quality in the sharing economy

A platform where you can get your writing proofread by random people on the internet? Where you can become a proofreader yourself and edit the work of others? It would be easy to think that this is a recipe for disaster in terms of quality. But, surprisingly, it is not. Every day people upload their writing on r3ciprocity.com and get affordable and high quality proofreading. They are given helpful feedback on ways they could improve their writing. They hand in their manuscripts and share their writing with others confident and pleased with what they have produced with a little help from a r3ciprocity.com proofreader. But how is this possible? Quality is ensured on r3ciprocity.com primarily through the procedures and systems that are the foundation of the platform. The test review process requires new proofreaders to edit two test documents that are verified by r3ciprocity Admin before they are given access to the work of others. Other features including the use of credits as payment for proofreading, the 48-hour window for review and the star rating system efficiently protect writers and hold proofreaders accountable for the standard of their reviews. The Test Review Process When you upload a document to be proofread on r3ciprocity.com you can be 100% sure that the person editing your document has the knowledge and skills to do so. This is because no user of the platform is given access to the work of other users before they have completed and passed the r3ciprocity.com test review process. This process requires the proofreader to edit two test documents. These documents have been specifically designed to assess the proofreader’s ability to spot errors, modify text in a way that improves the overall quality of the writing and provide helpful comments for the writer. The test documents are downloaded, edited and uploaded in exactly the same way as documents to be proofread by real users of the platform. This is very simple and straightforward but familiarizing proofreaders with the procedure during the test review process ensures they fully understand it before they are approved as proofreaders on the platform. The test documents are then uploaded to the platform and studied by r3ciprocity.com Admin. The Admin will then pass or fail the proofreader based on the quality of the edited test document. Passing the first test review is necessary to access the second test document. Passing the second test review is necessary to begin editing the work of others. Individuals who fail on either review, not editing the test document to the required standard, will have the opportunity to edit other test documents to prove that their editing skills meet the r3ciprocity.com standard. However, until a proofreader had shown the r3ciprocity.com admin that they can proofread and edit documents to a high standard, they are not approved as proofreaders on the platform or given access to the work of another user. This means you can be sure that your document will always be given to someone who has been assessed as meeting the r3ciprocity.com standard of quality in their editing and proofreading. Do you have what it takes to become a r3ciprocity.com proofreader? We are always looking for more r3ciprocity.com proofreaders. For more information on the test review process including top tips for great proofreading go to How Do You Perform A Test Review on R3ciprocity.com? and How Do You Upload Your Second Test Review on R3ciprocity.com? The 48-Hour Rule When a writer uploads their document onto the r3ciprocity.com platform to be proofread it goes into the queue of documents waiting for a proofreader. How long the document is in this queue depends on the number of documents waiting and the activity of proofreaders on the platform. The estimated wait time for a document is given for the information of the writer when they upload their document to the platform. However, once a document is assigned to a particular proofreader they only have 48 hours to download, edit, upload and send it back to the writer. If the proofreader fails to submit a review within the 48 hours the job will be offered to someone else and for one week they will be locked out of most activity on the r3ciprocity.com platform for one week. During this time they are unable to edit documents for others or upload their own work for other to review. The 48-hour rule ensures quality on r3ciprocity.com by ensuring that all documents uploaded for editing are proofread quickly once assigned to particular proofreader. Because of this system no writer will be waiting a week for their document because their proofreader is procrastinating the task of working on it. The Colored Circles of Quality Whenever a proofreader uploads a document they have edited to the r3ciprocity.com platform the platform analyzes the changes that have been made. The proofreader will be shown a screen with the original document and their edited version side by side, clearly showing exactly what they have altered. The circles at the corner of this screen are key statistics about the original document and the review. The color of the Review stats circles – the top two circles – will depend on the number of changes the proofreader has made and the system’s calculation of the readability of the document with those changes (based on the Flesch reading ease score). If the circles are red they will not be able to submit their review and send the document back to the writer. This usually happens when the proofreader has made very few changes. They will need to continue to edit the document and then upload a second attempt that makes the Review stat circles either yellow or green. Yellow indicates okay but proofreaders on r3ciprocity.com are told that they should always aim for these circles to be green when they upload a document. The colored Review stats circles ensure quality on r3ciprocity.com by making sure that all documents are returned to writers with a good number of changes and a good readability score. The Five Star Rating System of Editors After a document has been edited by a r3ciprocity.com proofreader the writer can view and download the edited document through the platform. They will receive an email as soon as their document is ready to view. Through the My Documents page they will be able to see the same screen as their proofreader – their original document alongside the edited version – as well as the Review stats colored circles. The writer will also be able to view a comment written by the proofreader. On the same page the writer can also write their own comment and give their proofreader a star rating out of 5 based on the quality of their review. This information will be sent back to the proofreader as feedback on their work and contribute to their average star rating. In order to turn credits earned for proofreading into real money on r3ciprocity.com proofreaders need to maintain a high average star rating. This system motivates proofreaders to improve their editing to improve their reviews and ensures that the editing done through r3ciprocity.com is consistently of a high quality. High quality editing = High star rating + Financial rewards for proofreaders Low quality editing = Low star rating + No financial rewards for proofreaders Quality in the Sharing Economy aka Why Wikipedia Has All The Answers The procedures and systems of r3ciprocity.com go a long way to ensuring quality and the R3ciprocity Team are always adding features to improve everyone’s experience on the platform. But there is another, very different, reason why the standard of proofreading on r3ciprocity.com is high. Think of Wikipedia. Knowledge used to come leather-bound in hefty books called encyclopedias. They were the result of endless amount of research and work by the authors and publishers who had proved themselves worthy to contribute. And yet encyclopedias are now a thing of the past, surpassed by an online platform where the only writers are random people on the internet. In the sharing economy where work is collaborative and working towards a common goal (gathering information in one place for Wikipedia or proofreading writing on r3ciprocity) quality is often high. In their jobs people are often primarily motivated by money but in the sharing economy they are motivated by other things. The desire to educate others by sharing their knowledge, the desire to prove themselves or the desire to be part of something bigger than themselves. These motivations improve the quality of their work. The people who take time out of their day to edit documents on r3ciprocity.com care about quality writing. They may be a skilled writer looking to widen their skill set and earn a little money in the process. They may be someone who is earning credits to get their own work proofread and knows the great value of another set of eyes to spot the mistakes in a piece of writing. These are the kind of people who go above and beyond to provide great proofreading for their peers. Get high quality proofreading of your work today! Go to How To Get Feedback On Your Writing On R3ciprocity.com for a step by step guide on uploading your work for review. We work hard to ensure that every experience you have on r3ciprocity.com is a good one but if you have any comments, feedback or concerns about a proofreader or anything on the r3ciprocity.com platform do not hesitate to contact us. Send us a message via your profile or email contact@r3ciprocity.com. Find out more about r3ciprocity.com by checking out these posts: What is r3ciprocity.com all about?Can we build a software that helps PhDs, faculty, and graduate students write better?Why build this proofreading / editing App?