Why Being the Grammar Police Isnt A Good Freelance Writing Quality

Do you find yourself cringing and biting your nails when reading blog posts and articles filled with grammatical mistakes? You might even be in the Grammar Police group and not even know it! The impulse to email the business or blogger about their errors is all too-consuming because not only do these grammar errors leave a sour taste in your mouth, but youre also fed up with all the mistakes you see online from bloggers and even from freelance writers likeME! Ive said many times on my blog that Im not a perfect writer and I dont claim to be perfect with grammar (thats why I use Grammarly and have a proofreader for my client work). And, Im even fortunate enough to have nice bloggers and writers tell me my grammatical mistakes. In the years Ive been writing online, Ive only had less than 3 Grammar Police ridicule my writing skill. I usually get something like this: In the post, I noticed an error. I thought you might like to know so you can get it corrected. In future lessons will focus on the pages *will* should either read as: we will or well. Or, you could eliminate In so the sentence will read: Future lessons will focus on the pages. Hope youre having a great day!Linda H. As I said, Im fortunate that my tribe of writers, mamas and bloggers arent the Grammar Police but constructively critique my writing. And thats a good thing because if youre a freelance writer, being the Grammar Police to clients and prospective clients is not an excellent quality. In fact, its a bad quality to have. Get My Free Course on Getting Paid to Write Online Why Being the Grammar Police is Hazardous to Your Work Writing is personal. You pour your heart and soul into your writing, whether its for your own personal enjoyment or your freelance writing job. You have a connection with your words, and when you hear that your writing is horrible or that you the professional freelance writer should be aware of these grammar errors, it doesnt make you feel good, right? So, imagine this Grammar Police telling strangers they have horrible writing because they have one or few double negatives or typos in their articles? Do you think this person gets freelance writing jobs every day? Lets go over five ways being the Grammar Police makes you less money and lessens your chance at landing freelance writing work. 1. Grammar Police Are Rigid If you live by grammar and all things related to having error-free writing, I can bet you are unwilling to infuse personality into your writing. Your passion for writing is limited by not ending your sentences in a preposition or ensuring you never have a dangling modifier. And, in the end, what do you end up with then? Writing that lacks creativity. Writing that doesnt breathe life. Your writing becomes too rigid and something that clients dont want on their website. A freelance writing client wants an engaging writer that can tell a story with their words. And more importantly, isnt afraid to bend the rules of grammar for the sake of making their writing more conversational. If you find yourself self-editing constantly, consider the result of that when you read your writing. 2. Clients Dont Like Grammar Police Grammar Police are also nit-picky and rudely demonstrate this quality at times. As the person dishing out the grammar advice, you may not see this. You may feel you are doing your part in helping your clients with their copy. Which is ultimately right, but if you nit-pick every little thing on your clients website, do you think youll be their go-to writer? Clients usually collaborate with easy going writers. These are the writers that turn in excellent work all the time, never miss a deadline, never ask for an extension and are easy to reach (and dont nit-pick!). 3. Grammar Police Are Slow Writers My writing process sometimes can take a while to accomplish. Its hard for me not to hit that backspace/delete button as Im typing my clients post. I self-edit all the time, but Im learning to limit this constructive criticism in my brain and just write. But, for many other writers, they cant turn that off in their brains. The Grammar Police thrive in them, and writing becomes excruciating and fixated on one paragraph or solely on the introduction. You can also call this perfectionism 🙂 And, you know how what ends up happening when you write slow? You make less money as a freelance writer. 4. Grammar Police Focus On the Wrong Thing Again, grammar gets the spotlight when you write, rather than the content idea or the actual writing. You become focused on eliminating your grammatical mistakes and typos, rather than seeing if the idea flows from point A to point B. When you make your outline for your article the spotlight, you start to care about what you are writing about, instead of how your writing sounds like or how it comes out across. 5. Grammar Police Come Across As All-Knowing Its unfortunate, but I lump Grammar Police with trolls on the Internet. And many feel the same way and call Grammar Police huge jerks. Of the few that have called me out on my grammar or writing style, the most memorable was when I didnt even write a post, but I did a webinar about freelance writing. One person emailed me after the webinar and told me point blank that she would NEVER buy ANYTHING I created. She thought my webinar was terrible, that my speaking was poor and that there was no way that businesses were paying for my writing. Ouch! I never publicly told this story because it hurt me! Deeply! The next time I did a webinar was two years later! Grammar Police want to come off as all-knowing because they just want to be right. That is not how you do business with potential clients. The Right Way to Acknowledge a Grammar Mistake Look I know that many of you reading this arent Grammar Police, but you want to know how you can tell someone (ahema potential client of yours) that they have a typo or grammatical error. How do you do it kindly? As I mentioned, the bloggers, mamas, and writers in my community are very helpful and very kind when they tell me I have a spelling mistake: But, McKinzie is a blogging friend of mine, so its easy to call-out other friends for a typo. Its different when you want to tell a potential client they have errors all over their website. How do you tell them? In my private Facebook group for Writeto1k course students, Michelle asked: How do you suggest someone hire you as a copy editor without sounding rude? I have seen so many big brands with typos and other errors lately, but I dont know how to contact them and not seem like a jerk by pointing out the mistakes. I asked my dear friend and editor, Lorraine Reguly this question and here is her expert advice: When you contact the company, the very first thing you want to do is compliment them on their content. This will create favorability in their mind, which will hopefully lead to a positive response. Once that has been established, you can then point out their mistakes, using screenshots, and explain that you are concerned about their image as well as their professionalism online. Then you can make your pitch! By pointing out all of the positives, you will gain their trust. All of the positives will outweigh the negatives, so a positive response will be more likely to happen! As you can see, instead of being the Grammar Police, Lorraine suggests that you compliment the company first. As the saying goes, you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. The same is true for business always start with a positive thing to say before you state a negative. Lorraine also makes it a point to say that you should tell prospective clients you are concerned about their brand and image, and professionalism. This changes the mindset of the potential client feeling inferior or embarrassed by the typo, and instead, puts the idea that these mistakes can hurt their brand. This opens the door to your editing and writing service. Dont Be the Grammar Police Am I inviting Grammar Police by writing this post? I hope not! I want to help as many writers as possible tomake money with their writing. If grammar is your sole focus, you may be better off as an editor rather than a writer! But, if you truly love writing, its okay to point out typos, just use constructive criticism because everyone makes mistakes! Over to you have you been called out by the Grammar Police? What was your experience? Remember to pin me! Get My Free Course on Getting Paid to Write Online

Free Essays on College Life

Leaving from home and exploring ones own dreams are a very important part or maturing. Though, the physical separation from home is for some a difficult transition to college life. What are those things one takes for granted while living at home, and attending high school? What changes does one face upon entering college? Just thinking of all the times the alarm clock did not go off, and my mom was there to make sure school was still reached in time. When the alarm clock fails to go off at college, then the first class of the day is simply missed. At home breakfast is made to order: eggs, bacon, pancakes, or even French toast. In college one finds a particular meal that is edible, and must stick with it. A cabinet could be opened at home and a variety of tasty foods are readily available. In college a meal card is swiped though a machine upon entering the cafeteria, and the word â€Å"tasty† rarely enters the mind. My mom was at home to make sure the dishes are put away after the meal by my stepfather and I. They are simply handed over to pairs of hands waiting to clean the dishes at college. Nutrition is a factor at home, and my mom creates meals with that in mind. A new food group sprang to life upon entering a residence hall: Mountain Dew, Doritos, Ben & Jerry’s, Oreos, and t he list could go on and on. Privacy is always available at home; there is somewhere to read, write, listen to music, or to just rest. Dorm life is a harsh reality to college, and the only time the room is empty is on a Thursday night. At home, a bedroom is somewhere to keep all personal belongings; there is a particular space for everything to fit. Space efficiency becomes a survival tactic in college. When at home there is no worry of someone coming into your bedroom unless permission is given to enter. In college a day without at least ten random visitors is considered boring. At home, family was the only people living inside the house. In c... Free Essays on College Life Free Essays on College Life Leaving from home and exploring ones own dreams are a very important part or maturing. Though, the physical separation from home is for some a difficult transition to college life. What are those things one takes for granted while living at home, and attending high school? What changes does one face upon entering college? Just thinking of all the times the alarm clock did not go off, and my mom was there to make sure school was still reached in time. When the alarm clock fails to go off at college, then the first class of the day is simply missed. At home breakfast is made to order: eggs, bacon, pancakes, or even French toast. In college one finds a particular meal that is edible, and must stick with it. A cabinet could be opened at home and a variety of tasty foods are readily available. In college a meal card is swiped though a machine upon entering the cafeteria, and the word â€Å"tasty† rarely enters the mind. My mom was at home to make sure the dishes are put away after the meal by my stepfather and I. They are simply handed over to pairs of hands waiting to clean the dishes at college. Nutrition is a factor at home, and my mom creates meals with that in mind. A new food group sprang to life upon entering a residence hall: Mountain Dew, Doritos, Ben & Jerry’s, Oreos, and t he list could go on and on. Privacy is always available at home; there is somewhere to read, write, listen to music, or to just rest. Dorm life is a harsh reality to college, and the only time the room is empty is on a Thursday night. At home, a bedroom is somewhere to keep all personal belongings; there is a particular space for everything to fit. Space efficiency becomes a survival tactic in college. When at home there is no worry of someone coming into your bedroom unless permission is given to enter. In college a day without at least ten random visitors is considered boring. At home, family was the only people living inside the house. In c... Free Essays on College Life College Life As children grow up, they have to move on. College is one of the stages that you will probably go through. As you come up on these new things, you have to make the right decisions. If you make the wrong choice it could ruin your life. If the wrong choices are made there will be long and short term results. Two of the biggest mistakes a student can make are not going to class and not turning work in on time. One short term effect of not going to class or not turning in your work is that teachers don't really want to work with you. A teacher is not going to feel sorry for a student that does not do anything in their class. Think to yourself, why someone would help you if you never pay any attention to them? Also, you will never really learn anything if you don't go to class. Then the result of a person never holding up to their responsibilities will be the failure to pass any classes. This will eventually lead to you failing out of school. As you move on in life you will recognize the long term effects. One of the biggest results is that you do not get an education. This can be a very big problem if you ever want to get a job. If you go try to get a job without a college education, you will be very disappointed. You will keep going on interviews and never get the call back from the employer. You will end up at some fast food restaurant flipping burgers for the rest of your life. Also, you will never be able to spend very much money due to your budget. You will never be able to go out and buy your wants, and most importantly your needs. Then you have to look at all the money that you have just wastes. Spending a lot of money to put you through school and you just fail out. Knowing that your money is not an item that you just like to throw away, your parents will be very upset with you. Also it may show a lack of responsibility that you can not make it through school. It shows that you do not real... Free Essays on College Life College Life   Ã‚  Ã‚   As students enter college, they each face their own problems. Some may become overwhelmed with the problems caused by attending a higher education establishment and end up dropping out, in order to pursue work, family responsibilities, or something else. As dropout rates increased, Cal State Los Angeles decided that students needed a class to prepare them for the hardships of higher education life. Those special classes, called Introduction to Higher Learning classes were made mandatory in the first two quarters of a student’s first year in the university. The classes used a textbook called Your College Experience. This book contains many valuable lessons for starting freshmen, but the three most important lessons are in Chapter 4 (Time Management: The Foundation of Academic Success), Chapter 17 (Managing Stress), and Chapter 20 (Managing Money)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Time Management is one of the most important, if not the most important keys to success in college. Students who can’t manage their time correctly end up having a lot of problems, both in their school life, and personal life. For most students, college is a balancing act between studying/homework, work, and family responsibilities. Without good time management skills it is often impossible to succeed in all three. Good time management is being able to decide what is the most important, and concentrate on it, without completely forgetting about the other things in life. Your College Experience provides many ideas for students to effectively manage their time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For me personally, certain time management ideas in Chapter 4 proved particularly useful. The Chapter helped me realize how important it is to set priorities, instead of trying to do everything. From my experiences, I learned that when you try to do everything, you end up doing nothing particularly well. The chapter also lists very good ideas as to how to make a daily plan, by setting aside time...