Dealing with Controversial Topics

There are controversial topics in almost every field of academic writing. I’ve always considered political and social topics the most dangerous. Yes, it is more interesting to do a research on something actual and catchy, but you should be careful – after all, you are writing an order for your customer and you don’t want him to get blamed for your work. You should think of something that will get him a desired grade – otherwise, he or she will simply find another author.

So, the first thing you want to do when you start writing an assignment on a controversial topic – ask your client what his tutor wants. Perhaps, he has some steady views on the chosen subject and doesn’t appreciate anyone’s attempts to defend other points of view. Or it could be so that he prefers to be challenged. Be attentive to such details – it would be unwise to write an essay proving that meat is healthy when your client’s tutor is a vegan.

No matter what point of view you defend - don’t make your essay edgy. You could get carried away and hurt someone’s feelings even if you are on the “good side”. The problem about controversial topics (especially political ones) – there are always two (or more) sides, and the defenders of each of them can claim themselves to be right, providing sufficient supportive facts. That’s why you should never get radical. Mention the arguments of the opposite side even if you consider them stupid – unless your task is to prove one point of view by completely destroying the other.

If you chose to be a devil's attorney, for the God’s sake, don’t get personal. Pick the facts carefully and make sure they’re objective. Use more numbers and statistics, refer to trusted resources and keep a cool head.

Controversial topics are something that makes academic writer’s life more exciting. But if you want to be trusted with such orders – accomplish them appropriately. Don’t leave any loopholes for your client’s professor: even if you know how to defend what you wrote, your customer may not be so aware and we don’t want him to be disappointed about your work, do we?

5 Skills You Need to Master to Become an Academic Writer

You cannot become a successful academic writer all of a sudden. And I do not even mean that you need to exercise and develop your writing skills to gain experience that will help you accomplish every order qualitatively.  If you want to get appropriate salary, have your customers’ respect and be a successful academic writer, look through the following list of “must-have” skills and find out whether you possess all of them.

Time Management

This skill is the key to success in any possible career, actually. Talking of the academic writer’s occupation – you might produce pure masterpieces and write like a god, but if you have troubles delivering your orders on time – well, that sucks. For some clients it will be easier to deal with an ordinary author, who simply doesn’t miss the deadline. Don’t take chances. 

High Level of Concentration

A true academic writer should be able to work in any conditions. If you can carry on accomplishing your order without paying attention to a party upstairs or a hurricane outside your house, you will achieve great heights in the field of academic writing. Most freelancers fail to be successful, because they are unable to concentrate on what should be done when facing something distracting.

Quick Reading

Especially when you have to work on a big assignment, like a thesis paper, you will need to look through countless sources. That is when an ability of “quick reading” will be of use. Train yourself by reading scientific and professional literature. In a while you will be able to glance at several first pages of a certain book to realize whether it might be useful for your pre-essay research or not.

Critical Thinking

In order to write academic assignments, you should be able to analyze the information you get in the chosen sources and also to decide, what information should be included in your essay and which points should be omitted. It is also important to learn how to generalize or concretize the facts you read.

Writing

I put the skill of writing at the end of this list, because you will only be able to put it to use if you already know, how to manage your time, concentrate on work, read quickly through big array of information and analyze it. But after you’ve mastered four previous skills, it’s time to learn the professional secrets of academic writing itself.

And that is exactly what I plan to help you with this year.