Would you pay for grammar and style feedback on your English writing?
I've been helping a friend who is a non-native English speaker with his blog posts. He writes a draft, and then I go through and correct mistakes and point out places where the style could be improved. The key is that I always try to explain why a certain change needs to be made so that he can learn how to write better. I'm impressed with how much progress he has made in just a handful of blog posts. (I should say that he's an incredibly intelligent and hardworking person, so helping him improve is very easy!)
This got me thinking: Would other people pay for feedback on their blog posts or other written work so that they can improve their English?
I thought there may be some interest for a service like this among Indie Hackers so wanted to put it out there and see! Thanks in advance for the feedback :)
Yep. I would pay for that I think.
Good to know! Thanks @MatthieuCneude
I use Grammarly, and I quite like it. Like @hatkyinc already mentioned, they also do more advanced language checking, which is really helpful. You can set goals for texts and get adapted support for your writing.
So I think there is definitely the need, but you probably need some more substantial distinction :)
@FlyingLasagna thanks for sharing!
Are there areas of your writing that you want to improve but that Grammarly can't help you with? If yes, how important are those areas to you?
Currently, I'm quite happy at Grammarly. Some suggestions do not always fit, but with choosing words, it's nice.
Do you use the paid version?
Yes, I use the paid version.
The "teaching" aspect of it would be super interesting! From what I've seen, a lot of non-native English speakers who write content either resort to paying an editor to just edit the article, or use tools that try to correct any grammatical errors. But it's probably difficult for them to learn that way. A product-as-a-service model might be a good solution. Best of luck!
Thanks Dominique! I appreciate the encouragement :)
I usually use Quillbot for this, it really depends on the price/quality whether I'll pay for a copy editor.
Are you satisfied with Quillbot? Or does it leave something to be desired?
(I had never heard of it but tried it out this morning. I found that it made my writing obviously worse.)
I hired a few freelancers via Fiverr for copy editing.
@PXVS did they provide any explanations for their feedback? Or did they just correct grammatical errors and make suggestions for edits?
No explanation. But if I did that would be a higher price point they charge. To get started I recommend to create an account on Fiverr
That's a good suggestion -- thanks!
Grammerly is banking on more advance automated language checking..
Editors and other reviewer still exists..
Personally I might pay after I start making money with a thing, generally happy when people pick mistakes up, but I can also see common mistakes on official big name English native news sites, so It became kinda less of a big deal than it used to be for smaller things I think, like people are more excepting of more mistakes I think..
Probably cheap or free exchange service would do well.
I don't think anyone wants to splash big money on it, so like grammerly path of automation of more advance language checking vs just a spellcheck is interesting.
@hatkyinc These are good points. I think a lot of people look at their writing with a "good enough" attitude: As long as the reader can understand what you're trying to say, that's a good enough. I agree that it seems like this is becoming the norm. Tools like Grammarly are great for this. Even the checker in Google Docs has gotten really good.
But these tools can only get you so far. If you want to keep making progress, you need a human to provide feedback (at least for now). But this is the key question: How much do people want to improve their English beyond the "good enough" level? It sounds like for you, it's not important.
Context matters
When I had a critical need to pass an English IELTS test for a visa I almost bought a package of reviews for my writing, cause that was critical for me... (passed without it at the end)
For a partially converting landing page I might be tempted to buy a creative review/work..
If I had a profitable product, I might want some main pages review, like home page and docs..
Due most of these could have it's own specialized service...
I'd probably not pay for a blog post review unless it's really cheap, or I was going for low volume, super high quality, long format ones...
Google stuff is what I use mostly, but it's mostly just a spell checker.
I think your friend is in a situation where for him, he's in learning mode, and your a teacher of sorts, a bit like studying for a test rather than pure review my texts service.
Sometimes by chance I realize I have been saying something incorrect in English for basically all my life and nobody ever corrected me. I probably wouldn't pay for checks on every single thing I post, but would pay for something like a one-time check of my English.
Got it. That's a helpful perspective. Thank you!
I'd do for certain written works such as blog posts or product copy, depending on the price. What's missing in this space is a feedback option like the one you have in mind, something that's not a full edit but points out the major areas of improvement.
Thanks for the response @PaoloAmoroso!
Would you mind saying more about why you would only pay for feedback on "certain written works such as blog posts or product copy"? What is special about those things that make you willing to pay to get feedback on them?
In short, because it's unsustainable for small creators like me.
If I had a larger budget, I'd pay for reviewing every blog post, newsletter issue, or product copy. But this adds up quickly, not to mention the additional overhead to the production process.
So I'd have to make a choice and pay to review only blog posts I'd think would gain exposure, or the text of short ebooks or email courses I'd plan to sell.
I'd also be interested in a one-time check like @iavorbotev suggested, for similar reasons.
That makes a lot sense. Would you see yourself getting feedback on several pieces in a short period of time even if some pieces are not that important? The idea is that this way you can compress your learning time and every piece after that would be better.
Or is it more important to you to improve the quality of your most important pieces, even if that would mean getting feedback more infrequently?
Given limited resources and the cost of such a review service, I'd prioritize based on how important I'd think a work is for my strategy or how polished I'd want it to be, not gathering a certain amount of feedback within a short time.
I wouldn't mind getting feedback on several pieces, but I'd take as a learning opportunity even the occasional feedback these constraints involve.
Got it. Thanks @PaoloAmoroso that detailed information is very informative.
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