Here is a guide I took the time to write and review with HubPages' this morning. I hope it helps those of you that have questions or problems. Turkers Guide For HubPages Reviews First of all, HubPages is where anyone can publish articles. The content and quality of the articles are vast. And the ratings submitted for these articles should vary just a widely. Writing Scale Print both the Informational Writing Scale and the Creative Writing Scale and keep them with you. I read the Information Writing Scale at the start of everyday. If I receive a creative writing article to work with I read the Creative Writing Scale. The Writing Scale is your guide. It is however, not a concrete set of rules. It is open for interpretation and there can be conflicting points of reference in the scale. An article may have "a logical structure that supports the publisher's message" but "visually the content may be below average". The first would give the article an 8 in Organization and the second would give it a 4. Which element is more dominant? Is the visual lay out more below average than the article is well structured? Then I would give it a 5 or 6. Is the layout only slightly unattractive and the structure is very well done? I would then rate the article between 6 or 7. Is the article very unattractive? Such as bad or uneven paragraph spacing, bold and un-bolded sub titles, awkward or uneven photo layout. Then a 4. Your Workspace Get comfortable! I regularly work at my desk for most of the day. But working on HubPages HITs you will find me with my tablet or netbook curled up on the couch, out on the porch swing, or even in bed! Where ever you enjoy reading is a great place to work on HubPages articles. Get rid of the distractions! Turn off the TV, radio, etc. I also turn off email/device notifications and find a quiet place either in the house or outside. The more comfortable and quiet the more productive I am. Schedule Your Time This is very important. Especially in the beginning. Most people cannot sit and review for hours on end with out some consequences to their accuracy. Start with half hour sessions. This will give your brain a much needed break as well as give your HITs time to approve so that you will see how well you are doing. Currently I'm working for about an hour with 30 minute breaks. During these breaks I catch up on email, check out other HITs, see if there are any "trouble tickets" from my other job, or just take time out and see what my Mom is up to. Feed Back Pay attention to the feedback being provided. I use Evernote to copy/paste the specific Writing Scale feedback I receive. This will give you more "examples" to refer too as well as a history of your ratings. Feed Back - Vary Your Ratings When you see feedback telling you that you need to vary your ratings; pay attention! Stop, take a break. Then come back and think about it. I've fallen into the "mediocre" trap a few times. I've read so many articles that they all start looking and sounding alike. I will realize that a few of those articles I'd rated were really probably pretty good. And a few were on the not so good end of the scale. Also realize that not everything you read is going to interest you. You are grading the substance of the article. Is it a well thought out idea? Does it provide details or step by step guides? Does it form a complete article with a beginning and an ending? Do the words flow or is it tedious and/or redundant? Grammar vs. Substance Just because an article is grammatically correct does not mean it will have a high substance value. Some articles will sound very tedious due to repetitive words or phrases or unnatural diction. While written correctly the same thing will be said 10 different ways in the same paragraph. Or, the written text does no flow. It sounds unnatural and stilted. When your rating drops Do not get discouraged! My rating has dropped several times. One time my score dropped significantly. Take a break! Realize that this is a job. And like any job there are times you have to work at it. When my ratings are high I can get $15-$17 in an hour. When my ratings are low I'm looking at $6.00 - $8.00 an hour. This is actually a pretty fair wage for most. And better than a lot of HITs on Mturk. After your break look at what your feedback has been telling you. As I said before I fell into the "mediocre" trap and was rating things to midline. Within the next ten hits I increased 3 percentage points. And now I'm slowly working my way back up. Important Points - Don't change your grading style drastically. This does not mean that you don't give varied ratings. This means that if you find yourself consistently "off" scale when provided with specific ratings feedback change your grading style one point in the direction it needs to go. - Take frequent breaks and quit when your brain has decided it has had enough! You will only hurt your score if you persist. When you find that all the articles look like they should be rated the same take a break. If you're having an off day or not feeling well don't work on HubPages articles that day. - Reread the "Writing Scale", Feedback you've saved, and examples regularly until you don't need too anymore. Even then you should read them occasionally to help refresh your memory and keep you on point. - Don't get discouraged when your rating drops. Take a break; then read the example articles and feed back articles you've saved. Make a conscious effort to vary your ratings.
What kind of feedback are you getting? I've done 2 sets and had to request feedback for both. The first time I was told I was being too harsh and had a 89%. This time it went down to 81 and I've emailed for feedback. I'm still trying to clue in what they want. Thanks for the info above.
Thank you for the guide, tcgirl! I also owe you a thank you for posting about doing the qual test HITs, otherwise I wouldn't have known about them. I have gotten three bonuses so far, but no feedback. Have you emailed them for feedback, or have you just received it without requesting it?
I've been averaging around 92-93% until I last night when I should have quit and went to bed. I dropped to 85% because everything started looking the same and I was rating too many 5-6 with very little variation. I don't receive a lot of feedback normally. What I do get are the specific ones such as: Copy/past these and keep them. I use Evernote because it's free and keeps the links. They are great to refer back to. These are the ones I find most helpful. I'm really bad at telling you what they are looking for in specifics. I can tell you the best way to figure it out is buy doing sets of 10 and "seeing" where your rating goes. As long as you are giving varied ratings you will be able to adjust your grading style and see your percentage change. But don't swing too far. Adjust your "normal" ratings a point in either direction until you get your next adjustment score or feedback. I also get the ones that say that you are rating articles to similarly. Like last night. I rated probably 10 in a row 5-5-6 or very close to that. Then I did a few that were 8-7-8. Then back to 5-5-6. You have to avoid doing this. There were several of those 10 articles that probably rated higher in substance than I gave them credit for. It was just that after a 150 hits they all started sounding the "mediocre".
I've only emailed them once about feedback and they responded promptly. Keep watching the area above the directions and you will see some feedback in a white box. Keep an eye on your percentage. If it's staying high without any feedback you're doing ok. There are only so many QC hits like the example I posted above that they spread around.
I give this a 10 for Substance and Organization and a 9 for Grammar and Mechanics. The 9 is because of Thanks for the guide, I found it very helpful!
I posted this in the Great Hits thread and someone pointed me here, so maybe you can help? Uh, am I missing something though? How is the worst $3.75 when I got the highest bonus of $2.60+ $.50($.05 per hit) to equal $3.10 per 10 HITs? I have a ranking of 197 with them, so I know I'm doing it right, I just don't feel like I got paid right if other people are getting $3.75 somehow?
In reading over this, where is the information about the quality tests HITS to do from tcgirl? Thanks.