THE PLAIN & FANCY LANGUAGE COMPANY * acn 1116240s   Word Hospital  ***  Professional Editing a home for crafted words - your documents and stories put to the world  What is the Plain & Fancy Language Company? What happens, exactly? Sending Files What does PFL not do US$37 or 40,000 South Korean won per hour (rate November 2004; subject to change) What is the Plain & Fancy Language Company? * PFL is an electronic editing company. It professionally edits and proof-reads documents that are forwarded by e-mail or on computer disk. PFL is operated by Thor May, a language specialist with many years of experience. He gives your company's documents, or your own writing, a professional finish in English. PFL has special skill in editing documents that have been written by authors whose first language is not English.   What happens, exactly? If you or your company have a document to be edited, please contact PFL to discuss it. Communication by e-mail works best. If possible, with longer documents send a sample of the material to be edited. Make clear who is likely to read the document; (good writing always targets a particular audience). We need the sample to estimate how complex the editing task will be. PFL will reply promptly with an estimate of the editing time and likely cost. Charges are normally in American dollars per hour or part thereof for each draft as submitted. Equivalent payment may be made in Korean won, Australian dollars or Hong Kong dollars. Bank account numbers will be provided on request, or the Paypal system can be used (www.paypal.com). Extensive rewriting naturally takes more time, and sometimes a good deal of editorial comment and/or suggestion is useful to help you rework material. This is for your benefit. We don't charge for a minute more than is necessary! The aim is to give the editor a fair reward for his time, and to give you an economical service! With long documents, especially books and theses, you may be asked to pay as each section is completed. As a very rough guide, a recent 300 page doctoral thesis in linguistics which needed extensive editorial comment, and whose author spoke English as a second language, took 46 hours of editing time. In long documents, people very often change their wishes as work progresses. Then they send second drafts. PFL is reasonable about this, but we must charge for some new editing when it is needed. Work is done in a friendly, efficient manner, as quickly as possible. We work to a high standard. You are free to withdraw from the agreement at any time. Sending files You can send a text file as part of an e-mail. This is the most reliable method. You can attach a file to the e-mail. This usually works, but attachments of one megabyte or more should be broken up into shorter files and sent in separate e-mails. Some servers will not accept attachments of more than one megabyte. You can mail or deliver a floppy disk (3.5", 1.2Mb). PFL can fetch files from your Internet site by ftp (file transfer protocol) if you give us a password. We do not, at present, have our own ftp address. Document formats: Best: *.rtf (rich text format) keeps your formatting. In MS Word, go to the Save as type box in the Save As  menu. We find that working with *.rtf in MS Word we can quickly mark editorial changes for you by using a different font colour. Most word processors can save in *.rtf. If you are using a Korean system such as *.hwp, please save your document in *.rtf before sending it. If you are using a recent edition of MS Word, try to remove any macros before you save in *.rtf; (we have found that macros sometimes create problems).   Other formats: We can handle most document formats. Let us know of your needs. What PFL does  not do 1. PFL is not a general secretarial service. Finished materials will be returned in electronic form, usually as an e-mail attached document in *.rtf format (or MS Word, or other format if requested). We can also exchange documents on floppy disk. We are not in the business of typing up material for its own sake, binding it elaborately, and so on. 2. PFL does not do translations from other languages. We can check that your translations are written in perfect English. 3.. PFL is not a specialized résumé (employment history) service. We will edit résumés if requested, and have some experience in the field. However, there are many companies devoted to preparing nothing but employment résumés. They can probably do the best job for the least cost in that area.   Thank you for your inquiry; e-mail thormay@yahoo.com or call any time +82 (43) 848 7280 (South Korea) The Plain & Fancy Language Company acn 1116240s [Australian Company Number] Thor May , proprietor MA (Linguistics), P'grad. Dip. Tchg., RSA /CTEFLA Specialist in English Language