Recreation Centres Editing and Proofreading Services

A woman of sixty-eight reads a programme guide and finds "Aqua Fit — Tuesdays 10am, all welcome". She wants to know whether she will be the oldest, whether the water is deep, whether she has to put her face in, whether she can leave if it is too much, and what to wear. She does not ring to ask. She stays at home, and the class runs at half capacity.

We edit what recreation centres and leisure facilities produce — programme guides and class descriptions, membership and pricing information, booking and cancellation policies, facility rules and safety notices, accessibility and inclusion information, seasonal camp and holiday programme material, instructor and staff documentation, and the communications that manage a building used by everybody. Our editors work on listings that people decide from without asking.

The programme listing is the smallest and hardest-working piece of writing a centre produces, and its failure is a name, a time and a welcome. A listing has about thirty words to answer the four questions that stop people coming. We work through these so each listing says who the class is actually for in concrete terms — the typical age range, whether people come alone, whether anybody there is new — since "all welcome" is true and answers nothing; so the physical demand is described in things the reader can picture: whether you are on the floor, whether you get up and down, whether you can hold on to something, whether the water is above your shoulders; so the format is set out minute by minute for a first session, because not knowing what happens is the single largest deterrent to a first visit; so what to wear and what to bring is stated, given that this stops more people than cost does; so the option to stop, sit out or leave is stated explicitly, as an adult who cannot see an exit will not start; so the booking and cancellation position is given including whether turning up is enough; so the price is shown as the price they will actually pay, including any concession and how to claim it without a conversation; and so the instructor is named. Listings written this way fill classes.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including programme material, participant data and operational documents. We are editors rather than instructors, leisure managers or health professionals, and we offer no view on programming, exercise or safety. What we can do is answer the questions nobody telephones to ask.