Job Discussion Forums

[johnslat]

"The Shadow Scholar

The man who writes your students' papers tells his story

Jonathan Barkat for The Chronicle Review

By Ed Dante

(From my experience, three demographic groups seek out my services: the English-as-second-language student; the hopelessly deficient student; and the lazy rich kid.)

Editor's note: Ed Dante is a pseudonym for a writer who lives on the East Coast. Through a literary agent, he approached The Chronicle wanting to tell the story of how he makes a living writing papers for a custom-essay company and to describe the extent of student cheating he has observed. In the course of editing his article, The Chronicle reviewed correspondence Dante had with clients and some of the papers he had been paid to write. In the article published here, some details of the assignment he describes have been altered to protect the identity of the student.


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?"

I've gotten pretty good at interpreting this kind of correspondence. The client had attached a document from her professor with details about the paper. She needed the first section in a week. Seventy-five pages.

I told her no problem.

It truly was no problem. In the past year, I've written roughly 5,000 pages of scholarly literature, most on very tight deadlines. But you won't find my name on a single paper."

For the rest of the article, please use the link below.

http://chronicle.com/article/The-Shadow-Scholar/125329/

Regards,
John

[naturegirl321]

I've read this before, I can't remember how I ran across that article. I can't believe this guy. I wonder what his conscious tells him about this? ON another note, he writes quickly!

[JZer]

Does he write like a non-native speaker? Or do Chinese professors over look the fact that the students' papers appear to be written by a native speaker?

[naturegirl321]

Even if you can tell that it wasn't written by the student, unless I can prove that it's plagiarised, copied and pasted, my hands are tied

hence the reason why they have to write everyting in class now

[nickpellatt]

[JZer]

[BadBeagleBad]

[bulgogiboy]

It's sometimes very hard to tell whether the person writing an essay is a native speaker or not. People who speak English less than perfectly can sometimes write outstanding pieces of work, and people who are virtually illiterate can sometimes articulate themselves verbally with great precision. I proof read my Polish colleague's MA dissertation for her, as she lacked confidence in her English ability, and she ended up getting a higher mark than me in the end!

The real question is whether or not the universities really care?? They have to survive financially in an increasingly competitive market, and being too picky about student standards isn't good for business. In the UK at least, there has been a deluge of non-UK/EU students who have been let into courses they clearly do not have the ability to on their own. Hence the 'proof reading' and 'editing' industries that have sprung up.

A friend of mine is a professor at a well-known UK university. When he questioned why a struggling Middle Eastern student was being allowed to advance from an MSc to a PhD he was told in no uncertain terms that it was �10,000 a year income for the university and she would be advanced regardless of any other factors (i.e. her ability to do the degree!).

[nickpellatt]

JZ - her MA is in Architecture. She is currently writing a research paper for a Masterwork project involving the use of water at inner space. Hmmm, that probably makes as much sense to you as it does to me

She writes it all, references it all, organises her ideas/arguments and drafts her essay. The main problem is she cant always hang sentences in a way a native speaker does, and her clausal arrangement can sometimes make it hard to understand what she is trying to say. She also has tremendous problems with use of articles a/an/the**, and often uses the wrong form of words mixing nouns/adj/adverbs etc. I often dont understand all of the work, but I can understand the grammatical mistakes. We discuss it and I amend it.

I am under the impression that she isnt being graded on the grammar of her paper, but rather on the design proposals and validity of her project etc.

As mentioned, the income from overseas students is so important, they cant/wont ever be disqualified from study. I also read (during my English Language diploma) that it is often considered unfair to penalise academic papers and students because English isnt their first language, and that the idea is more important than the grammar etc. In some languages the conventions of an essay are very different, as are grammatical rules, and as a result the actual content is the only thing that should really be judged for grading. Consider a crap argument with sound, cohesive language use Vs Solid argument, with linguistic/grammatical errors.



** I find it interesting that an MA student who has lived in the UK for 7 years, and completed a BSc here, still has such basic problems. She isnt unique in this...and so I wonder why teachers in some settings wash over such things and do nothing but teach them lexical items that they are hardly likely to encounter or use in the future....maybe thats for another thread though!***

[JZer]

OK, which is why M.A. degrees are often a joke. Actually I think professors are harder on students at the B.A./B.S. level.

[riverboat]

[lille]