Tag Archives: freelance

Learn to Speak Spanish

Three Guide Style you can use when proofreading

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Style Guides to Proofread a Spanish essay
A fine guality coffee flickr photo shared by mdid under a Creative Commons ( BY ) license

Writing an essay in Spanish, or in any other language, can be difficult, but sometimes the hardest part is to proofread it. Here you have some sources to do it better.

Proofreading, being the final process of writing, is crucial for effectiveness. Some people confuse the terms editing and proofreading, because they are the last stages of the writing process and they complement each other, but are different.

Editing is done after the first draft, and it involves checking the content in terms of semantical coherence. Proofreading on the other hand, comes after editing and it involves checking the grammatical format of the text, that is syntax, spelling and punctuation. Proofreading isn’t just about reviewing the text though. The document design has to adhere to a certain writing format that incorporates as page numbering, citations, fonts, sizes, headlines, captions, footnotes etc. The most common and thus the most elaborate writing formats are APA, MLA and CMS.

  1. APA style is used by the American Psychological Association and it is the most recent and commonly used editing and proofreading format. It is used for a variety of different fields, with a focus of social sciences. It establishes standards of written communication in terms of content organization, writing style, citation and publication. Its guidelines with an excellent overview can be found on the Purdue Online Writing Lab. Even though APA is considered to be slightly more demanding and detailed than all the previous writing formats, it is more and more implemented into the educational and working environments of today. As the APA Overview and Workshop as well as the APA Formatting and Style Guide are accessible and thoroughly explained online, once you have explored all avenues, you are ready to go with almost no chance of mistaking.
  2. The MLA or Modern Language Association writing format is seen to be one of the simpler ones to follow and has been integrated for a long time. It is commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. As it has been used the most of all writing styles, one has the benefit of researching and adhering to many academic online samples according to the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers and MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. As well as for APA, an extensive overview of MLA can also be found on the Purdue Online Writing Lab.
  3. CMS, or Chicago Manual (of) Style is developed by the Chicago University Press Staff for social science and historical journal publications. It is one of the oldest writing formats, completely searchable and easy to use, primarily focused on American grammar and usage. Having in mind it is fairly one of the earliest, it establishes standards for research and citation methodologies which are simpler and easier to follow than the most recent ones. Still, that opens many disputable discussions over certain rules or its exceptions. The manual to use for CMS is the Chicago Manual of Style and there is a Chicago Manual of Style Online as well.

It is not possible to determine which style of all mentioned is best when proofreading. What is important though, is that if you decide to go with one, you have to stick to it. The best would be to pick one and do extensive research until you feel confident using it, and let that be your writing style always, unless specified different from your employer. After you have burnt the candle at both ends, you are good and ready.

When writing in Spanish language all these guide Styles can be used and actually are also the most common. If you need your Spanish essay proofreaded just contact me.

Work at Home

Games to Help with a Writer’s Stress

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videogames for freelance writers
“Game Chair at flickr photo shared by thomcochrane under a Creative Commons ( BY ) license

Sometimes, even freelance writers need time to cool down. Maybe your brain’s turned to mush after writing for hours, or writer’s block has stricken you. Whatever the case, you should take a few minutes from your session to calm your mind, and what better way to do that than with a few simple games that can stimulate your mind? Let’s look at some of the best.

Word Whomp

This game, hosted by Pogo, has been around for many years, and there’s a reason why. It’s exciting for those whose vocabulary is expansive, or for those who want to build onto their internal dictionary.

The game is simple. You have six letters, each held by a cute gopher. Your goal is to create as many words with those letters as possible. The longer the word, the better your score, and there is usually a word that implements all six of those letters. After the game ends, they do show you what words you’ve missed. Check it out.

Tumble Bees

Another one from Pogo, the goal is similar to Word Whomp in that you spell as many words as possible in the allotted time. This game, however, is a bit different. There’s an area that fills with honeycombs, each with a letter on them. You must spell out words with those letters before the honeycomb fills up. Each successful word fills up a jar of honey on the right of the screen. Fill up the honey to win. If the screen fills with honeycombs, you lose.

Hangman

Most of us have heard of this game, but for those who haven’t, it’s simple. The game provides you with a number of blank spaces which spell out a word, and you must guess which word it is by guessing a letter. If you guess the write letter, the proper space fills with the letter, but if you fail, the game starts drawing a man, which is hanging from a noose. It will gradually fill out the man’s head, body, and limbs, and when he’s complete, you lose.

There are many sites that host this game. Check it out.

Type Racer

If you’re looking to improve your typing speed, look no further. This game pits you up with other people online, and you must type a paragraph provided. Each player has a car, and the faster you successfully type, the further your car goes. Whichever car gets to the end first is the winner. So if you feel like you could type faster, this game is a good training tool.

Grammar Ninja

Looking to spruce up your grammatical skills? This game will help you with that. You’re a ninja in training, and the only way to make it to the top is to identify all parts of a sentence, from the adverbs to the clauses. Even if you’re picky about grammar, this game can provide a challenge for you.

So if you’re needing some time to unwind, these games can give you fun while stimulating your brain.

Do you know any other that is worth saying?

Work at Home

How To Go On Holidays Without Losing Clients

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Freelance: Don't lose client while you are in holidays
Antalya – Miracle Resort flickr photo shared by bortescristian under a Creative Commons ( BY ) license

Most freelance writers would agree with me that get a new client takes an important amount of time and effort. Problem comes when you want to take some free days and you fear that your clients will look for someone else to continue your work. Let’s see how to avoid this situation.

My advice it to inform your client with time. One could think that if you don’t tell them that you are going to take some holidays they won’t look for another worker. Well this is true, but of course when they need a text while you are on holidays they will ask you to write it. And, as soon as the notice you won’t they will start to look for another freelance writer. So, the only thing you are achieving with this behavior is to make your client life more difficult, which doesn’t seem very clever.

On the other hand, if you notify them with time enough to look for an alternative, they will notice that you are a reliable worker that has their interests into consideration.

Now that you have decided to notify them, you can offer an alternative to work more before your holidays to cover they content needs. If they are happy with your work, I am sure they will think that is worth to do an extra effort in planning, in order to let you write their content to be published in your holiday period.

Think that for a client find and hiring a new freelancer has a cost. They don’t know how the new one will perform, they need to invest time giving instructions that someone that is currently working for them already knows, and they need to do the search and selection. All these takes time, so it is likely that plan a little more ahead so you can write their content will be a reasonable effort for them.

However, there re some situations in which something unexpected happen and a client need a text done in a short time whilst you are on holidays. In this situation you can give them the contact of any writer that you know performs well. Yes there is a risk to lose the client, but the risk will be always there and with this behavior you are getting your client gratitude and the other freelance also can suggest your services to their clients when he is about to go on holidays.

 

Writing Content in Spanish

In Copywriting the Size Matters

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Size Matters in Copywriting
SMALL BUT BIG flickr photo shared by whologwhy under a Creative Commons ( BY ) license

Copywriting is the art of writing a text that sells a product or service. It has its own rules and they usually aren’t easy to apply to a copy text in Spanish, because they have been created by English native speakers that work in English.

One of these copywriting rules is keep the text short

Unless you are selling something expensive and with many characteristics that are interesting for the customers, a good copywriter should keep the text as short as possible.

People usually don’t want to read adverts, so minimizing the reading time is a good way to keep readers engaged whilst you tell them what they should know.

So the first rule is whatever you have to say, say it with the smallest number of words possible.

Another copywriting rule is tell the customers as much as possible about the product

Yes, I was just saying that you should keep it short, and now I am saying you need to convey more information.

Actually, this is not a contradiction. You need to keep it as short as possible, but use your words carefully to convey all the information necessary.

The point here is to decide which of your product/service features provides a solution for the customer’s needs. All the positive aspects of the product or service should appear in your text with a short description of each one.

What about copywriting in Spanish

The big problem with Spanish texts is that Spanish requires more words than English to say exactly the same thing. In Spanish if you keep the text too short, the message can be over simplified and that may affect your credibility. So a copywriter in Spanish needs to balance the size of the text. It has to be short, but at the same time it shouldn’t sound childish.

Anyway, what is clear here is that in copywriting, size matters a lot.

 

Writing Content in Spanish

3 Things to Look for When Choosing a Writer for a Spanish Text

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how to do a swot analysis for work at home
Freelance Sound Designer creative commons licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by vancouverfilmschool

We live in a multicultural world; the more languages you know, the more people you can reach. However, trying to write in a language that you do not speak natively can be difficult, and you may even end up conveying a different message than you intend to communicate. Therefore, it is sometimes more beneficial to hire a writer who is a highly proficient speaker of the language in which you want to write. With the numerous choices of writers available online, it can be difficult to know how to choose. These three tips can help guide you in your decision on hiring a writer for a Spanish text.

1) Hire a native speaker
Although it may be a little more expensive to hire a native speaker as opposed to a nonnative speaker, an individual who grew up speaking Spanish is more likely able to communicate effectively in the language than someone who learned it as an adult. When you hire a native speaker, you are less likely to have to worry about grammatical errors. As a result, you may end up saving money because nonnative writing generally needs to be reviewed by an editor to make sure there are not any mistakes.

2) Hire someone with a freelancing experience
Experienced freelancers are more likely to know how to write for different types of audiences and how to utilize keywords to get the maximum number of hits from search engines. Experience can be checked for by communicating with potential contractors and asking to see some of their work. It is not uncommon for clients to ask freelancers for a sample of previous work before completing the hiring process. If you have the time to sift through different applicants, skimming over their samples can help you find a writer who would be a great match for your project.

3) Hire someone who can understand your native language
When dealing with translations or nonnative writing, the tone and meaning of the article can be unintentionally misconstrued. This could be detrimental to your goals because it could turn away prospective readers. Hiring someone who speaks both your language and the target language can be beneficial for avoiding these types of issues. To check if your potential hire is proficient in English, you could ask for his or her scores on common standardized tests, such as the TOEFL or IELTS. If the individual has not completed any of these assessments, you could see if he or she has any sample writings in English or is able to provide documentation of English proficiency in another manner.

Writing across languages is a practice that is only going to become more common as the world progresses. If you ever need to hire someone to write a text for you in Spanish, keep these tips in mind to get the most for your money While taking the time to do your research may seem burdensome at the beginning of the process, it could actually save you time overall by minimizing your need for an editor or another writer to rewrite half of the piece. If you have a serious job to complete, taking these suggestions into consideration will help you reach your overall goal.

Work at Home

Don’t finance your work tools with your credit card

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finance your work tools with loans instead of credit cards
“Debt” by Christian Schnettelker from www.manoftaste.de

Freelancing is a hard but exciting job. And one of the mos stimulating aspects is buying something that will make you more productive.

Sadly, these tools usually are more expensive than what we would like, and it is not easy have the cash to pay for them. If you are in this situation you have two basic options:

  1. Wait and save.
  2. Use a credit to buy the tool.

The point is you can’t go to your clients and say, “this month I will be less productive because I am still saving for that software/computer/too”. So many times you need to buy the tool and skip option 1.

In this situation the easies way to get the cash is to pay with your credit card. However, this is a mistake.

Why shouldn’t you pay your work tools with your credit card?

In a few words: It is expensive!

Credit card interest are too high and you shouldn’t use it to buy something that costs a big mount of money.

One thing is what you want with your personal life, and I won’t enter in that field today. If you prefer to pay with your credit card for your personal things, it is ok. But here and now we are talking about your professional development and the interests are something that decrease your financial productivity.

Work is work and you need to think about it seriously.  This means you can’t just take the easiest way.

Do you need money to buy something related with work? Ask a loan for it.

Loans are cheaper than credits cards, and also allows you to pay them off in several months. The only problem is that you need to go to your bank and negotiate with them. Also, they will check your financial situation in order to approve your loan. Hey! If they think you are not eligible for a loan, better don’t buy that expensive tool because likely you can’t afford it.

Facing new situations will help you develop your personal skills, so go ahead.

Always look for the best option instead of the easiest one.

Work at Home

How to choose an accurate room to set your office

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tips to get hired and work at home
creative commons licensed ( BY-ND ) flickr photo shared by marksaplenty

One very important thing to decide when you are about to start a work at home business  is the room that will be your office.

If you are thinking about not to set any room for working and do it in the kitchen, the lounge or in a place that is free of children when you need to work, let me say this is a big mistake. You need to have a room just for working activity, and everybody living with you should know that this room is a workplace. You don’t need to have the room only for you, but all the people in the room should be working in order to have a nice work environment.

So now that you have decided that you need a room, let me tell you some factors you have to take into consideration.

  1. The room needs a door. Sometimes you will need to close it to, talk with clients by Skype, or to avoid noises.
  2. The room should have natural light. Well if it is possible, choose a room with a nice window. It is very healthy.
  3. Try to choose a quiet room instead of the one that totters each time someone closes the parking door of the building.
  4. You need room to keep your work tools such as documents, tables, hardware. If not, you will lose a lot of time going to other room each time you need a sheet.
  5. Wifi reaches the room. Yeah! check it before you decide any other thing.

 

Work at Home

Do the most important first.

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Avoid procrastination
After creative commons licensed ( BY-SA ) flickr photo shared by maurcs

There are two kinds of procrastination: the obvious one and the “other” one. Have you noticed the not obvious procrastination?

Procrastination is to put off something in order to do it later. Big mistake that everyone has done sometimes in life. We all can easily see when we put off something important that we need to do, but that we don’t like to do and instead of face this activity, we do something that we like more, for example read the news or enter in Facebook.

At least we always KNOW when this happens.

However, when the thing we do, instead of the thing we should do, is also a productive activity, it is not so easy to notice it. We are changing something very useful by something less useful, but useful in the end, so we feel well about it.

This procrastination is a very bad thing for our productivity, because though in the end we will finish doing everything, we will do the imprtant thing, when we are tired because of the work needed for the other things.

My suggestion, do the most important first, so your brain is not tired and you can do your best.

Writing Content in Spanish

Could you change your text?

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Being asked to do changes in the work done is a common freelance problem.

Some freelancers don’t include any revision in the price, so if the client doesn’t like the work done, the client needs to pay more to get the changes he wants.

I believe in offering a high quality work and, if you ask me, within the high quality work is adapting the work to your client tastes. So, in principle I wouldn’t ask more money for reasonable changes.

But there is a limit. Your client has the responsibility to give you clear instructions. Then, after seeing your work it is normal that he suggests minor changes. In the end, he is who better knows his customers.

What is not acceptable is not giving any instruction in the beginning and then ask for changes. You need to decide what is improving your work, then you should it, and what is making you lose time, and you never should lose time.

Most of clients are reasonable people, and it is better to accept son minor changes in order to get them 100% happy. With time you will know them better, and you will need fewer and fewer changes each time.

Work at Home

How to Reduce Distractions When You’re Freelancing

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The great part about freelancing is that you’re your own boss. You can create your own schedule that conforms to your preferred hours. You don’t have to fight tooth and nail to get a day off. Applying for jobs is typically much faster than through ordinary applications. Finally, you always have a variety of tasks to do, meaning that you don’t have to end up doing the same job every single day. Sounds perfect, right? Well, there is one disadvantage.

The disadvantage is that you’re your own boss. In an ordinary workforce, your boss would chew you out if you were slacking on the job. Being late to work may land you in hot water. If you take a day off without going through an arduous process, your boss would give you a reprimand or even fire you. This sounds terrible, but it has a big advantage, in that it’s forcing you to work or suffer dire consequences. With freelancing, you’re home alone and online. You may end up checking Facebook too often instead of writing, or watch a funny video someone sent you. After all, your jobs aren’t due for a while. But being distracted can make the difference between a successful freelancer and one who fails at their job and has to succumb to working at the nine-to-five grind. This is because there is another advantage to freelancing that most jobs don’t have. You are paid more the more you work instead of by the hour for a majority of jobs. If you devote a good few hours to your day freelancing without the World Wide Web tempting you, you can make some decent money. So how do you avoid a terrible freelancing career?

First, create a schedule and stick with it. Make sure the schedule is not lenient. You need to work at your chosen hour at the dot and not stop until you reach a certain time. How long you work will vary from freelancer to freelancer, so choose a schedule that works at your own pace. Make sure to pepper in a few times for a break and don’t overstay your break. Also, devote a time for job applications so you can get more jobs.

Another method would be to disconnect from the Internet or unplug your router altogether until work is done. Unless staying on the Internet is mandatory for your job, just gather the information you need from your project, turn off the Internet, and work offline.

Finally, make sure you set up your own office that is free from clutter and anything that may distract you. For instance, working in your video game room may not be the best idea. While some can work anywhere, be sure to do your freelancing in a place where you’re most comfortable.

Freelancing is a great occupation, but there are a few pitfalls to look out for. Just remember to keep your eyes on your jobs and you can cross those pitfalls with no problem.