Archive for the "Skills" category

In this series, I’ve been trying to encourage providers of writing services to try editing. In this post I hope to illustrate the process with an example. Over the transom. I still hear the ‘plonk’. Even though it’s a virtual manuscript hitting my in-box, I hear the sound of a ream of paper falling solidly [...]

If you are still nervous about taking on editing/proofing jobs (and you haven’t yet taken the oDesk test) here’s a resource for you: www.newsu.org. You can find free courses there- both general writing and one called “Cleaning Your Copy” which runs through the material found on the oDesk test. There is also a practice quiz [...]

I was writing a post about the oDesk community when I saw something that made me realize there was something more important I needed to focus on first: Money. I bet that got your attention; it gets mine. We’ve talked about rates before, but what I want to discuss today is setting them.  One of [...]

In my first post, I talked about why you should consider editing and the general skills needed. This post is about what you are likely to see. Native speakers Native speakers of English are prone to different problems than foreign speakers. Here’s an example of something I edited that had already been purchased for an [...]

The Need I’ve noticed a trend on oDesk and other contract writing sites. The trend is to hire as cheaply as possible and then either the buyer edits the material into something usable or hires someone else to do it. (And when they get someone else to take a second look, you can bet the [...]

In a previous post, Becoming Invisible I mentioned some errors that shock readers out of the spell you are casting with your fine writing. I’ve accumulated more for my list and here they are. Gaffs to avoid These are mistakes I have collected from writing I have read or edited (and some I’ve made myself). [...]

oDesk is a great place to get started as a freelance writer. I know- it’s where I got started. What could be better than earning money while you develop your skills? Unfortunately, there’s a flock of novice wannabes jumping in who can’t write well at all. They think commercial writing is a home business venture [...]

Lately we seem to have been blogging mostly about general freelancing, and today I want to get back to something directly related to oDesk. One thing I like about oDesk is the test system.  They’re freely available to all, and provide a common ground to measure providers against each other.  However, the question that always [...]

As a writer, I’m interested in the written word. How it connects my mind to yours and how that process goes awry. I’d like to point out something that happens to me quite often on the Internet. I’m reading along, and like an electric shock, some error or other jumps off the page and jolts [...]

What is it? It’s really two bills right now, one in the US House and one in the Senate. You can read the bills here: Senate House Although titled differently by each legislative body, I’ll just collectively refer to the OWA (orphan works act). Each covers essentially the same ground; they modify existing copyright law [...]