Web Page Perfector
The Importance of Being Perfect
How do you feel about a company when you check out their website and discover spelling, grammar or style errors? I’m sure you begin to think twice about using their services – I know I do. I am a professional proofreader and copywriter, and I offer a highly personalised service to perfect the English texts on your website. It’s not just the words themselves, but also the style and presentation of the text. All cultures have their expectations when reading something in their own language, but English belongs to many cultures as a native language, such as the UK, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. It also belongs to many cultures as a second or common language, such as India, Hong Kong and Singapore. Finally, of course, English has become the business language in much of the western world, so choosing the right tone to suit your target customers is just as important as the choice of language itself.
If you don’t have English pages on your website yet, you might consider having your current Finnish or Swedish texts translated and restyled to suit English readers. Alternatively, I can help you to write the English text from scratch. If you have already prepared your English texts, then I can check them through for errors, and make suggestions for style, vocabulary or syntactical changes. If, for example, your English Web pages are targeting readers who do not have English as their first language, the language will need to be simpler and the sentences shorter than if the target audience consists of native speakers. To be honest, this is usually the case – so choosing the ‘right’ words is of great importance.
What is the ‘right’ word? Well, I have spent over thirteen years helping students answer this very question. The answer is that the ‘right’ word is the one which, firstly, will be understood, and secondly, which carries the right meaning and tone. This is why dictionaries are often not very helpful, as English normally has three words for every concept, and these three words have come to mean subtly different things over time. Here is an example of a typical group of three: peculiar – odd – strange. Now, they all mean the same thing, but I’ll bet that the first two are not as familiar to you as the last one; so ‘strange’ is the ‘right’ word to choose for your non-native audience. Here is another group of three, but carrying with them different levels of formality: offspring – children – kids. It would be offensive to ask how many ‘offspring’ a family has, it is way too technical and better suited to rabbits! ‘Children’ is neutral and ‘kids’ is informal, but they both suit the Web pages of a clothing company.
How much does it cost?
Well, checking through pages that have already been written in English is the most cost-effective route and carries a fixed charge of €65 per thousand words of original text + VAT, so you can calculate the cost up front. Translation is a slower process, so please send a copy of the text in question and an offer can be made – the same applies to copywriting.
Many satisfied customers have made use of my services, and I look forward to you joining the growing list.
If you are interested, or have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to contact me at:
malcolm.pemberton@gmail.com
