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Training a new writer...

by Joseph Then
8 replies
I've found a person whom I wanted to train as my writer. She's a single mom living in Philippines and I thought that I can help her by allowing her to work at home while performing her duty as a mother.

Her English is good as she holds a degree with English majors. So the most basic requirement is there. Now I just need to train her on how she can research & write.

So my question is: Has anyone train writers before? If so, any tips for me to train her?

And, are there any materials out there that I can just take/buy and give it to my writer for training purposes?
#training #writer
  • Profile picture of the author michaelwilding
    What is her standard of writing currently and what level do you want her to get to?

    You need to make sure that she can realistically achieve what you want her to do before starting any training.

    If you are happy to go ahead with everything the easiest way I have found is to use the notes facility in Word, assuming that your outsourcer is knowledgeable with Word.

    This allows me to re-write the article with notes but get them to do the changes and re-submit it to me. By doing this they have to actually read what is wrong and then correct it. Over time you will find the corrections getting less and less.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      What you want is to train her to write for YOU.

      I'd suggest you take the time to find some good online tutorials about content writing, how to research, legal restrictions. Also find good examples of the type of writing you want done.

      Pay her for 4-10 hours (research time) to read and absorb that material. Then give her detailed instructions well organized in writing - of what you want written and assign a small project to her. Be available to answer questions - keep the project small so making adjustments will be easier.

      If she can write decently on her own - you should be able to lead her easily into writing the kind of material you need. Remember to praise and reward her when she gets it right.

      I think you are on the right track. The best way to get great copy is to work with a writer until they understand exactly what YOU want. Once you have that working, outsourcing is easy.

      kay
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      • Profile picture of the author Yogini
        If she hasn't written articles for the internet before, you should explain to her your requirements in terms of the keyword phrase (ie if you want it in title, first sentence, last paragraph etc). Also, sometimes I have had writers put in lots of bullets and also tables within the article so it's good to let he know if you just want it to be straight text without anything fancy. Those are just a few points and the points mentioned above are important for good content.

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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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          Hi Joseph,

          I think this is a really good idea, if her writing skills are (to start with) close enough to your needs for a favourable end result to be "foreseeable". You can end up with the loyalty of a very competent writer, this way, and that's worth making quite some effort to achieve. I wish you well with it (and for 2012 generally).

          I have no idea whether this will be helpful, in this individual case, but this is a pretty good site, all things considered ...

          Webgrammar's free tips: references, grammar, editing, spelling, design, marketing and typography
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      • Profile picture of the author kenmichaels
        Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

        What you want is to train her to write for YOU.

        I'd suggest you take the time to find some good online tutorials about content writing, how to research, legal restrictions. Also find good examples of the type of writing you want done.

        Pay her for 4-10 hours (research time) to read and absorb that material. Then give her detailed instructions well organized in writing - of what you want written and assign a small project to her. Be available to answer questions - keep the project small so making adjustments will be easier.

        If she can write decently on her own - you should be able to lead her easily into writing the kind of material you need. Remember to praise and reward her when she gets it right.

        I think you are on the right track. The best way to get great copy is to work with a writer until they understand exactly what YOU want. Once you have that working, outsourcing is easy.

        kay

        I can hire and train va's to make sales on the phone.
        but i cannot for the life of me get any of them to right decent articles,
        ads, or , well anything.

        Actually i seem to have a problem getting good stuff from so called professionals.

        I think part of the problem, is that i am NOT a righter.
        So i can only look at somethign and go well that sucks, or wow thats good, but i dont have the basics to know WHY its good or bad.

        So maybe i need to get trained myself, before i can properly train my VA's.

        Feel like training me Kay? for a fair price of course ?
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  • Profile picture of the author adammaxum
    If she can write good English, and understands it well, she shouldn't have a hard time taking direction. Article writing, for the most part, is pretty easy to do. It's just time consuming, that's all.

    Have her write some samples for you with a little guidance, see what she gets/doesn't get, and go from there. I recommend speaking/texting with her through Skype since it's fast, and you'll quickly see how good her English really is.

    As far as any resource online, I think you'd be better spending a little time guiding her yourself directly.
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  • Profile picture of the author P.Sharma
    What I would do is make her read and go through a few writing courses on her own first and then maybe a small guide on basic copywriting.

    After that I would see if she produced good articles by asking her to write. If she is good, fine, if not critique her work and train her to my way of writing. I hope it helps.

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  • Profile picture of the author lcp36
    I think that if she has a decent english level (not like me ahah), you just have to prepare her complete tutos, and it should be great...
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