To be immoral means that you don’t conform to accepted standards of morality.
Something is amoral when it is not concerned with morality.
So nature red in tooth and claw is amoral; it has nothing to do with any moral standards. But stealing is immoral (in a culture where it’s wrong to steal)
For more troublesome pairs, go to the category cloud to your right, or click here.
I was asked to differentiate this one by a friend who sent me a lovely long list of troublesome pairs. But this is a simple one: either will do!
“Spelt” is the past tense / past participle of “spell”. So is “spelled”. Apparently, “spelt” is more usually found in British English.
So there you go!
For more troublesome pairs, click to the right in the category cloud or click here.
As well as copy-editing, I also do copy-writing. Not every copy-editor is a copy-writer, and not every copy-writer is a copy-editor, but I’ve had plenty of experience doing both.
Copy-writing involves writing content, whether it’s for an article, a blog, a website, marketing materials or a press release; for print or online. Most of the copy-writing I do involves websites and marketing materials. I work with web designers who might have a client in any kind of industry, who wants a set of web pages but uses professionals to a) design the actual look and functionality of the pages and b) write the content for them. Some web developers are happy doing both; some recognise that they need to contract out the writing, whether because that’s not their forté or because they don’t have time to do both.
When I’m writing for a website, I do need certain information: I can create something out of nothing, but it’s hard to fulfil the client’s requirements if I don’t know what they are – I’m a good writer, but I’m not psychic! So I like to send the client and web designer a little questionnaire, to establish points like:
– how many pages the website has and their titles (so I know which different sections I need to write for)
– basic information about the client – if I can have some of their existing marketing materials or a previous website, that’s really useful
– an idea of the kind of style they are looking for – serious, sales-orientated, enthusiastic, calm, funny …
– an idea of how much information they are looking for for each page – how many words
I then sit down with a list of headings and all the information to hand and write – I usually do this in Word or Notepad so I can pop it through to the web designer in a useful format.
Then it’ll go to the web designer and the client to have a look at – the web designer will put it into the design they’ve already made and the client will have a look at it. There’ll usually be a bit of feedback and I might have a chat with the client direct, and then I’ll make the necessary tweaks.
For example: I worked on a website for a motivational speaker recently. I worked from his current website and some brochures and an autobiographical feature he’d written. Once I’d got some bits and pieces together we had a chat on the phone about the tone of the website, and I subsequently changed the focus a little bit and clarified various points – and there we were!
If I’m working on marketing materials or a press release for a client, it’ll work in a similar way – I’ll need something to base it on and then I’ll go from there, with plenty of feedback from the client as needed.
Some people worry that anything I write for them will be in “my” style, where they want it to reflect their style and personality. But a good copy-writer is able to be something of a chameleon, adapting their style to the matter, and client, at hand. I enjoy the challenge of doing this, and it helps with my copy-editing work, too, where it’s important to retain the client’s voice rather than imposing my own.
If you’re a busy Virtual Assistant (VA) you know that there are some jobs you need to give that personal touch … but others that are more routine and can be outsourced. If you’re designing websites, often the design and functionality is your forté and you could outsource the copy writing, either because it frees up some of your time, or because it’s not your speciality.
I provide all sorts of services, from copy writing through to copyediting, proofreading, transcription and copy typing. Here are some ideas for projects I could help you with.
For VAs:
For website designers:
I don’t need to contact your clients direct; I’m happy to work through you. And my standard agreement means there’s no worry about me “poaching” your customers – I’m more than happy to work with you long term to satisfy your clients’ needs. You won’t be employing me, simply outsourcing some of your work; I’ll invoice you an agreed amount per hour and you can invoice your clients whatever you want to!
Talk to me today about outsourcing some of that routine work and getting on with the things that you do best, and that differentiate you from other VAs and web designers.
Have a look at what a copyeditor and proofreader does; see references from my satisfied clients.
Contact me via email or via my contact form.
Many thanks to Sally Findlay from Recognition Express, who has created a logo and some graphics for my blog for me. Sally listened to what I required, and listened again when I gave her feedback on the initial designs, and produced some lovely images that I’m more than happy to use. As well as graphic design, Recognition Express offers loads of branded promotional goodies – a good company to know about and be able to recommend!
My new logo
Thanks Sally!
This is one that I see mixed up all the time. There’s quite a simple division between them, though.
A principal is the top person in a group. So the leader of a school is the Principal. Following on from this use, it also means first or main – “My principal interest is football but I don’t mind watching a bit of rugby”; “The firm’s principal area of operation is construction schools”. It’s also a noun used to describe a sum of money invested or lent on which interest is paid.
A principle is a belief or a rule which governs your personal behaviour, as well as a natural law or general scientific theorem.
“The school Principal works from principles of care, respect and the importance of good discipline. The principal principle is respect – that’s the most important one. Everything else matters, but that matters most.”
And a little bonus: “principality” – a state ruled by a prince
For more troublesome pairs, click on the category cloud over to the right, or click here.
I’m considering writing and publishing a short book on how I managed to lower my cholesterol levels through diet and exercise, spelling out exactly how I did it, and how it might be possible for other people to do it too. I am not planning on making any grandiose claims for being able to solve people’s problems, and I’m certainly advocating a happy and food-filled existence. I will make sure I add caveats for those who have very high levels and other issues, etc., etc. I’ll make sure I present properly researched medical facts as well as my own experience.
I’m planning to use my new Kindle publishing skills to publish it for Kindle and make it available via Amazon.
What I need to know is – would you buy this (for yourselves or someone you know). And if you’d buy it, how much would you be willing to pay?
Thanks for your help!
This is an easy one with an interesting explanation.
Would have is correct.
Would of is not correct.
However, “would of” has crept into the language because when “would have” is abbreviated to “would’ve”, and spoken out loud, it sounds like “would of”.
“She would have gone out, but she didn’t have anything to wear.”
“She would’ve gone out, but she didn’t have anything to wear.”
This works throughout the range of words – “might have”, “would have”, “should have”, etc.
For more troublesome pairs, choose the category from the cloud over to your right, or click here.
When most people think of “proofreading”, they are actually thinking of copyediting, which I’ve discussed in a previous post.
Proof-reading is, officially, checking proofs of a publication just before they are published. So when I’m proofreading, I’m effectively looking for different things to when I’m copyediting. For a start, the document is often different – for example, when I’m working on a magazine or book, the text I copyedit is usually presented to me in a word processing programme like Word, whereas the proofs come in pdf format. That’s because that’s how, essentially, they will go to the printer, so they represent the final, finished form of the book or magazine.
All of the grammatical, punctuation and spelling stuff should have already been covered by the copyeditor, and the facts checked by the copyeditor, editor, author or fact-checker (whether or not I’m one of these people in the project too). What I’m now looking for is inconsistencies and errors in how the text and the surrounding “business” appears on the page. So I’ll check for …
for books and magazines:
– page numbers being sequential and starting at the right point
– pictures having captions and the captions describing the correct picture
– widows and orphans – individual words or lines which get left alone on either the previous page to the main text (e.g. if a paragraph starts at the bottom of the page or, worse, there’s a short phrase introducing a quotation or the beginning of a text box) or the page afterwards (the last few words of a paragraph or text box, for example)
– changes in font size that weren’t intentional
– the contents page or list matches what’s there in the publication
for books in particular:
– the running headers being correct, i.e. one has the publication name and the other has the chapter title (for the correct chapter)
– chapters all starting on a right-hand page as you hold the book open
– all extra material (bibliographies, index … ) included and in the right order
As it’s in pdf format at this point, I’ll use my software to annotate the pdf and then send it back to the client. Sometimes I’ll get a second look at it once these corrections have been made.
And that’s what a proofreader does.
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