Dipping my toe in a career as an essay writer...

Forgive my first post being a new thread and a question.

I'm considering doing essay writing and I'm wondering what kind of stuff I should watch out for in prospective...

I guess I should call them agents/agencies?

Also can anyone recommend an agency?

I'm UK based and I suspect that I'd be more successful writing from a UK perspective.

I don't think I could really fake being an American teenager.

I look forward to your responses!

Thanks for this very informative forum!

I don't want to discourage you, but as an educated American who has been scammed 3 times now by unqualified garbage, "doing" essay writing sounds scary on a few different levels.

Primarily, if you are considering you will want to use correct verbs. "Doing" and "stuff" makes me cringe.

Secondary, it's pretty important that you are a decent writer! It's not something you just jump into because can make awesome money. You have to have a particular skill set or you WILL be called out.

Just saying.

Oh dear.

I had gathered that this was a bit of a shark tank, but seriously, should one not use suitable language depending on context?

I was not here touting for business, simply asking for information on a forum. For these reasons I used an informal tone. Whilst it is tempting to pull your post apart for clarity issues in petty retaliation, I'll not bother. I did however notice that you buy your own essays which kinda (sorry, I mean kind of) says it all.

Just sayin'.

Some qualification! And some serious education!

In any case, OP, as you may have gathered after having a look around the site, there is 1. a search button 2. a "recommended services" list and (perhaps ironically) 3. a rule against posting recommendations.

As for what to watch out for, steer clear of companies that fine without rewarding, and otherwise just make sure you're getting paid. And if you're just getting started somewhere, don't rack up 100 pages of work during the first pay period-- make sure they come through first.

hey,

u should check some freelancing websites like freelancer, odesk..... i'm sure u will find some clients over ther....
few months back tried expert assignment help services, and they were looking for some really good writers check with them.

Cheers!!
Lucy

@ editor75, yeah, I did check out the two recommended companies. I've heard back from graduatewriter from my initial enquiry and sent in a couple of essays from my masters and awaiting to hear back. Not heard back from custom dissertation yet. I've also been accepted on unemployed profs, but no gigs yet.

I was really after some decent UK based companies, though. I'm sure UK students use US sites, but I figured there'd be more UK work on a UK site.

@Lucy, thanks for the recommendation about odesk. I'd not heard of them before. I'll give 'em a go.

Yes, that's exactly my point.

I am not generalizing but being in this industry has taught me one thing: You never know who's who. To say that a company is really originally from the UK, i.e. if it is registered there, has a physical address there, and, MOST importantly, if it really operates being in the UK, can be a very big thing.

It is a general observation that most every company in this business has freelance writers hired from around the globe. I cannot mention the names here, but, (as is common knowledge here on this forum), the top-notch players in this industry (based in the US at least), have EXPLICITLY mentioned on their websites that they hire 'qualified' writers from around the globe.

The point is, as has been admitted by almost all the members of this forum over a long period of time, the qualified writers is what matters.

So may be your initial niche is to land a legit company regardless of its physical location. Trust me all the students from the US and the UK (as from elsewhere) do not really know if a company they're placing an order with is REALLY from the UK/US/Aus. Most end up.... (Hope my ellipses is meaningful enough).

I've been doing the company thing for a while now and have begun to venture out into the freelance world. I still don't get why nearly everybody in the business goes to such great lengths to remain anonymous? I get why companies and scammers do it, but what about those that seem to be doing legitimate business transactions?

I don't think legit writers need to remain anonymous or they even do so (at least the ones I am in contact with). My clients know me very well.

mycaseyface: "Yes, that's exactly my point."
I get why you need other people to write your papers. Comprehension is not your strong point.

@Meo: True about identity on the web. But mostly the concern is about creating an authentic voice for the client. That said I have just done my second paying gig writing a high school essay for a self confessed pothead. I tried to channel Jessie off BB. It is also why I think a lot of the sniping about ESL writers is stupid. I think most lecturers can get a feel for a student's 'voice'. If I had a student whose first language was not English handing in essays obviously written by a native speaker, I'd be really suspicious. Given the huge numbers of foreign students in English speaking universities, if one wanted a ghost-written essay, I'd have thought it makes sense to get one from another non-native speaker. As long as the content is good and the english is grammatically correct etc, the student won't be penalised for having a foreign 'voice'.

@firewriter: My specific academic field is really small so everybody knows everybody, nationally and internationally. If I got caught ghost writing essays, any chance of an academic career would be finished. There have been enough exposes in the press to want to minimise the risk as much as possible and hiding my identity helps with that. I haven't even told my family because they know some of my academic colleagues and it might slip out.

As a side note, sorry about not quoting... seems my browser won't play ball.

"Aye, there's the rub!"

Thanks, that make sense.

Man, don't pick a fight with me. If you're going to proclaim you're a writer, and looking for an agency, then your basic grammar skills should be on point, don't you think? I was trying to help - don't shoot the messenger.

Where are your examples of Flukes' grammatical mistakes and/or errors? As far as I can tell, all s/he did was get a little colloquial on an internet message board, which is totally acceptable. Message boards and emails aren't usually the place one uses formal language, unless one is making some kind of point, or has, as I have, set themselves up in a glass house as an authority.

Speaking of glass houses,


= completely grammatically correct sentence, while


= grammatically awful, lazy trash

I'll leave it to you to puzzle out why. Further, Flukes is right-- it's no wonder you're reduced to paying people to do your homework for you. It's also no wonder you got scammed-- again and again, apparently. You're a fool. Take it easy on the excuses, and try not to be too proud of yourself, okay?

Academic writers should be able to fake any age. You cannot be an academic writer if you cannot make yourself sound youthful when required, and aged when necessary. An academic writer thrives on being able to change his writing style at the drop of a hat. That is why the clients hire you. The writer must be able to speak in the tone that the client requires. If you cannot change your writing style to suit a certain age requirement, then I do not see you building a client base and lasting long in this business.

Based upon the way that the OP wrote, the simplicity of his English sentences, the shallow point of view about the writing job that he hoped to enter into, the way that he was limiting his age range coverage, I think it would be safe to say that if he was actually studying in the UK, he was originally educated in a different country. I do not dare say 3rd world as that would be the automatic assumption of anyone reading his text and I do not want to be judgemental about his origins. All I know is that based upon his written output in this thread, there is no way he could be an effective English academic writer, regardless of his origins.

On one hand, it's not technically incorrect to ask "Hey, are you still doing essay writing?" in informal conversation; on the other hand, a good writer probably wouldn't ever use "doing essay writing" in that way, even informally, IMO. While that's more of a stylistic thing than an outright mistake, "in prospective" is completely wrong (in this context) and would only be grammatically correct in a sentence such as "One thing employers like to see in prospective employees is good writing, which includes good word selection." The word he was looking for is "perspective," which would still be incorrect, but for a reason much too boring to bother explaining adequately. It's still probably not a word choice that many good writers would make, again, IMO, even if you tweaked it to resolve the syntax/semantics/logic problem(s) by changing "stuff" to "issues" or "considerations," totally irrespective of whether it's supposed to be formal or informal writing. Most good writers would probably use "respectively" instead of "in perspective"; but that still presents the same problem(s) unless you also change "stuff" to a countable noun from a collective noun.



Here's another way that "prospective" would be entirely grammatically correct: "It's probably not a great idea to start insulting your prospective clients."


So much for the need to argue about whether or not that company really hires only "professors."

It takes time.

The first 10,000 papers are the hardest. Yes, you heard that right. Ten. Thousand. Papers. It's like climbing Mount Everest, except instead of snow, you're knee-deep in Oxford commas and clients who think "ASAP" is a reasonable deadline for a 300-page novel (this happened to me twice).

I started this work back in the late '90s, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and dial-up internet screeched like a banshee with a stubbed toe. I thought, "Hey, I'll just offer my services for half of what agencies charge!" Turns out I was about right. Little did I know, though, that half of nothing is still nothing, but with more desperation and instant ramen.

But fear not, my caffeine-addicted comrades! Perseverance pays off in the long run. So keep at it. Remember, every time you think about giving up, there's a client out there waiting to ask you to make their life a little easier by writing something for them or helping them make their paper "pop" or "jazz it up a bit." Writing is fun, and words have power. Use it responsibly, and don't get any on you.

My first paid project was also in the (early) 90s; the company faxed me the project details and I delivered it by hand and got paid in cash at the 24-hour gym on West 17th Street where I was training at the time.

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I am not sure if I can trust your insight regarding the topic since you mixed up essay writing and book writing in your post. That does not speak well of you as a writer. You cannot even tell the difference between the 2 markets and yet you dared to give advice about writing? Oh boy! Wow!