How to Increase Your Star Level

Your star level is an at-a-glance summary of where your quality is as an author, but the more you write, the more you learn, which is why promotions are always a possibility for our authors (until you reach a 5, of course). 

Generally speaking, writing is a subjective thing. In most writing - and especially in creative writing - you can put commas wherever they sound right, and fragments are a stylistic choice rather than breaking a rule. However, due to the nature of most of the orders we get and in order to have a standard to rate everyone fairly, we adhere to the AP Style Guide, which is used for most journalism and can be a bit strict.

It can be tricky to learn all those rules, and in turn, that can make it frustrating to make it to the next star level. Don't be discouraged; we have seen amazing progress in some of our authors, and we'll happily help you whenever you need.

Check Your Feedback from Editors

With every new rating you get, you'll also receive feedback from one of our editors. You can find this on your profile under Assignments > Statistics > See details of rating. That last button will be next to the star icons showing your current quality level. From there, you can see ratings done on certain dates, and you can open each order that was rated to see more.

You should be able to see highlighted sections of your work, and when you hover over them, it should show you a note that explains the mistake that was made, and some notes should also show you how to fix it. These edits are made according to Textbroker standards, so if you study the notes you get often and work on fixing those, you'll see progress in no time.

It's Not Cheating to Use Resources

There are so many grammar rules to keep in mind; it can feel impossible to remember them all! In fact, our editors also have to double-check some of the rules sometimes, so don't be ashamed to use whatever resources you can. Google is great, we use the Merriam-Webster site ourselves, and we have our own blogs and PDFs for you to use to your heart's content. 

Here are some of our favorite links to use:

• The Textbroker Style Guide

• Merriam-Webster

• Grammar Girl

• The Textbroker HTML Blog

• Purdue Online Writing Lab

Don't Be Afraid to Ask Us

Sometimes no matter how hard you look for an answer, you just can't find what you're looking for. Some of those rules just don't make sense, or they change from situation to situation, and you don't know what applies to your writing. We understand! If you ever have any doubts about the rules, we first encourage you to check our Textbroker Style Guide (linked above). If that doesn't help, you are always welcome to email us at authors@textbroker.com for clarification!

Proofread Your Work

The last piece of advice we have for you is to proofread your work. You're probably tired of staring at the same words you've been looking at for hours, but give your article one last look. Walk away from it for a few minutes if you have the time, and then comb through it slowly and carefully for typos or sentences that don't make sense. Double-check where you've put your commas or where you might be missing them! You can use software like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and Grammarly to help, but just remember that those are not perfect and can't catch everything. The more familiar you get with the rules yourself, the better you'll get at catching your own mistakes.