I have just received my copy of the federation magazine for January 2004.
Very informative, and relevant. But I have one criticism:
PROOF READ IT!
Has anyone else noticed the hundreds of spelling and grammatical mistakes? Its really bad - you can't concentrate on the article because they are so distracting.
Here is an example: page 13 questions and answers:
Question regarding pricing of work is answered as follows:
"1what is most important;2 is that a window cleaner should be selling his TIME3, expert or otherwise he should know how much he wants for his labour. Suggestion4 is price per window or a minimum of £3.50 per house, although this does depend on the area one5 lives"
In superscript are the mistakes I spotted.
1 Beginning of sentence - capital letter needed
2 Unnecessary and inappropriate semi-colon
3 Capitalization - should be in italics not caps
4 Fragment - Not a complete sentence. Should read: "Some have suggested..."
5 Inconsistency - person changes from "his" earlier in the paragraph to "one"
The substance is good, but how can we be taken seriously if our own magazine can't even be presented properly?
I'm no expert, but if you need someone to proof read the articles, I'll gladly volunteer.
Please, lets get it right. This makes us look stupid.
Philip