It takes a lot to be a Competent Writer

@FreelanceWriter
I disagree.

This is precisely why it matters to many ENL customers. If they're going to be submitting your writing -- which we all know is how many customers choose to use the projects that they purchase -- the last thing they want is writing that's obviously ESL, because that can be a disaster for them if their instructors know that they're not ESL students. Your English is excellent, actually; but as you acknowledge, yourself, it's definitely still recognizable as ESL, which is why I'd always make sure that they know that, in advance. In fact, that's more important when your English is so good that clients might not realize it just from your email communications.


It matters because clients might not realize that you're ESL just from your preliminary communications with them; and it's not as much about falsely "claiming" to be ENL as it is about simply disclosing that you're ESL, honestly. If an ESL writer is confident in his English writing, he should just disclose that he's high-level ESL and let clients make a fully-informed decision, especially if he knows that his English is good enough that clients might not realize he's ESL until they figure it out from reading their projects.

Incidentally, this is exactly how I've always responded to UK clients asking for UK writers: I immediately disclose that I'm neither located nor educated in the UK, but that I'm confident about writing their project to UK standards and in UK English. Sometimes they decide to use me and other times they don't; but I always let them make that decision. Some ENL clients might still decide to use a high-level ESL writer and others might not; so if I were an ESL writer whose English is good enough that prospective clients might not realize that I'm ESL, I'd always disclose that up front, just to avoid any misunderstandings, whether or not they ask me about it, specifically. Plenty of ENL students might still choose to use you, just as approximately 50% of my clients are UK students, every single one of whom knows that I'm both located and educated in the US.

@FreelanceWriter
"but that I'm confident about writing their project to UK standards and in UK English." Self praise is no praise.

"Sometimes they decide to use me and other times they don't." The discerning ones will prefer a UK educated writer or some will go with a cheap writer but will soon realise that you get what you pay for. Generally speaking USA writers charge less than UK writers.

"just as approximately 50% of my clients are UK students". Is this across all of your vast array of subject areas in which you profess to be an expert.

Actually, I only repeated your observation. Which was done when you thought I was a competitor in the field to try and discredit me in the eyes of potential clients. I am confident enough in my English skills, both spoken and written. I have recieved validation not from mere academic writers, but from far more valid authorities on the language. I do not have a need for client validation or validation from any perceived / so-called "peers". I rank far higher than most of you when it comes to the English language.


I would also be honest with my clients all the time too, if I were an academic writer.


This is an amazing count. It would place you among the top UK academic writers. How you can pull this off without a UK based education is questionable. While I know academic writers are capable of learning on the job, I believe it would be far more difficult to gain an expertise, regardless of the amount of time one has been a writer, and exposed to a writing style when dealing with an academic style that one did not receive formal training in through the formal schooling process.


if I am right, there are certain educational levels one must pass through a formal national test / assessment every so often in the UK right? making it highly difficult to progress with ones learning in the formal academic setting. The tests are meant to assess the learning and writing abilities of the student right? Do you think FLW could pass the tests based on exposure to client writing alone? I think it would have something to do with his writing proficiency in the UK style? I believe that, based upon what you have been sharing here for the information of all concerned about UK writing, the UK academic writer competency should be based on how well he performs in his A and O levels as well, not just what he learned theoretically within the classroom setting or through client writing exposure in a form of education vastly different from his own. UK students are heavy on the writing side of learning. Making their papers difficult to complete because of the age old rigid writing requirements of the academic institutions. Even the royals are documented to have difficulty in passing these tests.

Just asking what I consider to be a valid question. No personal attacks implied.

@noted
I'm afraid I am sceptical about his 50% claim. Doesn't ring true in my eyes and as others have said on this forum, self promotion is his speciality.

With all due respect I don't think you know the first thing about how the UK education system operates. If such a system as you outline existed in the UK I doubt FLW would make the grade. I am not talking O and A level standard here but rather degree and postgraduate level. UK educational institutions have years of history and tradition and as you say they don't deviate from the way they do things. This helps maintain the high education standards for which the UK is renowned..

Reputable UK essay companies such as ukessays and Ivory Research (both registered overseas to comply with the legislation) stress that writers must have a degree in the subject(s) they want to write about. Some companies require that the degree is a minimum standard of 2 (1). Naturally apart from the qualification, writers need the ability to write in a way which satisfies the education establishment's requirements. Generally speaking a graduate with a 2(1) degree will have the ability to write in the correct format or they would not have been awarded the degree in the first place. But not every graduate wants to be an academic writer. Those who fail to meet the standard required will be dismissed by the essay company.

Reputable UK essay companies and some freelance writers are transparent with their charges, setting out the cost per 1,000 words which varies according to the grade required. They do not state £? per page which may vary between 285 and 300 words as this would be seen as amateurish.

So you will understand why I would always recommend that students studying at a UK education establishment use a writer who has been educated at a UK education establishment and gained an appropriate qualification there.

Thank you for the respect. Yes, I will openly admit that I do not know the first thing about the UK educational system. I only hear about that information as it relates to the royals. As you may have guessed by now, I am a royal buff. So anything I learn about the UK, I learn about through my interest in them.

I am more familiar with the US system as you pointed out in a different post. That is the precise reason why I asked you to clarify my understanding of the way the system operates. Thank you for sharing the information and shining a light on considerable writer hiring points.


I actually based my observation of his claim on this precise reasoning. Since FLW is actually US and not UK educated. The systems being as different as night and day. I do not see or understand how one would be able to reconcile the difference.


For the benefit of those who claim to be UK writing company attached or otherwise, could you explain what this standard means? I often see something similar at UK writing websites but never really got a clear idea of how this ratio has a relationship with the grading system. It is alright if you do not wish to share that information.


I agree. Academic writing is, in my opinion, a dead end career that most graduates should use only as a stop gap until they find regular employment in their field of speciality. In the meantime, they can turn their academic knowledge into a money source. It should not be the only career goal for a professional.


It is actually becoming tremendously clearer to me now. I actually observe, read, learn, and adjust my insights / opinions as I become more enlightened about the discussion. Thank you for being patient with me about this.


It would truly be more beneficial to the student since he will not have to turn teacher and educate the writer about how to accomplish the task. It lessens the possibility of revisions or instruction misunderstanding.

Not to say that FLW is not capable of accomplishing these papers based on experience. However, I would still consider the difference in educational foundation a considerable compotent when hiring a writer for UK based academic institutions. If the writer can pull it off, without a UK based education, then the student should consider himself lucky.


Well, he does admit it. Based on my recollection, he actually mentioned something in reference to this in one of his previous posts. Being a paying member of this forum, he is allowed to self promote. He is getting his monies worth out of the monthly fee. It would be best to ignore his self promotion and focus on discussions regarding general writer qualifications instead.

As an aside, I would just like to say that personally, I prefer to interact with anyone at this forum who proves to have interesting posts and responses. I do not choose who I interact with. I do choose to participate based on the posters responses and topics posted. The more infomative the topic, the more I tend to interact with that poster and no, I am not a paying member of this forum.

I have never tried to "discredit" you. On a few occasions where you commented on ESL vs. native English speakers and writers, I simply pointed out that even very proficient ESL writers who speak English fluently still make characteristic mistakes that are unique to ESL writing and that make even very good ESL writing recognizable as ESL, especially to educators. Nothing in my post in this thread (or in any post in which I referenced your proficiency in English) was meant as an insult to you; in fact, I actually complimented your English skills in this thread, partly because (I believe) it was the first time that you ever acknowledged that you're an ESL speaker.


I don't really know how one would calculate that; however, I suppose that would explain why someone who is, apparently, a UK (law) writer who has little respect for American writers, in general, said that he had already heard of my reputation way back in 2011 and respected me based on what he'd heard about me in England:


https://essayscam.org/forum/wc/best-writer-2947/

However, allow me to rephrase something: I write approximately 350-400 projects every year and approximately one-third of my clients are in the UK. Since you seem skeptical, I'll attach a file here displaying a typical month of earnings for me from one of my payment processors, broken down by country. It shows exactly how many UK and US clients ordered projects from me. Perhaps more importantly, it also shows that 75% of those clients were repeat clients who were obviously very happy with my work. (Because the system prompts that the file is too large to attach here, I've uploaded it to DropBox, where it can be viewed through this link):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mx5jnc791qxbag2/30%20Days%20Customers.docx?dl=0

These are the sorts of information that you should be sharing upfront, immediately, when you come across detractors such as @a1writer. The length of time you have had this recognition from a UK based peer and his understanding of when you actually started the job, and why you can do it well, can easily be supported by these types of explanations. I am not trying to fan the flames of discord here. I am just thinking out loud about how you could have easily informed him about what makes you qualified and that he should be looking up your international reputation as a UK writer before judging you.

I will set out the graduate grades for you.
First-Class Honours (First or 1st) (70% and above)
Upper Second-Class Honours (2:1, 2. i) (60-70%)
Lower Second-Class Honours (2:2, 2. ii) (50-60%)
Third-Class Honours (Third or 3rd) (40-50%)

quote "This is an amazing count" (50% claim by FLW).
Off-topic or trolling=ban

I believe that order details of any sort, should not be shared in public. Not without the consent of the individual and more so when it identifies the location of a (nameless or otherwise) client. The postings here that he links to are different. Those are a matter of public record, being previously published with the consent of the OP. His personal client files, I am not sure if he did the right thing by publishing it without consent. It isn't like the IRS or FBI used a court order to ask for his records to be produced. I wonder if, based on his actions, he actually studied law, graduated from law school, and worked for the government as he repeatedly claims. I may have the wrong understanding of the data privacy laws so I would be much interested in his clarification of his actions as it pertains to the international laws. Specifically the UK data privacy laws.

You sure do. Two consecutive characters in the middle of a very long email address that consists of approximately 15 characters (not even including the server/domain) is not considered "private information" under any privacy laws, anywhere, especially when neither of those characters is part of anybody's first or last name. No privacy law anywhere regulates the publication of anything that cannot possibly be used to identify a specific individual. The only thing that the screen shot of my heavily-redacted (sent) emails shows is that all of those emails were sent from me to the same person's email address and that all of them had files attached and subject fields that identified them as having been related to UK Law projects. It also demonstrates that the UK Law student was happy enough with my work to use me for many subsequent projects for several years; and that when he needed an unrelated application years later, he came right back to me, because of his positive experience using me when he was a UK Law student.


I wasn't "forced" to do anything. I (do still) believe that "approximately 50%" of my clients are in the UK. When you expressed shock at this, I simply took a quick look at my tax documents to see whether I had anything from my payment processors that might show the geographical breakdown of my clients. Unfortunately, PayPal no longer displays or provides any of those types of graphic merchant reports, at all; so I couldn't generate anything (now) documenting any client geographic breakdowns. The last annual earnings report that I downloaded and saved for tax purposes just happened (also) to display the graphic geographic breakdown of the most recent 30-days for the prior month (December) below the annual earnings report portion that I intended to generate at that time. Unfortunately, the graphic portion below the numerical earnings report section defaulted to 1 prior month. Had I checked the box for the entire year, it would have displayed the exact geographic breakdown of all of my clients for the year; but the only thing I needed when I downloaded that file was the numerical display of my annual earnings. So, I simply provided the only documentation that I have showing that at LEAST one-third of my clients from that month were from the UK and that 75% of those clients were repeat clients who were obviously happy with my work. My inability to provide proof to you of how many of my clients were from the UK for an entire year doesn't mean that "approximately 50%" of my clients aren't from the UK, as you're trying to imply. It simply means that I don't have the records necessary to establish exactly how many of my clients are from the UK readily available to me.


I am not a practicing lawyer; I'm a writer by profession who happens to have a law degree. Nobody needs to practice law or to have a law degree to know that 2 random consecutive characters in the middle of a very long email address is not something covered by any "privacy laws" because it can't be used to identify any person. That's just Logic 101, not law.


The only "file" that I uploaded here was a screen shot of my sent emails with approximately 13 of approximately 15 characters of the recipient totally blacked out, leaving only 2 random consecutive characters, very deliberately chosen from the middle of the email address so that there was no possible way that anybody could ever associate those 2 characters with any complete email address, much less with any specific person, anywhere.


You don't need to "wonder," at least not if you trust the company that runs this forum. They know my full name, because I pay them to advertise here; and all that anybody needs to do to confirm that I was a Writer/Editor (GS-1082) for the US Federal Government is simply Google my name + "OIG" to display some of my old agency reports still posted on the agency's public website. As far as my law degree goes, if the forum administrators would like to play the role of neutral arbitrator, I can provide them with the information necessary to confirm my law degree. Obviously, if I just post a scan of my law degree and Alumni Association card with my own last name blacked out, my detractors will just accuse me of having downloaded some generic documents belonging to someone else whose first name is Charles (or of having fabricated them, altogether); but if the forum Admin would like to agree to publicly confirm that I've supplied them with un-redacted documents and other means by which they were able to confirm my degree, definitively, once and for all, and entirely independently, I'll be more than happy to do so.