Introduction
Academic writing involves writing about any form of discipline or course in academics. The academic writing final deliverable could be an assessment report, research, or presentation.
Requirements to be an academic writer
It is needless to say that to be an academic writer, one has to have a good understanding of the discipline they desire to write about; it could be an area or course in management, science, or art. To master the skill of academic writing, it is usually better if one is a degree holder in the particular field they want to write about, or it must be closely related to their discipline.
Skills necessary for academic writing
✓ Research
Desktop and library research: desktop research involves searching on the internet for information that will be useful in writing the research or assessment. This requires the writer being attentive and knowing the right keywords to use in searching for content and materials needed to develop the report or research write-up. Library research is needed because these jobs require getting information from textbooks that are peculiar to the subject that is being written about, and not all textbooks are available digitally, which requires a writer to go to the library and search for such textbooks to extract the information they need for the job.
✓ Microsoft Office usage
A writer must be adept at using Microsoft Office packages, especially Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, because most assessments would be submitted in MS Word or PowerPoint documents. These can be learnt online for those that are just starting their writing journey.
✓ Time-Management
Academic writing jobs are often time-bound because students are instructed to submit their assessment or assignment before a given date, after which submission would not be accepted. This means that a writer must be time-conscious and always ensure they get submission deadlines from their clients, which will help determine the urgency with which they attend to each job. It is advised that a writer set up a task management calendar where each job and date of submission would be registered, and a reminder would be set so that the writer doesn't lose track of time.
✓ Citation
This involves the ability to appropriately credit external sources, ideas, and data in a write-up. This prevents a writer from plagiarism, and that is something disliked in the academic circle. Academic writing jobs requires that sources from which information were gotten are cited to ensure the credibility of the academic write-up. It is very important that the writer knows the different types of citation styles and, make sure they cite their sources according to the style instructed by the tutor in a particular assignment. Citation styles and how to create them are available for people to learn online.
✓ Communication
Academic writing is formal in nature, and it requires a writer to know how to present their argument in a write-up to ensure that the tutor awards a high score for the assessment. Communication skills can be mastered by going through similar assessment write-ups to understand how to present information and make arguments that meet the requirements of the tutor. One thing about communication is the more a writer does these writing jobs they become better at communicating their points.
Tools and Resources needed for academic writing
✓ Laptop or Desktop Jobs are often submitted in digital formats like PDF, Word files, PowerPoint files, etc. This means the job would be created on a computer. A writer must have access to a laptop or desktop to do the job.
✓ Internet The internet is needed to search for materials online. It is a requirement for carrying out desktop research. It also helps to get information from a company's website when they are being used as a case study.
✓ Google Scholar, Grammarly and Duplicheker An academic writer needs Google Scholar to access a large pool of research work, articles and materials to extract information for their write ups. Grammarly helps to check the correctness of the write-up to ensure it meets the required standards, this is highly needed for writers who are not native English speakers. Finally, Duplicheker is a website used for checking that a write-up has not been plagiarized because an academic write-up requires a plagiarism level below ten percent. Duplicheker helps to check to ensure the work meets the minimum requirements. All these websites are available for free though a writer can opt to pay for premium levels to get advance features which makes their work better.
Getting academic writing gigs
Whilst there are freelancing sites such as Upwork, fiver and the like that can be used to get jobs. I particularly used a different approach because I realised platforms like Upwork and Fiver can be quite competitive, which made me decide to get jobs from people I know who are working and studying for their undergraduate degree or postgraduate degrees that needs help with their assignments. The good thing about this is that when you get jobs via this route, they are easily going to recommend you to their friends and colleagues who need such services, which means more jobs for you and more money. Another way to get clients is by going to X (formerly twitter) search pages, search for the term "academic writing jobs" or "writing jobs" and you can find those who need your services. It is good to add in your X profile that you're an academic writer and attach links to your job, and people might send a DM requesting your services.
Pricing writing gigs
Usually, people charge per word because academic writing often gets word count targets. Some assignments could require a maximum of 1000, 3000, or 4000 words depending on the tutor's instructions. In my case, I charge between $50 to $80 per job. And in cases where the job is a research project, which oftentimes requires a large amount of word count, it's either I charge per word, or I negotiate with the owner to agree to a certain price for the job.
Conclusion
Finally, to become a freelance academic writer requires a good knowledge of the subject one has chosen to write about to ensure one delivers a good job to clients. In my case, I write mostly business-related jobs because I majored in business administration as an undergraduate which gives me advantage in writing jobs that are related to business management. In addition, a writer should also ensure they don't deliver plagiarised jobs to their clients to earn their trust, this helps to keep getting more jobs. Following this short manual would help a new academic writer in their writing journey. wish you all the best.
I've put a link of samples of two jobs I've done in the past below. one is an assessment in word document and the other is a PowerPoint presentation slides. check it out to see what academic writing looks like;
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