When "both" isn't needed

The word both is often used in situations where it adds neither clarity nor elegance. For instance:

Both my wife and I enjoy cycling.
 
The chef tasted both the main course and the dessert before sending them to the customers.
 
There's no need to use both in the sentences above because the two items have been identified. Both is only required when you don't otherwise make it clear you're referring to two people, two objects etc.

What people mean when they say "editing"

"Don't just proof it," I'm told by some of my editing clients. "Tell me which are the best bits and which are the worst bits. If there's anything that should be taken out, let me know. And if there's anything that should be expanded, tell which direction I should go in."

When quoting a price for my services, I always examine the unedited text, note its length and estimate how many hours I'll have to spend on it. Also, I ask the client what exactly he/she wants: basic proofreading, copyediting or full content editing - terms clearly explained in this recent article.

British English, American English

I was educated in the UK but have lived in a society which prefers American spellings and usages for more than 20 years. I've been writing for publications here in Taiwan for 16 years, and have gotten used to (in the UK, we say got use to) writing American English. From time to time, however, I'm asked to write something for a magazine which follows British spelling and punctuation rules. If you're not sure whether a publication follows British or American rules, do ask before submitting anything!

I consider myself fully "bilingual" when it comes to writing or editing British or American English. The differences between the two forms of the language have always intrigued me. It's no surprise, then, that this article on the BBC website really tickled my fancy, as we'd say in the UK. 

Deciding how much to charge II

A few days ago, I began explaining how I decide how much money to ask for when approached by a publication. Of course, the same principals apply when choosing whether to accept an offer from a outfit which says its payment rates are "fixed."

There's another factor which isn't coldy commercial: Personal interest. If the subject is dear to your heart, you may be willing to write about for very little money. That's fine if the piece is for a campaigning website or magazine - just don't let for-profit publications take advantage of your passion. For me, personal interest seldom means asking for less money. Rather, having no interest whatsoever in the topic is why I sometimes turn down work. 
 
More food for thought on this issue can be found here.

Deciding how much to charge I

Having established that you shouldn't/needn't ever work for free, the next business issue you'll likely have to tackle is this: When writing for a publication where the payment rate is negotiable, how much should you ask for?

Whenever I'm contacted by someone who wants me to do some writing for them, I never commit or refuse until I've ascertained the following:

The deadline. If the editor wants the finished piece within a few days, I demand top dollar. Of course, if you think you can build a long-term relationship with the publication, you may be willing to accept less. Most editors are grateful when writers pull them out of a hole  

How much work is involved. Word count isn't very important. Doing the research usually takes more time than actual writing, so a decent 1,000-word article isn't much more work than a thorough 700-word item. Quote a price for the entire article, not per word, just in case the editor decides later to go for something shorter. (That's happened to me). 

Resale potential. If you're being offered less-than-fabulous money to write a piece that requires considerable research, but you're pretty sure you can repackage the information and sell it elsewhere later, I'd advise taking the job. The first time I wrote about sustainable architecture in Taiwan, I had to do a great deal of work - but that effort paid off in the long run as I've since written several articles about green buildings (like this one). However, if you can't see any way to leverage the work into additional income, politely say no.

Part Two of this post will follow in a few days.

Yet more superfluous words

Writing about Taiwan's countryside recently, I typed out these two sentences, and immediately saw words that would be better be taken out. As in the previous post, the superfluous words are bolded.

To give cityfolk a taste of farming life and the satisfaction of nurturing something which they can later eat...

Some sanheyuan are cramped; others have more than enough space for an extended family of 15.

Which often appears on lists of perennial candidates for editing out. More than is often not needed. If a house (a sanheyuan is a traditional Taiwanese bungalow) can accommodate more than 15 people, it obviously has enough space for 15; two words can be dropped, and you can get closer to your target word count.

Cutting out words that often aren't needed

When I finish an article, I put it aside and work on something else for a little while. I then go back to the just-finished piece and read it through. I'm looking, of course, for errors and omissions. But I'm also looking for words which can and should be removed. 

If you're struggling to make your writing tighter, or battling to get the wordcount down to what your editor wants, take a close look at every the and that. A good many of them can be done away with, you'll find. In the two examples below (from a writing project I finished a few days ago) the words in bold can be dropped:

Of all the festivals, my personal favorite is the Nantou City Sand Sculpture Festival.

You can be sure that every taxi driver knows how to get there.