wild about putting up with "grammar and composition" lessons tossed at me over the dinner table every night.

I fought it... but in the end, it trapped me. And I discovered that I love fooling around with words. And those words don't even have to be in English!

I fooled around with writing probably as far back as the 4th grade... my 4th grade teacher was really big on writing "reports" on things--and I remember some of mine included the Aztecs, Roman Soldiers, Roadrunners, and Gila Monsters. The 4th grade teacher let us draw/color pictures to accompany our reports--and maybe that was one of my favorite things: illustrated documents. I continued being particularly fond of artwork more than writing until we moved overseas when I was in the 9th grade. We lived out in the boonies on the remote island of Guam--literally in the boonies. With virtually no neighbors, I amused myself by learning how to play guitar and attempting to write my first novel (with illustrations, of course)--got about 140 pages into it before I found *girls* and lost interest in my novel.

It was my exposure to other languages--a year of Spanish in the 9th grade, three years of Japanese in high school, a year of Russian in high school, three more years of Japanese in college, another semester of Russian in college, and a semester of Mandarin Chinese in college...(and then, to top it off, a class in formal linguistics in college!) that I discovered that grammar wasn't so bad.

It was grammar, I discovered, that explains how a language works. It was grammar that could relate the differences between one language and another (and provide the means for translation)!

In the beginning, I was so adverse to English grammar and composition that I worked at getting instead a B.A. in biology with a minor in chemistry. But my background (inherited from my folks, obviously) had me also acting as the editor-writer-publisher of the campus student newspaper and writing science articles for the local newspaper. At the university marine laboratory, I worked as a "work-study student" as a research aide and photo-lab technician/photographer. I soon found out that my photos could help sell my articles to the local newspaper.

A classmate showed a friendly newspaper editor one of my poorly written term papers (she worked at the paper and volunteered to take my term paper in). Thank God I had some decent pictures to get the "article" accepted. The editor did something that most editors would not (in addition to actually publishing the article!)--he sent back the edited manuscript. (The check he sent as payment for the article was also very nice!)

I studied this editor's markup (in those days, they used a blue-pencil on the manuscript pages to provide instructions to the typesetters). I saw what the editor liked... and what he didn't like. So, a few months later, when I had another brilliant idea for an article, I typed it up on my manual typewriter--this time trying to avoid doing anything that the editor had marked out on my previous submission. This editor was cool--he published this article as well. And sent back the edited manuscript along with the check.

So, each time I got an edited manuscript back, I was learning what editors like and what they don't like. And learned how to write newspaper articles. Soon, my articles were being regularly published and my manuscripts were being returned with very few marks. A great learning experience.

So, when I applied for a science teacher position at a local parochial school.... the principal said, "Well, we have good news and bad news."

"Okay"

"The bad news is, we've already hired our science teacher."

"Okay"

"The good news is, we've seen your articles in the local newspaper... and we'd like to offer you the English grammar and composition teacher position."

Well... I needed a job... so how could I say 'No'?

She said, "Here's your textbook. You start on Monday."

It was Friday.

I spent the weekend cramming--studying the first few chapters of the book on English grammar and composition.

Thank God my Mom and Dad were English grammar and composition teachers. I had been watching them for the first 22+ years of my life... so I understood what happened behind the classroom scenes for teachers--English teachers in particular. And, since kindergarten, I had many, many years of watching other teachers in the classroom. I knew which teachers appealed to my opinion of what teachers should be like.. and knew what I didn't like about certain teachers.

So, I walked into that classroom on Monday... and taught my classes the way I'd want a teacher to teach me. It seemed to work--these kids had already chased away two other teachers. I taught with a passion for my subject, a sense of humor, and a willingness to learn. The kids seemed to appreciate this. (And I've since found out that I had the future Governor and Lt. Governor in my classes! Totally weird.)

Teaching that semester of English grammar and composition is one of my fondest memories. I kept one chapter ahead of the kids... and learned about the parts of speech, techniques in composition, how to diagram sentences (this is a really COOL concept!), and the more subtle ways to work with words. I LEARNED my grammar that semester--and it was weird to be able to sit at my folks' dinner table and "talk shop"... about how to use a gerund in a two-word sentence (it can be done!) or using gerunds as objects of prepositions. Predicate nominatives, predicate adjectives. Infinitives. Phrasal verbs. And other jargonese of the English teachers.

While on Guam, I wrote and published freelance articles in newspapers and magazines both nationally and internationally. I had managed to get my work published by the Pacific Daily News, Pacific Sunday News Islander Magazine, Glimpses of Guam, New Pacific Magazine, Pacific Islands Monthly, and other smaller publications before returning to the U.S. mainland.

This article experience got me a job as a staff photographer, then writer, at a daily newspaper in New Mexico. I had more "reinforcement" about my writing here. My City Editor was a stickler... he'd say, "Dave, we're not paying you for the size of the words or the number of words.... KEEP IT SIMPLE!" Under my City Editor's direction, I learned how to cut the fluff from articles... how to make an article get to the point--the news in the journalistic style. (Of course, I'm not doing that here, am I?)

I learned more about what editors want. And managed to get articles published in the Anchorage Daily News, Alamogordo Daily News, Los Angeles Times, New Mexico Wildlife Magazine, California Homeschooler Magazine, Tri-Valley Herald, The (Fremont) Argus, The (Hayward) Daily Review, and The Oakland Times.

After leaving the daily newspaper, I got a job as a technical editor-writer--and have had jobs as a technical editor-writer ever since. But I have always kept playing with doing freelance articles and freelance editing on the side. This freelancing on the side has been helpful--because, with the current economy, I now find myself out of a regular job with new jobs seemingly all dried up.

So, I'm now making myself available as a freelance editor or writer. If you know of anyone who needs editing or writing, please feel free to send them in my direction.

Writing and editing has allowed me to learn and play with new technologies in all sorts of fields--whether it be space station operations, DNA synthesis and genome analysis, computer networking, telecommunications, pharmaceutical development, environmental regulatory compliance, laser safety, hazardous waste management, marketing and sales letters, or supermarket retail operations procedures. Writing requires that you be a quick learner--especially if you've never written about a particular topic before. Before writing about the above topics, I had never written about them. Funny how that works.

What am I doing now? I just got through editing a fellow's 150,000 word novel (he says he has two more of equal size on their way to me), and a book on new marketing techniques for Search Engine Optimization. And, I'm working on a marketing brochure-package for a sprint-car racing team. Strange stuff. All in the life of being a writer.

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After a long hiatus, I'm back. Yeah, it's been a while.

The Picture? Uh, NASA Ames "Reaearch" Center. Slight Typo in a Huge Sign. Bummer. Maybe they should have added a dictionary to their "Reaearch". Ah, well...

I learned about blogs (probably about 4 years too late) back in 2004. Well, maybe I learned about them even earlier, but I didn't try to play with creating one until 2004. It was during a vacation down to Los Angeles to stay with my in-laws for a while... and I was bored... so I found a computer and went to Blogger.com (which was before Google bought them and improved the interface) and spent an afternoon kicking around with it.

I created 4 blogs... all of them with complicated URLs... so I could never remember how to get to them. I also tended to forget the passwords to get into them to fix and update them.

Alas, I became unemployed. And I had to scramble to find jobs. Blogging wasn't high on my priorities. Then, when I had some response to my resumes, I got three gigs to work on simultaneously. Geeeze, when it rains, it pours. With three gigs all with different deadlines, I again wasn't in any position to put any attention on my blogs.

In 2005, I found myself severely unemployed... so I had a chance to start some new things. Tweaked the blogs a bit, but didn't go much further. Then, I got another job. This one didn't pay much, but it did pay enough to keep the bill collectors from freaking out and driving us nuts with their phone calls.

In late 2006, after a particularly frustrating day in the cubicle-farm, I came home and decided to investigate a website I had heard of--CafePress.

I sat down in front of the computer, went to the CafePress site, clicked on a button that said "Create Your Own Design and Product". It said, "Upload an Image"--so I dug around in my digital files and found a neat shot I took when vacationing in Hawaii... and uploaded that. Then it said, choose your products you want the picture on. I choose a bunch of things that I thought were cool--you know, T-Shirts, Mugs, Mousepads, Posters, Postcards, Greeting Cards, Journals, and Hats and such... and then I clicked on the button that said "done"....

I got a screen that said "Congratulations, You've got a Store!"... Hey, I'm cheap... I had a "Free" store. My Store? Sailing in Blue Hawaii.

I don't get a lot of traffic. But I've been learning how to use the Internet from all these ventures here and there. I'm hoping that this dumb little blog (and all the other weird websites I've cooked up) will give you hope that if dumb old Dave can do this, that you will have a chance at making it as well.

In the meantime, visit my Squidoo lens on Editing Your Writing.

I'll be writing more on this thing as I get the hang of it. And, I'll be posting some of the reasons why folks should hire an EDITOR.

Enjoy.. have a great day. Come back and visit once in a while. And if you need editing help, contact me!

Freebies... And not-so-Freebies...

Let's say you are at a party where there are a lot of medical professionals present. In fact, it's a hospital party for the surgeons, specialists, general practitioners, anesthesiologists, surgical nurses, ER staff, and other support staff.

Let's say you go to the party specifically to ask for free medical advice. Or perhaps with the intent to get some free medical services.

What do you think your chances are of getting what you think you may need?

Most will tell you to come to their office during regular hours (unless, of course, you have a bullet wound... in which case the ER staff will be willing to work on you after the ambulance drops you off!), set an appointment, and go through the standard billing process. Unless, of course, they are *related* to you... and then they might cut you some slack... (unless you are related to the same kind of folks I'm related to--in which case, I'd hesitate to ask them for any kind of surgery!).

Okay... different scenario. Let's say you are at a party with lawyers and investment bankers and mortgage brokers. You ask for free legal advice or investment advice or mortgage advice. With the lawyers, they'll tell you to make an appointment and come to their office during regular business hours. And the clock will start running the minute you walk through their door. With the investment bankers and mortgage brokers--their advice will most likely be to buy stuff from *them* (and they'll take their commission out of your hide when the transaction takes place).

So what do you do when someone asks for your *free* editorial services? If you have a particular editorial skill that took some training and experience to get, is it not similar to the skills and education that a surgeon or lawyer might have? (Although quite a bit less bloody or trying!)

I *do* provide "free samples" once in a while... Many times, however, they are *not* appreciated or even recognized as being helpful. (Like when I mentioned to an exhibitor at a trade show that their 15-ft-long banner had the word "Management" in "Quality Management" misspelled. Or, when I mentioned the typos in the menu at my favorite Chinese restaurant.--I guess that's considered "anal retentive" )

And, in my local Writers Group--we pass around pieces of our work for critique and copyedit sessions.. but it's sort of a mutual benefit thing among comrades in profession. We all benefit from each other's input. Most likely in the same manner as a bunch of surgeons talking shop, or perhaps some diesel truck mechanics comparing transmission gear-ratio manipulations to increase torque.

Case in point... last November, the water heater at our house died. Now, I'm sort of a klutz when it comes to mechanical/plumbing/electrical stuff (at least trying to fix it, that is). I knew that if I called a plumber it would cost a bundle--and being unemployed, I wanted to "save money"... I knew our next-door neighbor was also an "unemployed" mechanical engineer who was trying to start a Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning (HVAC) business.. but he was also a handyman type of guy. So... my son and I went over there to see if he could help us figure out what to do. He volunteered to help us... and we wound up paying him $500 for the new water heater, installation, and removal of the old water heater. It hurt when I paid him for his service (which *did* include the price of the water heater and new pipes). But, ya know, ya get what ya pay for. It's a good water heater, and it works way better than the old one did. And it was professionally and effectively installed. I don't feel so bad about my "investment" any more.

Likewise, a buddy of mine in our Writers Group was working on a manuscript of about 300 pages for his very first novel. He knew that I was a professional technical editor/ writer with 20+ years experience. He also knew that I was severely underemployed. So, he asked what I thought would be a decent rate for copyediting/reviewing his novel manuscript. I quoted him a "standard" rate... and he balked... then, because I was sort of on the short side of income and he *was* a member of our Writers Group, I brought my *fee* down to about half of what the going rate should have been. It took me about two weeks of on-and-off reading and editing to get through his 300-some pages of police-procedural/mystery text... but it was also enjoyable work even with the police jargon. He has since published his book and he has had his first book-signing event. He recently also published his second book. You can see his books on this Squidoo lens.

Others have also reviewed bits and pieces of his novels (separate chapters brought to our monthly Writers Group Meetings).. and other friends have also read through the whole manuscript--catching inconsistencies, typos, spelling errors, logic lapses, and so on.

Was all this eyeballing necessary? Maybe not. Did it help the novels? Most likely. Hard to tell. But one thing is certain. He *DID* get them published. He *IS* selling it on Amazon and through Barnes & Noble and through Borders. And what he paid me to edit his first novel is now a tax-deduction--for him.

So.... back to the question:

What do you do when someone asks for your *free* editorial services?

What is your *time* worth?

Editorial Freelancers Association

If you don't *know* what your time is worth, I'd advise you to browse through the URL listed above and get familiar with all the various rates there. It will be enlightening ... especially when you discover that if you have a passion for words and a skill with editing, it is actually *WORTH* something!

Reviewers can generally be found in the academic realm ... and yes, they are usually "inexpensive" (aka "free") (sometimes they are called "graduate students").
Reviewers usually just read the thing and then write a "review" praising it or trashing it for the local media or for "amazon.com", if that's the route being taken. Sure... this is "free", because generally the reviewers get at least a free book out of the deal. The *FINISHED* book or whatever is sent out to media representatives as a freebie on the hope that they will write a *good* review of the thing.

But if someone wants professional *editing* ... in other words, someone to catch typos, grammatical errors, spelling errors, usage errors, logic lapses,and perhaps even technical gaffes that pertain to the technology involved in the manuscript, they are *really* asking for copyediting and technical editing services. Which are not (and *should* not be) "free" or otherwise obtained for "honorable mention" in the final version of the tome. Unless, of course, you are related to them. I have some buddies who had their wives read and edit their MS theses when they were in grad school. That saves a bunch of major pain. (Of course, it helps if your spouse is an English major and is a native speaker of English. It also helps if your spouse agrees with and is familiar with what you are writing!)

Fees for technical editors and copy editors (IN THE US AND CANADA!) can range from about $20/hour to about $75+/hour--depending on what part of the country you are in and what is being edited. Again, in the academic world, you may be able to find grad students willing to take it on for about $10/15 an hour.

I hope this has helped clarify a bit of what the market is like out there. And... because those reading this are a group of predominately like-minded professionals... this piece of writing and advice and consultation was *free*. (Donations would be greatly appreciated, however!)

Learn More About Dave's Editing Services Here