3 Unethical Freelance Writing Assignments to Avoid
Unethical freelance writing assignments require some sort of ambiguity, deception or dishonesty on the part of the writer. These assignments conflict with your morals and demand that you put your values to the side to get the work done.
Instead of employing well respected traditional methods to complete writing assignments, unethical writing gigs cross the line and ask you to pretend to be something you’re not or to fabricate information.
The following three types of freelance writing assignments ask you to blur the lines between fact and fiction and therefore are not worthy of your precious time.
1. Product Review Writing
A smile spreads across your face as you read a job post seeking freelancers to write product reviews for beauty products. You’re a good writer, an amateur makeup artist and you’re in Sephora or the beauty aisle at Target at least once a week. You’re brimming with confidence that you’ll land the assignment and eager to get all those free tubes of lipstick, lip gloss, and jars of top of the line face cream to sample for your articles. You’re also in for a rude awakening.
While some editors want product reviews written the correct way, others want their writers to cut corners to get the job done. That means asking their writers to write a favorable review that encourages buyers to make a purchase without ever physically touching the product they're writing about.
It means playing down and possibly eliminating negative aspects of the product from the article and it also requires being dishonest about aspects of the product that you can only discern by first had experience.
How can you write an honest review on the latest celebrity perfume to hit store shelves if you’ve never smelled it? Avoid these types of unethical freelance writing assignments like the plague.
2. Comments or Ratings for Products or Services
Beware of job posts that seek comment writers. If the job requires you to write favorable reviews on various websites, specific blog posts or offers to pay you to review books or other products on Amazon don’t walk, run the other way.
Many people look to product ratings and the comments of satisfied and dissatisfied customers to determine whether a product or service is worth their money. Websites like Amazon use customer reviews in conjunction with other data to rank products in their website’s search results. When you are paid to pretend to be a satisfied customer or to give a glowing review of a blog post, article or even a business you're misleading readers and potential customers and giving less than honest individuals an edge in an online marketplace.
3. Article Spinning
You see an ad looking for writers to rewrite or apply minor changes to articles from other websites. Since there’s no interviewing or research involved you’re sure the job will fit right into your schedule and be easy to do.
Making money writing couldn’t get any easier, right?
Not exactly.
No matter how you spin it, article spinning is based on someone else’s hard work – and it’s unethical. Flipping through the pages of a thesaurus and changing the words and tone of an article that’s already live on the internet or running an article through article spinning websites or software is nothing like coming up with your own ideas, conducting your own research and sitting in front of a computer to create something completely authentic.
Although freelance writing can be a great way to build your writing portfolio, make extra money and to enhance your writing skills, it can also be hazardous to your conscience if you select jobs that ask you to put your ethics in your back pocket. Completing unethical freelance writing assignments may make you a few dollars richer for the moment but can diminish the quality of your writing and make you question your values in the long term.
Author: Chanel Polk
