Learn about the importance of freelance academic writing. Read this blog, you will find all the essential information that you require.
Importance of Freelance academic writing in Today’s World
People with advanced degrees who work as freelance academic writers have a unique opportunity to work from the comfort of their own homes. Working online for the first several months was a learning process for me because I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had to discover how to improve my revenue in the writing niche by trial and error. The academic writing projects I completed after receiving my master’s degree were among the first freelancing gigs I pursued following graduation.
The good news is that using your academic skills to create high-quality content can make you more money than generalist writers with less experience and understanding. Understanding what freelance writing entails, where the need for academic writers comes from, and adhering to several key rules that I wish I’d known when I first started out are all necessary for success in this industry. Continue reading to learn more about this and other topics!
How Does Academic Writing Work?
Academic writing is a well-organized, concentrated style of writing that is backed up by facts and examples. The goal of academic writing is to both enlighten and educate the reader, or to argue for a certain point of view while citing important external sources. Complex vocabulary is rarely essential or even encouraged in academic writing, despite the fact that many fields have their own jargon and writing standards that must be observed.
What Are the Responsibilities of Freelance Academic Writers?
For a number of clients, a freelance academic writer can provide a wide range of content, including essays, reports, articles, book chapters, presentations, curriculum, syllabi, and other sorts of content. An academic writer may be asked to explain arcane subjects to a non-academic audience, in which case they will write blog posts, press releases, news articles, and other forms of outreach. A freelance academic researcher can also do things like write literature reviews and create qualitative databases, among other things, in addition to academic research.
Academic writing jobs are likely something that has piqued your interest if you have a degree and want to work as a freelance writer. I used to specialise in academic writing when I initially started freelancing. What else was I qualified to accomplish now that I had recently graduated from university with a Master’s degree?
But, as time went on, I saw why there was such a constant demand for academic writers:
Completing other people’s assignments makes up the majority of academic writing jobs.
The great majority of freelance academic writing gigs available on the internet today are advertised by college students looking for someone to write their assignments for them rather than doing it themselves. There are even companies dedicated to matching students with people who have a bachelor’s degree or higher in order to help them ace their essays and other academic duties.
Having said that, folks with a bachelor’s or master’s degree still have lots of viable writing prospects. I came up with the following after looking at academic writing jobs on Upwork:
The majority of the positions are for academic editing, which is another great field to break into. Converting a doctoral thesis into a book was a true academic writing assignment that I came across, and it is a fantastic example of respectable academic writing labour.
What You Need to Know Before Applying for an Academic Writing Position
If you’re seeking advice on how to get your first academic writing job, I recommend the following:
Maintain a laser-like focus on your area of expertise.
Because there are so many content writing opportunities accessible to academics, keeping track of them all and applying to each one might be difficult. Limit your job applications to positions that require academic expertise specific to your discipline to make the most of your time. For example, having a history degree boosts your chances of finding a job writing for a history blog by several orders of magnitude. Having said that, you might be able to employ your writing skills in other sectors (such as a geologist writing about palaeontology topics). It is entirely up to you and your writing style to decide what you will write about. Don’t waste your time looking for writing jobs that are absolutely outside of your field because the position will be filled by someone who is actually competent.
First and foremost, make sure your resume is up to date.
If you have an academic background, you most certainly have a 10-page or greater curriculum vitae (CV). Your credentials and experience will be crucial in the writing industry, but your resume shouldn’t be nearly as long as an academic CV. To make your curriculum vitae more appealing to people who aren’t academics, shorten it. Try to keep it to two pages or less. Even if you cut something out by accident that is really important to the content writing position you’re looking for, you can easily add it back in before sending your resume to potential clients.
Prepare academic writing samples for review.
Portfolio clips are the most valuable asset freelance writers can have when looking for content writing gigs. Make sure these samples are easily accessible for each possible client to examine and assess. As a new freelancer, I provided a copy of my master’s thesis to potential clients to entice them to hire me. In addition, I directed them to my peer-reviewed papers. When I started having my work published on blogs and in online magazines, I started sharing the links to these articles as well. Start with whatever academic writing samples you have on hand, and then develop your portfolio from there with high-quality content.
Make sure you understand a project before you agree to it.
Even if you avoid essay-writing websites, you should be aware that it is possible that you will accidentally complete someone else’s assignment.
That occurred to me a few times as well. I was hired on a job site years ago to write a blog article (or so I thought) for a company on a marketing-related subject. I’m not sure what I was thinking about right now. Whatever the situation, I drew a sketch and sent it to the customer. The following is what they said in response:
“Thank you so much for taking the time to do this! However, please allow me to make one modest request of you. Is it possible to use APA style instead of using hyperlinks to cite sources? That is precisely the lecturer’s wish. One more time, thank you!”
According to the job description, the candidate will be in charge of writing blog articles. In reality, nothing about the advertisement suggested that it was for a university course. Unintentionally, I had finished someone else’s homework.
I graciously resigned from the position when I realised what I’d done and did not complete the APA citations that were required. As a thank you, the client received a full refund as well as a free research paper. But, at the very least, my conscience was guilt-free (for the most part).
You could accidentally take on someone else’s homework task in a variety of situations, not simply freelance writing. You might end yourself designing a logo for a community college design course at some point. You might also perform statistical analysis for someone’s MA thesis. I’ve seen job advertisements asking for people to write dissertations for others.
The moral of this storey is that you should always be mindful of the responsibilities of your employment. Understanding why the client has asked you to complete the task will help you ensure that you provide exactly what they want and prevent mistakenly finishing someone else’s homework.
Why Should You Never Accept Essay Writing Positions?
Working for essay websites appears to be the quickest and most straightforward way for someone with a degree to make money on the surface. To be honest, as an anthropology MA student, I could write an ANTH 101 term paper while sleeping. However, there are several significant flaws in this scenario that should make you reconsider your decision to write an essay:
The first issue is one of morality.
The most serious problem is that you are encouraging students to cheat. The storey comes to a close here. Consider the possibility that you helped someone cheat on an essay and that they went on to medical school and became your doctor as a result of your help. Do you really want to be treated by someone who didn’t even open a book during their undergraduate studies?
Everyone, I understand, has to make a living in some way. It appears on the surface that you will be able to get away with it and will never be caught. However, there is no guarantee that the hammer will not fall again at some point. Aren’t you thinking of those well-known people who got in trouble for hiring people to help their children cheat on their college admissions exams? Guess who else got themselves into trouble? Those who genuinely aided them in their deception. As a result, people were arrested and imprisoned!
You don’t need to take such a risk in your life, especially now that there are so many ethical ways to make money online as a freelancer.
I’m not trying to scare you away from becoming a freelance writer (after all, that’s what I do!). There are a few issues, however, that may make you reconsider your decision to work as an essay writer.
The second issue is a lack of trustworthiness.
Believability is the second most difficult issue to deal with when working on essay writing tasks because you’re ghostwriting.
Someone else’s literary work has been published under your name. You will be completely unappreciated for it. It will be impossible to use it as a portfolio clip. Furthermore, your customers (who are students) are unable to provide you with glowing recommendations. If you want to establish a professional writing profile as a freelancer, you’ll need both of these skills. If you are unable to demonstrate the quality of your work through examples and testimonials from satisfied clients, you will never be able to command a high pay rate from new clients.
The third issue to address is oversaturation.
Unfortunately, and I apologise for saying so, essay writing is one of the most oversaturated freelance areas out there. In terms of popularity, it’s right up there with pet and vacation blogging. For academic purposes, everyone and their mother is a writer. The following is how it works:
Bachelor’s degree holders, MA holders, and PhD holders are common. They make the decision to start freelancing and begin researching the various work categories that are available. A well-written academic paper practically jumps off the page!
They already have all of the skills needed to start working in this field right away! Essay writers are always in high demand. They apply for a few gigs after that, and then BOOM, they land their first freelancing job and begin earning money. After that, the rest is history. The only freelance writing niche in which you will ever be hired by a company is essay writing.
The issue with oversaturation is that it diminishes the value of the work you produce as a result. Employers find it difficult to choose from the large pool of available authors. When two people with similar qualifications apply for the same job, the employer will hire the person who is less expensive. If you’re on a tight budget, this is how you can hire a PhD to write college papers for you for less than $100 per essay. This is true, despite the fact that it is unfortunate.
What do you believe the other options are?
Every single one of these essay writers is making a huge mistake, one that I was about to make when I first started freelancing years ago. They believe the only thing they are capable of doing is finishing other people’s schoolwork. They don’t try to break into any of the other writing niches because they believe they lack the necessary skills.
This is not the case, however.
I’m the perfect example of how things in the world of independent contractors simply don’t work that way. My academic credentials include a BA in anthropology and an MA in anthropology. Can you guess what my area of expertise is when it comes to freelance writing?
Marketing.
Yep. I write about a variety of marketing topics, but pay-per-click advertising is my main focus. I can’t stress enough how important this is:
I’ve never taken a single marketing course in my life.
This is a field in which I have no prior experience. Despite the fact that I had no prior experience with marketing writing, I was hired for my first marketing writing job.
But I taught myself what I needed to know, and now I work as a freelance marketing writer and make a decent living. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without your help.
You can achieve exactly what I did with a little self-assurance and a little help. Because so many people have approached me for advice on how to turn their academic skills into freelance income, I’ve decided to offer a free mini-course to help them find a lucrative freelance niche. Take a look at it if you haven’t already.
Last Thoughts
If you’ve read this far, I’m confident you’ve learned everything there is to know about freelance academic writing so you can decide if it’s the right niche for you. Working from home as an academic writer can be a lucrative way for those with advanced degrees to supplement their income. Please take a look at my free mini-course on the subject if you’re interested in getting paid extremely well as a freelancer (think, increasing your income to 6-figures!). It will give you a rundown of all of the most lucrative freelance niches available today, as well as advice on how to pick the one that best matches your current skills and experience.
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