With that said, here are some tools that can help improve your writing. None of them is Grammarly because here is a recent Grammarly review on Trustpilot:

As you can see, the software does not help to improve writing skills. To improve your writing avoid Grammarly, hire a trusted proofreader and/or check out these books on style. I have avoided grammar-heavy books and focused instead on readability.

A Pocket Style Manual

Diana Hacker

For someone who wants a quick hack of the basics or want a quick reminder about how to reference.

Stronger Writing Skills for Teens: Modes, Methods, and Materials That Work

Gregory Berry

Easy to read with separate chapters on argument and research writing.

Stylish academic writing

Helen Sword

Good illustration of different writing styles in academic work. With lots of examples to demonstrate that clear and concise writing is a joy to read.

Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students

Stephen Bailey

Specially written for oversees students.

Aditionally, check out this article about cutting unecessary words from your writing.

Who is Emma Parfitt?

Emma Parfitt is a proofreader with 18 years of writing experience with businesses, academics and creative writers. She obtained a Creative Writing MA (St Andrews University) and a PhD in Storytelling (Warwick University). Then set up her own proofreading business and became a published author of fiction as well as academic literature such as Young People, Learning & Storytelling (Palgrave Macmillan).

L’article Writing Skills est apparu en premier sur Emma Parfitt Proofreading Editing Services.

CV Spellings

Here are some quick tips to avoid mistakes that could be detrimental while editing your CV.

Master’s is always spelt with an apostrophe. Easy. This is because the apostrophe indicates that a person has obtained their master’s. Now, I said always… the exception is when you write Master of Science or Master in Creative Writing with no possessive form required.

I used to think we wrote PhD to represent Doctorate of Philosophy. Yet that would be DoP?!

PhD is an abbreviation of the Latin: Doctor Philosophiae. Latin does not have a set word order hence PhD.

A useful abbreviations list for your CV:

MSc (Master of Science)

MBA (Master of Business Administration)

BA (Bachelor of Arts)

BSc (Bachelor of Science)

PhD (Doctor of Philosophy)

Capitalisation for your CV

It would be incorrect to capitalise degrees unless using their official title:

I have a bachelor’s degree in biology. I have a master’s degree in literature.

I have a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. I have a Master of Arts in Education.

Things to capitalise:

• A noun such as the name of a company
• Brands
• City names
• Months and days of the week
• University names
• Your job title, but not in a sentence or when it follows your name.

Verb tense

This should be past tense for previous positions and present tense for your current role.

Homophones

Pay attention to the following homophones that are commonly spelt wrong because they sound alike

Affect/Effect

It’s/Its

They’re/there/their

To/Too/Two

Your/You’re

Who is Emma?

Emma is a proofreader with 18 years of writing experience with businesses, academics and creative writers. She obtained a Creative Writing MA (St Andrews University) and a PhD in Storytelling (Warwick University). Then set up her own proofreading business and became a published author of fiction as well as academic literature such as Young People, Learning & Storytelling (Palgrave Macmillan).

Get in touch.

L’article CV corrections: abbreviations, capitalisation, homophones and writing tense est apparu en premier sur Emma Parfitt Proofreading Editing Services.

From my experience, one of the best writers I have worked with was dyslexic. Yet, they doubted their own writing ability! Their ideas were clearly expressed, uniquely expressed, and while there were some errors in spelling and word selection… Wow! This person could write. So I wanted to share a few things to dispel the myth that people with dyslexia can’t write. It isn’t true!

To start with, I have to confess something. Dyslexia isn’t about writing at all. It’s about a combination of skills which affect the learning process. And the term for those who “cannot write” is called dysgraphia. Symptoms are similar so they often occur together.

Myth 1: Dyslexics can’t write

Fact: those with mild to moderate dyslexia can read and write.

Education is key for people to learn writing strategies. Think of dyslexia as a different way of thinking that requires a supportive learning environment. For example, I’ve written about how storytelling and education go together in Young People, Learning & Storytelling. Where the confusion about this might have arisen is that a person might have slower than average reading skills, and spelling can be tricky but many people without dyslexia contact me all the time for help with their spelling.

Myth 2: Writing letters backwards is a main sign of dyslexia

Fact: It’s common for all young children to reverse letters.

I’ve been known to switch whole words in sentences; perhaps you do this yourself or know someone who does? It’s something that can happen to anyone. At a later stage, if a child is still reversing letters an evaluation might be required. However, not all kids with dyslexia write their letters backwards and some don’t at all.

Myth 3: Kids with dyslexia just need to try harder to write

Fact: How young people are taught makes the difference, to help students gain invaluable reading and writing skills.

Using a word like ‘effort’ is a bit of a red herring. Research has proven that kids with dyslexia think differently because their brain functions differently. So it makes sense to use a different teaching approach. You might have heard of the multisensory approach for example, which uses sight, touch and sound.

We know some remarkable things about reading; it can change the brain over time, and reading about scents and tastes triggers parts of the brain related to when we really smell or taste something.

Myth 4: There is no “cure” for dyslexia

Fact: Dyslexia is not a disease.

Difficulties with spelling, tend to be obvious very early on. A child can spend hours working each night on a spelling list for a test, and pass the test … then they might have difficulties spelling the same words when writing sentences. With specialist teaching, dyslexics can successfully learn to improve their spelling. Reading and spelling are closely related skills so strategies usually focus on both.

Myth 5: Dyslexics are “gifted” or ”stupid”

Fact: There is little relationship between dyslexia and intelligence in young children.

Dyslexia occurs across a whole spectrum of intelligence levels — if we agree in the way that intelligence is rated in the first place! So dyslexia is as likely to be found in those we label as “gifted” and “talented” as it is present in those labelled “low-ability”. Most dyslexics fall in the middle with the rest of the population. However, if dyslexics don’t learn to read, as they get older they may fall behind the national average, so again we return to the conundrum of education and why we don’t have adequate policy in place to ensure all children’s needs are met. But that is a topic for another post.

Who is Emma?

Emma is a proofreader with 18 years of writing experience with businesses, academics and creative writers. She obtained a Creative Writing MA (St Andrews University) and a PhD in Storytelling (Warwick University). Then set up her own proofreading business and became a published author of fiction as well as academic literature such as Young People, Learning & Storytelling (Palgrave Macmillan).

Get in touch.

L’article Five myths about writing and dyslexia est apparu en premier sur Emma Parfitt Proofreading Editing Services.

Here are some tips to ensure you pick the right proofreader for your project. I’m going to start with the most contentious subject pricing.

Pricing

If the price appears too good to be true: it is. Don’t trust it. Newcomers or those without qualifications tend to underbid everyone so they can gain publishing credits. Sure, it’s a low price but at what cost? I’d also be wary of thesis and journal article websites that promise a second reading of your text… why isn’t the job not done correctly the first time?

So beware of too-low pricing and too-fast a turnaround. A thesis of 80,000 in 24 hours. I don’t think so. This practice sounds dishonest. Got a book nearby? Open it, imaging reading every sentence once for clarity, another for grammar and spelling errors, including every word and punctuation mark. Thus a book can easily take a month to proofread. It is not realistic to expect 80,000 words to be proofread within a week, or two so if a proofreader offers such a bargain at a low price, find another one. Clearly spell- and grammar-checking software is being used instead of a real person reading through your text a line at a time.

Reviews

I am fortunate that I have worked with many lovely people who appreciate that reviews make the difference between someone hiring me or not. What my client’s say speaks, forgive the cliché, volumes. If they are providing a quality service the reviews will tell you. If you can’t find any reviews, or lots of anonymous ones, be careful.

A Writing sample

Quite often when asked for a quote, unless I am very pressed I try to send a few sentences as a writing sample so a potential client knows what to expect with me. If unsure who to pick send a sample to your potential top pick. This should give an indication of what level of trust you can place in them. However please do not do this to many of us to compare, because this is an investment of our time for you.

Get it in writing

Usually I provide a quotation with what is included to keep myself and the client on track about what to expect. We arrange dates and deadlines. Everything in writing. Some proofreaders also offer a service contract or to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

This agreement should outline the scope of services, as well as costs and deadline. That is a fair indication that you are dealing with a trustworthy proofreader.

Avoid websites offering anonymous edits

On many online proofreading services you submit an “order” and upload your document. Then a proofreader is assigned to you.

Working with me, you can see exactly who I am! And work directly with me. I do not pay others to do proofreading, I only take on work that I can do myself. Not always the case for a large company, so how can you be sure about what qualifications their proofreaders have?

So, at the end of the day to ensure a professional service: is the price and timescale realistic? What do their reviews say? Do they provide a contract and a writing sample so you both know what to expect? And who is doing the proofreading?

Keeping these things in mind, I hope you’ll find a great proofreader that you can trust.

To work with me, my details are below.

Who is Emma?

Emma is a proofreader with 18 years of writing experience with businesses, academics and creative writers. She obtained a Creative Writing MA (St Andrews University) and a PhD in Storytelling (Warwick University). Then set up her own proofreading business and became a published author of fiction as well as academic literature such as Young People, Learning & Storytelling (Palgrave Macmillan).

Get in touch.

L’article Trust: Does your proofreader offer professional proofreading services? est apparu en premier sur Emma Parfitt Proofreading Editing Services.

Word origins can be fascinating. A computer “bug”

is an error, flaw, failure or fault in a computer program or system that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways.

What do you think? Why do we say, “computer bug” and not computing error? Although, you will hear technical people saying, “software error”.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary team:

The story goes that one of the early electromechanical computers suffered a failure because an insect had crawled into the machine and been squashed between the moving parts of a relay switch, thereby jamming it. The incident was written up in the logbook and spread from there throughout the whole of the infant computer industry. However, although the account seems to be genuine, the word is older: the event was recorded as an amusement for posterity precisely because the term ‘bug’ was already in use.

While it’s disappointing that the story isn’t true… the origins of this word are still interesting. Follow this link to learn the truth!

Or, if you’re looking for a proofreader to help polish your final manuscript please get in touch.

Who is Emma?

Emma is a proofreader with 18 years of writing experience with businesses, academics and creative writers. She obtained a Creative Writing MA (St Andrews University) and a PhD in Storytelling (Warwick University). Then set up her own proofreading business and became a published author of fiction as well as academic literature such as Young People, Learning & Storytelling (Palgrave Macmillan).

L’article Word origin: Was the first computer “bug” a real insect? est apparu en premier sur Emma Parfitt Proofreading Editing Services.

I have just canceled my subscription to Grammarly’s writing tool, and after having sent a ranty email to Grammarly’s PR rep I thought it would be helpful to share my criticism of the service.

If you listen to its fans you would think Grammarly is the best grammar-checking tool on the market according to itself, and websites like The Digital Reader. This online service scans your work as you are typing, pointing out what it thinks are errors.

I have a different opinion.

Read the rest of Nate Hoffelder’s article here.

If you’re rather hire a proofreader, check this out.

Who is Emma Parfitt?

Emma Parfitt is a proofreader with 18 years of writing experience with businesses, academics and creative writers. She obtained a Creative Writing MA (St Andrews University) and a PhD in Storytelling (Warwick University). Then set up her own proofreading business and became a published author of fiction as well as academic literature such as Young People, Learning & Storytelling (Palgrave Macmillan).

Get in touch for all proofreading services here!

L’article I’m breaking up with Grammarly est apparu en premier sur Emma Parfitt Proofreading Editing Services.