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Alan S.

Contributor Level

Total Points
80

1 Review by Alan

  • HARRISCO

11/20/20

PROS
I have been working as a USA-based editor with Harrisco for a little over six months now, after having been retired for many years. I am a native speaker of Standard American English. My background is in medicine and related sciences. I also have a writing background and speak several languages

I have enjoyed working with Harrisco. I usually get as much work as I desire, and the clients seem satisfied with my editing. More than a few of them insist that I be assigned to edit their new papers.

Before I started to work for Harrisco, I searched the internet and found both satisfied and dissatisfied editors. I considered Harrisco because I have a close friend who edits for them, and he recommended that I apply. So far, I have no serious complaints.

I always get paid in advance and can take time off when I need it. Harrisco office staff always seem to be responsive to my emails. Being on a retirement income has posed challenges, so I am happy to have extra money coming in regularly.

So, the PROS are:
A) Paid in advance, at least weekly income.
B) Courteous, responsive, and competent staff.
C) Interesting and challenging work.
D) I learn something new almost every day.

CONS
I wish I made more money. Harrisco pays the equivalent of about $4/page, and it can take me a long time to do a page. I am older and slower than I was 30 or 40 years ago. I am a perfectionist and want to have my work to be of the highest quality. That means I occasionally have trouble meeting Harrisco deadlines. However, when Harrisco staff ask about a late paper, they are always polite and seem satisfied with my answer.

It's not so easy to get work when you're near 80 years of age. I suppose I could go to another editing company, but I'm not sure I'd make any more money. And I am used to dealing with Harrisco staff.

Editing Koreans' written English can be a very demanding task. The authors highly educated. They are mostly native Korean speakers who probably are quite literate in their language. It seems to me that Korean must be a very logical language, and Koreans are proud of it and their Hangul alphabet.

However, Korean syntax and grammar are completely different than English. Korean is an ergative agglutinative language. Although many of the authors are world-class researchers doing cutting-edge science, they are less than brilliant English writers. Many should probably pay to have their papers first translated into English and then sent to us editors. But like most people, they try to save money and attempt to write in English when they probably shouldn't.

It can take me a long time to understand their intent, although I usually am familiar with the material I edit. I often need to rewrite entire sentences or paragraphs. I make a lot of comments in Word's review feature, and the authors seem to appreciate my tips on writing good English.

Also, Harrisco does not send out tax documents, such as a 1099 form. My tax man tells me to put aside 25% of everything I make to cover self-employment tax and income tax. I keep a spreadsheet and make PDFs of all my Paypal statements. I advise USA-based editors to do the same.

So then, here are the CONS
A) It is hard to make much money for doing this highly-skilled and demanding job.
B) It bothers me that I occasionally miss a deadline, as I take deadlines very seriously.
C) The poor language skills of many Korean authors make editing their papers quite time consuming. I often need to rewrite sentences or even entire paragraphs.
D) I need to keep careful tax records, a spreadsheet and printouts, of every Paypal transfer, because Harrisco does not deduct for taxes or send out 1099 forms.

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