JANE & CHRIS - WRITE CHOICE AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Jane mostly focuses on academic work (e.g., theses, journal articles), while Chris covers other sectors (business, organisations. writers). But, we regularly work together and support each other with advice and suggestions, checking each other’s work to find the best solutions. The English language is complex, contradictory and confusing, its spelling is often bizarre, and getting it right requires both a full understanding of the rules of English grammar - but also a feeling for the nuances, the subtleties, the quirks and the fact that English is considered to have far more words than just about any other language!
As academics, writers, linguists and translators we are ideally placed to help you navigate all this complexity and make your work as error free, and clear and concise as possible.
THE WRITE CHOICE PROOFREADING PROCESS
Once we have seen your work and you have accepted our quotes, there is a standard Write Choice five-stage proofreading process.
1. On receipt of your final document, we will have a quick read through of all or some of it, to get a better feel for the content and style.
2. We will then work through the document line-by-line, checking for errors in grammar and punctuation, spelling, word choice, meaning, and consistency. We use Track Changes to note all errors, and also to leave comments and suggestions for you to consider.
3. We will re-read the whole document for a final check, to make sure all errors have been spotted, and also to ensure that the whole text reads clearly and communicates what you intended.
4. We will return the document to you, so you can review our Track Changes, reject or accept any alterations, and consider our comments and suggestions. You may decide at this point to submit your work or:
5. If required, we will undertake a final check once you have considered our changes and suggestions.
Chris Watton
writechoice179@gmail.com
Phone: 021 1116297
BA German and Political Studies, Bristol University
Post-Graduate Diploma, Tourism Management, Surrey University
Diploma in Narrative Writing, UNITEC
WORK AND ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
I have a Degree in Modern Languages and have worked in Tourism ever since, working all over Europe and the Middle East and Australia. This work included extensive and regular writing of travel articles, sales and marketing copy, strategy and briefing papers for businesses, colleges, destinations, and government departments. We ran a successful Bed and Breakfast in Tairua for nine seasons, for which I wrote all website and marketing copy. I have also been contributing regular humourous articles to a lifestyle magazine.
Positions and work experience include:
Marketing Manager, Visit Britain in France, Germany, Australia, and Middle East and Turkey.
Tourism Destination Manager, English Riviera, Devon, UK
Manager, Devon and Cornwall Overseas Marketing, Devon
Regional Tourism Development Manager, South West of England Regional Development Agency
Marketing Manager, Daish's Holidays, Bournemouth UK
Owner, The Harbourview B&B, Tairua
After graduating with a PhD in Political Studies, I was employed by the University of Auckland to teach political theory, public policy and media politics courses along with supervising theses. Then, moving overseas, I trained as an English language teacher (CELTA) and was employed by INTO University of Exeter (UK) to co-ordinate and teach courses preparing international students to study for bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees at British universities.
After returning to Aotearoa-New Zealand, I taught media theory, ethics and cooperative education at Auckland University of Technology and acted as programme and course developer at Unitec
PhD Political Studies, Auckland University
MA 1st Class Hons Political Studies
BA (English & Political Studies double major, Economics & Italian minors)
Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA)
Certificate of Proficiency Te Reo Māori (Te Kakano 1)
WORK AND ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
I am a freelance researcher, editor, proofreader and transcriber. Previous work experience includes:
Academic adviser at Unitec (NZ) focusing on course development and programme writing across the institution.
Senior lecturer in Media Communication (Bachelor of Communication Studies), academic supervisor for the Master of Creative Writing programme and academic supervisor for Co-operative Education (Bachelor of Social Sciences) at AUT University (NZ).
Academic co-ordinator of the international student business pathway, assistant manager for presessional (English and Business for entry to masters and doctoral programmes) and teacher of Economics, Management and English at INTO University of Exeter (UK).
Lecturer and postgraduate supervisor in Politics at the University of Auckland (NZ), with a research focus on political economy, media-politics and NZ public policy. Ministerial Appointee for the National Advisory Council for the Employment of Women.
I have been engaged as a researcher for the AUT Media Observatory election study and Unitec’s marae-based education project as well as publishing my own research through co-authoring chapters on political activism (Oxford University Press) and precarious work (Massey University Press).
Editing, formatting and proofreading – I am employed on an ongoing basis to work on two issues per year of an online communications journal.
COPY WRITING FOR WEBSITES, BLOGS ARTICLES AND FEATURES
WRITE CHOICE is GOOD WITH WORDS, and can help you and your business tell (and sell) your own stories. We can create inspiring, persuasive, clear and effective copy for websites, including vital keywords to keep you high in search engines.
SEEING THE FUNNY SIDE..
“I went to the doctor’s for a bowel checkup. Nothing serious, so I just had a semicolonoscopy” (a proofreader's joke!)
Humour is a highly effective tool in creative writing, helping to get the key points across in a memorable way. Humour is never far from the surface in all our creative writing. And, when we were approached to write a series of ‘travel related, humorous articles’ for the Manchester Unity website, we were in our element! See the blog pages (BELOW) for more.