Would you use an email proofreading service?

Seeing as I have just identified over ten mistakes in your question details, I wouldn't use the service, but I would (in theory anyway) apply for a job there. (I know that the person who wrote the question is probably not the same one who will be doing the proofreading, but seeing writing mistakes made by someone who just built a service that corrects writing mistakes is not the best promo for the service). On a more serious note, I personally wouldn't be using such a service, simply because I consider my grammar, punctuation, and general phrasing to be accurate enough not to require corrections, and I always proofread what I write, even if I send unimportant text messages while tipsy. Some mistakes do slip every now and then (I'm sure that Murphy's laws will have me make one in this answer, just to mess with me), but they are rare enough to be ignored. (However, I might be a little "grammar nazi" exception. I am sure this  service would be of great use to many people. In fact I should start  suggesting it to many of my co-workers. Ahem.) I should also point out that confidentiality doesn't necessarily mean just who sends it and who receives it. The e-mail itself could contain extremely sensitive and confidential data that is revealing in and of itself, without even knowing who sent it. Not to mention that e-mails are usually signed in full name, as part of the text, so that info is visible.

No. I have paid for proofreading services in the past. I often ask people to look over emails. I would not pay for the service as described. Why? I would never give a proofreader the final edit. I would never give anybody the final edit of something important that I am signing my name to. I would especially never give an anonymous stranger a final edit of something so important I am willing to pay money to make sure it's in good shape. Proofreading isn't a feature; it's a relationship. A good proofreader know who I am, where I'm coming from, and who the audience is. I can't develop a relationship with a button. I suspect there are also other issues with your service. If you are days from launching and haven't asked your target market whether they'll pay, then you missed the whole Customer Development stage of product creation. All that said, it doesn't really matter what I think as long as you know people who will pay. It doesn't matter if 99% of people don't like your product, because 1% of the world is still a lot of people.

Confidentiality is definitely an  issue here (simply hiding names or email addresses isn't enough) but I'd  like to unpack a point that makes: "Proofreading  isn't a feature; it's a relationship. A good proofreader know who I am,  where I'm coming from, and who the audience is. I can't develop a  relationship with a button." Your service assumes that there is a standard way to correct errors. If you're talking about basic grammatical structure, that might be true. Maybe. But lots of "errors" in language have nothing to do with grammar. Idioms can be problematic. I remember being shocked when, ten years ago, someone said to me, "I don't care." He meant that he had no preference between the two alternatives I'd presented to him, but I wasn't familiar with that idiomatic use of "I don't care," and I thought he was being inexplicably hostile. I'm careful about what idioms I use when I write, depending on who my audience is and what the context of the email is. The service you describe can't help with this. Tone can be problematic. Writing is difficult. It's very difficult to master tone in writing. It's even more difficult when we're writing short things like emails. With longer pieces--like a novel, or a short article--the reader has time to learn to hear the writer's tone. In emails, often not, unless there are lots of emails exchanged between people. So in that case, how well would a third-party be able to gauge the appropriateness of the tone of a single email? Cultural references can be problematic. Regional differences are almost too cliché for me to mention, right? Most Americans wouldn't understand if I said, "Wow, we really hit a sixer with that product launch!" but it's clear to anyone who plays cricket. But it's not just regional; sometimes it's totally individual. For instance, people often refer to TV shows or movies, and they are all lost on me. (What is a McGuffin? Why is someone telling me to "lead on" and calling me "McDuff?) As with idioms, references must be picked prudently. And finally, let's talk a bit about the Dunning-Kruger effect. I wonder to what extent the people who most appreciate this service will turn out the be the ones who don't need it? I mean, I would love it if more people wrote with fewer errors in whatever language they were using, and in that sense I can get behind your service. But I would never pay for or use your service because... well, I don't make very many mistakes that a proofreader could correct. :-/ And if you've ever tried to correct habitual grammar offenders, you'll find that a disheartening number of them respond with, who cares stop h8in u get wt i mean ryte* and you will weep solitary tears into your pillow at night. Or maybe that's just me... So what, you might ask. True, you're just trying to fix grammatical errors. But grammar isn't as fixed as you might think. (Nor is it quite as fluid as some others might think.) A service like the one you describe, being outside the "relationship" that mentions, works by using a "standard" grammar. Correcting everything to  that standard might actually impede meaning, particularly when it comes  to jargon. And it could erode tone--by airbrushing casual,  largely-accepted "errors," you can make a piece of text sound like the  visual equivalent of the voice that guides you through an automated  phone system. (And how could such a service fix the inherent awkwardness  of that simile?) But, despite all these things, I say... ...the only way to really know is to do what you're doing: test it. See if anyone actually pays you for it. If you have even one customer, you have a customer! From there you can see whether you can scale up or whether your market is too small. Simply asking people what they think won't tell you the truth; trying to get them to buy/use your product will. So: good luck to you! May you learn many things. * Do you even know how long it took me to (mis)craft that? :)

I am afraid I won't be using such a service for e-mail, due to the following reasons. I am not comfortable sharing my text (howsoever anonymously) with a non-intended recipient. I don't want to pay for such a service. I think I will be able to convey my message to the recipient, reasonably well. Its a very rare event when I would want my e-mail text to be in a perfect language. However, I would definitely consider such service for the following use cases: Statement of Purpose for University applications Technical/Patent Documentation Cover Letter/Resume for Job application Publication in a conference/journal

I and other Quora writers would likely answer No. But there is a lot of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_bias at work here.   You're asking writers (amateur anyway.)    So we're pretty confident about our English.    (Of course we make mistakes but they are quickly fixed by the author or a good samaritan.) So don't ask us.   But your idea sounds like a good one, I say give it a go.  Good luck!

A2A US Government's PRISM service would be the biggest player in this sector if they ever decide to monetize it. Coming to your question, I personally would not use a proofreading service for emails for the following reasons : I think I am myself able to convey the message clearly. I do not want to share my private information ( personal, business) with any third party. Following are my thoughts on your service ( I may be wrong ) From the business perspective you should think about the data security How will you make sure that the third party data is always secure ( actually I don't think you can) Will you be liable for any data/information leak by any of your employee. Are the proof readers your full time employees or freelancers scattered across the web, in which case you would not have any major control on their actions and also the jurisdictions on data security might differ from your country. Because of the security issue I doubt any corporate would use your service or allow its employees to use. So, I doubt big/medium businesses would use your service. Also, I would add that not many people would use it for personal mails, I mean if you are sending a mail to your friend/gf will you have it proofread ? Now as I have shared my concerns, I will talk about how I think this service could evolve. Focus on colleges,schools :  Students do a lot of project work and prepare reports for the same. Try to contact college students and offer them your service. There a already many firms in this area but if you pick up your location and offer decent group discounts you might get good orders. You can sell your service to businesses in areas that are not very computer literate. If you take India for example, various small computer shops here actually run solely on charging users for sending mails, seeing results and some even charge for opening email accounts. I am not saying you try the same but think of any small business owner in some town, he could benefit a lot from your service. Instead of manual proofreading if you could provide an automated system, it could be very beneficial even for big businesses.

In my opinion, this would be a good service, however, I'd want the email to return to me so I could double check it before sending - the reason for this is that as a proofreader myself, I know that bad writing contains a lot of ambiguities, as a proofreader, you choose an interpretation and correct for that interpretation. As a client I'd want my message back to check that the service had interpreted what I had written correctly. I also completely agree with 's point that proofreading is a relationship, it's not a one-hit-wonder, it's a back and forth of mutual editing and re-editing until a collaborative final draft is reached.

I agree with 's answer.   Many companies want their employees to atleast communicate well so I would not want my company to invest in service you mentioned. (I quote 'don't give a fish to a kid, teach him how to fish instead') So I would want my company to invest in email writing or an email etiquette training rather than investing in your service.   I'm repeating this one 'I don't want my email read by unintented recipients' I can't risk exposing the info I'm sending. And there is already spellchecker in my outlook or my other email client so why would I want to pay you? Anyways but no one can aniticipate what's gonna happen to emails in future so all the best for your service.

Disclaimer: I am a part of a network called http://www.eangel.me (eAngel), and that's very similar to what we do, for three years now. So personally I'm already using this kind of service myself. Our goal is to help people with Dyslexia (like myself), businesspeople, students and others to communicate better. Some of us do that pro-bono (with no payment), and a big part of the revenue is going back to Dyslexia organizations. The idea is to gradually reduce the costs, and to have more and more volunteers, and the service will eventually be free of charge.