Online Video Courses

Don't Quote an Hourly Rate or Fixed Fee for Your Writing Services

By Ugur Akinci | October 12, 2009

© Ugur Akinci Here is something I’ve learned the hard way: if you publish or quote a fixed hourly rate or a fixed fee for different types of writing services, you’ll end up attracting the cheapest and hardest clients and you’ll never make money in this freelance writing business. We writers are generally very nice…

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An Interview About Technical Writing

By Ugur Akinci | October 10, 2009

(Excerpts from an excellent interview by Tom Johnson) How did you make the career transition from academia and teaching to technical writing? I taught basic writing courses to university students at The American University in Cairo for a couple of years. I also taught composition as a graduate student at Columbia for two years. Teaching…

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How Reliable is Your “Reference Data”?

By Ugur Akinci | September 28, 2009

Before the Crisis of 2008 hit, main mortgage brokers on the Wall Street were confident of the way they were running their business. Their software programs were written by crackerjack developers from top Ivy League schools. When they fed their sub-prime lending numbers into these programs, the result was “positive.” After a year of monitoring,…

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Quality Control Plan

How to Write a Quality Control Plan (QCP) — Part 1

By Ugur Akinci | September 24, 2009

Introduction Quality Control Plan (QCP) is an important document for those hoping to secure a U.S. government contract. A quality control plan is a document that ensures the safety and accuracy of a product. Quality control plans can be applied to any type of project, from building houses to developing new software. A quality control…

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