Scribendi Reviews

Pros

For editors who can't find work otherwise, or who want to earn a tiny bit of supplementary income in the evening when they'd rather be spending time with their family, the Scribendi platform connects them with short-term editing projects they wouldn't otherwise have access to. For EFL students who don't want to actually do the work of learning English, or for university students incapable of writing grammatically correct sentences but who feel they should be given a degree anyway, the Scribendi platform offers an inexpensive way out of doing the hard work of studying and applying learned knowledge to a task they'd rather not be bothered with.

Cons

I will say this: you are required to go through a THREE-HOUR online "test" for them to consider allowing you onto their platform to take on projects you won't have enough time to complete, for clients who'll pass their EFL course because YOU wrote their essays, for what will end up being a third of the salary you thought you'd make..

Pros

You have complete control over your work schedule and where you work. I really enjoyed being able to work outside if I wanted to. The work was challenging, and I enjoyed learning new and interesting things through the documents I edited. The other remote editors were very friendly and supportive in the forums. I enjoyed talking to them. I did like the karma point system because it was easy to accumulate karma points if you helped with the late-running orders. You can redeem your karma points for different rewards, such as gift cards, merchandise, and MS Word keys.

Cons

They expect too much from their editors in too little time. A lot of the papers are very poorly written ESL documents, and they expect their editors to turn them into perfect masterpieces in just a few hours. Many of these papers require way more time to complete than is provided. Furthermore, if the client needs to be contacted and the deadline is approaching, you have to submit the incomplete document to the customer anyway or else Scribendi's system will punish you for returning the document late. I felt this was very unfair and unprofessional. Most of the time, you wind up working 10+ hours a day on something that should have only taken 6 otherwise. It makes the pay really not worth the hours you're working. I shouldn't have tried to work with them full time because meeting monetary goals while maintaining high-quality work was pretty much impossible. In the end, it got the best of me. The successful editors at Scribendi seem to work part-time and already have years of editing experience. If you can't keep up with Scribendi's pace (or pass the majority of your QA checks, which are another story), you get the boot. I also disliked that they didn't put a lot of effort into offering further or advanced training for their editors. I would have liked to have participated in a training webinar instead of taking their "training" sessions on their sister site, Inklyo (which were long, repetitive, and mostly unhelpful).

Pros

They helped me transition from medical transcription to proofing/copy editing

Cons

They contacted me 11 months after I'd submitted a resume. They were fine with my work when they were a little Mom&Pop shop, but then they applied for all these accreditations and my Editor number (#8) didn't look good. They were looking for a constant turnover of editors and, years after I'd been working for them, they introduced training. I aced the training, even finding typos that the "experts" had missed. Then they introduced a QA department that docked editors for such nonsense as "US writers don't use 'hence'; they use 'thus.' Only UK writers use 'hence." They kept picking at me and picking at me until I felt as if there was some chirpy little QA person watching over my shoulder. In short, I'd been there too long. Eventually they told me I no longer fit their business model, and I was dismissed.

Pros

There is plenty of work available, and you can choose the projects you like. The board may be a little lean during the summer and at other academic down-times, but I've been able to earn a modest and steady living. They provide tools to enhance your productivity, as well as a knowledge base to help you answer many basic questions as you edit.

Cons

The company does not support their editors. When clients complain, the order is reviewed by their full-time staff. No matter how high your score, no matter how well they esteem your editing, no matter how petty the client's complaints are (including that the client just didn't like a change you made, which they could just choose not to accept in their own revisions), the client is offered a redo or a refund. Frequently, the client requests a different editor for this. Again, no matter how high your review score or what praise was given to your work by the senior editors, if this request is made it will be granted, and you can lose your pay (and your time) for that order. Unfortunately, because all remote editors are contract workers, this is legit, and you have no recourse. I understand that keeping clients happy is how they stay in business--it's part of how all companies stay in business. But there appears to be no point at which the company will stand by the work of their editors, and no point at which the client stops being right--no matter how petty, foolish, or unreasonable they are being in their requests and complaints. The worst part is that clients have figured this out, and they appear to know that complaining enough can get them free services. Clients are not expected to take any measure of responsibility for their own work. You will see some truly abysmal writing in this job, and there appears to be no limit to the expectations placed on you to turn it into something worthy of highest regard (no matter how poorly conceived, constructed, and written it is when it comes to you). At the end of the day, there's only so much you can do without extensively researching and rewriting concepts from scratch (a no-no at Scribendi, and rightly so as that is not editing), but clients expect things to come back to them with no further review or writing necessary on their part, regardless of how dirt-poor the original was. In fact, client complaints often fall under the category of "I don't want to keep this change that the editor made," and rather than simply rejecting that change in the review process (a simple click of a button), they complain and demand a redo or a refund. In short, do not expect clients to be reasonable and do not expect Scribendi to EVER take your side, even when they deem your work "excellent" or a client's complaints invalid.

Pros

Flexibility. Large variety of work. Excellent in-house staff and management who treat their remote editors with the respect and the attention they need.

Cons

You must be fast to earn a decent income. Unfortunately, many of the documents that you begin with barely past muster and require very careful attention and substantive edits. Until you reach a certain rating and/or average QA score, you'll be stuck with ESL and technical documents regardless of your credentials or background.

Pros

This is a work-from-home position that provides a lot of flexibility. Scribendi provides extensive (but essentially unpaid) training that covers grammar, editing, proofreading, and more. Remote editors have the ability to choose their assignments, and there are typically quite a few assignments available.

Cons

The pay is project-based and is usually absurdly low. Most projects are from ESL writers, and many take a very long time to complete. I tend to earn between $15-20/hour, but more difficult projects reduce that rate. Scribendi offers "karma," which is basically a $0.05-$1 boost to assignments that aren't getting picked up. Woohoo, an extra five cents?! It's insulting.

Pros

This is a decent remote option, but prepare to be hounded and to edit ridiculously bad ESL papers. The pay is less than my current job. The module for training and picking up work is decent, but you will be expected to take their test and go through their extensive and condescending training (full of bizarre photos of cats) with no pay.

Cons

The team, at first, seems like they are willing to work with you, but they're not. They're all about money, and if you don't earn repeat business for them, you will be fired.

Pros

Yes, editors can work when they want, but the writing they must edit is so terrible and the pay so little, that the freedom is not worth it.

Cons

Thanks to Scribendi, hundreds of students who can barely write a sentence are getting advanced degrees because they have their papers rewritten by Scribendi editors. You can make a living wage if you can work 8-10 straight hours every day and, thus, do one-day turnaround jobs. But I am a caregiver, so I could not take any jobs that had to be returned in fewer than 5 days. As a result, the most I ever made for an edit was $8/hour, but I averaged $5/hour. For one two-page document that took me 30 minutes to edit, I made $3.25. I was a teacher, so I liked to explain why an edit was necessary. In one of my Quality Assurance checks, I had points taken away for this and was told, "Don't explain how to fix it, just fix it." So the writer, in other words, learns nothing. Many editors obviously pander for positive feedback, which is just sad.