ProEdit, Inc.

What do you know about my company?

2011-08-30T11:51:00.002-04:00

This is a common question to ask a candidate during an initial interview. Most candidates are able to give in-depth details about their most recent employers but cut corners on researching new employers or recruiting firms. USA TODAY Snapshots reported "little knowledge of company" as the most common mistake candidates make during job interviews. Letting a recruiter fix this mistake will have a measurable payoff.

ProEdit recruiters make it their business to understand how your company operates and which strategies are being implemented to improve profitability. We use this specialized knowledge to evaluate potential candidates in our database and prepare each qualified candidate for an in-depth interview with your hiring manager. It’s a ProEdit best practice that ensures candidates have an accurate understanding of the job requirements, performance expectations, and work environment before accepting a job offer. Your payoff comes as the result of a shortened recruiting cycle and a lower turnover rate.

Little or no knowledge of your company is a mistake ProEdit will never make.

What do you know about ProEdit?

Having Problems with Your Internet?

2011-08-09T15:51:00.030-04:00

Starting on Friday, Aug. 5, 2011, communication media, including the Internet and cell phones, experienced brief inoperability due to a solar storm. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that solar flares would interrupt some satellite communications over the weekend, and additional solar flares are now expected to impact the Earth’s magnetic field on Wednesday or Thursday.

These solar flares were only medium-sized, but they won’t be the last. According to the NOAA, the worst solar flares occurred more than 150 years ago, and a similar storm is brewing for 2013.

Have you thought about how your business will continue to run if your network went down, or worse, something happens to your physical building? How will you gain access to critical data? Do your employees know your company’s protocol in case of a national disaster? Do you have a Disaster Recovery Plan or Master Recovery Policy and Plan?

Every business needs a recovery plan, but very few take the time to develop and document a detailed plan. Do you have the right personnel to create this valuable document? At ProEdit, we make it our business to know the best technical writers in the industry. With more than 50,000 talented professionals in our network, we can help you find the perfect person for the job. ProEdit's contractors can be ready to work for you at a moment's notice so you’ll be ready the next time the power flickers or the sun flares.

NOAA Website: Read more about solar flares and what you can expect.

Solar Flare 2011: See amazing pictures and videos of the recent solar flares. Read additional details about the effects of the recent solar flares.

ProEdit Staffing: Learn more about the benefits of ProEdit’s staffing services.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Mention discount code "solar flare" and receive
15% off your first staffing invoice.
Act fast! Offer ends September 15, 2011.

www.ProEdit.com | (678) 861-0229 | (888) 776-3348

We Assume That Everyone Can Type

2011-07-27T13:41:00.024-04:00

"We assume that everyone can type.”

That is what LaToia Kell, Manager of Sales and Marketing for ProEdit’s Staffing Division, said when asked if any clients required proof of typing skills from potential candidates.

If it is assumed that you can type, how many words per minute can you type? How accurately do you type? When was the last time you took a typing test?

Use one of the links below to access a free, online typing test. If your score is less than favorable, you may want to use the typing test regularly to practice. This is a fast, easy, inexpensive way to improve typing speed and accuracy.

Google+

2011-07-22T10:59:00.005-04:00

Google+ was launched on June 28, 2011, and according to The Wall Street Journal, it already has more than 20 million users. What is it exactly? And what is all the hype about?

We had these questions, too, so we compiled several articles that will help answer these questions.

Have you made the switch? Will you make the switch? How will you use Google+? Do you have other articles or information that will be helpful as we learn all about Google+?

Leave your comments below.

Google+ Defined on Wikipedia

Everything You Need to Know about Google+ (Including What the Heck It Is)

Business Insider

The 9 Creative Uses for Google+ Hangouts You Didn't Think Of
Business Insider

Does Google+ Make Facebook the New MySpace?
ZDNet

Why Google+ Business Profiles will Trump Facebook Pages
PC World

Four Ways Google+ Will End Up in Your Workplace
Tech Republic

How Google+ Will Affect SEO for Your Website
PC World

Governor Calls for License Plate Revote!

2011-07-20T10:53:00.000-04:00

Governor Nathan Deal has called for a revote for the online Georgia License Plate Contest. Several of the designs featured the phrase “In God We Trust.” As it turns out, the phrase is only available as an optional sticker and will not be part of the final design.

With any design process, it takes a few rounds of review before finalizing the draft. So, the first vote was like a QA: all the bugs were found and now we’re ready for the second draft.

If you didn’t get a chance to vote, now is the time—go vote! If you already voted, we trust you will vote again! Voting ends on Monday, August 8, at 3 p.m.

It Pays to Rephrase!

2011-07-11T14:15:00.005-04:00

Leave a comment below to share your own customer-focused value propositions.

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s Your Tech Comm Team!

2011-06-17T14:07:00.001-04:00

Maybe they aren’t faster than a speeding bullet (although that would be nice) or more powerful than a locomotive. Maybe they can’t burst into flames, turn invisible, walk through walls, fly, or read your mind (that would be nice, too). But that doesn’t mean that your technical communications team can’t save the day.

As a business, you have a product or service to offer, and to let the world know how, when, where, and why to use it, you need an expert technical communications team.

“I work alone.”
Wolverine was cool, but without the X-Men, he could never have accomplished the things he did.

A team is made up of individuals, so it stands to reason that an effective team is made up of effective individuals. The Justice League needed the best of the best. They needed members who were able to fly, live under water, wield a golden lasso, or run faster than the speed of light. You need the best of the best, too—a tech comm team that can write, design, edit, and work together to accomplish every project you send its way.

In developing documentation, writers and designers need to gather information, identify project requirements, become familiar with the subject, and most importantly write and design effectively. Editors need to be grammar, syntax, and style guides experts as well as observant, careful, and patient in order to improve writing for publication.

A talented, dedicated, and experienced staff of writers, designers, editors is essential to the success of all documentation projects.

“Set phasers to stun.”
Okay, so Captain Kirk and Spock weren’t superheroes, but what would they have been without their weapons? (Plus, the phrase was catchy.)

An effective tech comm team needs to be familiar with leading technology in the communications field. Companies develop new software daily that simplify processes from designing an illustration to creating a rapid eLearning environment.

Thirty years ago, the latest and greatest asset to technical communications was a copying machine that allowed an instructional designer to draw an illustration on paper, tape it to the document, and then copy it to produce a completed page. What then took half of a day’s work to accomplish now takes minutes with software like Adobe Illustrator and InDesign.

Tired of sitting in the conference room of yore and listening to a long-winded instructor explain your new training policies and procedures? Imagine sitting at a computer viewing an interactive learning environment with audio, visual, video, and assessment features allowing you to control the pace! If your tech comm team is familiar with Articulate Rapid eLearning Studio or similar software, then such a scenario could be a reality.

Using the up-to-date, industry-leading software can make all the difference in efficiency and presentation quality.

“With great power comes great responsibility.”
Peter Parker had to learn this lesson the hard way, but the writers, editors, and designers on your payroll should know this from the start.

Once research and development are through, the tech comm team is in control of your project. It is their responsibility not only to meet deadlines and budgets, but to ensure that they meet every objective to produce a product you will be proud of. While the writers are busy writing, the designers are busy designing, and editors are busy editing, who has time to coordinate all the details of project cohesion?

Projects need managers. Someone needs to oversee all areas of documentation development in order to meet every objective. Because managers are accountable for what they oversee, they push their teams to go beyond the status quo, creating products that clients can be proud of.

If you do not have a documentation department on site, there are companies who have super technical communications teams, ready and willing to save the day for your project.

Written by: Johnathan Cunningham, ProEdit

Need help with a project? Contact ProEdit for a free quote or give us a call at 1-888-776-3348.

Consider eLearning

2011-06-13T12:45:00.000-04:00

One of the latest trends grabbing headlines is eLearning. But is it all just hype? Hype without substances ends up in wasted time and resources. In this economy, that kind of mistake can be fatal. Is eLearning all that it is cracked up to be? Could it work for you? Is there substance behind the hype?

These are common questions, so here’s some information to help you decide if eLearning is the right choice for you.

Cost

Making the switch from instructor-led training (ILT) to eLearning really can cut your costs. For one thing, eLearning cuts the time needed for people to go through the data in half. But there are other cost savings, too—travel, facilities, breaks, fees, and printouts. For those of you who like the details and numbers, you can click here to peruse the nuts and bolts of eLearning.

Flexibility

Flexibility is a huge advantage of the eLearning environment. Anywhere, anytime is hard to beat! Of course, eLearning is confined to the limitations of your LMS and Web access, but the options are expounded. Your people can choose times that are convenient for them. This cuts down on juggling and rearranging of meetings and schedules. With modules that can be broken down into bite-sized chunks of information, the training easily slides into the free spaces of their day. Also, entire days out of the office aren’t needed. This makes your customers very happy.

Control of Content

Not that you have to be a control freak, but it is helpful when everyone is on the same page. With ILT, sometimes different points are highlighted and others fade to the background. With standardized modules, everyone gets the same message.

You also have the freedom to target a specific group. Let’s say IT needs more data points. Your HR people would be off counting ceiling tiles if this topic were covered in an all-encompassing meeting. With modules geared to specific groups, people get what they need without the non-essentials.

Greater Retention

Not everyone is an auditory learner. And for these people, sitting through a lecture can be very painful. But give them videos and interactive media, and they’ll pick things up very quickly. One of the great things about eLearning is you can target different learning styles. Each group will spend time in the arena that appeals to them. Users can also move at their own pace. And because technology doesn’t care how often you press “rewind” and “play,” it is easy to go back and review as needed. This is especially helpful for complicated processes or new information. Quizzes and interactive data also help to assimilate the data.

Ease of Use

More and more programs are making it easier and less expensive to create top-notch training modules. One program ProEdit uses is Articulate Studio. With programs like this, a talented instructional designer can create effects that keep the content engaging and interactive. Updates and changes are also easily managed. This keeps your people up to speed and better equipped to handle the changes.

Think eLearning is just sitting in front of a computer listening to lectures? Not at all! It is so much more…well, entertaining. And engaged people learn. When you consider the cost savings and other advantages, it just makes sense.

Receive a free price quote on your instructional design needs, or give us a call at 1-888-776-3348 to discuss your project.

Is Ben Franklin to blame?

2011-06-10T14:02:00.004-04:00

Did you know that 259 years ago (in 1752, do the math) Benjamin Franklin allegedly created all your issues with gadgets and gizmos? If the legend holds true, when he flew that famous kite and got the shock of his life, his discovery of electricity started the ball rolling for all the electronic doodads and addictions that plague us today and make our digital communication so difficult and important. So the next time you want to smack your iPhone around for autocorrecting your texts or throw your laptop out the window when spell check fails you yet again, just take a calming breath and whisper curses at Poor Richard and all that he hath wrought upon us. (And tell him you still haven’t forgiven him for wanting to make the turkey our national bird.)

Written by: Sean Taylor, ProEdit

What other things happened on this day in history?

Learn more about ProEdit's services.

The Style Guide: Not Just a Rule Book

2011-06-09T13:38:00.002-04:00

Information Developer: “Do you have a preferred style?”

Client: “What do you mean ‘style’?”

… the confusion begins.

Information Developer: “You know, AP, Chicago, Microsoft—is there a house style you prefer?”

Client: “What’s that?”

… and so it goes.

Meet Your New Best Friend,The Style Guide
Remember the song “Do Re Mi?” from the movie The Sound of Music? It gave the best advice ever: “Start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.” So let’s do just that.

Forget the days of high school and college term papers and having points deducted from your grade because you put a comma in the wrong place. A style guide is so much more than the literary equivalent of a ruler on the back of your hand. It is a road map for establishing your voice and identity in written communication. It is the tool that helps you make your best first impression.

Basically, a style guide (also often called a manual or a style book) is a list of principles of punctuation, grammar, word and phrase usage, layout considerations, spelling, and more. But it’s not just a dictionary or grammar book. It’s more a way of collecting both of those helpful pieces into one book and then adding anything else you may need to know in order to make your copy the best it can be.

There are hundreds of style guides available, ranging from those that are industry-specific to those geared more toward academia. Each style guide has its own feel and purpose, no matter how many rules they may have in common. For just a peek at what’s out there, take a look at this list archived online at the Duke library.

In case that feels a little overwhelming, don’t worry.

A Matter of Purpose

Even with so many guides available, chances are you will need to focus your attention on three primary manuals: The Associated Press Stylebook, The Chicago Manual of Style, and the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications.

The Associated Press Stylebook is the go-to resource for newspapers and magazines. It not only covers the proper grammar and usage, but also includes sections on legal issues (such as libel, fair use, copyright infringement), social media, sports and business reporting, and media law. If you need to know how to reference a foreign dignitary or format baseball scores in running copy, then this is the book you need.

The Chicago Manual of Style is a general, in-depth guide that gives detailed analysis and examples for an almost complete list of grammar and usage topics. Whether you’re working with conversational or formal copy, the Chicago manual is a valuable resource for writers in various industries, from marketing to academia. Think of it as a Strunk & White after a year of hitting the gym to get ripped.

The Microsoft Manual of Style forTechnical Publications is one of the key guides for writing in our new technology-driven world. Are you sending e-mail, email, or E-mail? Did you surf the Web, the web, or just the Internet? What does WYSIWYG mean anyway? The Microsoft Manual not only takes the confusion out of technology words and usage, it covers standards for online communication, Web-related references, writing and tagging Web content, and much more.

In addition to these handy references, your company or client may have a style guide of its own. They often borrow from one of these (or other) guides, then add common phrases, spellings and usages that are specific to their own segment of the market. For example, does a client’s name end with Inc., or is Incorporated always spelled out? Does a manufacturer’s major product end with the name or does it require the trademark symbol too? Is a not-for-profit company’s key supporter ADCO, Adco or AdCo? While these might seem like minor issues, they are actually important considerations for a company aiming for a consistent look and feel.

The Benefits of Style

Regardless of your preferred style, using a style guide puts you at the head of the class. Here are just a few reasons why:

It helps maintain consistent usage, no matter who is creating a document.
It establishes a standard for “correct” usage, rather than confusing the issue with “but I’ve always seen it this way” arguments.
It eliminates the repetition of such questions as “Is it Web site or website?” each time you create a new document.
It can be easily updated to accommodate necessary changes and redistributed.
It facilitates training of employees by covering a broad range of grammar, spelling, and usage rules without the expense of in-service classes.
It serves as a reference when clients and/or managers question changes in their documents.

The Fairy-tale Ending?

Information Developer: “Do you have a preferred style?”

Client: “Absolutely. I’ll send you a copy of it. And for anything not listed there, we default to Chicago.”

… and thus the confusion ends.

… and so it could go.

Written by: Sean Taylor, ProEdit

If you don’t currently have a working style guide and would like help developing one, contact ProEdit.

Managing a Successful Brand: The Importence of Producing Error-Free Content

2011-06-03T11:00:00.002-04:00

Did you notice the spelling mistake in the title of this piece? Chances are you did. In fact, it probably sprang from the page almost immediately. These types of editorial errors play a big role in how your company is perceived. From the first page to the last, error-free content is of the utmost importance. Communications documents, whether internal or external, that are riddled with spelling, grammar, or formatting errors can pose a potential threat to the future of your company! When these types of errors continuously pop up in your content, you can be sure that your clients or potential clients are making negative judgments about your company, employees, and services. These kinds of perceptions, however harmless they may seem, can hurt the top-notch brand you worked so hard to create.

Negative Judgment #1: Your Company is Unprofessional
You know that your company is professional. You’ve worked hard to develop an image that your company’s services are at the top of your field. Content that has a lot of errors is a red flag that your company is not carefully and thoroughly reviewing materials for publication. This can indicate a level of unprofessionalism, since the way you present your company to the world should be high on your list of priorities for creating and managing a positive brand. If you can’t take the time to ensure that your own products are perfect, how can potential clients know you won’t do the same to them?

Negative Judgment #2: Your Employees are Not Skilled
Of course you employ only the best in your field. But even skilled writers and editors make spelling and grammar errors in initial drafts. Tight deadlines make people work faster, which means the important quality assurance phase of document production is often foregone to deliver the product on time. Producing error-free content is as simple as carefully reviewing any material you’ve written. Enlist the help of a colleague or two to give the document additional pairs of eyes and make sure to use the “Spell Check” function in your word processor.

Negative Judgment #3: Your Services and Deliverables are Low-Quality
Imagine opening an issue of Time magazine and finding multiple editorial errors on the first page. You turn to the next page, which is just as plagued by spelling and grammar mistakes. Regardless of what the article is actually saying, it’s hard to really trust content that doesn’t follow the basic rules of spelling and grammar. It’s like the old saying, “It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it.” Readers get distracted by mistakes on the page, and no matter how profound what you’re trying to say is, they will determine that your services are low-quality.

Everyone makes mistakes in their writing; it’s a natural part of the drafting process. However, you have to be ready to give your final product that finishing polish before presenting it to the public. No matter how small you think the errors may be, these kinds of mistakes speak volumes to your contacts. Protect your brand by making sure you are producing only the highest quality material!

Are writing and editing just not your company’s strong point? Contracting with a writing and editing service like ProEdit can help improve your content at a low cost and with a fast turnaround.

Learn more about ProEdit's services or request a quote.

I've Got that Yearning for eLearning

2011-06-01T15:28:00.001-04:00

With gas at $4+ per gallon, commuting to school and work is becoming a burden. But you have to do it. Or so you think. What if you could wake up in the morning, drink a cup of coffee, and learn all of your company’s new policies and procedures while never changing out of your Lone Ranger footy pajamas? What if you could go home from work and simply turn on the computer rather than fight another round of traffic to get to a college campus?

You can, thanks to the development of eLearning – the most innovative tool in education. With the software available today, you can create interactive user manuals, seminars, and classroom simulations.

New Learning Experiences

The goal of eLearning software is to simulate a physical learning experience through the use of images, video, audio, and interactive tools and assessments through an electronic course. A typical eLearning experience might consist of a slideshow of written information paired with pictures and video. While reading and viewing the information, you hear the sound of narration synced to the slideshow. The narrator enlightens you to ideas that are not expressed in the writing and expounds upon existing text and images. Sounds like last week’s seminar, right? Not quite.

What makes eLearning so unique is that it offers a hands-on approach to learning experiences. As you click through a course, you can discover embedded windows that contain additional information that is specific to the subject you are studying.

Imagine you are learning how to repair a washing machine. You see the washing machine as a whole, but you need to know what the timing unit looks like. You click on a button over the timing unit, and a secondary window pops up with a detailed image of the timing unit complete with a definition and other vital information. The designer might even include a video of a technician explaining the wiring of a timing unit in the secondary window—all without leaving the page.

Simplified Evaluation Processes

One of the greatest features of eLearning is the ability to assess users’ comprehension. When creating an eLearning course, the designer can include a variety of interactive assessments. When users complete an assessment, they can view their own scores, but if a designer includes the course in a Learning Management System (LMS), then administrators or instructors can also view users’ scores.

An LMS can contain entire curricula for universities, seminars, and tutorials for businesses, or even user manuals for individual distributors. The days of distance restraints keeping students from learning or businesses from reaching customers are over!

Cost-Effective Solutions

Typical seminars and workshops can be costly and time-consuming. First, you have to hire an expert. Then, you have to cut production time in order to bring everyone together so you don’t have to pay the expert for multiple sessions. Not only does that decrease efficiency, but that missed time has to be made up somewhere. And if you were to conduct a comprehension assessment, you would have to pay extra for supplies and the added time.

Why not skip all the hassle and implement eLearning solutions instead? It’s efficient, affordable, and most importantly, effective.

Written by: Johnathan Cunningham, ProEdit

Contact us and let ProEdit's experts help implement an eLearning solution for your company.

Remember the Days

2011-05-27T12:47:00.001-04:00

Are you a calendar watcher? If so, you’ll note that we have two important national holidays coming up: Memorial Day and Independence Day.

Unlike many holidays that may have worldwide religious significance or are based on an ancient heritage, these two are uniquely American days of remembrance. We set aside time each year to remember those who have died to keep our country safe and free.

It’s an honor to recount their deeds and sacrifices.

But without discounting the efforts of those fine men and women, the days leading up to those holidays could serve as a time for other victories (smaller victories, I’ll grant you, but victories nonetheless).

Why not use the days leading up to Memorial Day to form an alliance with champion project managers to make you a lean, mean, fighting machine through your projects?

Why not seize the days between Memorial Day and Independence Day to gain freedom from the verbose jargon and common errors that have crept into your communication?

Fighting the good fight

Sure, you’d like to beat back the enemies of disorganization and win the war against improper grammar and usage, but how? There are two key methods: assistance and training. ProEdit can help you with both.

Assistance is easy, whatever it is you need. Our in-house team excels in making your projects be the best they can be. Our services include:

Our hard-working staff has extensive industry experience to put to work for you. For more information about our staff and referrals from former and current clients, go here to learn more about ProEdit's talented staff.

If you prefer to have on-site workers under your direct management, our staffing service can help you put the right people on your team. ProEdit is the largest and most experienced staffing firm in the writing and editing industry. Whether you are looking for a temporary contract worker or a permanent hire, we have more than 50,000 qualified candidates in our stable of trained professionals.

As for training, keep your eyes glued to this blog as our staff shares wisdom gained from years of experience to bring you helpful hints and practical tidbits, whether you’re a professional editor or not. We’ll be sure to cover frequent grammatical errors and various ways to improve your copy, as well as guidelines for everything from instructional design to technical writing.

Another less obvious way of retraining your editorial eye is simply to pay attention to the tracked changes in the documents you receive from your editors. Just watching the types of errors that are being corrected and what kind of word choices are being tweaked can help you create far better drafts for the next project. Just think of it as an independent study (even if you don’t get the course credit).

Celebrate your independence

Prior to leaving the office for your multiple family reunions and cookouts during the upcoming holidays, make a mental note to celebrate your freedom of speech that our forebearers fought so hard to preserve by making your spoken and written communication as good and as correct as it can possible be.

When you’re ready to make that step, just let us know. We’ll have your back.

Written by: Sean Taylor, ProEdit

For more information about ProEdit's services, contact us via the web or call 1-888-776-3348. Need to add creative talent to your team? Check out our nationwide candidate profiles.

School’s Out (Of the Classroom): The Rise of Informal and Social Learning

2011-05-25T15:44:00.008-04:00

Ah, those last days of the school year when kids of any era go running down the halls singing one of Alice Cooper’s classic lines: “School’s out for summer!” (Don’t even pretend you didn’t. We know better.)

Perhaps though, Vincent Damon Furnier (Alice Cooper’s real name) was on to something. In many ways, particularly in business and corporate learning, school is out. While some formal classroom learning is still needed, estimates now say that 70 percent of learning is self-guided and informal (http://derekstockley.com.au/articles/informal-learning.html).

The learning needs of organizations have changed. Gone are the days of requiring a one-time event to prepare employees or students for a job or new tasks. Instead, the focus has shifted to ongoing, continuous training, with employees and clients being regularly updated with new learning and additional modules of knowledge.

As those needs have changed and grown, so have the methods for meeting them.

What is Informal and Social Learning?

For starters, informal learning doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to dress for it in a “casual Friday” sort of way. Nor does it mean you should organize a get-together at the local sports bar with your friends in order to prepare for it.

Some proponents of informal learning have described it as anything that doesn’t involve classrooms or curriculum, and for a broad-stroke definition, that’s not a bad place to start.

But at its heart, informal learning primarily has to do with who controls the delivery of information. If formal learning is defined by having an instructor and a curriculum that is delivered the same way at the same place to each learner, then informal learning can be described as being controlled by the student and delivered at his or her pace through a variety of means—ranging from on-the-job training to audio and video to eLearning.

Why the informality?

The simple answer is just this—because it works. Informal learning works for learners, and it works for organizations. But let’s dig deeper to examine why it works.

For learners, it works because it puts them in control of the learning environment and pace. A survey at the University of Pittsburgh found that the top three reasons learners would rather learn on their own include:

Desire to set my own learning pace
Desire to use my own style of learning
Desire to keep the learning strategy flexible and easy-to-change http://www.knowledgejump.com/learning/characteristics.html)

In short, it feels more natural to them. It meets them where they are and in the way they learn. To draw from the cliché, it doesn’t force a bunch of square pegs into round holes.

For organizations, the benefits are primarily driven by the bottom line—especially in regard to time and money. Putting together major training events is expensive when you have to get a large group of people together, house them, feed them, and manage them. Even if you cut much of the costs by arranging virtual events, getting a large group to free up the same set of hours is about as easy as catching water in a net.

Informal options, such as eLearning courses, offer a cheaper and more adaptable option that enables each member of that large group to get the same training when it fits his or her schedule and without the expense of having a live, flesh-and-blood classroom meeting.

But it goes beyond that.

Today’s companies move faster than ever before and face changes on a day-in and day-out (and often hour-by-hour) time frame. It’s just not practical to constantly bring people back in every day or every week for updates as goals, tasks, or deliverables change. However, a quick update to an online interactive course followed by a targeted email, and poof, everyone who needs to be updated can be in a quick time frame and at minimal expense.

Old school, new school, e-school, your school

Learning still happens in a variety of ways. There’s still an occasional need for formal, classroom learning, but more and more there’s a growing need for informal delivery methods that enable your learners to work in a way that is most effective for them.

As the world becomes more electronically connected, such learning will continue to become e-focused and delivered through intranets and the Internet. But what will help you more than anything else is this—think of your learners first and what will make the knowledge you want to teach them move from their heads and into practice, even if it requires you to consider alternatives you may never have before.

Written by: Sean Taylor, ProEdit

Learn more about ProEdit's services.

Take a Second Look: Avoiding Editorial Errors

2011-05-23T14:14:00.005-04:00

You finally did it! You put in the time, the money, the effort, and now you have something to show for it: the product. All you have left to do is to get it into the hands of customers. Unfortunately though, without a professional presentation, your product won’t even make it to a vendor. But before you go spend the rest of your budget on flashy sales gimmicks, take a second look at your presentation. Will it gain the attention and respect of the buyer? The answer to this question and the key to your success could lie in a simple proofread.

Often, companies spend their entire budgets on research, development, and production, only to cut corners when it’s time to write a proposal. To meet deadlines and stay under budget, a project manager with no formal writing experience might type up a plan and run a quick spell check. No mistakes? Fantastic. Run the presses and send it off before the office closes. But wait, there’s a problem. Automated spelling and grammar checks don’t catch every mistake.

For example, that manager means to start a sentence with “Whether friends and your family,” but instead, being in a rush, he writes “Weather fiends and you’re family” The buyers receive the proposal and immediately jump to the conclusion that either A) the company is accusing them of being related to a gang of cut-throat rainstorms or B) the company lacks the professionalism to properly edit documents.

That company’s product might be exactly what the buyers need; however, the buyers never make it past the errors to see what the company has to offer. Pardon the pun, but they can’t see the sunshine for all the rain. Eventually, that company is going to have to learn how to professionally edit documents, hire professional editors, or suffer everlasting bad business.

Sales proposals, however, aren’t the only types of documents you should submit for professional editing. Businesses need websites, and these websites should be free of errors. As a service or product provider, you are constantly trying to sell while consumers are constantly looking to buy. The Internet has made this relationship easier than ever. With a simple query into a search engine, consumers can find your business within seconds. If the visitors see typos or poorly constructed sentences, they are likely to leave your website to find something more professional that might meet their needs.

Editing is vital to every form of writing. Neglecting to edit will always yield negative or no results, regardless of content. Students who express complex concepts but fail to properly edit will make worse grades than those who do edit, even if the ideas are less developed. Job applicants with outstanding education and experience whose résumés contain misspelled words or incorrect punctuation are not likely to be contacted for an interview.

Regardless of deadlines or budget limits, editing should never be neglected. You may not be willing to give up your time looking over a document you just finished. It may be more work than you want to put in. In these cases, there are companies and individuals who will edit for you. This can even be more helpful than editing your own work. Because they are not familiar with your ideas and style, they tend to catch your mistakes more easily. Plus, it’s their job to do a good job. Remember that you have spent all of your resources on developing a product, a service, a grade, or even yourself. Why not spend the time, the effort, or the funds to ensure your work is correct and sounds great? It never hurts to take a second look.

Request a ProEdit price quote for your editing project or give us a call at 1-888-776-3348.

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Branding: Your Message Needs a Word Tuxedo

2011-05-16T11:51:00.004-04:00

Did you watch the royal wedding?

Think of what you didn’t see amidst all the grandeur and pomp and beauty: not one single pair of blue jeans, not one tank top, not one T-shirt with a funny caption. Why not? Because the dress code matched the event—formal, fancy, classy. Anything less than a suit or a tuxedo would have been out of place. Imagine jeans, tank tops, and funny T-shirts scattered throughout the church. That would have created a far different atmosphere and knocked formal, fancy, and classy down to informal, casual, and tacky.

What does this have to do with editing and branding?
Just like the wrong dress code can reduce a royal wedding extravaganza to a stereotypical shotgun wedding, the wrong dress code in your business communication can reduce your professional, informative, and unique company image to something cheap, unhelpful, and commonplace.

How do you dress your business communication properly to send the right message? Make sure your work has had “alterations” for the best fit. Only instead of seams and fabrics, use the tools of proofreading and editing.

Proofreading – Getting Rid of the Wrong
“But I ran it through spell check,” some may say. Well, as nice a tool as spell check is, it falls short in one vital area—it doesn’t think for itself. It’s only as good as its dictionary. Because of that, trusting it to make your copy foolproof is a risky proposition.

For example, spell check fails to understand the differences between “it’s” and “its” (though it does mark it while you’re typing, be careful—it’s often trying to “correct” it into a wrong usage) or “they’re” and “their” and “there.” It also doesn’t catch the common mistyping of words like “or” for “of” and “up” for “us.” And that’s the just the beginning. When it comes to proper usage, it doesn’t recognize the differences between “which” and “that” or “less than” and “under,” among other common grammatical mistakes.

Just ask the editors of the Brigham Young University student paper. In 2009, they trusted spell check to “proofread” their copy and accidently accepted the word “apostate” for a misspelling of “apostle.” Then they went to press without proofreading the “corrected” text—and quickly recalled 18,000 copies of the paper (http://www.sunjournal.com/node/85717). As honest a mistake as it was, it did cause the paper a lot of embarrassment.

Suppose you’re driving home and pass a billboard that reads “Better then our competitors.” That’s not exactly going to fill you with confidence in that company’s ability to do its job. It doesn’t matter if that job is laying bricks and has nothing to do with writing or editing. It still reflects poorly on that company’s quality of work. “I wonder if they hurry through their brickwork too, and make similar mistakes,” you might think. Sure, it is a simple mistake and a common error, but it speaks volumes about the business that made it. In other words, it hurt the brand in the eyes of a potential client.

The bottom line: Read your work to proofread it. Sure, use spell check and grammar checkers as tools, but yours must be the mind at work behind them to think beyond where their abilities stop short.

Editing – Making What’s Right Even Better
There’s a common misconception that editing and proofreading are just two ways of saying the same idea. The truth, however, is that editing picks up where proofreading ends. Editing goes beyond correcting spelling and grammar to make your copy the best it can be. (To continue our analogy of getting dressed for the royal wedding, think of proofreading as taking a shower and getting clean—the basics—and editing as visiting your closet to choose the right suit or dress—adding the finishing touches to look your best.)

Good editing looks at style, tone, and voice. It makes sure your professional company has a professional image. It makes sure your casual surf shop has a casual tone in your communication. It makes sure your instructional copy is easy-to-follow and written simply and directly.

Good editing aims first for the ultimate goal of any written message—understanding. It aims for the simple instead of the verbose, the clearly defined instead of the esoteric, and the concrete instead of the abstract. It enables you to speak plain language to the average person rather than speaking jargon understandable only to those with doctorates in your field. Good editing helps you “determine the best options” rather than “delineate the most advantageous possibilities intrinsic to the market.”

Taking the time to edit your documents (or have them edited by someone else) will ensure your brand maintains the image you want to show off to your current and potential clients.

We’re often told that we “clean up well” when we put on something nice to wear, which for me usually means a coat and tie. It’s a cliché, but it’s true. When I go out, I want to put my best foot forward and talk and dress in a way that says something about me. In a word, I “edit” myself to send the right message.

Put Your Message on the Best Dressed List
Are you looking to improve your company's communication and ensure that your brand is seen in the appropriate light? Don’t let simple, common errors undermine your materials. Make sure to get your point across clearly and directly, and don’t hinder your message with a tone, style, and voice that doesn’t match your image.

In short, don’t show up at the royal wedding in jeans and a T-shirt. It’s not pretty, and you’ll get all the wrong kind of attention.

Written by: Sean Taylor, ProEdit

Request a price quote for your editing project or give us a call at 1-888-776-3348.

Learn about ProEdit's services.

Friday the 13th: The Revenge of Project Killers

2011-05-13T14:05:00.002-04:00

What’s worse than Friday the 13th? The sequels.

Okay, that was a cheap shot, but now that I have your attention, what’s really worse than Friday the 13th—even worse than having a black cat cross your path under a ladder? Falling prey to superstitious assumptions when we should know better.

Before you think we’re talking about tossing salt over your shoulder or staying away from cracked mirrors, we’re not. We’re talking about the assumptions that affect your writing.

Sure, they may not be fully recognized superstitions yet, but they’re definitely myths that sneak into attitudes about the communication process for many writers, editors, presenters and instructors. They lurk around the corners of our minds and are always looking for ways to creep in and kill our effectiveness when it comes to communication projects.

So, what are some of these “Friday the 13th” project killers we need to look out for?

Project Killer #1 – I’ve done this course dozens of times. I don’t really need an instructional designer to fix it. It’s fine like it is.

There’s a lot of truth to the cliché “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But in many cases, something that “ain’t broke” can be made more effective with tweaking, especially when it’s going from one format (i.e., PowerPoint slides and a live presenter) to another (computer-based training). Think of it this way—even a best-selling novel has to be changed into a script before it can dominate the box office as a movie. So why shouldn’t your already successful course be adapted into an eLearning format so it can further engage the minds of your learners?

Project Killer #2 – Project managers are just an unnecessary step to slow us down. I can oversee this project just fine.

You’re already in charge of so much. Do you really want to add another hoop to jump through? A project manager can take care of the day-to-day details of keeping a project on track without the distractions that already take up so much of your time. Then you get to come in and deal with content when it’s ready to be seen instead of being bombarded by the trifling minutiae that can bog you and the project down.

Project Killer #3 – Why should I send this out to an editor? I ran it through spelling and grammar check.

Spell check is only as good as its dictionary. (Spell check actually flagged “its” as incorrect in the previous sentence in favor of the conjunction “it’s.”) It only recognizes misspellings, so words that can be spelled different ways (i.e., they’re, there, their) don’t get any help from spell check. Neither do words that are commonly mistyped (such as “up” for “us” or “of” for "off”). Furthermore, neither spell check nor grammar check helps you communicate better by tightening your writing, making better word choices, shifting from passive to active sentences, or replacing jargon with regular human speech.

Why is it so important to be careful with these project killers lurking about in the shadows? Well, unlike summer blockbusters or the latest action thriller, not all of your projects get a sequel. If you don’t get them right the first time, there might not be a handy black cat or convenient Friday the 13th to blame.

Written by: Sean Taylor, ProEdit

Avoid these Project Killers - learn more about ProEdit's services or give us a call at 1-888-776-3348.

The Work Buzz: Best Cities for 2010 Grads

2010-05-20T18:40:00.002-04:00

Graduating soon? Check out this article to find the best city to get your career started.

ProEdit's hometown came in at... #1!

Improve Your Grammar and Spelling: Quick Tips

2010-05-13T14:54:00.000-04:00

Do you ever question if MS Word's spelling and grammar checker catches all of your typos? Well in short, it does not! You should always have your important documents edited by a professional editor. At the very least, read the document one more time and follow the tips in this article.

Fifteen Great Job Markets for Technical Writers

2010-05-07T16:47:00.001-04:00

If you are technical writer looking to make a move, check out this list.

The following list represents the fifteen job markets in which about half of all

U.S.

technical writers work and the top three industries for technical writers in those job markets.

San Jose, CA (Silicon Valley) – Software, Hardware, Healthcare
Boston, MA – Financial/Banking, Telecommunications, Insurance
Seattle, WA – Software, Aerospace, Telecommunications
Washington, DC – Government, Healthcare, Information Technology
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN – Banking/Financial, Healthcare, Software
Chicago, IL – Banking/Financial, Healthcare, Insurance
Atlanta, GA – Telecommunications, Healthcare, Banking/Financial
Denver, CO – Telecommunications, Healthcare, Energy
New York, NY – Banking/Financial, Telecommunications, Healthcare
Houston, TX – Energy, Healthcare, Aerospace
Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX – Telecommunications, Banking/Financial, Software
Philadelphia, PA – Healthcare, Banking/Financial, Telecommunications
Portland, OR – Software, Hardware, Healthcare
Los Angeles/Anaheim, CA – Banking/Financial, Healthcare, Aerospace
Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC (Research Triangle) – Healthcare, Software, Telecommunications

Survey Results - Ratio of Technical Writing Staff to Development Staff

2010-05-03T16:34:00.006-04:00

ProEdit recently asked a large pool of technical writers the following question:

In your organization, what is the ratio of technical writing staff to development staff? (Development staff includes developers, BAs, QAs, and installers/implementers.) Select the answer that most closely resembles your organization. For example, 1:4 = 1 technical writer to 4 developers.

We have included a graph of the survey results (click to zoom).

ProEdit Awarded Technical Writing Contract

2010-04-30T16:25:00.000-04:00

ProEdit has been awarded a contract with the U.S. District Court, Western District of North Carolina. ProEdit will perform technical writing, instructional design, graphic design, and publishing services for the Jury Evidence Recording System.

Technical Communication: Love It or Leave It

2010-04-16T16:19:00.000-04:00

By Doug Davis

Our industry has more than its share of grumpy practitioners to whom the art of creating technical information means nothing more than a paycheck. They spend their days daydreaming of what their careers might have been if only this and that had happened. They go to sleep each night dreading the thought of another day working on that manual or with that person. To them I say, “Enough is enough.” Love it or leave it!

In this column, we are going to talk about why some technical communicators just plain hate their jobs. To aid me in my quest, I’m going to employ the aid of one of my favorite philosophers, Roseanne Rosannadanna, of Saturday Night Live fame.

“Well, Jane, it just goes to show you. It’s always something. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.”

We all know them and see them every day at work. They can find more reasons to complain about their job than there are ants in an anthill. “My boss is a jerk.” “I have to work too much overtime.” “My computer is too slow.” “This deadline is ridiculous.” Or my personal least favorite, “We don’t get any respect for what we do.” To them I say, “Shut up and get over it!” You are draining the life right out of your coworkers with your negativity.

Here’s the deal. Whether you want to admit it or not, everyone is ultimately self-employed. You are the one who decides how you are going to spend your day. Are you going to go to work today, or will you call in sick? Are you going to keep working at your current job, or will you go somewhere else? It doesn’t matter whether you are a permanent employee or a consultant. You are the only one that’s in charge of you.

You are probably familiar with the U.S. Army’s “An Army of One” slogan. Well, you are a “Company of One.” And you have a client ― your employer. If you can’t stand working for your employer any more, don’t complain. Fire them! Go somewhere else!

“Boy, Mr. Feder, you sure do ask a lot of stupid questions for a guy from New Jersey.”

I would encourage you to reevaluate your relationship with your client/employer at least once a year. If you work at a company that conducts annual performance reviews, this is a good time to do this. Your employer is taking this opportunity to assess how well you are doing for the company. It only stands to reason that this would also be a good time for you to assess whether you want to sign up for another year working with them. Question your assumptions about your job and your career. Give yourself a reality check.

For some, this can be very empowering. However, you have to accept the fact that you are accountable for your decisions. You are in control of every aspect of your career. Not your employer. If you hate your job, you have only yourself to blame.

“What are ya tryin' to do, make me sick?!”

If you ask technical communicators if they enjoy their jobs, one of the comments that makes me want to power barf is, “Well, what can you say? It pays the bills.”

I think this is the worst reason in the world to stay at a job. You spend such a huge part of your life at work ― is paying the bills really that fulfilling? When your days are numbered, do you really want to look back on your life’s accomplishments as a series of debits and credits to your bank account?

We live in a time of unprecedented prosperity. There is a whole world out there full of careers that you can be happy doing, if you are wired up to be a happy person. If you read this column and you are one of those grumpy practitioners who just enjoy being disgruntled, then I can’t help you. Perhaps nobody can.

However, if you are unhappy in your job and honestly want things to change, then there are ways to dig yourself out of the hole you’ve stumbled into. Start with some good books. My favorites are What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles and Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Also, it may be worthwhile to seek out a therapist or good friend to help you assess where you are and where you’d like to be.

The bottom line is to not just stay in that unhappy place. Make up your mind to do something about it. Make your job into what you want it to be.

I’d like to close by explaining why I love my job. First, I love my coworkers. It sounds corny, but we are really like extended family. Second, I love my job because I have an insatiable curiosity about how things work. Much to my family’s dismay, I love to watch TV shows about how this, that, or the other works. I love to tour assembly plants and see products coming together. I love talking to people about what they do. My heroes are Edison, Einstein, and the Wright Brothers. The quest to build a better mousetrap just fascinates me.

That’s why I love my job, and I’m not planning to leave anytime soon.

Who’s Next? Making Your Job Outsource-proof

2010-04-12T08:26:00.012-04:00

By Doug Davis

Fellow technical communicators, what I’m about to say is not going to win me any popularity contests. It’s the 1000-pound gorilla in the living room. It’s the emperor’s new clothes. Here it is. Ready? Outsourcing is here to stay. But why? Because a whole lot of the time, those outsourcing relationships work out just fine for the companies that choose to pursue them.

Of course, if you end up on the wrong end of a pink slip because of some outsourcing arrangement, you are in for one of the most traumatic times of your life. But if you stay ahead of the prevailing wind, there are some things you can do to help prevent your job from being the one that’s axed.

And just to liven things up a bit, I’ve included some song lyrics in italics.

In the Beginning...

“The change it had to come. We knew it all along.”

Where did all of this outsourcing stuff come from anyway? The outsourcing fire was fanned by two big trends in our industry. The first was economics. During the nineties, the cost of experienced technical communicators kept going up, up, and up. Then, when profits within the technology sector started to fall, bean counters started looking for ways to cut costs. Outsourcing was perceived to be the answer to their financial woes.

The second big reason was the advent of telecommuting. In our industry’s eagerness to embrace telecommuting, we unwittingly set ourselves up for our jobs to be outsourced. The downside of being able to telecommute is that jobs that are able to be done remotely can be done by someone who is, well, remote. Low-cost computers, high-bandwidth Internet connections, standardization of toolsets, and countless presentations to upper management on the benefits of telecommuting set us up for outsourcing. Ready … aim … shoot your own foot.

So, for those of you whose jobs haven’t been outsourced, what can you do to help reduce the likelihood that your job will be outsourced? Here are six techniques you can use to help outsource-proof your job.

Technique 1. Ex-telecommute yourself.

“I’ll move myself and my family aside.”

If you are a telecommuter, you can easily find yourself out of the rumor loop. Make sure to have regular face time at the office and around the water cooler. Keep your ear to the cubicle wall. Learn what’s happening in other parts of the company. If outsourcing is happening elsewhere, be on red alert. It’s probably being considered on a much more widespread basis.

Technique 2. Suck up big time.

“Smile and grin at the change all around.”

When you were in school, did the teacher’s pet ever get expelled from school? Hmmm? It’s not pretty, but sometimes it just pays to do extra stuff for your boss. Offer to edit his/her memos or help with presentations (after hours, of course, lest they think you don’t have enough real work to do). Through doing extra stuff for your boss, you’ll get some extra face time and may even get a tip that something’s afoot. Let them vent to you about the stresses and problems they are encountering, but be sure to keep quiet about what you learn. Information is a precious thing until everyone knows it. Make your move to another job if you need to, and then try to help your coworkers. It’s like what they say on airplanes, “Put your mask on before helping others.”

Technique 3. “I’d like mine with extra SMEs, please.”

“I’ll get all my papers and smile at the sky.”

If you’ve read any of my previous columns, you know that I’m a real advocate of technical communicators becoming subject matter experts. If you know your company’s products and services inside and out, it’s going to be hard for your employers to see you walk out the door with a cardboard box. One reason is that you may take your cardboard box right across the street to their top competitor. Knowing the industry you write about is much more important than knowing about the writing industry.

Technique 4. “Wrong, wrong, wrong … better … nope still wrong.”

“Sit in judgment of all wrong.”

It’s a common scenario for companies to outsource the writing functions but retain employees for editorial and quality control functions. If you think your department could be the target for future outsourcing, it would be wise to align your job duties as closely as possible with that of a lead editor or the last check before the work goes out the door.

Technique 5. Get bossy

“And the men who spurred us on …”

In most cases, the manager is the last person standing. Writers are more likely to get outsourced than editors. Editors are more likely to get outsourced than managers. But, managers, be forewarned. Always be a manager who does real work. Edit something. Write a chapter now and then. Keep your skills current so you will be viewed as a utility player, not as overhead.

Technique 6. “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”

“Meet the new boss. The same as the old boss.”

Let’s say that all has failed, and your job is about to be outsourced. Consider contacting the firm that’s going to provide the services to your employer and inquire about a job. You may be a very valuable commodity to the outsourcer because you know the stuff they are going to need in order to do the work, and you have an immediate project to work on for them.

Here’s one last thought on the subject of outsourcing. Don’t burn bridges with your former employers. They may need you back later. Then, it will be time for you to decide whether working with them is a good match for your long-term strategic goals.

(Song lyrics, "Won't Get Fooled Again," Written by Pete Townsend, Performed by The Who. On Wikipedia)

Using Readability Tools to Improve Web Content

2010-04-05T15:32:00.003-04:00

By Doug Davis

Like all Web content writers, I'm always looking for simpler ways
to make my job easier.

Readability tools help me manage two of my biggest challenges, which are:

Holding the reader's attention. You have to keep them reading long enough to get your message across.
Maintaining a consistent voice. You need a lot of content on your site, but you don't really want your site to sound like different people wrote it.

Let's take a quick look at how readability tools work, and how they can work for you.

How Readability Tools Work

One of the things I always do before publishing my content is to check the Readability Score. Readability scores are based on a U.S. elementary school grade level. For Web content targeted at adult readers, I recommend shooting for somewhere between a 7th and 8th grade reading level.

The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score is the easiest to use, because it's the one used in MS Word. When you finish running the MS Word spelling and grammar checker on your document, the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score is displayed.

Here's the equation that calculates the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score:

(.39 x ASL) + (11.8 x ASW) - 15.59

where:

ASL = Average sentence length. This is the number of words divided by the number of sentences.
ASW = Average number of syllables per word. This is the number of syllables divided by the number of words.

So, it's pretty easy to see that shorter sentences with shorter words lowers the Readability Score.

Making the Most of Readability Tools

After you write the first draft of a new page, run the spelling and grammar checker and fix any obvious problems. Then, look at the Readability Score. This will give you a quick idea as to how deeply you need to edit on your next pass through the page. If the score is 13, then you'll need to go back to the document with a meat axe. If the score is 9, then a laser scalpel will suffice.

When you're editing for readability, you are shortening sentences and shortening words.

This can have two positive effects on your site:

Longer Visits—You are making it easier for the reader to read your content. The easier the content is to read, the longer the visitor will spend reading it. (By the way, this article has a 6th grade readability score, and you've almost read it all. See what I mean?)
Consistent Voice—If you are using a team of writers, require that their content be written to a specific grade level. Look at any style guide and you will see page after page of specific words to use and how to use them. However, from a practical perspective, it's tough to get writers to use style guides. By moving to shorter words, you are actually limiting the number of words that the writers can use. You are knocking out countless big words like "utilize" and replacing them with little words like "use." By requiring them to write to a specific score, you also help them write with a specific voice.

Effective use of readability scores will help you score a bulls-eye with your readers!