Help:Writing Assignments

This is a WIP DRAFT.

This article covers the process of getting an invitation to write an article, taking the assignment, and following through to completion, whether the work is paid or unpaid. Before reading this article, you should be familiar with Help:Writing and Editing for the JFA Wiki, which explains the background and reasons we are offering paid assignments, the qualifications desired and some general expectations.

For paid articles, our current rate of eight cents per-word USD is at least competitive, if not high, for non-profit assignments. As an example of what you can earn, our 6,568-word article on Chickens would pay $525, while a short article like the one on Honey would pay $123. These numbers assume you have contributed all the words to the article.

The process is the same for unpaid articles except that the rate per word is zero cents, and of course, you will not be paid (at least monetarily).

How It Works

The following steps in getting an assignment and following through to completion are explained in detail in the following sections. The steps are:

• Show your interest
• Receive and accept an invitation
• Write the article
• Get a pre-publication review
• Get paid
• Stay involved with the article

Show Your Interest

If you feel you meet the qualifications and wish to write for the JFA Wiki, please email your.friends@justiceforanimals.org and include:

• Your connection with animal rights and veganism
• Why you are interested in writing for the JFA Wiki
• Examples of (or links to) your writing. Writing of an academic nature involving research gets higher consideration.
• The topics you would be interested in writing about
• The articles you would be interested in contributing to. See Articles Needed.

Receive and Accept an Assignment

If you are eligible to receive an assignment, you will get an email stating our interest. You should then create an account, set your preferences, and create your personal user pages as explained in Help:Your Account and Personalization.

Then, if you are selected for a writing assignment, an invitation will be posted on the talk/discussion page associated with your user page. Make sure you are watching the page, as this will ensure that you will receive a notification if an invitation is posted.

You must be offered and accept an invitation in order to receive a monetary reward for your writing. You can still contribute to an article without an invitation, but you will not receive remuneration. The invitation will specify:

• the number of words to be in the article (as a range)
• the payment rate per word
• the expected completion date
• your editor for the article
• how to accept the assignment

If you do not accept the assignment within 48 hours, the invitation may be rescinded without notice so that we can invite another writer. If you accept the assignment, a beginning draft article will be created for you to begin work.

Write the Article

You should begin composing the article directly on the JFA Wiki soon after accepting the assignment. Composing directly on the wiki will allow us to monitor the progress of the article. As you write, guidance and instructions may be provided by an editor via direct edits to the article or by editorial comments in the article. This will potentially avoid your spending time on sections of the article that might not be accepted.

Your starting initial draft will likely contain headings that suggest a structure for the article. When you see this, you may have a better idea for a structure and propose it to your editor. Or the editor may ask you to suggest a structure by supplying the headings. You and the editor should agree on the structure before you continue with substantive content. If you are collecting substantive content before the structure is decided, you can put that under a temporary heading and move it later. And of course, the structure can be changed during the course of authoring if better ideas regarding structure surface in the process.

When you have completed the article, please indicate this by editing your talk page, and under the assignment heading for the article write "Assignment Completed" followed by your signature plus timestamp.

Get a Pre-publication Review

An editor may have made some edits and provided editorial comments as you were writing the article, but after you indicate the article is finished a more thorough review will be done. During this review, an editor will likely make some changes directly to the article, and may also annotate the article with editorial comments regarding potential edits to be made after a discussion.

Then a zoom.us session might be scheduled at an agreed-upon time to go over the edits that have been made as well as the proposed edits.

The review could involve more than one iteration of this process, and additional communications using other messaging channels may take place.

During this process, you will become more familiar with the expectations of the editors, particularly if this is your first article for the JFA Wiki. This should result in the review process being quicker for subsequent articles.

Once the pre-publication review is done and the requested changes have been made, the article will be moved from the draft namespace to the main namespace, and your payment will be initiated.

Get Paid

You will be paid the per-word rate for the number of accepted words in the article written by you at the time the article is moved from the draft namespace to the main namespace. You may continue to edit the article without remuneration after that time. The word count used for remuneration is the word count shown by Google Docs when the article is pasted into an empty document and footnotes are deleted.

The word count may be adjusted downward for boilerplate text used or for contributions to the article that you did not make. Also, edits by a topic editor, copy editor, or managing editor during the process of writing the article while is article is in the draft namespace may result in words being removed from the article, lowering the word count.

When a paid article you authored is moved from the draft namespace to the main namespace, we will send a payment via PayPal using the email address you have provided. If you do not have a PayPal account, you will receive an email informing you how to create one. You must already have a PayPal account or create one before we can pay you.

Any payments made to you are subject to PayPal Fees. In addition, recipients outside the United States are subject to exchange rates. Paypal operates in over 200 countries and 25 currencies. If you do not live in one of these countries, we cannot pay you and it's up to you not to accept a paid assignment.

Here's the procedure: When it's time for you to receive a payment, we will send you an email through the wiki email facility, asking what email address you want to use for the payment. If you have a PayPal account, reply giving the email associated with the PayPal account in the text of the reply. If you don't have a PayPal account, we still need an email address so that you can receive an email from PayPal informing you that you have a payment available, and that you need to set up a PayPal account.

Stay Involved with the Article

You can receive notifications about edits to an article by making sure the article is on your watchlist. If you have edited the article, it should already be on your watchlist.

You have no obligation to stay involved with the article, and there is no payment for doing so, but it's good if you do. After the article is published, you may think of additional information that needs to be in the article, improvements to existing content, better arguments or sources. Feel free to improve the article.

Also, others may edit the article, and you may be interested in these changes.

Additional Terms

Early Termination

It is our intent to develop a trusting relationship with a number of writers. We know, however, that not everyone who accepts an assignment will work out. Because of this, we can notify you to discontinue working on an article for remuneration. You can still be paid for the number of accepted words you have contributed to the article up until such notification. Such a payment will occur only by request after the article is moved from draft to the main namespace.

Going Over the Assigned Due Date

It's likely the due date will have been discussed with you before an invitation is posted. If you have not yet accepted the assignment and you feel you can't make the due date, please contact your editor to see if the due date can be changed.

If you have already accepted the assignment, it's likely you can still get an extension, but it's at the discretion of the editor. Even if you don't get an extension, you will still be paid for the accepted words you contributed up until the due date. Such a payment will occur only by request after the article is moved from draft to the main namespace.

Going Over the Assigned Word Count

If you go over the word count in writing the article, or you see that you will go over the word count, you can ask for an amendment to the assignment, which may be granted at the discretion of the editor. Even if you go over, you will still be paid for the number of accepted words you contributed to the article.

Indemnification

Arbitration

Any controversy or claim arising out of or relating to these terms shall be settled by arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association in accordance with its Arbitration Rules, and judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator(s) may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof.