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Dreah Writes For a Living: What won't you write?

posted March 20, 2007 - 9:49am
Dreah Writes For a Living: What won't you write?

I just wrote a letter that I really did not want to write. The editor I wrote it to had recently doubled my rate to keep me as a writer, but sometimes the amount you are paid does not justify what they want you to write.

In this instance, I was asked to re-write another companies brochure to go on thier website. I mulled over it a few days, read and re-read the brochure, but my fingers protested. As a writer, I knew I did not want anyone doing the same thing with work I had slaved over. I would not do it to them. If the work could not come out of my own mind, and what I have learned and researched, it could not come at all.

As an artist, I have also been asked to paint murals of popular copywritten characters on the walls of childrens bedrooms. Call me crazy, but I won't do those jobs either.

Have you ever been asked to write something that does not sit riht with your values? Have you considered writing for term paper sites? Have you ever been asked to re-write someone else's work? Where do you draw the line?

dreahwrites's Xombyte

~While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about~

Author: dreahwrites
-A +A


Comments

Last year I bowed out of a "scholarly article" site

karbon - Tue, 2007-20-3 12:57 pm
I did the same last year. I was writing "scholarly articles" with full footnotes and all that. I know exactly how to do that sort of writing due to my educational background. And the pay was not that bad either. But there was a catch -- they were extremely sensitive about the deadlines and the turnaround time for these essays was like 48 hours. Rush jobs. But if you failed to deliver on time, then they brought a heavy fine against you! The problem is, the manager of this site almost never took the trouble to simply acknowledge receipt of my essays. So whole day long I was going nuts wondering whether they actually received it or not since I didn't want to end up paying a heavy fine. When the manager refused to send a simple acknowledgement e-mail each time I sent in an essay, I quit. She thought that was a very "unreasonable demand" believe it or not!? Imagine, I was sending them a well-written essay within 24-48 hours so they could make hundreds of dollars and they thought it was "just too much" to confirm the receipt of assigned work. I never heard such a thing before. I decided to be treated like that was not worth my while, especially given the steep late-fees involved. That was very bad "client service" on their part if you ask me. A very foolish management style.

What won't you write

baconandeggs101 - Tue, 2007-20-3 12:07 pm
Your Xombyte hit home with me, Dreah. I recently bowed out of a term paper site after I realized what it was. I'm more naive than I thought. It never occurred to me as I was going through the extensive application process that the work involved earning people's degrees for them. I had no clue there were such unethical folks out there! Instead, I imagined it to be more along the lines of editing, or helping professors meet their publication requirements. Quitting immediately was a harder decision than I thought because I very much need the money. But every time I logged onto the board and saw what was going on, I just couldn't make myself do it. It was a weird experience. I guess I'm one of those stupid writers who would die from starvation before crossing the ethics line. Ah well, we are what we are, and hopefully something better will come along.

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