WhiteSmoke revolutionizes English writing, editing and grammar software

Online writing help, new translation dictionaries enhance distinctive writing software

( EMAILWIRE.COM, March 14, 2007 ) Newark, DE -- WhiteSmoke, the best on-line writing software to help businesses to improve their English, announces two new additions to its suite of writing solutions. Top Expert, an online forum that provides quick answers about English from experts in writing. And WhiteSmoke’s new translation dictionaries cover seventeen different languages. These new features will serve the global business writer by providing strong enhancements to WhiteSmoke’s distinctive writing software solution.

Both online and mortar-and-brick businesses increasingly find English indispensable. Fortune 500 Companies spend $3 Billion a year to teach employees basic English, according to one recent report. Poor English has even cost the British government almost one-billion pounds—for just one badly written pamphlet. Nearly every business in the global marketplace increasingly relies on written English. Many governments, businesses, and others need to write English well. Increasingly, translation has become important in this writing. WhiteSmoke offers a unique and truly comprehensive software solution.

WhiteSmoke’s software allows users to achieve perfect English grammar in their writing with English grammar check, English grammar corrector, and English grammar lessons. Users instantly enrich their writing with relevant adjectives, adverbs, and phrases using unique, patented Natural Language Processing technology that allow WhiteSmoke to make context-based suggestions for synonyms and style-enrichment. Its dictionaries provide extensive entries about usage, history, and the subtleties of meaning that other software dictionaries leave out. Its proofreading functions correct grammar and spelling—no matter what software the user has been writing with—but go well beyond that by offering text enrichment, style suggestions, and templates for different writing contexts.

Not all English writing is the same. WhiteSmoke recognizes that the medical writer, business writer, legal writer, and creative writer each needs a different set of solutions. So WhiteSmoke has developed specialized profiles for Medical, Business, Legal, and Creative writing. Over 600 templates provide examples of typical writing for each area. Writing enhancements, synonyms, and style recommendations are geared to the particular writing. The two new features increase the ability of WhiteSmoke to provide context-sensitive assistance.

WhiteSmoke's new Top Expert Forum provides users direct access to top-quality online help for: basic English grammar; English vocabulary, idioms and synonyms; verbs and tenses; and punctuation; among other topics. There are also areas for users to provide each other support and feedback on their own writing, to offer templates to each other, and to share solutions. Users ask specific questions and receive answer from Top Experts in English.

Top Experts are mother-tongue English speakers, including former professional English teachers who know well how to help others with writing. WhiteSmoke employs linguists, former college writing teachers, former high school English teachers and other well-trained professionals to assure that its software and its Top Expert Forums provide the most professional and best English writing help possible.

"English has become the lingua franca of globalization," says Hilla Ovil-Brenner, WhiteSmoke's CEO. "Our software has been designed to help users get their message across effectively. The new Top Expert Forums provide additional support for difficult writing situations, furthering our goal of providing customers with the best English-writing solutions possible."

Even with English as the lingua franca of globalization, translating English into another language correctly could make money for a business. And it costs governments millions of dollars to do. However, getting the words right in a medical setting could save lives. WhiteSmoke’s new suite of translation dictionaries for seventeen languages continues the company’s efforts to bridge global communication. The dictionaries serve as an additional feature to its software.

Globalization has created an explosion of multi-lingual populations all around the world. Translating into different language is complex and time consuming. The new online dictionaries offered by WhiteSmoke to enhance its writing software seeks to alleviate some of these issues. The initial release of the new dictionaries will cover seventeen languages: Arabic, two forms of Chinese, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Korean, Polish, European and South American Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. More languages will soon follow.

But the importance of translation goes beyond mere convenience or even money. Researchers at the University of Michigan recently found that medical translation errors have critical consequences, from misunderstandings that can lead to delays in diagnosis or treatment to unnecessary hospitalizations. Health and life could literally be on the line in the field of medical translation. Yet, little attention has been paid to the accuracy of medical translation.

"Poor translation in medical settings could potentially cost health and lives," says Ovil-Brenner. WhiteSmoke's award-winning writing software already has distinctive features to improve medical writing and medical terminology. "Now, with WhiteSmoke's entry into the area of translation dictionaries," continues Ovil-Brenner, "we plan to use our medical writing expertise to help." Its rich English dictionary includes idioms, parts of speech, extensive definitions, and a unique comprehensive explanation of each word that help assure accurate usage.

"Without quality translations of medical documents in the language of their patients, [doctors] cannot provide [the] best quality care, and patients are at risk for receiving inferior care," says one of the University of Michigan researchers, Dr. Michael Fetters, associate professor of family medicine. The research focused on accurately translating written materials from one language into an equivalent written form in another language. WhiteSmoke's software also focuses on written communication.

While not necessarily life-threatening, good translation is increasingly mission-critical for governments, courts, and businesses. One estimate has various local and national branches of the British government and courts spending as much as 100 Million Pounds a year on translating documents into other languages. WhiteSmoke sees the Top Expert Forum and the new translation dictionaries as important supplements to the legal writing contexts of its current offering as well as to the medical writing support it provides.

Translating from English is business-critical as well. One recent business marketing report noted the importance of effectively translating English web pages. "For global companies, translating their content into other languages can be a time-consuming process that delays the launch of new pages and campaigns," writes Mike Moran for WebProNews. WhiteSmoke's translation dictionaries include a specialized business thesaurus in addition to a standard thesaurus.

In addition to its new translation dictionaries and Top Expert Forum, WhiteSmoke has been offering online English lessons for some time. From short articles on finer points of grammar and punctuation to how-to help on various types of writing (such as letters, business plans, essays, or songs) the online “English school” at WhiteSmoke provides users help that goes well beyond grammar checking. The whole package is a bit like consulting a personal tutor online. WhiteSmoke adds new content to its web site nearly every day. Now, the new forum adds true interactivity and personalization to its content, as Top Experts reply to specific writing questions.

All of these innovations grew out of a conversation that Ovil-Brenner, CEO of WhiteSmoke, had with her father. He commented on the poor quality of written English communication among his professional medical colleagues, many of whom spoke English well. Ovil-Brenner decided to find a solution for poor English writing that would be easy to use and really help writers at all levels to improve their English. WhiteSmoke was born from this idea in 2002, and began offering its software early in 2006. It has had great success in selling the software, and many articles have extolled the virtues of the initial product. These new features further WhiteSmoke’s efforts in the service of improving English writing.

And WhiteSmoke has arrived on the scene just in time. One research study concluded that poor English disturbs the large English-language customer base for outsourced customer services more than a lack of knowledge or poor service. Service companies have started to rely on written English to avoid misunderstandings due to spoken English. WhiteSmoke’s solutions and the new features help businesses that, like the customer-service industry, are increasingly reliant on written English.

Using WhiteSmoke software while writing and consulting with the Top Expert Forum and the “English school” will keep businesses writing the best possible English. The new translation dictionaries help assure that an English word is just the one that the writer meant to use. These new offerings from WhiteSmoke will add important complements to the company's one-click support for medical, business, legal, and creative writing.

Content Sources:

John Devorre (lawyer fined for bad writing) http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1076428397626,
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/02/29/stories/2004022900721600.htm

China crackdown on bad translations http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16783677/
gazette.com/pg/06290/730579-294.stm

Fortune 500 spend $3billion http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10004296/
India-Pilots sent home http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/pilots-sent-home-due-to-bad-english/2007/02/16/1171405407787.html

customer service companies moving to English writing http://www.netreflector.com/company/pr.asp?p=20060501

British pamphlet cost nearly 1 billion pounds http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,1996860,00.html

Medical translation problems http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=3163

Contact:

WhiteSmoke, Inc.
David Brown
david@whitesmoke.com
http://www.whitesmoke.com
Tel: 972503289279

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