Ah, the ethics debate. The topic that has a point in everything, including freelance writing. Freelance writers do wonder whether what they do is ethical. This is a result of the malicious practice of a few freelance writers.
Their unscrupulous and exhibit behavior that cause a bad reputation for freelance writing. Many ethical issues come up in the freelance writing industry. This is especially in essay writing companies and in the review-writing field.
What’s Wrong With Freelance Writing?
Nothing. A freelance writer works at his own pace. They get to choose from writing for magazines, blogs, newspapers, journals, and more. Freelance writing can thrive without being associated with any system. It takes the shape of whatever companies need in terms of content. There is a growing demand for freelance writers as companies are venturing into the online world and trying to grab more customers.
Types of Freelance Writers
To be a successful freelance writer, you need to have specific skills that the company in question requires to drive its content forward. Many freelance writers deal with marketing, while some deal with content development and still more provide website content. Many writers face ethics and ethical issues. Here we take a look at some things that relate to ethics in freelance writing.
The Non-Disclosure Agreement
This is a binding document that, once you sign, you need to abide by. It is a contract that requires the writer to maintain complete confidentiality. It means not revealing the name of your client and certainly not revealing the content you are producing for the client.
You cannot disclose anything about the client or the project itself. You cannot do this unless the company or the client gives explicit permission for the writer to do so. This means that if you are ghostwriting, for example, then you cannot take credit for any work you have done for a client who has bound you with an NDA. That means the project with NDAs stays off your resume.
Embellishments
In freelance writing, especially, it is difficult to kick off a career. You need the experience to find a freelance assignment and you need to find an assignment to get experience. In short, it’s a terrible thing to wrap your head around. This is what leads so many freelance writers to embellish their experience or their business. Of course, this means the writer stands to lose on their credibility, which doesn’t bode well for future job prospects. Claiming that you have extensive experience in an area in which you don’t is unethical in freelance writing, yet it happens so often. If you are good at what you do, you don’t need to embellish. Let your work do the talking.
Credibility and Integrity
To work ethically as a freelance writer, you need to have more than one source, and you need to have credible sources. It is best to actually do some research on facts and only use information that has been backed up and is easily verifiable. This is part f the code of ethics in journalism, and it should be part of the unspoken code of ethics for freelance writing as well.
It is also unethical to frame personal opinions as though they are facts. You should only present information that you can support with relevant statistics as fact. Should you offer your point of view, it should be made clear to the audience that it is your opinion and not fact. The ethics of credibility extend to clients as well. Some clients request embellishments, which is unethical. Offer alternatives and try to work in a more correct form.
Sharing Intellectual Property
Don’t think that you can use one client for your other client’s work, or use their articles as a source for other projects. This is unethical in freelance writing. Once you write something for your client and they have paid you for it, you have sold that intellectual piece of work, and it no longer belongs to you even though you have created it.
If you enter freelance writing with bad ethics, you are bound to have bad business. Freelance writing is an excellent way of earning an income, and it is a wonderful way to be creative and flexible. Besides you get to enjoy something different in your career. However, allowing the unethical practice to become part fo your work will mean poor prospects for the future. So, be careful not to fall prey to these ethical issues! Besides, make it a point to educate your fellow writers on these ethics too.