Tips on Storing Work on Cloud

We all know by now that Cloud is not just a fancy name for uploading files to a server. It goes much further and provides a lot of flexibility especially for us, freelance academic writers. I experienced it myself once when my laptop passed away and took all of my work with him. It was disastrous for me so I decided to look for new solutions and I found them.

OneDrive and Google Drive offer 15GB free of charge, with 10GB from Box a little behind and Dropbox in the end, giving away only 2GB. Dropbox, however, can be upgraded to 16GB with special actions such as referrals. A growing stash of photos and videos will soon need more. In this case you may consider OneDrive and Dropbox 10$ per month for 1TB paid plans or 7$/1TB per month for Google Drive. But I would rather store photos and videos on external hard drive cause, you know, I’m not ready to pay for space in the Internet yet.

App of choice depends on which features are important for you, as some of them are able to greatly enhance your work. In Google Drive, for example, you can edit your documents right in the Cloud with built in-office suit and shared access for multiple users.

As far as special features go, OneDrive organizes the files by type and has an auto-upload feature for photos. It comes built-in with Windows 8 and 8.1.

Dropbox is one of two apps that support Blackberry (the other being Box) and the only one that works with Kindle Fire. It comes with auto-upload for photos as well. Box has an endless list of sharing and privacy features, including comments and notifications.

I strongly recommend storing your work on cloud because freelancing supposes that your tasks can catch up you anywhere. You can access your unfinished essay or research paper at your friend’s place, while traveling or visiting your parents. That’s very comfortable and much safer than relying on your laptop. Remember my case; you don’t want to feel that way as I did.

So, stay calm and back up your files.                

P.S. What cloud storage service do you use?

Clear, Specific, Precise and Exact: This Is All about Academic Writing

Academic writing is mostly the language of facts. I say “mostly” because there are various types of papers that sometimes require more than some scientists’ viewpoints and their analyses. But the most vivid peculiarity of academic writing is clarity. Professors and scientists overall do not speak with metaphors and proverbs. They are prone to use specific words and phrases that do not have double meanings. This is the feature number one that you have to take into account when writing academic papers, so, let’s make sure you are specific enough:

1.       Do you use facts?

The points given in the paper must be proven by commonly known facts or solid arguments that belong to respected and renowned people. But your facts must be clearly stated without extra words that can distract the reader from the main point.

2.       Do you include figures?

Statistics has always been a very useful tool that raises the reliability of the whole paper. For instance, instead of saying “over half of the population” you write “630 thousand of people”. You see, the style is changing right in front of your eyes.

3.       Do you avoid filler words?

Words like “so”, “well”, “you know” are unacceptable because you are stating facts, not speaking with your friend. In general, all words that do not bear semantically important information are reduced from the academic text because they avert readers from grabbing the essential viewpoint.

So, next time you are going to deliver an academic paper, ask yourself these 3 questions. If your answer is yes to all of them, then you’ve done a great job. But if there are some doubts, better revise to be sure whether your writing clear, specific, precise and exact. Be a professional freelance academic writer!

Books for Business Academic Writing

Business academic writing has a specific set of types of writing like projects, reports, business plans, etc.  but that’s not all that makes it stand out from the usual academic writing. The style of business papers can be less formal than the one in academic papers and the text can be written from any point of view (while academic writing mostly prefers the third person). Writing business projects or reports, an assignee can add his/her personal opinion. Academic writing, on the contrary, relies mostly on facts. In addition, the length of sentences in business writing tends to be shorter than in academic papers. These are the main differences but, obviously, not all. That’s why you shouldn’t neglect these specifics if you are a freelance academic writer. You must dig up all the details of business writing and to accomplish it successfully I advise you to go through these books that’ll be of great help in mastering your business writing!

•      Academic Writing for International Students of Business by Stephen Bailey

A perfect guide for your development in this direction! It deals with academic writing in the context of business studying specifics and tackles all the aspects of the writing process including the important elements, necessary vocabulary and models. You can buy it on Amazon or partly check it out on Google Books. 

• Writing Guidelines for Business Students by Lisa Emerson
  

A full-scale textbook on business writing that deals with essays, reports, research proposals, note-taking or briefings. You can find there tips on how to organize the paper structure and referencing which is really important and seems to be the most difficult part.  Get this book and start to upgrade your business writing!

• HBR Guide to Better Business Writing (HBR Guide Series) by Bryan A. Garner

This is a book written by a writing expert in business communication. It is not targeted at business academic writing or the types of papers business students usually write at universities. However, it contains interesting advice on general concept of business writing and will help you understand the mood and atmosphere in this field.

If you think that you don’t need these books, don't judge me if I tell you that you are wrong. Even if you know a thing or two about business plans or reports, it never hurts to enrich your knowledge. I hope these great manuals will definitely help you to improve your writing and you’ll ace in it!

My Name’s Lily and I’m in Writer’s Support Group

Of course, there are writers in the world who can shape and develop their talents without any external help. And they are better on their own. Bust most of writers gather knowledge from the surrounding world: books, mentors and writing colleagues.

 There are numerous websites, Facebook pages, LinkedIn groups that share tips and guidelines on how to improve your writing quality and productivity and it seems that these people are real professionals with deep expertise in the field. And it’s really great because there is a mere part of information you can’t find nowadays (God bless the Internet). But what can you do when you happen to look for the answers and don’t come across them after all? That’s right! You ask questions.

From my experience being a member of previously mentioned communities in the web gives writers an advantage to stay relevant and know all the tendencies of the writing world. And it seems that these are the places where you can pose questions and get the answers. But frankly speaking, when I really needed some advice and guidelines, these were not my first aid post. I was shy and couldn’t make myself type a question and, to tell the truth, I was too afraid to appear stupid or incompetent in front of my colleagues. That was silly and I know this now. But back then, I was in search of help and that’s when I discovered special writer’s support groups. I got what I needed and most importantly, I overcame this barrier and started to ask questions without any hesitation.

Now there are many online resources like The Self-Doubting Writers Support Group where you can surf the forum pages and find the information you need (or better to say the confidence you lack) and start your own talk. Another helpful web site is Insecure Writer’s Support Group which offers various information and writing tips together with announcement of different relevant events. Also you can follow Writing Meetups and share your views or seek the answers in live communication.

As you can see there are loads of opportunities you can make use of and there is nothing shameful in the fact that you need help. It’s natural. So, push your fears aside and go for it! Maybe that’s the solution that will change your life.

Have a Writer's Block? Take a Light White Noise Pill

Writers are special people not because they create something beautiful or can draw clear images in your mind with just words. They are special because they need particular conditions to successfully produce their share of writing. They are special because they can’t sit from 9 to 5 in the office, make quarterly reports for the boss and talk about baseball with colleagues. Every writer needs their personal space with their own flexible “decor” that changes very often due to the weather, taste of morning breakfast or mood.

There have been lots of talking about writer’s block and creativity. There are many ways that can improve your productivity and help overcome this barrier that sometimes makes you stuck in one place. However, they are very individual and what greatly boosts one writer’s work can disturb the concentration of the other. But I bet it’s always good to try new things and then share your experience with others.

Well, recently I’ve made a discovery that really surprised me. You know when you need to write something deep and thought-provoking you always search for silence. You think that a quiet place will definitely let you focus on this difficult stuff. But I’ve started to notice that I work better when there is some white noise on the background and I’ve tried to analyze why’s that so.

When you face with something unknown what do you usually do? That’s right. You google it. And that’s what I did. It appears that, in general, noise is considered to be stressful and causes problems with concentration. But there has been one research that has shown the opposite results. It says that light white noise can boost your creativity only if you are a highly original individual because it encourages abstract thinking and, thus, pushes mind to generate ideas. The findings are quite interesting but they lack enough proofs to be claimed as solid statistical data. I also found some people with ADHD who say they are more productive in noisy coffee shops and sometimes they sneak out from quiet offices to work in the environment of people ordering lattes and music playing in the background.

So, quite curious about that, hah? I suppose it never hurts anybody to try something new and I will definitely take a shot and visit cafés or parks to work on my writing projects.

And, will you?

Why Jack London Is My Favorite Writer and What We Can Learn from Him

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it.

(c) Jack London

You know, when you have favorite writers in childhood, growing up makes you re-evaluate the reasons which influenced your taste in reading. Going through the same books again and again doesn’t give you the same feelings as when you were 10 years old and your heart thumped and jumped out of chest while main characters were fighting for their lives. And it’s all the same with me. I can’t find that joy and happiness or fear and anxiety that I felt as a child living through the adventures from the printed pages, except for one writer who still instills those emotions with the only change – the deeper understanding of human nature. The first book by Jack London that I came across was “The White Fang” and, of course, I immediately fell in love with it. I won’t tell you about the excitement from his novels and stories because you all already know it and that’s not the point. As I was getting older I started to take interest not only in books but in authors as well and Jack London wasn’t an exception. So, you can imagine how impressed I was when I found out that he wasn’t born with such a talent. It was earned due to the hard and persistent work. To seek inspiration he hopped the trains, was an oyster pirate and worked like hell on ships. When he pursued the dream to create real fiction, Jack London barely slept and ate (simply because he either forgot or felt twinges of conscience “wasting” time for sleep). He wrote, wrote and wrote essays, short stories, verses, pamphlets and novels. At the same time he educated himself as much as possible to improve and develop.

Jack London made writing his work and his life. He devoted all his time and strength to become a decent writer and it is a good example of a struggle for a dream. This eminent personality and his not easy but noble path show us that talent can be acquired by hard work and patience. We can’t produce a masterpiece without the preceding tries and fails. So, if you want to write but don’t know where to start, look at your favorite writers. I bet they can teach you a lot of things.

How to Get Good Essay Orders

When you are just a beginner and have no particular client base, the easiest way to get orders and money is to find a custom writing service and work there. However, even clients of a custom writing service prefer authors with experience to newbies, and because of that a beginner rarely gets a decent order. You either get to write a difficult assignment for a low price, or a small and insignificant text for a low price. Both ways you don’t get the credit and the payment you deserve.

However, I know several tips that might help you attract a good customer.

First, don’t forget to provide work samples. Yes, I know you haven’t got a single order so far – so what? Just write an essay on any topic you wish. There is no need to make it long – 350-600 words will be enough. The essay sample is necessary, because in most cases this is the only way a customer might find out about your skills and writing style (by looking at your previous work).

Second, at the beginning of your career always put an average price for your services. You should never use dumping as your pricing policy – not because it is unfair, but because it will hurt your interests more than it will hurt your competitors. Customers have a good memory – if they remember that you evaluated your own work cheap, they won’t be much willing to give you more money in future.

Third, try to be relatively creative when offering your services. Make sure there is something in your account, appearance and messages that differs you from other writers – and by “something” I don’t mean the lack of experience. Think of a special detail that will help people remember you. Just don’t get carried away – customers usually get scared off by extremely creative authors. After all, you work in the field of academic writing, not in a clown academy.