clear writing, editing, and seo
Plain language
Blue Pencil India for plain language, crisp writing, and editing that’ll make text sparkle
Jan 4th
I have previously written about my work-from-home/freelance writing ventures. Blue Pencil India now seems to me to be the logical step forward. Of course, this took much convincing and all the persuasive powers of my husband, Lincoln, who is now a co-founder of BPI.
You need to believe a lot in yourself and have an unflagging positive spirit to start off on your own. And, to some extent, the lack of professional growth opportunities in Kolkata for a writer/editor did affect my confidence levels.
But thanks to the wonderful clients I have worked with and the diverse projects I have worked on in the last year or so, I now feel ready to work on my own.
At Blue Pencil India, I hope to get interesting and challenging assignments in the domains of writing, editing, and SEO content.
As a writer, there are some projects I do want to work on and I’ll soon have a wish list ready – they’re one of those ‘things to do before you die’. But, generally speaking, I’d like to work for clients who are keen on quality. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t be able to do the article spinning kind of work. Just not made for that.
As an editor, there’s something I am raring to do: edit fiction. Till now, I have edited newspaper articles, tons of legalese and officialese, website copy, user manuals, and the like. But fiction is something I have not done yet and I look forward to it. It should be a welcome break after all the backbreaking editing I have had to do till date.
BPI will also be a space to campaign for plain language in India and continue the work of Jyoti Sanyal, my teacher and mentor. For now, it’s just me and Lincoln, but soon, we should be able to pull in more people and make ourselves heard to people in the administration and in industries like banking and insurance. They, more than anyone else, need to use plain language.
My years with Sir (Sanyal) have made me passionate about the use of clear, concise language in all communication. I will be using Sihikahi and Blue Pencil India to speak about this as much as possible.
Apart from the campaign part of plain English, I am interested in working with individuals or firms to translate their documents or website copy into plain language and help them communicate clearly and effectively.
Writing in plain language is really not rocket science, but it does require that you have a genuine wish to inform your reader.
I request all readers of Sihikahi to help spread the word about Blue Pencil India. What we have invested in BPI are our professional skills, time, a lot of hope, and positive attitude. My hunch is there’ll be a lot of takers for out-of-the-box writing and professional editing – something that’s not too common in the freelance world. Now, let’s prove my hunch right, shall we?
The new way to work: my new way to live
Jan 4th
I chose to work on my own from the comfort and distractions of my home a little less than two years ago.
This new way to work, for me, is an affirmation of faith in me, as a writer and editor who can make it on her own. My husband, Lincoln, propelled me towards this way of working. If not for his conviction in my abilities, I’d still be slogging it out for someone else.
I call it an affirmation of faith in myself because when I took the leap, and I must term it so, I had no definite plan, no potential jobs on the horizon… nothing.
Instead, what I did have for certain was a number of EMIs knocking at my door every month, and the reality of living in a city which didn’t have and doesn’t have too many good opportunities for a writer and editor.
I began bidding on Elance last June. I had almost run out of my connects quota and hope, when I got my first break. I actually ran around the house, called my mother, and was pretty much delirious with joy.
Later, I worked as a content manager for a Texas-based medical tourism company and cloud commuted for nearly a year. I am now active on Elance and in the process of setting up my firm. More about that here.
This post is about the way ahead: the new way. And I love it. But as with things/persons you love in life, there is a bit of a compromise, a bit of putting up with things you don’t like, and a lot of struggle. Some of the tough things about working on my own are:
No chatter at the water cooler: I work alone, so I have no colleagues to catch up with on office gossip. So, it gets boring sometimes, but, heck, there is no office politics to put up with either.
No paychecks: Freelancing , especially in India, is not for the weak-hearted. A few friends have told me they envy the fact that I can choose the day and time to go out and do my thing. I don’t have to look over my shoulder in fear of the boss. I can crank up the volume when they play my song on the radio, and so on. But, it’s not all milk and honey. Nothing is. I am working harder now than ever before. Of course, I am also enjoying my work than ever before. But I ask my friends who envy me, if they will venture out into the world of no paychecks. I have, so I get my privileges.
Discrimination, or the other end of being lowballed: On Elance discussion forums, I have come across many providers cribbing about how Indian providers’ lowballing affects their chances. The cost of living is comparatively low in India, hence our bids are going to be lower than, say, that of our American counterparts. You have to accept that. But there are all kinds of Indian providers, just as there are, I am sure, good, bad, and ugly from the First World. So, while there are Indian providers who will work at $2/per article or whatever, I don’t belong to that category. Yet, I regularly get invites for projects with ridiculous budgets and I regularly turn them down. Just because I am an Indian provider, I find it absurd that people accept me to work for a pittance. Obviously, they are not after quality, so, no thanks, I’d rather do without your business.
Back in India, working from home was not a lucrative position till recently. But I think that’s changing slowly. My Indian clients, though I don’t have too many of them, pay me, more or less, on par with my clients from abroad, and are quite easy to work with. I wouldn’t yet say the market for independent providers of content is mature in India. I think that’ll take some time.
And some of the challenges are:
Organizing yourself: This is the biggest challenge for anyone setting out independently. You are your own boss, your time is yours, and your time is your money. So, unless you plan well, stay organized and focused, the day will be gone before you know and you won’t have much done. Which means, a corresponding decrease in revenue. Ouch. The first couple of months, I used to do a little of this and a little of that. I ended up tired, out of breath. Now, if it’s two hours for a certain project, it’s two hours of focused work on that project and not a minute more. This has helped me stay in control.
Staying positive: That’s the second biggest challenge. Jobs pour in sometimes, and at other times there is a pause. Some clients are absolute dears, others are, well, let’s say they come in all shapes. And you’ve got to stay positive amidst everything. Initially, this was difficult. If a week went past without anything working out, I would start fretting. But with time and my pile-up of experience, I am more patient now and confident that it will work out.
Elance has a huge role to play in shaping up my new way to work, and live. I love its transparency and range of jobs to choose from. Tough as it is to survive on your own, it would be hundred times more difficult without an enabling platform such as Elance.
Till now, I have worked on content writing, editing, page layout, and SEO assignments via Elance. What I am now eager to explore is the fiction and travel domains, be it writing/ghostwriting or editing it.
A world of possibilities has opened up to me, thanks to the new way to work. And I am thankful to my family and Elance for being a part of this in such a positive way.
Don't take a chance, plain language always works
Jul 29th
A couple of months ago, The New York Times made public some very interesting internal data: a list of words that its online readers were frequently looking up. On the NYT site, you can look up the meaning of any word by selecting it and clicking on the small question mark that appears beside.
The story about these findings is here. Some of the oft-looked up words were:
sui generis
solipsistic
louche
laconic
saturnine
antediluvian
epistemological
shibboleths
schadenfreude
feckless
The deputy editor, Philip Corbett, in his memo asked reporters to not talk down to readers and to use fanciful, uncommon words only when the situation warranted it: ‘… striking and very specific words can become wan and devalued through overuse. Consider apotheosis, which we’ve somehow managed to use 18 times so far this year. It literally means “deification, transformation into a divinity.” An extended meaning is “a glorified ideal.” But in some of our uses it seems to suggest little more than “a pretty good example.” Most recently, we’ve said critics view the Clinton health-care plan as “the apotheosis of liberal, out-of-control bureaucracy-building,” and we’ve described cut-off shorts as “that apotheosis of laissez-faire wear.”
‘So what do we say if someone really is transformed into a god?’
Corbett also admitted being stumped by two words on the list: sumptuary and phlogiston.
The story has drawn many comments and some readers have said NYT shouldn’t blacklist the big words because they loved them and read the NYT because it used such words. Some others have said they love learning new words that NYT introduces them to and they should not be robbed of this joy.
This brings us to oft-repeated questions used in arguments against plain language:
1. How plain should plain be?
The NYT readers have already answered this question. ‘Bildungsroman’ may have seemed to be a grand piece of Roman architecture to some, while ‘paroxysm’ may have had people wondering if this was some form of an orgasm. If you have to use a big word, make sure there is no other everyday word that will do the job equally well.
2. Who decides what’s plain enough for whom?
Your readers decide what’s plain. You write to be read, unless you’re jotting down things in your personal diary. If your readers do not understand you at the first reading, you have failed to communicate. A newspaper is a mass medium of communication and there’s no way of telling who knows what. When it’s becoming increasingly difficult for newspapers to prove their relevance and keep their business viable, ‘Sisyphean’ surely is not helping them.
3. Should all text be written for five-year-olds?
As we have said earlier, plain language is about being honest with your reader. It does not mean dumbing down. If you have something to say, say it clearly. That shouldn’t be too difficult if you have well-formed ideas.
Also, as Corbett’s note on ‘apotheosis’ shows, writers frequently get enamoured with some words and use them even when the specific meaning is not intended. This dilutes the purpose of the word. And often, the point is to ‘show’ the writer’s scholarship more than anything else.
The other trap writers fall in is to get so involved with their writing that they leave the reader far behind. It’s more like they are making notes for themselves.
Jargon is bad for business
The NYT web analytics data not only tells us about how news should be written, but also gives businesses valuable insights into how they should be talking to their customers.
You’ll perhaps never have a customer come up to you and tell you they didn’t understand what you meant by ‘knowledge-based organisational alignment’ or by ‘deconstructed relative contingencies’. They’ll just assume you don’t care.
Have you ever asked any of your customers what they think of the letters you send out, the user manuals or help documents you create, or the canned responses you use? What you write to your customer tells a lot about your company – whether you’re keen on putting the terms across clearly or you want to hide behind jargon and legalese.
The language you use is a very important part of your branding. You don’t want to be remembered as a gobbledygook company, do you? Speak smart, if you are.
Be honest with your reader. Write in plain language
Jul 11th
Plain language as defined by Martin Cutts of Plain Language Commission:
The writing and setting out of essential information in a way that gives a co-operative, motivated person a good chance of understanding it at first reading, and in the same sense that the writer meant it to be understood.
This means pitching the language at a level of sophistication that suits the readers and using appropriate structure and layout to help them navigate through the document.
It does not mean always using simple words at the expense of the most accurate words, or writing whole documents in kindergarten language even if—as some adult literacy surveys claim—about seven million adults in the UK and 70 million adults in the US cannot read and write competently.
As well as its strong connotations of clarity, ‘plainness’ is about honesty. Essential information should not lie or tell half-truths, especially as its providers are often socially or financially dominant.
What does it mean to write in plain language?
Plain language does not mean baby talk. When we write clearly and avoid jargon, we do not compromise on accuracy. On the contrary, you are being straightforward with your reader. You are being honest. This can only serve the best interest of a democracy or a company.
To write in plain language:
- use shorter sentences and everyday words. Deliver the message as directly and quickly as possible.
- use ‘I/we’ and ‘you’, wherever possible. Unless you are reporting the results of a scientific experiment, there is no harm in addressing your reader as ‘you’.
- avoid passive voice. Using the active voice makes for fewer words and better understanding.
But a document that tries to be reader-friendly needs to do more than just use plain language. It needs to be designed logically and be easy on the eye.
Why plain language?
Because, language that intimidates, obscures, and confuses will turn away people, thus affecting your image and business. Obsolete, jargon-filled legalese robs people of their right to know.
When you write in plain language, you are understood faster and better. It also saves time and money for you and your customer. This is not a mere claim, but a quantified fact. For instance, the US Department of Veterans Affairs revised one form and recorded the results of this change in one VA call center. The number of calls received dropped from about 1,100 to about 200. This was just one form. You can only imagine the huge potential of cost savings if every form, every letter, every brochure is recast in plain language. The same analogy works for business entities, too.
We are all customers of a bank, an insurance firm, electronics company, etc. When we pay up to buy a service or product and are handed an unintelligible user manual or an intimidating, distant-sounding letter, we don’t exactly feel a warm glow within, do we?
The user manual or the bank letter is supposed to be for people from different educational backgrounds and not for the engineers who designed the product or bankers who run the bank. If you have trouble understanding these documents, it’s not a reflection on your IQ, but rather shows the disconnect between the obsolete legalese and jargon these firms used and the language that you, their prized customer, talk in.
How can Blue Pencil India help?
You can communicate your ideas effectively in plain language or plain English, and we can help you do that. To start with, we can do a free review of your site or a few documents, and guide you on how you can implement plain language and make them user-friendly.
Plain language as defined by Martin Cutts of Plain Language Commission
The writing and setting out of essential information in a way that gives a co-operative, motivated person a good chance of understanding it at first reading, and in the same sense that the writer meant it to be understood.
This means pitching the language at a level of sophistication that suits the readers and using appropriate structure and layout to help them navigate through the document.
It does not mean always using simple words at the expense of the most accurate words, or writing whole documents in kindergarten language even if—as some adult literacy surveys claim—about seven million adults in the UK and 70 million adults in the US cannot read and write competently.
As well as its strong connotations of clarity, ‘plainness’ is about honesty. Essential information should not lie or tell half-truths, especially as its providers are often socially or financially dominant.
What does it mean to write in plain language?
Plain language does not mean baby talk. When we write clearly and avoid jargon, we do not compromise on accuracy. On the contrary, you are being straightforward with your reader. You are being honest. This can only serve the best interest of a democracy or a company.
To write in plain language:
· use shorter sentences and everyday words. Deliver the message as directly and quickly as possible.
· use ‘I/we’ and ‘you’, wherever possible. Unless you are reporting the results of a scientific experiment, there is no harm in addressing your reader as ‘you’.
· avoid passive voice. Using the active voice makes for fewer words and better understanding.
But a document that tries to be reader-friendly needs to do more than just use plain language. It needs to be designed logically and be easy on the eye.
Why plain language?
Because, language that intimidates, obscures, and confuses will turn away people, thus affecting your image and business. Obsolete, jargon-filled legalese robs people of their right to know.
When you write in plain language, you are understood faster and better. It also saves time and money for you and your customer. This is not a mere claim, but a quantified fact. For instance, the US Department of Veterans Affairs revised one form and recorded the results of this change in one VA call center. The number of calls received dropped from about 1,100 to about 200. This was just one form. You can only imagine the huge potential of cost savings if every form, every letter, every brochure is recast in plain language. The same analogy works for business entities, too.
We are all customers of a bank, an insurance firm, electronics company, etc. When we pay up to buy a service or product and are handed an unintelligible user manual or an intimidating, distant-sounding letter, we don’t exactly feel a warm glow within, do we?
The user manual or the bank letter is supposed to be for people from different educational backgrounds and not for the engineers who designed the product or bankers who run the bank. If you have trouble understanding these documents, it’s not a reflection on your IQ, but rather shows the disconnect between the obsolete legalese and jargon these firms used and the language that you, their prized customer, use.
How can Blue Pencil India help?
You can communicate your ideas effectively in plain language or plain English, and we can help you do that. To start with, we can do a free review of your site or a few documents, and guide you on how you can implement plain language and make them user-friendly.
