Let’s Eat Grandma or the Importance of Commas

If anyone thinks that punctuation is not important in the English language, it’s time to get rid of such misconceptions. There is a popular mem on the Internet that perfectly summarizes my point.

And today, as you may have guessed, I will talk about commas. Commas divide the sentence into separate independent clauses, phrases or words. They are irreplaceable when it comes to long sentences with numerous clauses and different points of view. So, it is important to remember several rules in order to avoid confusion on the reader’s part.

• Commas Are Necessary before Conjunctions

It is necessary to add commas before but, and, so, or, nor, for, yet if the sentence is long and consists of independent clauses.

E.g. Freelance academic writers around the world improve their writing skills by using online courses, but some of them don’t have constant internet connection to upgrade their knowledge all the time.

However, if it is a small sentence with two independent clauses, this rule can be ignored.

E.g. These academic writers are from India and those ones are from Pakistan.

In addition, you don’t have to put comma before a conjunction if it joins subjects or predicates.

Filipino academic writers and American proofreader make a great team that produces high quality content.

• Enumeration Also Needs Commas

When you list some items in your sentence, they surely must be separated by commas (if you end up your enumeration with words or phrases like and so forth, and the like, and so on, etc., they need commas before them). Add a comma before a conjunction that names the last item in your listing.

E.g. Clients usually order essays, research papers, dissertations, case studies, and so on.

• Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Clauses Are Picky

You need to understand the difference between restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses first. Restrictive clauses impact the general meaning of the sentence. It means that if you omit one of them, the sentence will focus on an entirely different thing. As a rule, it is used with the pronoun that and doesn’t require a comma.

E.g. The book that I have bought on the fair appears to be very useful.

Nonrestrictive clauses do not harm the meaning of the sentence if omitted. They are usually used with the pronoun which and require commas.

E.g. This book for international students by Stephen Bailey, which I have bought on the fair, appears to be very useful.

• Other Situations When Commas Are Needed

If you have a long introductory phrase at the beginning of your sentence, clarifying additional comments, place-names, parenthetical elements, repeated words or appositives (a word or phrase that follows a noun and plays an explanatory role), they are all used with commas or paired commas.

It is important to remember about these rules if you want your writing to look proficient. Of course, there are more points and exceptions that demand a more thorough examination, but these are the most essential ones. Use them wisely.

10 Freelance Academic Writing Fears More Frightening than Stephen King

You know that there are numerous phobias with weird names for almost every fear that a person can have: balonephobia (fear of needles and pins), cometophobia (obvious) or bibliophobia (fear of books; a kind of sacrilege, isn’t it?).

I haven’t found anything related to academic writing specifically but the closest disorder to it is atychiphobia or academic phobia – the fear of failure in learning. Well, I can’t say that I’m obsessed with the idea that I must excel at everything I learn, but I have some fears that have appeared as a result of my occupation. Let’s look into them more closely.

1. I won’t make it until deadline.
2. I will accidentally plagiarize something.
3. My statement proofs are not convincing enough.
4. My writing skills haven’t improved.
5. The client won’t like the paper.
6. I have missed a mistake!
7. I am not qualified enough for that assignment.
8. My language has degraded.
9. I have missed an update in citation rules.
10. All my writing has disappeared from my laptop.

I am sure that some freelance academic writers understand me and my fears. It is natural to be nervous when you are about to complete a serious task because some details may not be taken into account. There is always a risk …

On the one hand, I understand that these fears make me more thorough and diligent. On the other hand, they sometimes stop me from using, for instance, innovative data because it seems almost unreal and I think that the client may not accept that.

Confidence play an important role in academic writing and it certainly needs to be developed but at the same time doubting your decisions can sometimes make your work better.  

Editing Techniques for Freelance Academic Writers

As you have seen from my previous post, I started to write a series of articles on after-writing text processing. I strongly believe that writing is only 50% of producing a great piece, the rest is on editing, content editing, copyediting and proofreading. You have to be really attentive with writing because it is much easier to notice someone else’s mistake than yours. So, I’ll try to grasp the details of every stage of this process and I’ll start from editing.

As I’ve mentioned before, editing is the 1^st step you have to take after writing your rough draft. During this stage you check the text for structure mismatches that can spoil the big picture. For instance, you have three paragraphs in your essay but the 1^st one is 300 words and the 2^nd one is two small sentences. Or you see that the sentences are very big and the reader will lose the thread after reading it all. And there can be even minor gaps like full points that should or shouldn’t be at the end of your subheading or something like that.  Of course, it looks inappropriate and that’s what editing is for. But I won’t tell you long lists of 25+ editing techniques that you can find all over the Internet, I’ll just mention three that work best for me:

1)      edit 5 hours after the text has been written;
(after you have just finished the piece, it will seem perfect to you because you’ve worked so hard on it and have had several genius ideas. I don’t want to upset you but it’s surely not perfect and you will see it after some time passes.)

2)      read out loud or use some text-to-speech software;
(while listening to your own words, you’ll perceive them from a different perspective and you may notice not only perfunctory issues but touch upon other text processing stages like content-editing or copyediting.)

3)      change the font of the text.
(if you switch from Times New Roman to Comic Sans, your brain will think that it’s not the same text anymore, that it’s someone else’s. That’s why the possibility that you’ll notice more issues is much higher.)

These are my favorite means of editing and they always work very well. They seem very simple but that shouldn’t worry you: as the 1^st stage in text processing, editing with these strategies will be effective enough for the after-writing text processing. So, my dear colleagues, use these techniques and polish your texts with pleasure!

Stay Away from These Words in Academic Writing

Academic writing is a separate sphere that has its rules and peculiarities. The style is very plain and clear, so, any vagueness must be avoided. There are words that should be dodged if you want to look professional enough for your clients. And that’s what I’m going to talk about.

There is no place in academic writing for words like:

-          I/My

There mustn’t be anything personal in a paper you are writing. Your main goal is not to express your opinion (unless the requirement clearly states it) but to prove some point with solid facts or numbers.

-          Thing

Frankly speaking, it’s my junk word that I sometimes use too much. I always try to keep it in check but when editing, I always delete one or two astray “things”. I even have a small note as you can see. Hope it’ll help.

-          Kind of

It’s one more junk word (fortunately not mine) that appears very often in not really appropriate places. You can replace it with more academic equivalents like “within the parameters of” or “in the category of”.

-          Of course

This word doesn’t show you from the best side. When you are to write a paper, you obviously need to research because you don’t know everything. But the use of this word presupposes that you’ve taken the topic and covered it in 30 min. You and I know that it’s not true. So, avoid it.

-          And so on

Your much better options are to enumerate everything till the end or to use “etc.” This is the word that characterizes informal language but not the academic style that is expected of you.

This list is not full. There are loads of restrictions in terms of academic style but I’m not going to mention them all. These words are highlighted because they are taken from my own experience and mistakes. Of course, I use them: that’s why I have this blog, to blow off the steam so to say. So, dear writers: watch your writing and run your blogs; they really help tame the urge to use junk words.

The Most Confusing Words for Me

Well, my 30 day challenge is finished and I’m back with my freelance academic writing tips. I want to say that my already rooted (don’t know how deeply yet) habit of writing every day is still with me and I’m not going to quit it.

Today’s post is written rather for my sake but I hope that it will help many of you because it’s a common problem for the English language. And it doesn’t matter whether you are a native or non-native speaker.

So, the most confusing words according Lily Wilson:

1.       Proceed vs Precede

I’ve started with the most problematic ones. No matter how many times I look them up in the dictionary, I’ll mix them when writing. So, “to proceed” means “to continue”; to go on while “to precede” is to come or happen before something. Pretty simple … for now, when I see these definitions on the screen.

2.       Discreet vs Discrete

I love English but such kind of words I sometimes want to call “the most awful” not “the most confusing”. “Discreet” stands for modest and “discrete” for “separate” or “clear-cut”. They just don’t stick to these definitions in my head no matter how I train them.

3.       Site vs Sight

Well, these ones are easier. I confuse them rarely but from time to time my hand can flinch and type not the right word. “Sight” implies “a view of something”;  “site” denotes “a place”. But, still, “sightseeing” often makes me give it a second thought because it associates with visiting places.

4.       Alternately vs Alternatively

Sometimes I mix up these words. It seldom happens but the fact that it does makes me feel insecure. “Alternately” means “in turns” while “alternatively” stand for “as another option”. Talking about other confusing words, I remember the difference due to the different pronunciation. But these two sound quite similar and I think that is the reason I have problems with them.

All in all, these are the most bugging words for me when I want to apply them in my writing. I always have some kind of consult-a-dictionary indicator which pops up in my mind every time I see these words.  So, dear friends, when you doubt something, it’s 100% better to check it up than to correct the mistake someone else has pointed at.

Stay cool!

Report #7: Academic Writing and Eddie Murphy

Well, this is my last report. When something good ends people tend to feel sad. But I don’t. I feel happy because to be this way I don’t need a challenge anymore. It showed how it is right to enjoy your job.

So, let’s explore how I spent my last 5 days of 30 day writing challenge!

Day #26: Write about an area in your life that you’d like to improve.

I wrote about self-development because I can never manage to combine everything at once and it irritates me much. That’s why I am trying to prioritize and so far it has been well.

Day #27: Conversely, write about something that’s kicking ass right now.

What can I write about  apart from academic writing?

Day #28: Post 5 things that make you laugh-out-loud.

These things are hilarious!

Day #29: What are the difficult things in academic writing that you want to overcome?

I want to overcome many barriers and difficulties. Despite the fact that academic writing is rocking now my life, it doesn’t mean that I mastered it. I need to learn so much more …

Day #30: Your highs and lows for the month.

The most interesting thing is that I couldn’t make up any lows J

Well, that’s it. 30 day writing challenge has ended but my lifetime writing challenge has only begun.

If you are interested how this 30 day writing challenge influenced my life, wait for the article for EssayLancers. They were very excited to publish an article on their blog about my feelings about such a great think. So, coming soon … 

Report #6: Lessons I’ve Learned the Hard Way and Academic Writing

Day #21: What three lessons do you want new freelance academic writers learn from you?

Well, there are many pitfalls in academic writing and it’s not such an easy occupation as it seems to be. So, three lessons I want newbies to learn from me are:

1.       Never think that you know enough about this or that topic.

2.       Always review the structure and peculiarities of the paper you are going to write.

3.       Don’t think you can’t write something; just start and the work will pour out of you.

Day #22: Put your music on shuffle and post the first 10 songs.

Love these tasks the most because my music is always with me!

1.       Disclosure – Magnets (feat. Lorde)

2.       Brika – Expectations (Artiq Remix)

3.       Lido – Lost feat. Muri (Stwo Remix)

4.       Cosmo's Midnight – Snare (feat. Wild Eyed Boy)

5.       Whilk and Misky – So Good To Me

6.       Calvin Harris – Blame (feat. John Newman)

7.       Ben Howard – I Forget Where We Were (Boehm Remix)

8.       James Morrison feat. Nelly Furtado – Broken Strings

9.       Gareth Emery – Concrete Angel feat. Christina Novelli

10.   Tapecut – drops ( The XX - Together remix )

Day #23: A letter to someone, anyone.

I wrote a letter to my old friend Nat Cleary. We’ve been friends for almost 10 years and I appreciate this friendship much. This is the kind of bonding that lasts a lifetime. We have an agreement. As we meet very rarely because of different circumstances, we send each other books that we have read and that we suppose to be worth reading. It’s very interesting because our tastes in books are not the same. Yet we always have what to talk about.

Day #24: Write about the lesson you’ve learned the hard way.

I think there are many lessons that I’ve learned the hard way but the most vivid in my memory is the one when I understood that I’m too naïve.  That’s what I wrote about . But after reading this it came to me that I haven’t stopped being naïve. Because I like being that way.

Day #25: Think of any academic word that you like and write something inspired by it.

“Significant”. I classify this word as academic as it can be used in various situations and render the exact meaning you need. But it also can be applied to my life because I have too many things that I care about and it inspires me to live.

That was my second to the last report and I hope you enjoyed it. Because I did.

Wait till my last one and you’ll find out what effects such kind of challenges have on writer’s consciousness.

Report #5: Facts about Myself and Academic Writing

I can’t believe that I’ve passed 20 days of my 30 day writing challenge. I officially announce that I’m proud of myself. I thought I would quit it after 10 days. But you know, regular reporting in front of public makes you more responsible. Besides, there wasn’t a day I wanted to stop. Are there life-time writing challenges?

Day #17: Post about your Zodiac sign, and whether or not it fits you.

I’ve posted but I really don’t know. I used to be suspicious about this Horoscope thing but the more I read, the more I find some similar description that fit my personality characteristics. So, I’m really lost here.

Day #18: Write 30 facts about yourself.

I appeared that most of the facts deal with films, books and music. My constant companions in life J

Day #19: List the most difficult things for you in academic writing.

Although I love my job, I can’ say that it is easy. Vice versa, it’s pretty complicated. But when I overcome some difficulties connected with my job, I become even happier than I am. So, it’s worth it.

Day #20: Take any referencing and change it according MLA, APA and Chicago style.

Ugh … Can’t say that it is the most pleasant stage of my challenge, but I need to do this. This is the weak spot I need to beat.

MLA

Sugarman, Joseph. Advertising Secrets of the Written Word. Las Vegas: DelStar, 1998. Print.

APA
Sugarman, J. (1998). Advertising secrets of the written word. Las Vegas: DelStar.

Chicago

Sugarman, Joseph. “Advertising Secrets of the Written Word”. Las Vegas: DelStar (1998).

Done. 10 more days and I'll tell you how 30 day writing challenge makes my life better.

Report #4: Harry Potter and Academic Writing

Here is me and my 4^th report about #30DayWritingChallenge. Can’t believe that I’m half way down the road. I feel good and that’s the most important thing.

Day #11: Something you always think “What if …” about.

I tried to imagine how the things would be going if I wasn’t a writer. I tried to imagine myself being a teacher and it wasn’t bad. Maybe I will even try it in real life J That’s where this challenge leads me to. Amazing, isn’t it?

Day #12: Write about the things you’ve acquired since you started freelance academic writing.

I just can’t stop talking about how freelance academic writing is great, don’t I? But what can I do if it’s really that wonderful? That’s right, I can do nothing. That’s why I just tell everybody about it.

Day #13: What are you excited about?

I wanted to compare my excitement from the childhood and the feeling I experience now. I guess I still feel excited about many things and I’m very happy about it.

Day #14: Post your favorite movies that you never get tired to watch.

There are so many things that I can consider my favorite that it’s very difficult to choose. Am I the only one with such a dilemma?

Day #15: Bullet-point your whole day.

Seems like a normal day when I have organized it on the paper. Have to do it more often J

Day #16: Something that you miss.

I wrote about my efforts not to miss anything. I think that I’m doing pretty well with it because the point is in self-programming. If you make yourself miss, you will miss. The same thing is with happiness.

That’s it. I feel very balanced with this writing challenge. It opens some new possibilities within me and I don’t see any obstacles to use them.

What about you? Do you want to try it?

Report #3: Adele and Academic Writing

So, here I am with the 3^rd report, still eager to tell you what I have been doing and how everything has been going. I don’t want to rush the things but I just can’t miss the chance to say that this challenge is changing me and my attitude to my work. We’ll see what comes next. I’m very excited. Very.

Here is my portion of writing.

Day #6: Five snacks that get you concentrated on the assignment.

Well, I like talking about snacks.

·         Roasted peanuts;

·         Vanilla yogurt;

·         Carrot sticks;

·         Gummy lollies;

·         Banana chips.

Few months ago I would add cookies and candies here, but now I try to brace myself up and avoid these evil snacks and you know why.

Day #7: List 10 songs that you’re loving right now.

       

1.       Adele – Hello

2.       Glass Animals – Love Lockdown

3.       James Brown – This Is a Man’s World

4.       Flyte – Eloise

5.       Pharrell Williams – Freedom

6.       Hozier – Foreigner’s God

7.       Prince George – Upswing

8.       Khai – Do You Go Up

9.       Oh Wonder – Landslide

10.   The Weeknd – I Can’t Feel My Face

Day #8: Share something you struggle with.

I wrote an essay on my fears because I struggle with them every day as any other human being. They are connected with my career and it’s difficult to talk about them. But I feel much better having written it on the paper. Advise you to do the same.

Day #9: Post some motivational quotes that inspire your academic writing.

Day #10: Write about something that really matters to you.

How I spend my life with my family is the thing that matters me a lot. That’s what I have written about.

Next report in 5 days J

To be continued … 

Report #1: How I Start My 30 Day Writing Challenge

Ok, guys. It's November, 1 and I start my #30DayWritingChallenge. It's nice to begin your day with writing as always and I feel fresh and full of will and strength. You know, when you realize that you do such cool things the sun shines brighter, I swear! You have such an elevated feeling that you can do anything and impossible is nothing.

So, getting down to business.

Day #1: List 7 things that you like about freelance academic writing.

Well, that's pretty easy :)

1. I can take up any topic I want to write on.
2. I organize my time and work load myself.
3. I've got the most useful skill ever: researching.
4. I constantly get to know tons of new things.
5. My speech has become more sophisticated and it's improving every day.
6. I have become flexible in terms of different types of writing.
7. Communication with different clients boosts socializing skills a lot.

Here they are: 7 things I like about freelance academic writing. I can certainly name more because this type of work is the best.

My next report is scheduled on November, 5 and it will surely be bigger, so, get ready to read my stories.

To be continued ...

Bored? Here Is a 30 Day Writing Challenge to Get You Stirred Up!

Dear friends!

Probably it’s just fall time that causes some mood swings and occasional unwillingness to work. Lots of my friends tell me every day that they are bored because they don’t have anything interesting happening right now or they feel drained of strength and can’t finish anything they’ve started. Don’t know about you, but I just can’t stand this feeling when you don’t know what is wrong but can’t get yourself to do things. It means that it’s time to take action! And from now on I declare a 30 day writing challenge!

I think that’s a great opportunity to shake up when you don’t feel like doing anything. It has various perks that will boost your productivity:

•              you improve your skills by writing something every day;
•              you send away your fall moodiness;
•              you form a useful habit that you will surely benefit from.

Doesn’t it sound great? I bet it does. So, I will certainly accept this challenge and we’ll see the results after a month. I will do reports every 5 days to show my daily writing (and to control myself a little bit too). My 30 day writing challenge starts on November 1 and ends on November 30, 2015. I am very excited and encourage you to do the same. I’ve heard a lot of writers’ warm feedback on such kind of challenges and want to have some of my own.

So, who’s in with me?

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?