Unhealthy Sources

Today I had quite a disappointing talk with my very good friend Mia, who decided to try herself as a freelance academic writer a few weeks ago. I asked her how many orders she wrote. “Only one. And you know, I’m done with this stupid idea of being an academic writer” – Mia snorted. I wondered if anything went wrong, and she said that her customer made her find new sources and rewrite the whole order. Growing a little bit suspicious, I inquired, which sources she used for her order for the first time.

Wikipedia. Wow. Seriously?! After all this time? I mean, you don’t even have to be a professional academic writer to know that such source isn’t considered to be reliable. 

I feel obliged to sort out the main rules of choosing the trustworthy sources. So:

- Using Wikipedia is strictly prohibited, because the information, located on this source, may be edited by multiple users. Unlike Encyclopedia Britannica, which is a good old-fashioned encyclopedia appropriate for a scientific research.

- You may use the statistics, published on the governmental websites or on the portals of various educational institutions. But please, don’t be ridiculous – don’t take such information from social networks.

- Using facts from newspapers and journals is a good thing, if by saying “newspaper” you mean sources like Wall Street Journal and not some random online newspaper with one anonymous writer and five readers. The same thing works for blog – if you use a source like this, make sure you are referring to the posts of a professor or a person, which is known in the field you are doing research in. You really don’t want to cite a housewife, who mostly writes about cooking and children, when creating an essay on public policy, for example.

How to Train Your Client

Yesterday my dear John made me rewatch both parts of “How to Train Your Dragon”. For the ninth time this month – I keep counting. Though I like the idea and the quality of animation, it starts getting on my nerves. There are too many dragons in my life lately.  Anyways, while I was looking at Red Death in the first part of this animated film, I suddenly recollected one of my clients – and yes, he was just that bad. That thought led me to the natural conclusion: most clients are just like dragons. You want to cooperate with them – you have to train them.

So, how should you train your client…

… if he is too picky?

First rule of clients’ training: train yourself. Look at your own work critically: perhaps, your client is not too picky; your negligence may be the cause of his niggles. If you looked through the whole work and still think that your piece of writing is like customer’s paradise on the Earth, try to find your client’s motives for his pickiness. Perhaps, he is just a perfectionist. It is also possible that he simply doesn’t want to pay you. In the first case – ignore his grunting (but try to write your best and listen to his criticism, if it’s on business). In the second case – apply for help to the administration of your custom writing service, or, if you cooperate with your client personally, just correct everything he asks… and never work with him again.

… if he delays the payment?

When your client provides your salary a week later than he should, it’s not a disaster. Nevertheless, it’s still very unpleasant. Especially in the case if you were counting on this amount of money at a particular time. But don’t worry, there are two ways of solving this problem. Either your client gives you a partial prepayment, or you send him a half of the order before you get your salary and another half after. Both solutions are pretty fair, if you ask me.

… if he is not amenable to training?

Unfortunately, it happens sometimes. That was the case with my client – the one I called Red Death at the beginning of this post. He wanted too much for a very small amount of money, and he kept trying to find a cause, which would allow him to pay me even less. Besides, he was incredibly rude while communicating with me. I would like to give you a piece of advice – if you have to deal with such a client, deal with him only once and then find somebody else. There are many adequate people, who need qualitative essays and who are ready to pay for these essays. So… sometimes you just have to move on.