A recent study done by Roger Bohn of UC San Diego, estimates that the average American consumes about 36,000 words of text per day, during leisure hours. That number includes print, email, the web, and text messaging. That’s a lot of text. At that rate the average American could read Moby Dick every week.
The question you might ask yourself is: who is creating all that text? Well, if you are reading this, there’s a good chance that you are.
You might ask another question: who’s going to edit all that text? And if you are reading this, we’re hoping you’ll help with some of it.
Connecting Writers, Readers, and Word-lovers
That’s why we built Bite-Size Edits: so that people who write text can connect with people who can improve it. Usually that implies a vice versa.
Last month, we announced that we’d split Bite-Size Edits out of Book Oven, but it was a very barebones affair: text in, editing, text out. But while editing is the reason for the existence of Bite-Size Edits, the real power lies in connecting writers, readers, editors and people who love words.
We’ve just released a whole host of new social features: contacts, random editing, privacy controls on texts, and much more. We’ve built in some gamish stuff too – everything you do in Bite-Size Edits will win you points, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Try It, It’s Fun!
So, we invite you to come take a look at the new Bite-Size Edits, to add some text for editing, and even better, to do some editing yourself.
Bite-Size Edits is a work-in-progress, and we’d love to get your feedback, suggestions, as well as your complaints.
You can tell us what you think by:
* sending us an email at: contact AT bitesizeedits DOT com
* @’ing us on Twitter at: @bookoven or @bitesizeedits
* submitting bug reports or user feedback at: http://feedback.bitesizeedits.com
Three things – I am a professional writer, I own an editing company and I love the use of the internet to inspire writers.
I have now used Bite Sized Edits and must say I am impressed. I love the connection between writer and editor and will continue to edit people’s work via the site.
My main concern with the project is the failure to see more text. Often when editing you get a feel for a writer’s style. Each writer is different and each has their own unique fingerprint. The problem with only being able to see a couple of sentences is that you can’t get a real feel for a writer’s work. As a result, you tend to edit back to grammar rules. However, most writers break these rules, my self included, and a good editor would take this into account.
The bite sized approach also fails to allow the editor to spot wider structural and plot issues. Something that a good copy edit will do as standard.
I love this tool but worry that writers will see it as a replacement for a wider copy edit and proofread.
Is this fair?