Outsource to India ?

There's no hard and fast rule to be honest. While I would say that the quality is generally lacking from Indian content providers, there are diamonds in the rough at incredibly affordable prices. It's all about having the patience to try out a few before making a commitment, and before getting peeved with having to rewrite swathes of articles.

 

Yeah, and Shakespeare was terrible at spelling and grammar by the way.

 

First - English is a bastard language. It has no true single "father," Shakespeare or otherwise. The only form of English that matters is that spoken by the client's target audience (and in that case, yes, there exists "perfect grammar"). That said, writing for a target audience with poor or mediocre English language skills is no excuse for using improper grammar to the degree of that example of Joe's.

Second - Online grammar checking tools are a joke. Don't take their okay of lousy content as a sign that it's anything more than the garbage it really is (this is one of the problems with outsourcing to non-native English speakers - they rely on inaccurate tools like these in many cases).

Third - Quit all the personal bickering or everyone involved will get an infraction for it.

 

Sorry Jenn :/ Sometimes I get a little nutzoid!

 

Wasn't just you chica. Just want everyone to cool down.

To the OP - this thread's getting somewhat off-topic. If you have followup questions, please feel free to ask them. Otherwise this thread will be closed in the near future.

 

Things to note - India is the largest English speaking country. The British influenced it a lot and it's almost an official language of the country (or maybe it actually is?). The style of english is archaic, they speak colonialist English which means the use of some really weird outdated words or phrases, also it's British English - so if your dealing with a US audience, it could be a problem.

 

I deal with a lot of clients in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada (and even have a few clients in India who outsource to the US rather than relying on other Indian writers). I have decent familiarity with the different forms of English used. While, yes, there are some fantastic Indian writers who can work in English, most that you'll find here cannot. It's not about using an archaic style. It's about not knowing basic grammar. If you read through several threads, you'll quickly see that -- at no time in England did people actually speak the way you'll hear many Indian writers on DP speak.

 

Yeah, that's why--as tempting as it is--I can't bring myself to outsource to in-English Japanese mags and newspapers. I know I don't speak Japanese outside what I learned from chambara movies, and the English issues (based on my research a few years ago, mind you) concerning what actually goes into print over there would drive me crazy.

It's not an issue of xenophobia--at least not for me. Any writer who can master the language enough to write print-worthy material is good to go in my book. I welcome competent freelancers from all countries...

The whole "perfect English" issue is a non-starter for me. A lawyer wouldn't show up in court quoting legal terms in Russian instead of Latin, the same notion applies to writing. It's about knowing what's appropriate for the audience and the publication or website. If you can't make that judgment call, you're at an extreme disadvantage.

I feel for those who have to struggle with those disadvantages---English is a slippery eel of a language.

 

I do care about the quality ChrisAplin

 

For those who get beef on my English, I would like to say
Sorry for my misspelling, and I would be very appreciate if u guys just point it out for me--kindly
I am just a little bit careless sometimes
and I do appriciate others' works
I mean i do know what is good and what is bad

 

I don't think most people would criticize you for it, so just ignore the ignorant ones who have. The rest of us know that one of the reasons people hire English-speaking writers at all is because they don't have the language / writing ability to do it themselves. If anything, errors in your post would say that logically - not that you don't care about quality. Unfortunately we have some members who here who speak before they think. Don't worry about it.

 

a newbie here , thanks for all the advice and suggestions here and i will think twice before leap
and i gonna approach some indians and do enough research
thanks again for all the precious advice here
BTW, i really feel hurt when I was told my English is awful

 

You can register to Odesk there are many many people and you can find that you are looking for

 

Neekyme, I am sorry you feel hurt about what some people have said. Your English could definitely use some improvement, and if that is something you are interested in there are a wide variety of resources at your disposal As Jenn mentioned before, ignore the people who blatantly insult you; they just don't care enough to share constructive criticism.

 

You can't paint everyone with the same brush but what I've personally found is that with most writers from India, you will get what you pay for. If they're charging you $2 for a 500-word article, you will get an article worth $2. This isn't the case with many writers from the US or UK where you might have college or high school students willing to work for peanuts but still produce quality content because they either don't really know what they're worth, or just need the money badly. I'm not going to get into the ethics of paying someone peanuts, though; that I'll leave to you.

 

India is not a bad option, but quality may not be good enough. When outsourcing, you might get better English there than other foreign countries but still not good enough.

 

India makes great Engineers
as far as content writers go = still got a long way to go! I'd say keep it here in US.
-Coming from a indian guy.

 

India is too diverse to be judged on its content quality by tracing back a few people who call themselves content writers. As far as i know and understand, Indian writers ( the ones who you will never get writing / rewriting for blogs and stuff ) are par with native english writers and it is proven and realised in many parts of the world.
My point is.. when you hire someone for a job, you have the duty to test if the person has the authority to perform that task. When something is cheap, make sure you have your scanners and radars on..

anyone who have a spare computer and lotsa time is a content writer and anyone who knows to install wordpress is a seo expert.. what else you expect from them?

 

Arun, I feel like I've hurt your feelings! I must apologize.

Infect, I agree with Slincon's post below that India is the largest English speaking country however English style is very archaic and it really depends on which area of India are you coming from. I am looking/searching for good content writers for myself and I know that eventhough I can get work done for much cheaper back home, I'll select someone from here just because my readers can relate to content a bit better. Once again apologize if I said something inappropriate here. Ofcourse, at the end of the day buyer has right to judge before he/she decides to get the service

 

Not a problem. I am also an Indian wandering outside for many years, and i am not at all offended. I do agree with the standard of english you see here and there in DP. Some Indian writers have the problem in using fullstops.. they keep on writing and extending the same sentence until their brains go dry. Its not fun to pay for such gibberish stuff and often we go giddy when we sit to correct them. As pointed out they escape ms-word and spell checkers and still feel weird.. I can only feel proud !!!! about that .. wat ya say?