Online editor

As writing moves away from traditional publishers run by professionals with on-staff editors to at-home and on-line printing with no editor save the writer and his computer, editing has fallen by the wayside. In some cases, this doesn't really matter. Whether an email contains a few misspelled words or not doesn't really matter - we understand the trade-off between efficiency and accuracy. However, in some cases we want someone else to look over our work before we submit it, and we'd like that someone to be more than the squiggly red and green lines we might find beneath our misspelled words and gramatically incorrect phrases. This need becomes even more urgent as our own editing skills atrophy through lack of use.

Someone has capitalized on this need. Gramlee (TM) employs a staff of independent editors who promise to turn around smaller documents (less than 4000 words) by email in under 24 hours (longer documents may take longer). How good they are I don't know, but the notion of an online service of this sort appeals to me, for although I have a fair understanding of grammar and spelling, I am not perfect, nor am I a very accurate typist. This sort of service may be of use to me for my more important writing (e.g. my thesis), though I think that I'd want a single editor, rather than a pool of editors, to work with for my novel, assuming that I ever get said novel to a point where an editor would be called for.

I can also see the use of such a service for others who lack the time or skills (or inclination) to edit their own work. This might particularly be of use to those who are struggling with the intricacies of English either because it is not their native language, or because they haven't been taught how to properly communicate with formal, or even semi-formal English. Some of my SAT students, for example, have great difficulty with the basic rules of grammar (more on that in another post) and their college essays would benefit from professional editing. Unfortunately, I suspect that many of the students who are most in need of this service are those who are least able to afford it.

There is also the question of misrepresentation. If a college entrance essay is supposed to give a sense of the person who wrote it, might the use of a professional editor be misleading, if not unethical? Or perhaps the point is more the ideas and their articulation, rather than the raw mechanics of writing that an editor would be concerned with. In either event, I don't think that I can recommend this service to my students (not that they could use it for their exam essays) as it probably conflicts with my status as a Test Prep Company employee. Further, having not used the service myself, I can't vouch for its quality. Nor can I say that it is better, or cheaper, or faster, or what-have-you-er than its competitors (if it doesn't have competitors yet, I expect it will within the year.)

And, I am forced to acknowledge that my own application essays were looked over by a professional secretary who was well-schooled in spelling and grammar (viz, my mother), and I expect that many of my fellow students at the time had similar help from their parents or teachers. So, I suppose that schools expect there to be a certain amount of editing. That being the case, perhaps mentioning the availability of such a service might be acceptable, if I don't mention any specific service.