TextRanch Editors: Real Humans or Artificial Intelligence?

“Are you a real person or a robot?”

At TextRanch, this question pops up on a regular basis. It usually comes from new customers who want to know if their texts are being edited by a living, breathing human, or if TextRanch uses a correction system based on artificial intelligence (AI).

Let’s clear that up right now…

At Text Ranch, all of your documents and texts are revised and corrected by human editors, not an AI system.

Yes, our editors are real people. Furthermore, TextRanch editors are native English speakers who are required to pass a stringent qualification test before they can work on your texts and documents.

Because TextRanch editors are located in different countries and across different time zones, you can submit your texts at any time of the day, on any day of the week, and even on holidays. Our editors work as quickly as possible, so your wait time is usually less than 10 minutes. During periods of unexpected high demand, you may have to wait a little longer because the editors are busy correcting the texts that they received before you submitted your text. To put it simply, our editors work on a “first come, first served” basis.

Although AI correction systems might be quick and easy, they are limited.

The editors at TextRanch can detect problems that an AI system will miss. Often, a sentence is grammatically correct, but it doesn’t sound quite right. Perhaps it includes a word that is spelled correctly, yet it doesn’t belong in that sentence. Maybe there is a word or phrase that a native speaker would not use in that context. Let’s look at an example:

I shall return the flies on Thursday.

An AI correction system is unlikely to flag any issues with the above sentence since it is technically correct. However, a TextRanch editor would be able to tell that “flies” is a typo and that the word is supposed to be “files” (unless the customer lets us know that they are working with insects). The editor would also change “shall” to “will” because in the 21st century, “shall” is only used in legal documents, not in business emails.

Although “shall” does not belong in our example sentence, a TextRanch editor who is working on a legal document would be aware that the word is indeed correct and appropriate within that context. Unlike an AI system, a human editor can distinguish between a business email and a legal document and make corrections (or not make corrections) accordingly.

Additionally, TextRanch editors have real world experience.

We have applied for jobs. We have worked in various fields. We write emails (sometimes to each other). Some of us write fiction, poetry, or plays. We have gone to school, and some of us have even worked as teachers. We bring these real world experiences to our work at TextRanch.

As human editors, we understand how crucial it is for our clients to produce well-written, natural-sounding texts and documents that will make a favorable impression on the colleagues, supervisors, teachers, admissions officers, potential employers, and scholarly journal editors who will be reading them. Only a real person can understand the context of your message and give you customized suggestions.