Native English Editors from India

I'm going to blog about a controversial topic, but a) I think maybe my opinion is valid and useful for those seeking editing and proofreading and b) even if I'm wrong the topic may interest someone.

I just received a resume to edit from an editor from India; she says she's been working with a team of editors (she's also worked with a big publishing firm). Mostly she does type-setting. She seems to have a lot of experience.

I don't really mind editing the resume of an editor... you might think a skilled editor could do it herself but we all make mistakes and it's difficult to edit our own writing. There are a couple pretty bad mistakes (extra letters, poor spacing) that makes me wonder if she even gave it a quick once-over before sending it.

More to the point, the writing, although not terrible, isn't excellent. What does it matter? Well - maybe for her work, it doesn't. Maybe she's a very skilled formatter (I, myself, am not). Maybe most companies that contact her don't want to improve their writing; they just want it to be eye-clean. In fact, they probably do (if only because, it is very difficult for someone to realize that their own writing can be improved).

When people look for an editor or proofreader, mostly they want someone who will fix things, but not change things. That being the case, it's no wonder that there are a lot of proofreaders and editors from India (there's a lot of everything in India right now, but mostly in the services industries.) It's a skill with rules that can be learned and applied. Many of them are probably very good at proofreading and charge much, much less than similar services from Western Speaking Countries.

HOWEVER. Writing - good writing - is what makes any kind of document truly successful. A boring, poorly written paper, document, letter or even email, even if it is flawlessly clean, may still be ineffective. Anything written can be written better. And good writing shines, attracts, encourages and persuades. Good writing bonds with readers. Good writing is a product in itself...

I can't say that Indian people can't write. Of course not. Salman Rushdie is a damn fine writer. But I will suggest that many Indian people in the proofreading industry right now are applying a learned skill set which will fix, but not improve the text. This may be exactly what you want; but you shouldn't. Ideally you'd find someone really good at formatting, who will make it look awesome when printed, someone with a good idea for grammatical and punctuation details, and also someone who uses red ink liberally to rewrite clunky passages, get rid of redundancy, and improve word choice.

What you choose is of course up to you. For dry business manuals or reports, making it look good may be all that matters. But for anything where expressing your ideas, opinions and arguments is more important than how it looks, you need someone who can help you fix the writing.

Am I the greatest editor in the world? Maybe not. But I'm good, and my prices are very affordable.

www.paper-perfect-editing.com