When Do Editors Reject Emails? Guidelines for Use
What does “regular email correspondence” mean?
Wondering why an editor rejected your email? Wordzen editors use their judgment in deciding to accept or reject an email, using “regular email correspondence” as their standard. The major factors considered are length and content.
We promise a ten-minute turnaround on most emails, but an exceptionally long email cannot reasonably be professionally edited in that timeframe. The amount of time that it will take our editors to work on your email is a major factor in determining whether it falls within Wordzen’s scope and whether it should be accepted or rejected. Their experience has given them exceptional evaluative skills to make this determination after a quick read.
It also means that our editors are trained in English and research. Although they are capable of editing a very technical email and doing the research necessary to be sure they are writing accurately, the editor working on your email may not necessarily be an expert in your field.
Examples of rejections
While our editors accept nearly all of the emails submitted to us, there are some items they may selectively reject, including sales and marketing promotional copy if it runs extra-long or appears to make false claims. We also do not edit real estate property profiles because we can’t verify the property facts, and we often decline to edit resumes because it takes quite a long time to do them justice. We are happy to write your personal emails about consumer, family, community, or scheduling issues, but we may turn away anything ultra-personal. Finally, our editors reserve the right to reject any message if it strays outside of the normal types of business and personal emails that we typically edit, or if the input is insufficient for us to edit. FYI, our most frequent rejections are poor-quality audio recordings in which the words are hard to decipher.
Length
Approximately 15 lines of text is what we consider to be a “normal” email. Our editors will use their best judgment to accept emails over this length, but it may require more time than the estimated ten-minute turnaround. Messages doubling this length will be rejected.
If you’re using the audio feature, about two minutes of recorded time is generally the maximum length our editors will accept. Drafting an email from an audio message takes about three times longer than editing written content, and audio messages of this length typically take 10 to 15 minutes to produce.
Please note that breaking up longer content into several submissions will result in those submissions being rejected. We have had users who have tried to abuse the system to have our editors work on articles, reports, and to transcribe speeches. As Wordzen grows and develops, we plan to introduce options to have non-standard emails and other long-form content edited for an additional fee. However, this is not currently an option.
While not considered, “typical email correspondence,” our editors are also happy to help you with your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram posts, since they are generally short in length. Please use Wordzen for your most important posts and messages on these platforms.
Audio unclear
While our editors are experienced at deciphering what is being said in an audio message, if too much of the audio is unclear, they will reject it and ask you to re-submit a new message. The major reasons for rejection are background noise, speech that is whispered or mumbled, or audio that continuously cuts out, skips, or blares. To reduce the chance that your audio message is rejected, please see our tips for successful audio recording.
Resubmissions
Wordzen editors reject resubmissions, so any email submitted more than once will be rejected (unless you are resubmitting it at the editor’s request). As you can understand, if we allow too much back-and-forth between our users and editors as a user thinks of more content to add to their message, an editor could spend their entire shift trying to shuffle through versions and focus on one person at the expense of other users. As such, please try to include all necessary information in the draft or audio message you submit to our editors.
There are exceptions to this rule, such as if you have a question about whether an edit is correct or if an editor misunderstood the meaning of your email.
For example, an audio message might say, “Please send a message to the group telling them that the charity event will be at the park on August 2nd at 12:00 PM.”
An editor could interpret this as you emailing someone asking them to send a message on your behalf and draft something like this:
“Hello,
Can you please send a message to the group informing them that the charity event will take place on August 2 at 12:00 PM at the park?
Thank you in advance for your help!”
However, your intended meaning might have been to have the editor draft a message directly to the group, which would look something more like this:
“Hi everyone,
We’ve finalized the details for the charity event. It will take place at the park on August 2 at 12:00 PM.
We hope you can make it and look forward to seeing you there!”
Messages using languages other than English
Currently, Wordzen handles only messages written or spoken in English. However, we know that professional, grammatically correct communication is important in every language, and at some point in the future, we hope to expand to other languages in order to have more global reach.
Messages containing inappropriate content
Our editors will not draft or edit any message containing content that is sexual in nature, threatening, hateful, phishing, or could be considered illegal.
If you’re still unsure why a message was rejected
Please note that your response to a rejection notice will be forwarded to our administrative team for consideration. Those responses do not go to the editor who rejected your message.
Questions? Comments? Feel free to reach out any time at contact@wordzen.com.