Your best bet may be to look for students who do editing or proofreading on the side. While not as inexpensive as the overseas sites, many of them will charge rates far below the norm.

Thanks for your comments and introduce the site. cheap proof reading services is good but what we can do when we could not pay overseas.

Thanks Daphne, I am working in an academic organisation and what I am looking for is “learning academic writing”. I know that I should try other sources but I do not know what exactly is good for academic writing. However, I try to listen to English news and also to read some other english materials. I would appreciate if you help me how can I improve my writing.

They vary a little but not as much as people think. Many years ago I remember editing my cousin’s Master’s thesis. His professor remarked (favourably) that it was very easy to read. (This is unlike most academic writing, I assumed…)

I think writing style and choice of words vary according to the type of content. For example, social media content should be simple, easy and not much formal but Academic writing may require a formal tone.
So, first of all, a writer should have enough knowledge about different writing genres. 🙂

Thanks , it was helpful.

Thanks for your kind words, Tom…

Very stimulating and well supported views. Somethings I will be able to use for future considerations. Any dialog that increases the understanding of the people involved is well worth the effort, this includes laying out your personal feelings about what you think and feel. Sure there is sensitivity and considerations but just the effort and practice in do so will improve all of us and our understanding.

I was charmed to see Ms. Dorothea Brande’s book being offered as the drawing prize. I am in the middle of reading and practicing her suggestions. She is from and era ago, but entertains us with her wit, catchy phrases and older world charm.Tells it like it is also with a scintillating style. I do believe that we must gage our readers who are our audience and with consideration to them style our work in a manner that they will enjoy and appreciate. After all we must eat and they provide the bread.

Very stimulating column, I always read you and study your book “8-1/8 Steps”
Warmest regards,
Tom Brown

I’ve read Peter Elbow’s book, too, and here’s where I stand on the issue: I think that about 20% of writing “skill” (for lack of a better word) can be attributed to measurable issues such as: grammar, sentence length, transitions etc. The rest, however, — some 80% — relates to matters of taste. What I think of as “terrific” writing won’t appeal to everyone. That doesn’t make it any less valuable to me or any more valuable to you. If you are writing for a client you need to meet that client’s need. And here’s the bigger problem: Many clients aren’t very good at expressing exactly what they’re looking for. This is why I often ask clients for samples of what THEY think of as good writing (Charli, below, also mentions this). Frequently, this can be the only way to understand exactly what they want.

Elbow argues that readers are great at responding to your writing, but they may not be the best judges of what to do to improve it. For instance one may complain that I was not being clear, because I was using too many long words, but it might be that I intended to use long words to make the piece read like an archaic document, but there was a logical step I was not clarifying. I am sure others can find other examples..

In other words Elbow suggests in his book that writers should take the responses of their readers as genuine feedback and see if the responses align with what the author had aimed for. If not, then the author should look back to her writing to figure out how to make it better create the response she wants. Elbow claims that readers are often unaware of our particular goals with our writing, and not living inside our minds, they are not the best judges of what WE the authors should do to make our work better for us, do what WE want from it.

Of course if you are writing for someone else, then their input will be more important, and then their goals should matter a lot. But as a general rule of receiving and working with reader feedback, I think Elbow’s words are good to keep in mind…