Last updated on March 28th, 2022 at 07:27 am
Step 1: Create Blank Word Documents
A little obvious right. Think of this step as setting the table before a meal.
The first thing to do before working on an order is to create a blank word document.
I usually create two blank documents for an optimum workflow.
The first is a Draft and the other is a clean draft.
To learn more about my workflow check out our course on the fundamentals of academic writing.
Step 2: Read and understand Instructions
Reading and understanding instructions is the most important part of completing a task.
If you don’t take this step seriously, you will have to rewrite the order (If you are lucky). In the worst-case scenario, the client will cancel the order.
Instruction will generally fall into two categories:
- Instructions on the structure of the paper such as the deadline, spacing formating styple, pages and number of sources.
- Detailed instructions on what the paper should be about.
As a rule of thumb, read the instructions twice.
The first time read everything from top to bottom to get an overall view of what the paper is about.
The second time read carefully underlining the important parts.
A more detailed discussion of the analysis step is in our fundamentals of academic writing course.
Step 3: Research
This is where the paper is written.
Successfully complete the research step and the actual writing in step 5 will be a breeze.
The main tool you will use in the research step is Google
Even if the client wants you to read an entire book,
Ignore the book and use google to find summaries on the book. Write your essay using information from the summaries.
Don’t get carried away by researching. Put a time stop on how long you can do research. a common mistake that beginners make is wanting to research until everything is perfect.
Step 4: Create an Outline
The outlining step is done in parallel with step 2 (Reading Instructions) and step 3 (Research).
To see the creation of an outline live check out our course on the fundamentals of academic writing.
Step 5: Write
If you completed the read instructions, research, and create outline steps successfully, the writing step is going to be a breeze.
You don’t have to start from the introduction. Feel free to start writing from any part of the paper.
Don’t let writer’s block distract you. Ignore the resistance and your feelings and just start writing no matter what.
To learn more about how I deal with writer’s block check out our Fundamentals of Academic Writing course.
What you write in the writing step should follow the five-paragraph essay formula.
Step 6: Create Citations
We need one of the following three tools to create citations:
- Google scholar – the search engine for Journals.
2. Worldcat – An online index for books/ films/ Journals
3. Citation Machine and other similar citation engines.
More on when to use these three different citation tools in our academic writing course.
Using any of the above three tools select citations relevant to the paper you are writing. Add the citations to the references section.
Randomly place intext citations in different paragraphs within the paper.
Only use citations that were published within the past seven years.
If you didn’t fully understand how to complete the citation consider checking out our academic writing course. It has a whole section with four videos explaining how to complete the citation step.
Step 7: Format
After you have worked hard to write your essay it is time to clean it up and present it to the client.
The formatting step is the cleanup step.
The first level is universal formatting. Universal formatting is formatting applied to all essays/ papers irrespective of the specified formatting style.
Universal formatting primarily includes: making the font times new roman and making the font-size 12px.
The second level is style-specific formatting. Style-specific formatting varies from essay to essay depending on the formatting style specified in the instructions.
The different formatting styles include APA, MLA, Harvard, and Chicago formatting styles.
In the academic writing course, we discuss how to format your paper in all of the above formats and on top of that provide free templates.
Step 8: Proofread
The proofreading step is where you rewrite your client’s paper until its quality is acceptable.
Notice I didn’t say until the paper is perfect. It can never be perfect.
The proofreading step has three different sub-steps.
Watch the proofreading step in action by checking out our fundamentals of academic writing course.
Step 9: Upload the paper to the client
Now that your paper is complete it is time to present it to your client. If you followed all the above steps your hard work is about to pay off.
Before you upload your paper, you have to name it.
Come up with a naming system to avoid mixing up papers.
The naming system I use includes an order number and the title of the paper.
565467-Speech Preparation Outline
Go ahead and leave a message to the client informing them that you have successfully uploaded the order to them.
Step 10: Revisions
Every once in a while, the client will want you to make changes to a written essay.
A Revision Request Means the Client largely likes what you have written. He/ She wants you to polish up a few things.
Step 11: Deal with Cancellations
It doesn’t matter how keen you are. Some of your written orders will get canceled.
Whatever the case don’t let it bother you too much.
It is normal to fail in life. It is part of the growth. Learn from the cancelation, dust yourself, and start working on the next order.
Step 12: earn your money
You have worked hard and you deserve to be paid.
For most accounts. Payment is released to your account once the client has approved the order. It will then take either two weeks or a month for the payment to hit your Skrill or Payoneer account.