How to request a writing sample

[7bf954f7]

I have never posted a job on Upwork.  I would like to post a job for a an article writer.  Is it possible to request a writing sample in the content area?  How would I do that in the job posting?  I'm going through the steps to create a job and it's not clear to me how to request a writing sample.

Edit:  I'm not asking for free work.  Just a sample of past work, which I will not use.

[lysis10]

You can't ask for free work. Writers will send you portfolio items and you can judge from there, or pay writers that you like for the sample and choose one from there.

[7bf954f7]

Thanks, Jennifer.  Just to clarify, I'm not asking for free work.

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Writers will send you portfolio items and you can judge from there

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This is what I wasn't clear about.  Do I need to ask for portfolio items in the job description?  Can I specify what I would like to see in a portfolio item?

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pay writers that you like for the sample and choose one from there.

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This sounds very interesting.  How can I go about doing this from a job posting?

[lysis10 · Accepted solution]

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Richard D wrote:

Thanks, Jennifer.  Just to clarify, I'm not asking for free work.

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Writers will send you portfolio items and you can judge from there

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This is what I wasn't clear about.  Do I need to ask for portfolio items in the job description?  Can I specify what I would like to see in a portfolio item?

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pay writers that you like for the sample and choose one from there.

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This sounds very interesting.  How can I go about doing this from a job posting?

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Writers will send you portfolio items. The smart ones anyway lol

You can just post what you're looking for, maybe save some writers that you like and then offer to pay them for a sample.

[khaled-1977]

Hi, When you make a job post, you should write details abot  the project. So people can better understand what you need exactly  and they will provide you the better service.  Just focus the main concept clearly . You can ask for sample of your project or previous experience.

[pudingstudio]

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Khaled H wrote:

You can ask for sample of your project or previous experience.

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If it is payed. Cannot ask for free work.

[prestonhunter]

You don't need to ask anyone for anything.

You can browse thousands of writers' profiles and look at writing samples in their portfolios. All for free.

(Of course you can hire writers to create custom samples as well. But for most purposes, you can see all that you need to within a freelancer's public portfolio.)