Isao_Kato
says,
I highly recommend Sherry Lamoreaux to everybody. The followings are what I have experienced during our first collaboration, and how she contributed to our project.
- Why she was chosen among the bidders-
Sherry offered a sample rewriting as part of her bidding. It was small but was enough to let me understand her style, skill set, and customer-orientedness.
She presented how her pricing worked, not just showing the bulk price. Since the document had a fair chance of repeated editing, knowing the price mechanism made a big difference.
She also expressed her frank but thoughtful opinion about our original document. It was clear she studied the original material, and considered what was best for us.
Overall, as a newcomer to Guru I had fear of being ripped off, and her approach took that away instantly. I also wanted to work with a professional who takes pride in her work and does what is best for the project/client. I believe I made the right decision.
- Technical skill (editing and proofreading) -
This editing project was not only about grammar but was also about context and usage. The document was intended for US market and Sherry made it sound natural for local users.
As the author of the original document, one of the difficulties I faced was delivering my company's message to both novice and expert users in a coherent way, not by tucking marketing buzzwords in front of technical jargons (which I obviously did). Her editing work bonded the two contexts naturally, even considering how much I wanted to 'tilt' toward either side.
- Communication -
Immediately after the project started, Sherry sent me a warm-up editing work which put both of us in the same page regarding editing style, communication method, and word usage. Sorting these issues out in the early stage of the project made the whole process much smoother then I had expected.
She constantly provided me with feedbacks, questions, and suggestions on the document.
Also, a great sense of humor came along as a bonus.
- Creativity -
Before this project she obviously was a relative newcomer to the subject (webcam), but she immediately started researching the subject which continued throughout the project. I was expecting to spend some time on 'technical support', which was not necessary at all. She approached the document from an end user's point of view. As a result, many overlooked issues were found and fixed by her.
- Timeliness -
The project was completed on time. More impressive was her delivery method: instead of sending a completed work at once at the end of the schedule, Sherry sent me updates constantly, slowly building up toward completion. Her approach allowed me to monitor progress and correct (my) mistakes on time. We could even enhance the original content, which was totally unexpected. Before working on this project, I thought I was going to worry about the schedule and spend time on monitoring the progress. That did occur: I worried about and monitored MY progress on giving her my feedback and answers.
- Last but not least -
I was looking for a contractor, but instead got a business partner. Working with Sherry was like having a trustable and joyful colleage stationed in a distant office; someone who walks along with you, looking at the same direction.
for
User Manual editing/proofreading
on Jul 17, 2009