Working as a contract writer - penalties, terms and conditions, etc?

Hi there,

I have obtained a MSc in Cognitive & Clinical Neuroscience (Distinction) and have been unable to find work. A friend suggested putting my skills to use and writing for an essay company.

However, I am very skeptical as I have read that writers get scammed through "penalties" or worse, the companies don't actually pay them for some reason or other. I emailed UK Essays and some other companies for their contracts but they ignored me. I do not really want to apply and provide my details without knowing what I am getting into.

Has anyone got any advice on working for these companies? Does anyone work for a reputable essay company whom may provide their writers terms and conditions or contract terms?

It makes me more concerned that they wouldn't just provide it themselves, after all, I am meant to be a freelance contractor.

Many thanks,

D.P

There are countless scam companies from almost every country of the world. These companies are dubious with regards to their operations and dealing with their writers. However, there sure are a few reputable companies that treat their writers as their asset. There is a good of information available on this forum about both the kinds. I'd suggest you sift through a few threads to get to what I am saying. I am sure if you're a good writer you'll soon find yourself at work. However, make sure you don't land into some scam company.

Use the word of mouth....there are reliale offices and bastards...never give your personal detail such as ID or whatever to anyone...thats BS. i dont work with UK offices coz i realised that there are many scums...

Based on the spelling inaccuracies and sentence structure problems that exist in your post, I find it extremely difficult to believe that you have an MSc.

Then again, who am I to question the state of international education at this point.

You need to pass through the screening system of any company that you hope to work with. Sure it is just a formality and these scammers will let anybody in just so they have someone filling the writer's chair, but you have to pretend to play the game just the same.

As for the TOS and penalties, you can easily read about those in their writer website You won't find any reference to penalties and pro writer terms and conditions because the companies hedge their bets against the writer.

They will find one way or another to implement the penalties so they can get you work on papers practically for free. If you think you have what it takes to try and kickstart your business as an independent writer, then I suggest you do so.

Based on the way you wrote this post though, I would not put too much confidence in you developing an academic writing career.

Just as with any other company, there are penalties involved when a writer has a work violation. In a regular company, the violations are coming in late, leaving early, taking leave without reason, or intermittent work attendance. For an academic writer, these penalties come in the form of a missed deadline or late submission, refusing to work on a paper after having accepted the paper assignment, being unable to submit a paper and ignoring the calls of client associates to clarify the paper status, or not fulfilling a work quota for a certain writer status. A special penalty is also applied for below quality papers If one is not amenable to such penalties and fines, then one should not be working for an essay writing company, or even consider working for one. I believe the OP falls under this criteria and should not even have considered working in this field. He doesn't have the stomach for it.

Read through terms and conditions prior to signing with any writing company. Just like work and employment contracts in regular desk jobs, it is imperative that you are fully aware of what comes with the work that you are planning to enter. Of course, this shouldn't even be a discussion as it is quite common sense (at least from my point of view).

Furthermore, I do not think that penalties are necessarily bad. However, you have to be cautious of the extent of these penalties. As an academic writer, I have worked with companies that I believe had unfair penalties. For instance, I remember that I had a paper marked as poor quality. They decided to not pay me at all for the work that I have provided. Because this was a ten-page paper, I was infuriated to say the least. When I asked for a detailed feedback on the essay I had written, they simply did not give any reason. I left that company a few days after, realizing that there has to be something better waiting for me.

Not even two weeks after, I passed a screening test for another company. I have now been working with them for a year. They have never done such a thing to me. When editors gave me feedback on my writing, they were detailed as to what I needed to improve on. They explained things thoroughly. Never had they ever taken 100% of my pay from a single project. The most penalty I had gotten was a few dollars from something that I knew was my mistake. I definitely believe that these are the type of companies that writers should be looking for.

Remember that you are still a freelancer for them, that you deserve to be treated humanely. Working for 12 hours straight on a single project only to have the pay stripped from you is definitely a red flag that writers should be cautious of. Penalties are alright for as long as they are not aimed towards taking advantage of new writers.

If I had ever been "fined" by an essay company, that would have been my last project for that company.

Having such high academic training, why would you want to risk working for a company? The unfair working conditions truly exist and have never improved ever since. Rather than trying to affiliate yourself with a company, just use social networking to set yourself up as a freelance writer instead. Sure you may still get revision requests once in a while, but you won't penalize yourself for those little correction requests or minor reformatting right? A writing company will. A truly gifted writer who enjoys doing research and learning beyond what he has actually been trained to do in school would enjoy being self-employed more than working for someone who is only out to hire free labor whenever possible.