Banish Bad Business Writing With Crowdsourced Proofreading
How can I put this delicately? Most business people suck at writing. I say this based on the emails, press releases, blog posts, and other documents I encounter daily, most of which indicate a less-than-stellar command of the English language. (Hey, nobody's perfect; I suck at math.)
But bad writing reflects badly on you and/or your business. Short of hiring an editor, how can you make sure your business documents are clear, concise, and error-free? Start with Kibin, a crowdsourced proofreading service.
It works like this: You upload your document (in DOC, RTF, or TXT format), then wait for a volunteer editor to give it a once-over. You pay $.01 per word and the company promises a 24-hours-or-less turnaround.
The edits you receive aren't permanent, but instead take the form of comments, corrections, and/or suggestions you can use to revise your document once you've got it back in your word processor. And it's worth noting that even volunteer editors' edits are reviewed by a Kibin admin to make sure they're up to par. (See the Kibin FAQ to learn more about how all this works.)
A service like this could really come in handy for improving the quality of your communications. That said, I'm scratching my head over the idea that you can earn free editing services by volunteering to edit other people's work. If you're qualified to edit others' material, why would you need help with your own?
Personally, I'd probably plunk down the few bucks it would cost for "premium" Kibin-ing. Would you? Share your thoughts in the comments -- where I promise I won't even pick up my red pen.
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