Outsourced content writing? Not from this mob.
This just landed in my inbox.
Located in an elite business centre in New Delhi, India, <company name> is a professionally managed Content Writing Company specializing in online copywriting and optimized content writing. Over the years we are successful in building reputation for us as a quality content management solution provider meeting high quality standards and executing all projects as per specified deadline.
We have a team of unmatched copywriters holding years of expertise in writing impressively for varied business sectors with a key knowledge of online content writing and keyword rich writing.
We also undertake outsourced content writing jobs meeting the clients’ requirements and delivering projects in specified time.
To test our expertise, we can provide with sample writing too on any topic as asked by you.
To know more about our services, visit us at <URL>
Would you use this company to write for you? I wouldn’t. While there are a few Indian content writers who write grammatically correct English, there are many more wannabes who don’t know their own shortcomings.
The quality of English found in India is atrocious and there is no kind way of saying it. The majority of English-speaking Indians did not go to elite schools where they might have had a gifted and dedicated English teacher. These days, they are likely to speak a mix of English and a local language — this can be seen in the Indian versions of American TV shows such as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? When I saw an episode I could not tell if the show was meant to be in Hindi with some English thrown in, or the other way round.
There seems to be a shift from British English towards American English and this can be seen in the “iz” spellings in the email. A tip to content writers: don’t pitch to Australians, New Zealanders or the British (please lose “Britishers”) in American English. University-educated Americans usually have a very strong command of their language and will not be fooled by sloppy writing samples.
Common tools such as Microsoft Word are not good at detecting sloppy writing. New tools such as WhiteSmoke 2008 Extended Edition are trying to cover this market but it too has its work cut out.
So what is the solution for the company that needs cheap content? I suggest outsourcing from the best writer you can find but hire a local editor to polish the material.
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June 18th, 2008 17:02
Thats the best solution. Kudos!
The problem with Indian content writers won’t change because they work for a company and a particular company may have multiple clients, each belonging to a different country.
Among content writers, if a one wants to maintain quality, I think one should stick to either American or British English. Why not? PHP developers specialise in PHP and Dot Net Developers specialise in Dot Net. Similarly we would have British-content writers and American-content writers.
August 9th, 2008 18:31
Great post Ash, and very true
you can spot outsourced content a mile off at times because of the “Indianisms”
It’s funny that even in these days of text speak and the fact that we British English speakers can live with American English, it’s still a sign of quality if the distinction is made and the content is comfortable to read.