Have Some Ethics
Well, that’s only a recommendation. If you want to be unethical, I suppose that’s up to you. I have to admit, when the money is low, we change our views on what we will or won’t do. But before I start to wax philosophical, I’ll get to the point. There are a handful of oft-seen freelance writing jobs that may be legitimate ways to earn money, but are a bit sketchy in an ethical sense. Here are two types of freelance writing gigs that may stretch your ethical attitudes.
Writing Academic Papers
This is a personal “favourite” of mine. I see ads all the time looking to hire writers with university degrees to write academic level papers on a mix of subjects, typically the kinds of things you would find in a school curriculum. Basically you are writing papers that will eventually be sold to students who would rather pay to buy a paper than write it themselves. Do you really want to be part of that kind of business?
Re-Writing Articles
This is a newer one that I’ve started to see recently. People take already existing articles and then hire someone to re-write them in order to claim the material as their own. They pay less than they would if hiring someone to write material from scratch, and the work goes quicker since the article is already created. Most who advertise this sort of work make it clear that they are trying to evade plagiarism issues, by warning potential writers that their “re-writing” work must pass Copyscape filters and not be flagged as duplicate content by search engines like Google. As a writer, how do you feel about using someone else’s work?
These are just two examples of shady work that you may want to steer clear of as a freelance writer. Not everyone will agree, figuring that what someone does with your work once you’ve written it isn’t your concern. I suppose that’s one point of view. But it’s not mine.
December 27th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
So, what kind of writing sites should I visit? Don’t get me wrong, Sir, but I used to be part of the scam you just mentioned. And you’re right. Good thing though I never wrote anything for them. I passed their qualifying tests (which are substandard anyway) but I never lift a finger to write for them. I just found out about their unethical activities after seeing their list of orders. I didn’t do anything that’s why they suspended my account, which is good. But, no writing gig for me.
Can you suggest what are the legit sites?
Cheers.