Guidelines

We ask you to write a short article so that we can see your writing style. The article needs to be in your main area of expertise but can be on anything you like. We ask that you give us a title, description and keywords because, rather than letting your work go to waste, we'll use it on one of our websites to help attract more customers and so, to help get more work for you!

How do you write a good short article? We've put together a quick guide to help you.

Our websites are used by students to help them understand their studies better. Your article therefore needs to be a useful "revision type" guide, crammed with all the key facts, statistics, tips and useful information. By all means, go and look at what the top competing websites are in this area and follow the structure of their content on this topic.

• Articles for the web must be:
• Concise - not padded
• Engaging, just like a book
• Precise - exact - no errors
• Factual and specific - no generalities or own opinions
• 100% original - not one sentence should match another website

Please don"t present the work like an essay. You don"t need to include footnotes. You can of course reference facts and popular academic authorities but not with footnotes - remember, this is going on a website so needs to be presented as such.

Structure

• Break the text into sections - this makes it easier to read
• If applicable, use subheadings - as single general headlines lack focus
• Use bullet points if possible
• Write in short simple sentences and do not group text in to overly large paragraphs.
• Try and write in a pyramid structure if possible. This is not a literal pyramid of text, but instead means starting with the most important points and gradually describing the finer details towards the end of the text (newspapers follow this style too)

Style

• Use short sentences and simple words - avoid technical jargon (unless necessary for the subject) and "corporate speak".
• Make sure your text is easy to read and understand. Long, rarely used words won"t impress.
• Be concise - prune out any unnecessary phrases, sentences or words. If you can make the point without using something, don"t use it.
• Go straight to the point - the first paragraph after the title is very important as this will ensure that you grab the reader"s attention - do not fail to get the point across early!
• Write in a conversational and informal style. This *****doesn"t***** mean "be colloquial" and "use slang". It means that you should write in the same way you would speak to someone.
• Focus on the reader throughout, for example, "Your", "Yours" and "Yourself".
• Never write in the first person (e.g. "I"m going to do this, I"m going to write about that)
• Engage the reader with a question if possible - this will keep their attention. "What if" questions are effective in forcing the reader to imagine a specific situation.
• Be specific, never vague.
• The best way to learn is by example. Therefore, use examples and analogies where you can. Remember, your overall objective is to produce a guide that will help a student fully understand everything they could possibly need to know about the subject.

You"re a researcher - don"t just write what ***you*** know, go and research the key facts, developments, news, figures and statistics in the subject area.

Why do I have to write an article for you?

It may seem a bit unfair that you get to write us a bit of free content. After all, you don't even know we're going to take you on!

Let us reassure you that we carefully consider every applicant. If you've got a degree and good writing skills, we can offer you work from at least one of our sites. Even if you don't have a degree, our clients sometimes order article writing, and as long as they tell us that they don't need someone who is degree-qualified, we can offer this work to you. So what's important to us is your writing skills, and so, that's why we ask you to write something original.

In the long run, the bit of content you write for us will bring us more orders and we'll be able to pass on more work to you.