@ srandrews,

Thanks a lot for responding. Do you have some pointers as far as sites that would hire me, a non-native, if I could prove my writing abilities? From what I gather, textbrokers and others like it restrict their workforce to the U.S, UK an Canada. I was in the process of applying to demand-studios when I discovered through a review that it has the same restrictions-they probably wouldn't even look at my application or any links and samples that I may send them to prove my skills.

Hi Writers,

My country is a former British colony, so our written English is in fact British English. However, most computers here are configured to use American English and I've had to acquaint myself with the differences in spelling between the two for more than five years now (ever since I started university and had to type my essays). Thankfully, the structure of the language is pretty much the same.

I think the most important thing to note is some differences in spelling. For example, how we typically spell words that end with the letters 'our' like labour, honour, favour would be improper to an American-so I leave out the letter 'u'. In fact, as I write this, those three words have already been red-lined to indicate a spelling error (lol!) I know that Americans would also leave out the 'ue' at the end of 'catalogue' so that it would be 'catalog'. I can't think of other words that vary in spelling between the two, but there are more.

In any case, just remember that the structure of the language does not vary (Thank God!). Otherwise, we'd be forced to study American English from scratch. As it is, we only have to learn the few words or categories of words whose spelling (but not use) varies. The computers are a big help.

I love the Constant-content writers' guidelines because they retrain me to write English properly and to avoid common mistakes that people make in their day-to-day use of the language. I had forgotten some basic rules that I was taught back in primary school. I think they would be great for anyone to use, whether you write using American or British English.

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What exactly is the full email address? I'm very green. I'm not sure how this would work or how I might protect myself, but I want to learn. I need to make an income.

I think that the quality of an academic paper depends on much more than your grasp of the English language, crucial as this is. I'm sure that not all students in American, British, Australian and Canadian schools get excellent grades on their essays, despite an entire lifetime of English usage, both at home and at school. Older, more experienced writers do better than younger writers even when they write on a topic that they did not take in college. Sure, from an English writer's POV, there must be an enormous advantage to being born in a country whose primary language is English. My American nephew speaks tonnes better than most adults I know, and he's only eight.

I would take on academic work just to survive. I find the style of writing and the amount of research that goes into it excruciating. I think my psychological make-up has a lot to do with it. Logical, analytical types would probably fare better at academic writing than artistic types. I prefer copy-writing. My point is that language is just one factor among many that determine the quality of an academic paper. Problem is, if the language is terrible, no one looks at the other stuff.

Is Ukraine English speaking? India is. If the Indian writer is well educated, I would think he could put together a decent paper, seeing as the schools over there use English- I've never been to India, though. I'm just guessing.

I would think that the best way to weed out poor writers is to look at samples of previous work, customer feedback and to require your writers to pass tests before signing them up on writing sites. In addition, the best sites have each paper pass through the sharp eye of an editor before the customer can see it. If the work is not up to standard, it's sent back to the writer for corrections. Some will punish writers whose papers are constantly sent back for such rewrites by giving them a very low grade on a grading system that determines the kind of jobs available to them (Lower paying jobs for the lower-graded writers) or by limiting the number of times a writer can have papers sent back to him/her for rewrites (A 'three strikes and you're out' kinda thing). A writer's grade improves as the positive feedback adds up over time.

Such a system will naturally provide customers with the best writers, regardless of the circumstances in which they learnt the language. But simply categorizing writers based on whether they're native or not will not. All it does is eliminate all the good (and bad) writers from the pool of potential hires.

I meant to say:

''All it does is eliminate all the good (and bad) non-native writers from the pool of potential hires.''

All valid points, Johnsmom.


Poorly run sites-I think this is what these concerns amount to. Yet no site can control reviews that are published beyond its pages, can they? I would hope not. The nature of business is that reputation makes or breaks you and you simply cannot fake it for very long on the internet. The quality of service spreads fast among writers and users of that service on the internet. I've actually discovered (so far) that reviews by users tend to be accurate. I guess I'm saying that sites that claim to have those measures in place when they do not will soon be known to users to be liars and scammers.

Also, gutting non-natives will not protect the customer from bad writers. If those sites are so poorly managed, then it's just as likely that the non-natives will slip through whatever measures are in place (or claimed to be) to lock them out. That criteria will still not protect those customers who use it. This is the internet, after all. If you will not trust any site to do what it promises, then there's no way to know that many of your demands are met in reality. All you can do is judge the quality of paper you have in your hands at the end.