Author Archives: Rebecca Garland

About Rebecca Garland

Rebecca is a full-time everything. She teaches English and reading to her much loved, if challenging, high school students during the day and is a freelance education writer in the evenings. With almost ten years in the classroom and advanced degrees in business and information science, Rebecca specializes in materials that inform, educate and entertain. Rebecca indulges herself by pretending to have spare time and writing about the ups and downs of being a freelancing mama whenever she gets a chance.

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The Rules of the Sneaky Serial Comma

By on May 23rd, 2013

If there was ever a piece of punctuation to give us all fits, it’s the comma. When do you use it? When are you using it too much? Do I need a comma there? Correct comma usage causes endless questions simply because there are so many rules. Let’s worry about one comma in particular – the serial, or Oxford, comma. It’s the most controversial of the lot. So what’s a serial comma? A serial comma is the last comma that typically appears in a list. For example: If I had my way, I’d eat cake, pie, and cookies every day. …

2 Comments

Posted in Grammar & ESL |

From Struggling Writer to Solid Writer and Beyond

By on May 9th, 2013

As an English teacher, I have a strategy that usually works for struggling and reluctant writers. If they claim to not be able to write something, I ask them to tell me the story or response to address the prompt. Then, after they tell me a sentence or two, I repeat it back to a student and tell him to write it down. Kid says, “So, when my parents got divorced I was really upset for a long time.” I say, “Okay. Write down ‘when…my…parents…got…divorced…’” It gives them enough of a boost to put something on the paper, and as …

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Posted in Grammar & ESL |

The Greatest Things About This Freelancing Gig

By on April 25th, 2013

I’m a teacher. I chose to be a teacher, and I continue to teach because I enjoy the challenge and the rewards of the profession. But there are always downsides, and in this season of assessment testing and stress, I was thinking today about my other job. I’m a freelance writer. I chose to start writing and to continue this career in addition to the full-time teaching one about eight years ago. It makes for full days, and there are times when I’m ready to throw in the towel, escape to a beach somewhere and lay still. Okay, we call …

3 Comments

Posted in Freelance Writing Life |

Shifting Schedules (Again): How to Tell When It’s Time

By on April 11th, 2013

As any work-at-home parent knows, your schedule is at the mercy of your family. The exception might be those who have a babysitter or daycare lined up, but for most of us, we have to plug along as best with we can with holidays, changing sleep schedules, summer vacations and the rest of it. Over the almost eight years I’ve been working from home, I’ve had to adjust my schedule a few times. I went from working naps to nights to nights-and-naps to just nights again. I tried mornings and then went back to nights. And that’s where I’ve been …

3 Comments

Posted in Work at Home Parents |

Copywriting for Other Countries and Cultures

By on March 28th, 2013

I received an interesting message the other day about some ideas on writing in other countries. Normally you think of “Western” copywriting – predominately American, Canadian and UK copywriting. English speaking readers are the typical target or niche, but what about readers in other nations in the world? China is poised to become the largest commercial market in the world if it’s not there already (I haven’t read the news yet this morning.) Isn’t it time we consider writing for those and other audiences? But, I Only Write in English! I’ll be honest with you. My ability with second languages is nonexistent. …

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Posted in Business Writing, Freelance Writing Business |

Soft Skills of a Professional Writer

By on March 14th, 2013

I’m not going to split hairs about what makes a professional writer different from a full-time writer or different from a freelance writer or blogger or any other industry distinction. When I talk about being a professional writer, I could care less what you write – I’m referring to how you treat your clients and your business. There are two elements to being a successful writer. The first is that you can deliver what you promise. If you promise a well-written feature article, then you should be able to produce an excellent article. If you promise some short descriptions using …

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Posted in Freelance Writing Business |

Working from Home? You Might as Well Be Your Own Boss!

By on February 28th, 2013

Yahoo recently announced that all of its remote workers must either find their way back into an office or they should quit. Legalities and unemployment eligibility aside, this may very well mark a turning point for those of us who choose to work at home – that is, those of us who are at the whim of an employer. Stable work-from-home jobs aren’t always as stable as you might like to think. Yahoo is a great example, and even the giant upset with companies like Demand Studios and other content mills demonstrate how quickly things can change when you’re working …

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Posted in Working From Home |

3 Cardinal Rules of Working with Kids at Home

By on February 14th, 2013

There is not much easy about our job unless you compare it to something like digging ditches or building a skyscraper. But that at least wears out your body rather than your mind. At the end of a day wrestling obligations to kids and careers, my brain is tired. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels mentally split almost constantly throughout the day. There is no question that working at home with kids underfoot is challenging. But it’s possible…if you follow a few ironclad rules of the trade. Never take on more than you can handle. For most …

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Posted in Work at Home Parents |

What We Can Learn from WAHM Writers

By on January 31st, 2013

We all know that the work-at-home-mom (WAHM) writers aren’t considered the upper echelon of the writing community. If you didn’t know that, you’ve never read about the cost-savings to be had by tricking desperate WAHMs into providing ultra cheap articles in a particular forum’s Special Offers. Well, as a few of us here can tell you, having children and enjoying a professional writing career are certainly not exclusive entities, and even when you stop to consider the penny-pinching, low-cost WAHM writers mentioned in those special offers and “tricks of the trade” forum posts we can learn quite a bit from their experiences. Focus on Making What …

2 Comments

Posted in Work at Home Parents |

Writers, How Are Your Rates Looking?

By on January 17th, 2013

There is an endless amount of debate over what should be the going rate for writers in this business. There is a parallel debate over what actually constitutes a writer, another one over global price structures and still another one over the different styles of writers and how they fit into the grand scheme of business models. For the sake of argument, let’s ignore the range of writers and assume that everyone here is working at a professional level. So you’re a professional writer (another point of debate – what’s a professional writer?) and you’re making a living using your …

7 Comments

Posted in Freelance Writing Business |