First time this has happened so far.

New client has provided copy that has:

- a load of grammatical errors
- no metre
- little logical flow
- lots of missing punctuation
- several spelling mistakes

It's a first draft but I just don't know how to approach it. Obviously for 
his benefit and mine we need to sort it, but people don't like to be told 
their writing sucks (or "there" writing as he would have it!). And then 
there's the issue of getting it changed. I already had to raise his 
expectations of how much he needed to spend and the workload is going to be 
pushing that budget even before any re-writing.

But the main thing is just how to broach the subject?!!

--
+mrcakey
www.twitter.com/mrcakey

At 20:25:10 on Fri, 31 Jul 2009, +mrcakey  
wrote in <h4vgeh$4fq$1@news.albasani.net>:

>But the main thing is just how to broach the subject?!!

You tell him that as part of the standard service which you offer, at no 
extra charge, you "tweak" the provided text in order to make it 
search-engine-friendly and get better results from Google in particular. 
Naturally, you show him the "tweaked" text, and ask him to confirm that 
you haven't actually altered his meaning, but only the way in which that 
meaning is expressed.
-- 
Molly Mockford
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety - Benjamin Franklin
(My Reply-To address *is* valid, though may not remain so for ever.)

On Aug 1, 5:25 am, "骷᪑"  wrote:
> First time this has happened so far.
>
> New client has provided copy that has:
>
> - a load of grammatical errors
> - no metre
> - little logical flow
> - lots of missing punctuation
> - several spelling mistakes
>
> It's a first draft but I just don't know how to approach it. Obviously for
> his benefit and mine we need to sort it, but people don't like to be told
> their writing sucks (or "there" writing as he would have it!). And then
> there's the issue of getting it changed. I already had to raise his
> expectations of how much he needed to spend and the workload is going to be
> pushing that budget even before any re-writing.
>
> But the main thing is just how to broach the subject?!!
>
Tell him that spell checker is not far off useless and that he should
proof read his documents, or even better, get someone else to do it if
he can.
Oh and you have some spelling errors and some messie writing  overall
on your own website.
--
Regards Chad. http://freewebdesignonline.org

"Chaddy2222"  wrote in message 
news:8e24785d-f378-4569-b31d-7d76f5c3e446@w41g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...
On Aug 1, 5:25 am, "+mrcakey"  wrote:
> First time this has happened so far.
>
> New client has provided copy that has:
>
> - a load of grammatical errors
> - no metre
> - little logical flow
> - lots of missing punctuation
> - several spelling mistakes
>
> It's a first draft but I just don't know how to approach it. Obviously for
> his benefit and mine we need to sort it, but people don't like to be told
> their writing sucks (or "there" writing as he would have it!). And then
> there's the issue of getting it changed. I already had to raise his
> expectations of how much he needed to spend and the workload is going to 
> be
> pushing that budget even before any re-writing.
>
> But the main thing is just how to broach the subject?!!
>
-Tell him that spell checker is not far off useless and that he should
-proof read his documents, or even better, get someone else to do it if
-he can.
-Oh and you have some spelling errors and some messie writing  overall
-on your own website.

Crikey, you're not wrong! Pretty important one too. Still, I'm currently #1 
on Google for "accesible web design manchester"!

To be fair to client, he's since redrafted everything and it's much better. 
I just need to add the odd comma here and there.

--
+mrcakey
www.twitter.com/mrcakey