When you write an article, you are asserting that you have a great deal of experience, authority, and credibility about the subject matter. I think that’s a pretty unassailable statement. When you write an article about writing an article and your article has a number of punctuation and grammar mistakes in it, you lose your credibility. I mean—splat! But! When you write and publish an article about how to hire someone else to write an article, make sure you don’t have a bunch of mistakes in your writing: nothing will make you look like an idiot faster!
Here are a few choice sentences from this little gem!
1) Now, well let’s explore some options.
“Now, well” makes no sense.
2) The average per-word writers generally charge in a range more like 4c-8c a word, depending on the difficulty of the piece or what level of expertise it requires.
What does this mean? “Generally charge in a range more like…” makes no sense. Also, when displaying a range, use a dash, not a hyphen. And, why would someone abbreviate the word “cents”?
3) So, how do you know you’re getting a fair price on your website content? Well, a lot of it simply depends on what you want out of the bargain. Creating content that atracts visitors isn’t a easy job, if it was everyone would be creating content and there would be no need for content marketplaces.
Here’s a sentence with three—three!—mistakes in it! Let’s ignore the shaky first two sentences and look at the third sentence of this paragraph:
Creating content that atracts visitors isn’t a easy job, if it was everyone would be creating content and there would be no need for content marketplaces.
a) It’s attracts, not atracts.
b) It’s an easy job, not a easy job.
c) This is a great example of a comma splice. I’d suggest splitting the sentence in two: Creating content that attracts visitors isn’t an easy job. If it was, everyone would be creating content and there would be no need for content marketplaces.
4) You can often negotiate deals with quality writers, even if at this point prices may approach magazine rates, in the $80-$100+ range for 600-800 word articles.
Again, when you want to illustrate a range, use a dash. When you want to illustrate hard-and-fast, unchangeable numbers, like a Social Security number or a telephone number, use a hyphen.
The other problem with this sentence is that the writer has included an aside, what’s called “parenthetical” information, when he talks about the price range. Parenthetical information that’s inside a sentence (as opposed to the end) is information that can be completely removed from the sentence and the sentence still makes sense, and must be enclosed by a pair of commas, dashes, or parentheses, depending on its importance. Since this writer is trying (and failing) to establish himself as an “insider,” I’d go with parentheses. The sentence would be correct, though not great, if it looked like this:
You can often negotiate deals with quality writers, even if at this point prices may approach magazine rates (in the $80-$100+ range) for 600-800 word articles.
What you can’t do is what he did, and just use one comma.
Okay, so this person suggested Zerys and Textbroker as sources for content. Let’s take a quick look at these two sources. As it happens, problematic content was easy to find on both sites.
Textbroker.
1) This document goes over step by step how improving the flow of the document can make it significantly more readable – – without even changing the content.
This is a double hyphen. Two hyphens do not a dash make!
2) Our exclusive lessons, exercises and cheat sheets are based in the most common errors our editors see at each level so that all authors can learn what they need to do to advance and start earning more money.
Um, do you mean “based on”?
3) As a member of a young team working in a friendly work environment and, you will be able to present your ideas and make an impact within the company.
Ooops! Somebody forgot to take out that first “and.”
4) We take into account a number of factors, including, among others, the length of the text, amount of research necessary, HTML tagging, and keyword requirements.
Wow. What’s “among others” (and the pair of commas) doing there?
5) a) Additional content services available (e.g. photo integration)
b) Start-to-finish project management that includes finding and managing authors, creating author instructions, proofreading, and all other content-related tasks (i.e. image research or administrating your blog)
See, these are two of the many remarkable, amazing, hang-on-to-your-hat benefits of the “managed” service, which starts at $2500. Well, here’s the deal: “e.g.” and “i.e.” are always followed by a comma. I mean, gee, there are no exceptions.
Also, and finally, Textbrokers, listen up: it’s eBay, not ebay.
A quick look around Zerys revealed similar mistakes:
1) No need to purchase bid credits-get unlimited access to writing jobs
That’s a hyphen and you need a dash.
This is from its “Be a Better Writer Blog”:
2) They can, in fact, do just that- -if you know how to make them compelling.
Zerys follows the Textbroker school of thought that two hyphens equal a dash. Sloppy!
3) Following most inbound strategies, a prospective lead will take an interest in a bit of information you put on the web, and then follow a trail to learn more. When they reach the landing page for your white paper, they have to take a second and choose to enter their information in exchange for that white paper, and that is not a small decision to make.
Question: What does “they” in the second sentence refer to? If you said “a prospective lead,” congratulations. However, you can’t gender neutral a singular noun by using a plural pronoun. This is wrong. (The text could have started with “prospective leads,” but it didn’t.)
4) A hastily-produced white paper will waste your time and cost you valuable leads.
Huge mistake. Never hyphenate an —ly adverb.
Stick a fork in me. I don’t need to read any more.
Bottom line: Here we had a professional content writer who can’t write recommending two writing companies that can’t write, or, at the very least, had some sloppy content that was obvious after a very cursory reading.
Do I want to write a bunch of content on demand? Nope. But what I do want is all these people who are running around calling themselves “thought leaders” to do their jobs better. To take their writing more seriously. To take a “deep dive” into the English language and do a better job. To be professional.
That’s not too much to ask.