SpikeTheLobsterThe Word Philes 1
February 13th 2009 19:20
The Word Philes
Today I'm starting what will hopefully be a regular weekly post on Wordophilia: The Word Philes. Each week, I'll keep my eyes open for a particularly remarkable piece of writing and will review it here. It could be something terrible, interesting or wonderful: the entry will either be a bit of random promotion for some great work or a critique of mistakes to be avoided. In the latter case, the writer will, of course, remain anonymous!
To kick things off, I thought I'd start with a job application I noticed on a site I frequent. The job calls for fluent English writers to produce high-quality content. Samples were to be pasted into private messages sent to the publisher.
Id love to provide regular ongoing article writing services, but cannot do more than 5 a day, 7 days a week. If that might work out, please consider. We are USA St Louis, MO We write and speak excellent English language. {...} Min ten {articles} at a time.. payment with Pay Pal upfront. I have the best article writer in the world. All will be high quality, proper english and pass copyscape.. guaranteed. Dont waste money on poorly written articles. It will not help your Google or PR ranking. We know what SEO is all about. Some Samples: {eHow link removed} My name is {name removed} aka {username removed} eHow only accepts original copyscape cleared articles.
As job applications go, this one is awful. The first sentence alone is enough to convince the publisher not to look any further. A missing apostrophe in the first word is followed by a negative statement of how much work the individual can produce: he would have been better off saying something like "and can do five a day, seven days a week".
Following this with a sudden change to the plural "we" confuses whether the individual is the writer or is the representative of a team - or, for that matter, if he is applying on behalf of the entire population of St. Louis. "We are USA St Louis, MO," he writes. Some kind of hive mind, perhaps?
Presumably meant to be reassuring, the statement that the individual has "the best article writer in the world" does the opposite. Not only is it a ludicrously inaccurate claim (assuming he is not the agent for all the Pulitzer winners still alive, among others), but the use of the singular "writer" makes me - a cynic - wonder just how bad all the other authors he represents are.
Finally, he goes off into a bit of marketing talk, insulting the publisher with a presumed ignorance of SEO, then provides a URL to online articles rather than pasting copies of his (or their) work into a private message as was specifically requested.
So what can we, budding freelancers that we are, learn from this? Here's four things, off the top of my head:
1. Keep it short. The publisher asked for private messages with samples, so most of the marketing talk and background information could be included in there instead of in the limited-length field for the application text.
2. Check spelling, grammar and punctuation. Two different capitalisations of "English", missed capitalisation of "Copyscape", "Pay Pal" as two words, missing apostrophes and several other errors could easily have been avoided.
3. Don't make inaccurate statements and presumptions.
4. Follow instructions: if the publisher wants articles pasted in a message, paste them. If they want them by email, send them.
Publishers will reasonably assume that the finished work will only be as good as the application. By making sure the initial contact is direct, polite, concise and in correct English, writers dramatically increase their chances of employment.
| 73 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
Comment by Waysouth
Romantic Writer
Given To Gaming
Waysouth
Spanish Honduras
Comment by Wilson Pon
Health 2 Know
Adventure Toes
Techno Stuffs
boxing sound
Business Rope
Comment by Spike 2
Wordophilia
Qwerk
Peanut Butter
Wilson: That's very true, especially considering how many applications they get. Imagine having to read all that text a hundred times.. aargh!
Comment by Lilla
From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop
Hahahahaha.
Most enjoyable post, look forward to a weekly check in.
Lilla ..
Comment by Spike 2
Wordophilia
Qwerk
Peanut Butter