| Testimonials Editing: I have worked with Dr. Bill Barnett of WordCraft Editing & Writing Services for more than a year. His editing skills and knowledge, and his ability to question logical arguments objectively, result in substantial improvement to any document. For example, Bill provided comprehensive editing for my recently completed textbook; his later work with the page proofs was so good he is mentioned in the ‘recognition’ section of the preface for his meticulous attention to detail. In terms of professionalism, Wordcraft delivers on every promise. If the company promises to have a project completed, you know the revised manuscript will arrive when scheduled. Given the need for an academic’s publishing record to be consistent and timely, I value such a business practice. Dennis Reynolds, Ph.D. (See References for contact information.) Here are some other comments Professor Reynolds has made while corresponding with me: I like what you have done in the first chapter. Your style and approach are right on the money. If you can apply this level of care to subsequent chapters, we will have a good end product. So far, you comments are clear. As soon as you work your magic, I'm going to send the first three chapters to Wiley. Just finished going through your comments from Chapter 7. I don't know how much feedback you receive from clients, but I have to tell you that I really appreciate your thoroughness. Your sense of humor also had me chuckling! Please continue the great work. From my chair, at least, the light is slowly appearing at the end of the tunnel! You're like a machine! Thanks, Bill, for your amazing contributions and advice. You 'da man!!! Thanks for the quick turnaround. OK, Bill, here's another. I'm on a pretty strict research timeline, so (partially as a result of this) this piece is a little rough. I know with your gentle touch, however, that we can get it ready in short order. As I said on your voicemail, I have a short piece that needs your TLC. Given the audience, I really want this to be a quality product. Can you apply your golden touch …? You are THE man!!! Just finished going through the changes. I really liked your recommendations. Great to hear from you Bill! I'm looking forward to another productive year together. I really liked your comments, Bill. Good stuff.... This looks good, Bill. You're good.... Thanks! *** From a client whose book I am editing: Comments are clear and even entertaining. I will get back to you with [a] specific reply within a day or two. I''m a happy camper. The test for me is to remove all the comments and accept all the corrections (temporarily you understand) and see how it reads. It reads beautifully. What an art to do what you do. All those nips and tucks (and occasional major changes) remove the superfluous notes and leave a vibrant melody (and you know I mean this literally!) It moves along with authority, precision, and clarity. Thanks for ChIII. I have inhaled your work as I was starved for nourishment. I now sit back from the table well satisfied (actually stuffed with all the good comments) and ready for a little Port and debate. A little process first. Regarding ChIII, your specific comments regarding coherence, clarity, and just making sense are all well taken. I smiled a lot as you caught me up in various contradictions and obfuscations. You have no idea how this singes and delights me simultaneously. Just finished going through ChIV and even found myself working a few areas. How good for me to work on the book. Your editing style seems to enhance my own writing so well. Do you adapt to your individual clients’ styles, or is [it] just good fortune that you enhance my own prose so well? Anyway here is the latest Intro attempting to incorporate all your good recommendations. I remain joyous at our progress. I understand your desire and need to take on other clients, but I remain jealous and surly at the very thought of them. Surely they cannot be as cute and endearing as I am. I’m so pleased with the progress. I once had an actor play a Hawaiian activist. He himself was a conservative republican. I was always amazed that even after months of working on this play, acting a person completely opposed to his own ideas, and doing a great job of it, [he] never was influenced by the character. I suppose a good editor must do the same, taking on the writer’s perspective, regardless of your own. This doesn’t mean, though, I don’t want to be convinced by you, for I do follow your advice. I am busy reading Elbow Room and follow carefully your criticisms. Thoughts that will bring greater depth to the book and that is what I am hoping for with our collaboration. I thank the stars I found you as an editor. We are doing a good job. Wonderful Bill, this is most exciting to near completion of this phase. I went through XIII with care and clearly the beast is nuzzling you and eating from your hand. The thoughts are clear and focused. Look forward to completing the 1st phase. My heart is a-flitter. My only hope is that you remain interested in the project as a whole for I am depending on you to see me through. Come on, you must know me well enough by now that I a more than happy to offer you my 1st-born in thanks (well maybe not that much). Peter Charlot, author, The Fittest Idea (See References for contact information.) *** Thanks, Bill. It was a pleasure working with you, too. Your professionalism, attention to detail and speedy response were most appreciated. I look forward to working together on another assignment. Bill, Great work! It’s perfect, Bill. Thanks! Thanks, Bill for your thoughtful and thorough note on this. Bill, Thank you for a masterful job in distilling the essence of our original paper. Thanks, Bill. This worked fine. Chekitan Dev, Marketing professor at the Cornell hotel school (See References for contact information.) *** Comments from various college faculty (most at Cornell University): A young scholar at the Cornell hotel school: Bill, Great job editing the document you returned yesterday. Would you like to continue working on the rest of it? Bill, Thanks for the edit. I made a quick scan. Your version is, without a question, a substantial improvement over mine. I also looked at your comments and I agree with them. I will do a detailed read thru tonight. *** A French-speaking scholar at Baylor: Thank you very much for your extensive answers to my questions! Your advice sounds sensible and I will certainly follow it... I read your corrections and like them very much. There are things that I should know and that I will avoid in the future. There are other things that I did not know or that would not have thought... Thank you very much for your corrections. I learnt several things that nobody ever told me. It is exactly the kind of corrections that I desire... I had a chance to look at your comments. I like your revisions and I understand your corrections. I have no questions. Thank you for the work. It looks great! Great job! Would you make all the changes that you suggested? *** A professor in Korea whose dissertation I edited while he was at Cornell Dear Mr. Barnett, Nice to get your reply. I was so much looking forward to getting your reply. After coming back to my country, everything is going very good. One thing I’ like to tell you is about the title of my dissertation. Some people [say] the title of my dissertation sounds very “sexy.” I hope that you remember how we worked for the “sexy” title. Of course, your editing was not limited to the title. I believe your editing has enhanced [the] quality of my article greatly. That’s why I want to work with you again. Anyway, I have many materials that need your editing, not limited to this work. I also believe that you make “sexy” and “attractive” editing this time, again. I’m very happy to work with you and appreciate your excellent editing work! .) *** A philosophy professor at SUNY Stony Brook: The Great Learning is looking greater, thanks to your editing. I read through the first three chapters over lunch and I can't tell you how great it looks! Thank you very much for doing such a great job. Thanks again for your help. I will definitely consult you with future work. Thanks for your comments. It does read much, much better! I will definitely have to consult you for the final proofing. I really appreciate the time and effort. I look forward to receiving the last ten pages. *** An urban planning professor at Lawrence Tech in Detroit (affiliated with the University of Michigan) for whom I had done proofreading while he was at Cornell, on my proofreading of his dissertation: I had to be in neighboring towns yesterday and today and I got behind my schedule. Sorry about that and thank you always for your help. Thank you very much for proofreading my dissertation. I spent the last two busy weeks fixing photos and printing many copies. I appreciate your assistance very much. Thank you much again for all your help. Yes, my submission went well. I will be working on other pieces for your services in November. Thanks again for your help. Thank you very much for your quick response & help. Thank you much again for your quick response. I truly appreciate it. *** A Ph. D. student at Northern Illinois University: You were very helpful, I like the comprehensive rewrites you did on many of my sentences and, you are hired. Thanks for the bill. I happily paid it—you did a great job. I really enjoy working with you and hope we can continue to work together:). Wish me luck tomorrow :) Bill! THEY LOVED IT!!!! :)))))))))) I have no concern about this with you in my life now:))))) Thank you for being such a wonderful person and editor!:))! I am very blessed:) *** A Ph. D. student at Case Western Reserve University: Thanks for getting me into this conversation with so many great ideas and editing. Thanks Bill! I went through everything in Chapters 1, 3, and 4 and really appreciated all your questions and your willingness to say them so fully and with great ideas on what might make it clearer for the reader. I am sending a draft of an ending... A conclusion. I would love to have you edit it.... And help me with the preface... And conclusion... How to help the reader into and out of this... Look forward to hearing any thoughts, corrections, subtractions, all and everything is helpful and very, very welcome. Thanks for that reading. What you said you are doing is right in line with what I thought I most needed. Thanks for all your attention. Thanks for all the advice, encouragement, and really fine work... At a time when I was not good for even myself to live with I was amazed at the quality of relationship you maintain in this work arrangement. I am indebted to you!!! Thanks again for all your help. *** Now a hodgepodge of comments from various graduate students, most from Cornell, and most who speak English as a second language: Thank you for all your help in polishing and commenting [on] my dissertation. All of my committee members said that your editing is superb. I will recommend to all my friends about you. Thank you again and happy holiday. Thanks for the good work. I will help advertise your work to many friends of mine here. You may be very busy with editing work another 2-3 years from now. Your help is greatly appreciated indeed. I really have to leave the town for my job, but now [I'm] stuck because of this guy! I really appreciate your help. He recoms another editor, but I think based on the performance, I think you are much better. Just wanna let you know that it is my honor to have your name in the acknowledgement part of my thesis as well. Thank you so much. Thank you for sending me the draft, it seems great for me. As for the cost, it is also very reasonable, I will appreciate your estimate so far. Thank you very much for all your efforts, I am very content. Thank you for the service yesterday! I submitted the paper in time, thanks to you. Thank you very much for your time and effort, Bill! I hope to keep in touch you, even after moving to Korea. I really appreciate all your sincere help. Thank you very much for your proofreading. I am so happy with the result. Yet, I am thinking it might be worth asking for copy editing, too, since there is still one more day left until the deadline. If you have time tomorrow, would you please do copy-editing for me? Thank you very much for doing all these for me. I am so impressed by your professional work. Your comments are both minute and extensive, which helps me a lot to understand the errors that I have made, and which provides me a great opportunity to hopefully improve my English. I have submitted the paper today. I am so happy about it. Probably I will ask you to do copy-editing/proofreading another paper next week. I was really pleased to get your service. I believe my paper was improved greatly by the excellent editing. Hope to do business with you again. The document looks very thoroughly checked, thank you very much. I am REALLY
impressed with your advice. I will come back to you again with other papers. I can see the improvement that you made for my dissertation. Thank you so much for your help. I think I will keep your work since I believe that it will help me to improve my writing in the future. He told me last time how great [a] proofreader you are so I would like to get an opportunity to get some help from you regarding my personal statement for law schools... I got both the clean edited and the original w/ edited versions of my personal statement. Overall, I really like the way you’ve preserved my style and attitude on the statement. Thanks again for your help. It is really great. Thanks for your help, the revision is very clear. I will be writing my thesis this next semester and will be sure to contact you if I need any
services. I think you did a great job and will be sure to tell my peers. Thanks for the great work, Bill. Thank you very much for proofreading it so quickly! Yes, I am going to ask [for] your services this semester as well. Thank you for such comprehensive proofreading; I will definitely take all revisions into consideration. In the future, I will not hesitate to contact you again. Transcription: My company provides professional writing services to software and high-tech firms, including the third-largest software company in the world. A large part of my work is conducting in-depth interviews with global software users. WordCraft has been transcribing these interviews for several years now, providing unparalleled quality and speed under extraordinarily demanding business deadlines. The interview topics are complex and involve industry-specific technical jargon. The interviewees, corporate executives and managers from across Europe, Asia, and Latin America, often have a limited command of English and speak with heavy accents. WordCraft has thoroughly exceeded my expectations for rapid turnaround of extremely accurate transcripts of these interviews. I struggled for years with other services that simply could not handle the assignment. WordCraft not only does the job well; its principal, Bill Barnett, conducts himself and his business in a very professional manner. I would strongly recommend his services to anyone. John Martin, John Martin Agency, Inc. (See References for contact information.) *** From another transcription client, a graduate student at Cornell: Thanks very much for the speed at which you are transcribing these tapes. Wow! Both the recent interviews work great. I appreciate the rapidity with which you can transcribe my tapes.
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