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Things are going pretty good with the editing and proofreading service I started a few months ago. I’ve had a few clients now, including a PhD professor. I was a little intimidated at first since it would be the first time I did work for someone with more schooling than myself, but it went really well. He was really happy with the finished product and told me he was working on two more papers. It’s really nice to get some appreciation for the work.
In addition to some confidence and money, editing also provides me with some insights to writing. The number of times I stop working and think about why we do something the way we do is innumerable already. These two activities—writing and editing—complement each other so well.
I completely redid my editing and proofreading service site. It looks much better. I know that’s of very little importance to anybody except me, but I’m pretty proud of it. It was really such a mess before. I’m surprised it worked as well as it did.
This work seems to teach me as much about CSS and images as it does comma splices and infinitives. I still plan on translating it into a couple of languages, since foreign students writing papers in English are my target customers, beginning with German.
I have to get my own domain name soon. I think that one thing does as much to make a site look polished and professional as a handful of other elements.
It has been a long time since I’ve written anything on here. It seems like forever, but I see that it has only been since March, which, while a long time, is rather finite.
I’ve been doing work that involves writing, and that feels good. I have read through and edited hundreds and hundreds of pages of other people’s theses for my editing and proofreading service. It really is amazing how much insight into the language one gets by simply correcting little grammar and word-use issues. A lot of it is fast, almost automatic, but some of it takes a great deal of thought. I have sat and stared at some sentences for—I don’t know how long—a long time. It forces me to think about some of the ways that we unconsciously construct sentences and why they are either the correct way or, at the very least, the better sounding way.
I’ve dealt with the darkside of grammar issues like misplaced modifiers and now fully understand every high school English teacher’s crusade against them. They can really make a mess of a sentence, especially in ones that wrap themselves around the page a few times, going on and on, with clause after clause separated by endless commas, begging someone to just drop a period in them somewhere, but it never seems to happen.
It really has helped me gain some insights into why we make certain choices in writing. For that, I am glad I’m doing it.
So, a couple of things have happened lately. I made myself available to people to use for editing and proofreading and am already getting signs of interest. It’s mostly targeted towards non-native English speakers. Anyway, I got a site up with some information about it. The address is www.editing.bz.
Also, on the job topic, I found a little something writing content for a web development company. It’s writing and it pays, so that makes me happy.
Still Scribblings 