Shadow Scholar: A "paper mill" writer speaks out

[apples and oranges]

I found this fascinating:

The request came in by e-mail around 2 in the afternoon. It was from a previous customer, and she had urgent business. I quote her message here verbatim (if I had to put up with it, so should you): "You did me business ethics propsal for me I need propsal got approved pls can you will write me paper?"

(snip)

I've written toward a master's degree in cognitive psychology, a Ph.D. in sociology, and a handful of postgraduate credits in international diplomacy. I've worked on bachelor's degrees in hospitality, business administration, and accounting. I've written for courses in history, cinema, labor relations, pharmacology, theology, sports management, maritime security, airline services, sustainability, municipal budgeting, marketing, philosophy, ethics, Eastern religion, postmodern architecture, anthropology, literature, and public administration. I've attended three dozen online universities. I've completed 12 graduate theses of 50 pages or more. All for someone else.

(snip)

I, who have no name, no opinions, and no style, have written so many papers at this point, including legal briefs, military-strategy assessments, poems, lab reports, and, yes, even papers on academic integrity, that it's hard to determine which course of study is most infested with cheating. But I'd say education is the worst. I've written papers for students in elementary-education programs, special-education majors, and ESL-training courses. I've written lesson plans for aspiring high-school teachers, and I've synthesized reports from notes that customers have taken during classroom observations. I've written essays for those studying to become school administrators, and I've completed theses for those on course to become principals. In the enormous conspiracy that is student cheating, the frontline intelligence community is infiltrated by double agents. (Future educators of America, I know who you are.)

(snip)

So, of course, you can imagine my excitement when I received the good news: "thanx so much for uhelp ican going to graduate to now".

http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/125329/ The comments at the end of the article are interesting too.

Have you ever used a paper mill for a writing assignment in college or for work?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Link, please? I'd like to read the rest of this.

[apples and oranges]

4. Sorry about that!

http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/125329/

[ret5hd]

2. Link?

[apples and oranges]

5. Updated with link

http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/125329/ Sorry about that!

[Jackpine Radical]

3. A confession. Nearly 50 years ago

I picked up a few bucks writing papers for jocks in college.

I was pretty poor, and at the time I didn't see the harm in it, since in the long run nobody was going to actually mistake those guys for intelligent.

[TahitiNut]

9. It was fairly common during the Draft/VietNam ...

... for the "wealthier" to subsidize the "smarter" in college by paying them to write papers. The student draft deferral hinged on being a "full-time" student ... and that left precious little time to have a job to pay tuition/fees/living expenses.

There's vanishingly little doubt in my (alleged) mind that GeeDumbya skated by paying others to do his work ... up to and including attend classes, take quizzes and tests (where the 'files' were inadequate).

The "ethical balance" in those days tilted in favor of "opposing the draft/war" ... a consequentialist ethic of VERY questionable merit.

[MineralMan]

6. I write for a living. I even advertise my services.

In my marketing material, I say several times that I do not do any academic writing whatsoever. Still, I get numerous requests from people to write papers, theses, and other material for them. I refuse very bluntly, telling the person to do his or her own work.

Academic writing, which I could do very well, is at the top of my list of types of writing I absolutely refuse to do. Here's the list:

1. Academic papers and theses.
2. Anything promoting any criminal activity.
3. Pornography or any related material.
4. Anything for any Republican or conservative political candidates or organizations.
5. Pyramid Schemes or any questionable work-at-home companies.

Sadly, a lot of writers don't have a list like that, and will do almost anything for a buck.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. I teach a couple of classes at a local state university

and on a few occasions - very few, fortunately - a student has turned in a paper that was obviously either plagiarized by the student or written entirely by somebody else. I warn them at the beginning of the semester that if they do this they will get no credit for the assignment and will probably fail the course. I also tell them that I will know if the paper is not their work.

It really is pretty easy to identify plagiarized or ghost-written papers because they are too well-written. So many college students these days are only marginally literate, with little understanding of the most basic principles English grammar. They can't spell or punctuate, either, even though the damn computer will do it for them.

Even so, I'd rather have poorly-written but original work because at least I know they did the work themselves and put some thought into it.

[apples and oranges]

11. That doesn't sound fair at all

Why would you assume that a student in your class is not a good writer? I was an excellent writer even before starting college (I'm much worse now so please don't judge by my posts).

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

16. I've been doing this for years and unfortunately there aren't many good writers

at the undergrad level -- I have encountered only a few students who could write more than just adequately. This may have to do with the fact that I teach in a technical area rather than the liberal arts - these are not English majors. It's sort of oversimplifying to say that I always assume something that's well-written is not original work; however, when a student who has turned in mediocre short assignments throughout the semester suddenly produces a final paper that is much, much better, I have to be suspicious. There's something about the style of these things that is easily identifiable as canned or plagiarized. It's just too slick -- it's sort of like porn in the sense that while you might not be able to define it, you know it when you see it.

[H2O Man]

8. No.

I never had any reason to.

I have, over the years, helped many people write their papers. Long ago, I would do it for family and friends -- the entire paper. I have the ability to talk a couple minutes with someone, look at a paragraph that they have written, and then do a paper in their style that would always get them an A. (Actually, one A- in the years I did that.) This ability has allowed me to serve as a speech writer, from time to time, also.

These days, I'll help someone with their work. But they have to do the work.

[jp11]

10. Nope.

There are tools to detect plagerized papers either in part or whole but a custom paper is just that which is why they can be sold for so much more so when you get into projects for masters/doctorates.

I saw plenty of cheating in college that instructors seemed to turn a blind eye to, and only did anything when you called attention to it. They may be under too much pressure to take on too many students or simply don't care anymore from seeing it so much if they ever cared. The whole thing soured me on the system that and people gaming professors with sob stories about this or that. Then there were the instructors who didn't teach and couldn't care less about the class, material, etc because they just wanted to do their research.

I expect there is much more cheating with online courses where you can't even place the physical requirement of having someone in your presence to question or get feedback on their demeanor when speaking to them. I've dealt with the fluff that some instructors want too, in that you have to make it so long and cover this or that just to do it as if I couldn't argue my point in 5 pages they demand 10 so I bloated it up adding virtually no substance and instantly it gets a better grade.

As far as the comments it is the educator's fault BUT it stems through all levels of education you can't expect every instructor to weed out every cheating student. Either you give educators the power/time/resources to weed out the cheaters and fail them if they don't do the work or students will get around those who check and move onward.

I don't know where some of those educators work or maybe it just changed in the last ten years but I was 'never right' when it came to grading or issues about how the instructor saw my work. I was always wrong about everything and got virtually no 'breaks' unless I was willing to lie or breakdown emotionally infront of someone to bemoan why I couldn't get the work done/study/etc when I appealed grading etc. It didn't matter that the instructor didn't cover the material they tested us on, it wasn't on the syllabus or that is wasn't what they taught in class then required a different method on the exam, I was the student and I was wrong.

Most likely only those people who have issues with language will see negative aspects of faking it as you can continue to 'fake it' through word processors(spell/grammar checks), the internet, and if it comes to it more cheating. For those with language issues they always have the option of learning the language better over time to remedy most of their issues. So we have people that by and large will get away with their cheating, few professions actually require the skills/material directly taught or touched on in college, most use it as basis to then build on ie train you. If these were technical sorts of professions where someone took the tests for them those people would have a tougher time 'faking it' over say a literature major. Many jobs require a college degree simply to make people go to college without the process being directly needed as evident by the many people who do those jobs having never gone to college or bought a degree from a diploma mill.

It would help if employers/professions were more honest about college degrees and didn't blanket demand them when they contribute little if anything to the actual position. True demand and respect for skill would also help promote actual job skills for vocational/technical schools to put people right to work by teaching what the job entails instead of the all around 'college' education most professions demand.

[surrealAmerican]

12. Not that I would have wanted to ...

... but when I was a student, I didn't even have enough money to pay someone else to type my papers, and I was (at best) a two-finger typist.

[hunter]

13. Professors never had any doubts about my writing.

I got kicked out of college twice, partly for things I wrote.

I would sometimes use words like "bullshit" in my exams, such as, "This question is BULLSHIT!" followed by a concise explanation of why I thought it was bullshit. It's even funnier to me in retrospect because my handwriting is entirely chickenscratch and my grammar has always been twisted. Content aside, my exams looked like they were written by a second grader.

My senior thesis was a disaster. I burned through several advisors, and never got to write the thesis I wanted. What I presented was a compromise: We are sick of you, and you are sick of us. Write something, anything, that passes as a senior thesis so we can graduate you. So I wrote something and they graduated me.

The problem with education is that we've turned it into a commodity. It's something we buy, not something we make, and it stinks of the corruption of money.

And BTW, a guy who writes term papers for others is like a guy who puts plywood in a new flatscreen TV box to sell on some street corner.

[Posteritatis]

14. I still kind of want to try to sabotage a few of them

Sell in some papers that are well-written except they've got just the right sort of errors to make instructors in their fields suspicious, that sort of thing.

Or maybe the third footnote on the sixth page saying "this paper was purchased online."

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. Good grief