David Quin

Former journalist David Quin has set up an editing and proofreading service with the twin aims of helping companies to communicate more clearly and save money.

Quin worked as a journalist for 20 years before being appointed director of the Masters in Journalism programme at Dublin Institute of Technology in 1998.Quin has also worked as a consultant for financial services firms and for a BBC project for improving journalistic standards.

He founded SwiftEditing four months ago on the principle that using plain English can lead to huge savings for organisations.

SwiftEditing works on everything from CVs and research papers, to annual reports and speeches for businesspeople and politicians.

He said that companies and governments needed to convey information in clear, concise English, free of jargon and mistakes. ‘‘An estimated 80 per cent of documents produced by organisations are badly written, costing millions of euro in wasted time and lost business.

‘‘Awareness of how good communication can save money is not so strong in Ireland, compared to the US, Britain and Australia," Quin said.

‘‘Perhaps it is because we write in a more ‘human' way.I suspect we do not come up with the worst examples, but nor do we have the best.

‘‘The key to good communication is not oversimplifying information, but writing in language the intended audience can understand the first time they read it."Quin used the example of one form used by Britain's Royal Mail, which had an error rate of 87 per cent when completed.

It rewrote the form and saved stg£500,000 within 9 months.An over-reliance on acronyms and jargon can also deter the intended audience, according to Quin. ‘‘Good writing and good presentation save time and money," he said.

More than 160 print and broadcast journalists attended the workshops which were conducted by Foundation consultants Russell Lyne and David Quin.