General - English Linguistic Services

Many companies and government instrumentalities alienate their customers through misused English. Often this is caused by poor translation. Fundamental are information brochures; reports; tenders, bids and proposals; and other vitally important texts linked to customers or professional organisations throughout the EU.

Poorly written and poorly-constructed texts, or texts written in an inappropriate style, or without thought to the understanding and needs of the reader, invariably lead to alienation and ineffectiveness of purpose.

As a professional linguist with over 35 years experience in drafting documents, from legal texts to advertising materials Paul Cooper is able to help with:

Language Audits

Using special corpora software we can analyse and review your existing correspondence and documentation for consistency and precision. In this way language errors used by individual managers, or generally within your organisation can be identified and remedied before they cause problems for your readers.

Plain English Drafting

Re-writing documents in plain English to meet the standards and ideals promoted by the Plain English Movement. Such documents are immediately more understandable by your intended readers, and your message can be conveyed more effectively and efficiently. This may be as short as standard customer letters through to reports and manuals.

Document Revision

Reviewing, rewriting and restructuring documentation. This ensures more effective and efficient document management as well as ensuring consistency throughout your organisation. It includes sentence and paragraph revision, word choice, punctuation, glossaries, definitions and other aspects of quality working documents.

Websites, advertising & promotional material

Projecting your image and services can be negated by wrong choice of language, and language subtleties. Your task is to write your copy, and the linguist’s task is to ensure that the language choices effectively achieve your aims.

Achieving your Purpose

Businesses spend a lot of time and money preparing text to communicate with their clients and the public at large. These range from letters to full-scale documentation, as well as promotional, informational and public relations materials. The reaction can range from alienation to confusion to effectiveness.

Advantages

The advantages of linguistic review of your documentation revolve around clarity and include improved understanding between you and your clients, improved public image and public communication, healing past misunderstanding, increasing your business, and a reduction in misunderstanding and call-centre based enquiries. We can give you many documented examples of companies and government instrumentalities which have reduced costs, including staffing costs, by reviewing their documentation.

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Legal - English Linguistic Services