Fiverr Community Forum

Important tip for sellers offering English proofreading and editing services

Your Fiverr Experience The Ranting Pot
#1

LEARN HOW TO READ AND WRITE IN ENGLISH BEFORE OFFERING THIS SERVICE!!!

So, I posted a request today requesting an editor for a short document. Of the 20 offers I received, there was only ONE from someone I might possibly, maybe, consider paying to look at my document.

Here’s a sample of what I received (And it should go without saying, all of this is [SIC]):

“Hi. I Can be your document proofreader and editor. I worked with a popular magazine as an editor in chief. I have good experience to make sure your document come out clean without error or grammatical blunders.”

…I can see why you are no longer editor-in-chief of Popular Magazine.

“Hey. As I’m an English teacher. I can accurately proofread your document.”

…I feel sorry for your students

“hi, i am good in article writing and editing. my work is to clean up your document as much possible within minimum possible time.”

…I have nothing to say to this

“Very good :slight_smile: I am a native English speaker who is professionally sound, order my gig now”

…dude, you already lost the gig with the smiley face, but making your offer sound like a demand was icing on the cake.

Though, I think my favourite was this guy:

“Hello dear customer. I am an experienced researcher who handles academic and technical writing tasks satisfactorily. My work is always plagiarism free. I have vast knowledge on this subject and will give you perfect results. Please assign me the task.”

…I was really tempted to send him a message to ask him exactly what subject he has vast knowledge on.

Also, really READ the request. I stated that I needed the document edited to AP Style. I received about a dozen offers in which the seller bragged about how well-versed they were in APA formatting…So close, yet so far from what I requested.

3 Likes
#2

I’m impressed that some knew to capitalize the pronoun I, and use periods.

#3

I do red n right rurly wel~ me give yoou gig know and u pay mek! :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like
#4

Using Buyer Requests for something like proofreading is kind of like hunting through the dustiest cardboard box at goodwill hoping to find a matching shoe to one you liked a few years ago. I think you’ll have much better results going to the main Fiverr page and look at sellers who offer the service, have reviews, show samples, have levels and demonstrate their abilities through a portfolio. Buyer Requests is most useful to buyers who have a unique need that you can’t find through search.

I was looking for a video of someone just doing a random training task with a horse, filmed on any old phone at any quality. I tried search but all the people with horse-related gigs didn’t want to bother with filming something cheap and the people with video gigs didn’t have easy access to a horse. Buyer Requests found me a guy with a horse and a phone and he got $4 for a 2 minute task he was going to do anyway.

That said, your rant could be useful to others because there are an amazing number of sellers who think that proofreading means running a document through a software spell and grammar check for free and then sending it back to the client. That’s not worth $5, period. Some of them probably get sales from other people who can’t read or write well in English and actually think the document is fine because it no longer has obvious red underlined errors. Those gigs drive a lot of people nuts. I have a degree in English and I don’t offer proofreading or editing gigs because I hate proofing anything from a forum post to a text and I’ll probably miss something because I just don’t care.

2 Likes
#5

What have you got against smiley faces? How are you supposed to know that someone is friendly, professional and competent without an emoticon? :slight_smile:

1 Like
#6

What @fonthaunt said is exactly right. I offer a variety of services including proofreading but I never apply to small proofreading gigs. Aside from the fact that I can only send 10 offers per day and a small gig is a wasted offer, the sheer number of people who believe that proofreading is MS Word’s spellcheck is surreal. Proofreading is one of those gigs that people believe is easy money, it’s listed on all the “make money quick” sites as an easy earner. This has attracted a lot of people who could do with watching Sesame Street as an educational tool to try their hand at proofreading.

1 Like
#7

Alright, perhaps I should fess up that this may have been more of an intelligence gathering mission. I’m also offering proofreading services and while I do have a document I’d spend five bucks to have looked at, the main goal was to experience things from the buyer’s point of view.

It just happens that what I found was too funny to not share.

#8

It’s amazing how many ppl ignore them or have no idea of their meaning? Come on ppl it’s 2016, learn your emoticons! :stuck_out_tongue:

#9

I think many of these so-called proofreaders just run every document through Grammarly.

Sadly, the Writing category is awash with amateurs.

1 Like
#10

Wanton capitalization, boy.

You are not ready to be a grammar Nazi just yet.

1 Like
#11

You may protest that it is a proper noun, but… go to the homepage, look it up, and add the other two words to it. In brighter news, I’m just bored, and I spotted my own wanton hyphen usage elsewhere. I’ll leave it out in the open for you to maul. I could tell you where, but there would be no sport in that.

I am the BEST grammar Nazi here. All my errors are deliberate traps. Walk ye who dare enter those corridors…

#12

So, since this was about investigating competition, I thought I’d take grammarly for a spin. First off, yes, it’s a little odd that they don’t capitalize their own proper noun.

But besides that, this thing is a piece of crap. I uploaded something I had written and it found three “critical” errors. One…yeah, it was a mistake, but I’d say a minor one. The other two sentences were fine. Grammarly was wrong, not me.

There were also two “advanced errors,” that I could pay to see. Oh, and it accused me of plagiarism, but it wants money before it will tell me I plagiarized myself.

#13

Grammarly’s page is a mess, too. The company should have at least capitalized the first letter of its logo.

Is nothing sacred any more?!

#14

Oh yeah, the basic service is garbage. I had a similar problem when inputting “The cat jumped over the hat.”

I know of three very successful Fiverr proofreaders using grammarly premium (caps or no caps? I can’t be bothered to check!)

The paid service must offer something a little more reliable.

1 Like
#15

I bought the paid service some time back in a 60 day money back guarantee. After one week I cancelled it and got my money back.
It was useless for me.
Yes, it would make a student with bad grammar’s work a bit better or it could help a non native speaker a bit but it is not a substitute for proofreading. It misses basic things from a proofreader’s point of view.
In an order I got here of 1500 words, I proofread it myself first and then put it through Grammarly. I can’t remember the exact figures but it missed around 25% of the errors I found when I did it manually.

#16

Note to self; stop using emoticons.

#17

I just love your honesty! :sunglasses:

#18

Resurrecting old threads is frowned upon by the mods, just to caution you.

Personally, I found this one to actually be an interesting set of posts to read.