Query before or after writing?

Usually you'd have a finished piece *before* you query, especially if you're relatively new and/or unknown to non-fic editors. You're mistaking 'assignments' for 'queries', here. Assignments are given out to writers with a known skill level and a business relationship with the publication; they can be freelance contract work or done on retainer.

Queries are blind shots in the dark, advertising a written piece.

I've always sent in a query-proposal, and then written the piece after it's accepted. Even to editors who don't know me. It's worked ok for me.

Always query before writing the story unless it is an essay. Essays usually get submitted fully written without a query. But for articles query first. I have had editors accept the idea but tell me they wanted the article to have a certain focus. If I had done the story first, I would have had to do it all over again in those cases.

I can see that. My non-fic articles have all been in craft how-to areas, so they'd be already slanted toward certain markets.

Roughly speaking, articles appear in news-stand publications (newspapers, magazines), whereas essays appear in academic journals. Very roughly.

I have sold essays to newspapers and magazines, but they have been personal essays with a newsy flair. Articles will be written without you being part of the story. They will have multiple sources. It might help you to read more of both. There is a very clear divide.

If the magazine asks for queries, then query. When you're new, and don't have any published clips to include with your query, you could send the manuscript, but many times that results in unnecessary work. And, there are magazines who don't accept manuscripts.

When you're writing essays (front-of-book or back-of-book) you can send the article, but for features, you usually want to query first.

I always query first. Save yourself the extra work. If you write the article, and they pass on it, chances are, you'll have to rewrite it to fit the style of another publication.

I guess that it's much more convenient to query when you've already have some definite points. Thus, it's beter to do this very piece of work after writing.

It's usually a waste of time to write first and query second. If you spend your time writing articles no one wants, you spend your time not getting paid. Even as a brand new writer, editors will still ask to see a promising article. They'll ask for it on spec, but this still means you don't have to write it until an editor is interested.

Time is best spent developing queries, lining up possible interviews, etc., not writing articles no one wants.

A second reason not to write in advance is an editor may not want an article written the way you conceived it. He'll often have his own ideas about content and slant, which means you'll have to start all over on an article you've already written once.

There are times and places where writing the article first is the rule, but not for magazines that ask for queries.