Covid-19's impact on academic writing

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to have a general talk over the link between coronavirus shutdown and the academic writing industry. How have you been through this messy year? Do you think the mighty coronavirus has had an impact (positive or negative or neutral) on the industry's normal curve?

My experience is a bit shaky: I have seen a u-shaped trend in orders. However, one thing I've noted that clients are extra cautious in making financial decision. This might suggest that bad global economy, businesses shutting, and things like that has really had an impact on each one of us.

But, it would be great to hear from you about your experiences in general and about academic writing in particular.

My company has managed to stay afloat these days by diversifying our work portfolio. While we still do academic essays, we also work with the overloaded work from home employees who need to find a balance between their work and home life. Yes, we have noticed that the clients, both students and professionals have learned to value their hard earned and less buying power dollars more these days. That has forced us to reevaluate our professional and academic prices, while trying to shelter our writers from the drop in both academic and professional order prices. It's mostly rouch and go these days but we are confident that the worst has passed and the new normal will be here before we know it.

Okay, great. Diversifying is important I guess at all times. What's your company? Looks like it's being run by a group of creative guys. Let's hope the worst is over now; however, I am not sure how long it will take for things to get back to normal.

Aside from a substantial dip in orders during the first three months of the pandemic, I've noticed no real difference.

Makes sense. I was in the healthcare nursing niche when covid struck and felt the dip. I was careful enough to keep other areas going parallel to help me bail out of the crisis back then.

My Nnursing clients have always been my most regular and long-term clients and I think all of them have continued with their schooling throughout this pandemic, even during those first few terrible months in NYC.

lol, that might mean that my nursing clients were hit harder by the pandemic... yours have been quite resilient per say! *Claps*

The strange part of it is that all of my current nurses live in NYC and worked straight through the worst months of the pandemic. At least two of them actually work in ERs.

It really IS strange because NYC was one of the worst hit areas in US in the beginning of the pandemic days. I must applaud their resilience!

The impact of COVID 19 is omnipresent across all fields. Academic writing is no different. Assignments, projects, [spam-removed], articles and other avenues are in short supply and most of times cancelled. It is not just the economic factor that is impacting, but also maintaiing the focus and juggling multiple things when from working from home. Since obtaining meaningful work may be difficult, it helps to switch genres and expand the horizons. Many online academic writing communities are supporting each other during this difficult time, by sharing knowledge, prospects, and nurturing and furthering research.

What company do you represent and is this the level of substantive issue analysis that your customers can expect?

I agree that students' are mighty cautious these days when it comes to paying for services. It isn't just the writing field that is affected. Even academic help companies have seen a dip in their income. It isn't that the clients' aren't there (they are) , it's the money that is tight. some writers are having to struggle to keep their clients even at reduced rates. I guess the pandemic has made schooling more expensive rather than cheaper even with mixed class attendance styles in place. We need to keep the faith that things will work out for our industry in the end. I choose to believe that things can only get better for us from here.

I have no doubt that it's much harder to work in "our industry" when you have no idea what apostrophes are and when to use them.

I am not sure why you're making such a generous use of apostrophes. I am not sure if you write the same way for your clients. It's so hilarious at the same time. Money may be tight, but as the global economy is reviving, it's high time that you improved your writing skills.

@MeoKhan
Good comment, well spotted.

FYI, MeoKhan is another writer who has referred his clients to me for projects out of his depth for years, most recently, about a month and a half ago for an LLB client. No need to take my word for it, either. Just ask him yourself how satisfied his clients have been with my work.

@FreelanceWriter
I never understand why someone who is so confident of his/her own abilities and list of achievements feels the need to justify themselves.

@jeannie
I believe that he is just getting his monies worth out of the paid advertising privilege. He is allowed to self - promote for as long as he pays for the opportunity to do so. He may be straightforward in doing so these days but that is only because of the cut throat nature of the business and the upcoming dry season as the students start summer vacation. While I may not always agree with his professional promotion tactics, I just tell myself that we all do what we need to for personal and business survival. That is what he is doing.

His promotional actions should not be taken against him when the mods say it is ok for him to do so. It is acceptable in their book since he pays for the right to do it. It sucks but we just need to accept what we cannot change. Only the mods can force him to make that change if they insist that he do so in the name of fair competition among the forum participants.

Maybe you and the other complainants should start a petition or individually email the people that run the forum take up the problem with paid self-promotion up with them? They may just listen to your reasons and change their rules about it if enough people privately complain about it.

He is absolutely right about this observation. I have referred my clients to him for many years because I have known him ever since I joined this forum MANY years ago. He stands as one of the most competent, honest, and trustworthy writer who, I know, will never disappoint my clients.

@noted
I am not sure why you're so envious of FreelanceWriter's ad on this forum. You might want to place yours too. His credibility continues to stay alive. Any client with complaints can easily write a negative review about him here.

@MeoKhan You are mistaken. I have been on Freelancewriter's side all this time, trying to explain to his detractors why he can openly advertise his services. I try to explain why he has not violated any forum rules through his posts since he is a premium service user. I have never been jealous of him nor have I competed with him in any way. He knows that. My response was in relation to the previous post. The part about having the people file a complaint with the mods was meant to let them know that if they want to change something, going after FLW is not the way to do it. They should talk to the forum runners instead.

Thanks, Meo.


While I do understand and appreciate that you've defended me against the recent series of unprovoked malicious and untrue recent attacks against me, Meo is right, because your previous post doesn't really read that way, at all. Perhaps that was entirely unintentional on your part; but that's not how it sounds.


I don't promote myself any differently depending on the time of the year. My only (year-round) promotional efforts on this forum consist of: (1) paying to advertise, and (2) posting in active threads approximately once every two or three days, unless I have to respond to vicious, malicious, and totally untrue unprovoked attacks on my character and legitimacy by one rival (using several different forum IDs) who chooses to engage in cut-throat tactics to disparage me. That's the entirety of my self-promotion; so just out of curiosity (and fairness), what would be a single example of my ever having initiated any kind of "cut-throat tactics" against anybody in my ~2,300 posts on this forum in 14 years? "Cut-throat" means cutting someone else's throat, not protecting your own throat against the knives of others, which is all that I've ever done. The way that I've always approached competition against all of my legitimate competitors is actually the exact opposite of "cut-throat" tactics. I've always defended them against untrue and/or unfair attacks, just as Meo did, on my behalf, above.


What would be a single example of my "professional promotional tactics" with which you disagree? (This is exactly the kind of thing to which, I believe, Meo was referring.) In fact, I'd ask you for a single actual example of any of the "promotional tactics" to which you've referred, because if you can't do that, I believe you owe me an apologize for the way you phrased that post.


Exactly what would be a single example of something that the mods allow me to do that you think "sucks" and/or that someone might want to ask the mods to change out of "fairness in competition"? (This, in particular, doesn't sound like you're defending me, either.)

I advertise on this forum in ways that are equally available to any other writer or company and I haven't broken a single forum rule of any kind in roughly 12 years, when (admittedly) I used to contact prospective clients via the messaging system, just as all of the other totally legitimate writers here also used to do on a regular basis, before paid advertising opportunities became available. The paid advertising here, of which I happen to choose to avail myself, is an option that's equally and fairly available to anybody who wants to purchase it, isn't it?

To the Mods: This post is simply a direct response to several very specific comments about me in Post #18; therefore, it is no more and no less on or off the thread topic than the post to which I'm responding directly. So, either both of these posts are "off-topic" or neither of them is. Thank you.

I will not apologize just because Meo and you have chosen to take my words out of context. Not when that post response was not meant for you. It was written in a manner that I hoped the other side would understand since they are averse to you.

As for evidence, each time you push your skills without actual student agreement to your and now Meo's claims, I quietly disagree with you. I believe that claims of excellence and skill should be supported by actuaI testimonies by the said students. something you do not wish your clients to provide for some reason since you had a positive testimonial of your service deleted recently. You remember the post. It was not that long ago.

I was made to understand that as a premium user, you are allowed to push the envelope when it comes to promotions and dealing with other forum members. Evidence of which can be seen in your post above as you are now instructing / dictating upon the mods regarding how you wish to have them treat this discussion.

Premium user does not translate into owner of the forum. Do not get confused by how for you can go with your paid priveleges. You may be allowed to get away with more things than the free users but there will come a time when you will hit the limit, even as a premium user. Trust me, you do not want to realize the day that happens.

I understand that and I do appreciate your intentions; but nobody is "choosing" to take your words out of context; the way you phrased that post doesn't sound supportive at all, even if you genuinely meant it to be supportive.


First, here again, I think you're being very careless with your words, even if unintentionally, because I believe this is the thread to which you're referring, and it's still right where it was originally posted, right? https://essayscam.org/forum/es/experience-nycfreelancewriter-6683/ Second, I have absolutely no way to have any post or thread deleted; and third, what reason could I (or any writer here) possibly have for trying to have a positive testimonial like that deleted? So, after first having to defend myself against one very vindictive competitor who falsely accused me of having authored that positive review, myself (which isn't true) and, incidentally, also accused me of being you, (which is, very obviously and verifiably untrue, at least to you); now, I also have to defend myself against your careless erroneous announcement that I "had a positive testimonial of [my] service deleted recently."


I'm hardly "instructing" or "dictating" anything. After 14 years here, I'm simply very accustomed to their habits and tendencies; and if I waited until after they sent my post to Off-Topic and complained by email that I was only responding directly to you, it would be too late to change anything. So, I was simply pointing out, in advance, that your post and mine are equally either ON or OFF the topic of the thread, and that there's no justification for treating them any differently.


Actually, you're the only one here who has repeatedly referred to "premium users" and you're the only one who has repeatedly announced that paid advertisers have posting "privileges" here that other members don't have, not me. I'm unaware of any such privileges, which is precisely why I've never solicited any of my clients to post their reviews of my services here. If that is allowed, I should definitely start doing that. To my knowledge, the only benefits of my paying to advertise would be that: (1) I'm listed where all advertisers are listed, (2) I'm not required to post as often to maintain my signature, and (3) I'm allowed to respond to inquiries through the messaging system. That's it. Otherwise, I believe that every rule that applies to everyone else here applies to me, equally; and I have followed every rule of this forum, without a single exception, for well over a decade.

You must always have the last word and will never accept opposing opinions. The only thing clear is that it is impossible to have a normal interaction with you. so I will simply stop doing that. Do not interact with me and I will consider you non-existent in this forum as well. Consider yourself ignored going forward. May the time come when you learn to eat humble pie.

I don't know what provoked that kind of animosity, because I haven't insulted you or said anything personal about you, at all; and I thanked you (least twice) in this thread for your stated intention of supporting me. I strongly disagree with what you said about me and I simply explained, strictly in objective terms, exactly why.


It has nothing to do with "having the last word." You erroneously announced that I "had a positive testimonial of [my] service deleted recently" when that thread is actually still right where it's always been; and you also announced your conclusion that I must have done that because it's "something [that I] do not wish [my] clients to provide for some reason." Obviously, I'm going to respond to that by pointing out that it's totally incorrect and by providing the link to that thread, which is exactly what I did. What should I have done, instead? Leave that erroneous statement and false accusation out there without any response? For the record, none of that relates to anybody's "opinions," either; it's about simply responding factually to your false accusation with a link that proves it was totally inaccurate.


To me, a "normal interaction" between two people who disagree about something consists of addressing each other's points, directly, with objective counterarguments and/or statements of fact and proof, and without resorting to any nasty personalizing of the issues or insults, or with pejorative comments about each other's character or motives. Frankly, if I had erroneously accused you (or anybody) of having done something that you proved you didn't do, I'd immediately apologize for that mistake, not lash out in anger just because you pointed out my error. That, also, strikes me as a very "normal" approach to a conversation.