I was browsing the web this morning to check out some other editing companies, and, as usual, I was amazed at the poor writing on some of their sites.

For example, Writing-services.org has 7 spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors on their "Importance of proofreading the essay" page. The rest of the site was poorly written, too. The writing is convoluted, sloppy, and weak. Based on their word choices and sentence structures, I strongly believe that their editors are not native English speakers. Then I saw that they are selling high school essays along with their high school editing service, and I thought "scam."

Masterpapers.com: 9 spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors on their "Essay editing service" page.

Prof-editing.com editors are in India and the Philippines. Sample three should read "Amylolytic digestibility differs among native starch samples" or some such revision. Their version is unnecessarily stiff and cumbersome: "Native starch samples have a very different character in terms of amylolytic digestibility." This is to be expected of non-native speakers who have simply gone to English classes, as they brag about their editors.

These types of companies give a bad name to those of us who have expert abilities and are trying to help people communicate better.