Today, there appears to be a revolution in the way teaching is done, as students are tech-savvy and used to finding out information on their own, rather than relying on a teacher to lecture or instruct them. As the internet has allowed just about every course and lecture to be documented and then put online, and the increase in ways to learn via a computer screen, freelance education writing has no shortage of work. However, does this mean you need to be a teacher, student or have a degree in education to be one of the many freelance education writers out there? The answers are both yes and no.
Let’s begin with no. As most people have had experience with some form of education and may naturally be able to teach without having a formal degree in the education field, there is information they can convey on the subject without working within it. For example, those who have run businesses or been in charge of groups of working people have had first-hand teaching experience. They can accurately write about what it takes to encourage people to do work, pay attention and have a positive attitude. While this isn’t classroom grammar and arithmetic, knowing how to connect with the people you are teaching is a critical educational skill.
Mining helpful information from real world experience into articles and essays will allow those who are students, teachers or who have their own education degrees to learn teaching skills that have been honed outside the classroom. Going outside the literal and figurative box is important in every job.
When it comes to the yes answer, it is relatively self-explanatory. Being a student or teacher who is immersed in the education environment or someone who possesses a teaching degree is clearly more than qualified to write about education. Not only are they faced with it every day of their lives, but they can comment on specifics in the world of education that those who haven’t been schooled in this world can. These freelance education writers will have the ability to write about a wider range of topics, from the broad-stroked ones on the state of education in general to those that are more specific, like individual courses from K-8th Grade math or high school language arts. When it comes to writing about specific courses that will be taught in schools, a degree in education or real-world teaching experience is a must.
While having real experience in education will probably garner more work within the freelance writing hustle, it doesn’t mean you have to be an educator to write about education. In a sense, we all teach at some point in our lives.
E.K. is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
