The Shadow Scholar: The man who writes your students' papers tells his story

[dkf]

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.

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

[applegrove]

1. That is so sick.

[karnac]

2. I CAN HAS CHEEZBURG3R?

Nothing more can be said.....

[Riftaxe]

3. Seems about par, I remember a professor

in business law swaggering on about his work with the state inmate population. Fortunately it was not an ethics course, or i would have asked if we really needed more confirmed criminals in the business community.

There really is very little harm in writing papers for others in many Majors, since it only involves majors that having even a passing knowledge with the core subject matter is irrelevant (History, Philosophy, Art appreciation and I will add architecture)

[TheMadMonk]

5. The harm is that these unearned "credentials" may and do, make...

...a person appear more knowledgeable than they really are. They help people into unsuitable positions, gain them meritless promotions. And ultimately they put cheats in postions of trust. Did you read what he had to say about the spoiled rich kids using his service?

And I beg to differ on other grounds. If you read the entire article you should recall the group he said were his biggest customers, future educators. Actual knowledge of a subject is generally considered a bonus when teaching it.


Here in Australia, it's not quite as bad as the OP. Given a sufficient disparity between course and assignment work, it's theoretically still the student's responsibility to prove that the work is his own.

Unfortunately, we've discovered the lucrative prospects of overseas students, and rebuilt virtually our entire tertiary education system around servicing that market. And more and more manufactured work is getting through as the pressure not to fail full fee paying students increases.

On the other hand, not to long ago we did shut down one institution when it was proven that in several cases identical papers had been submitted by multiple students, and that the administrators had refused to take action when cheating was called to their attention, but instead applied pressure to pass the students anyway.

[izquierdista]

9. They help people into unsuitable positions

[ScreamingMeemie]

4. This story is literally everywhere. I know I'm off topic, but it's one of

those things where you read something ( I read this in RD last week) and then it pops up everywhere.

[dkf]

6. Yeah I found it in RD.

You've seen it here before?

[tammywammy]

7. Yes, I remember reading this before

Probably last November when it was published. I think it's an interesting article.

edited to add:

I found the original OP, it was from Nov 27
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=9640817

[dkf]

10. Very nicely done by the op.

Much more diary oriented than my cut and paste version. :)

[exboyfil]

8. This is why you still need to have proctored

essay tests in controlled environments. I am Homeschooling my daughter in English and Social Studies, but part of my expectations is that she sit down and write essays by hand on some topics. I think you can quickly flush out the obvious cheaters with this approach (not that I think my daughter is cheating, but writing essays under timed conditions is an important skill to know).

The other thing that should happen when this sort of fraud is detected is at least an F for lower level undergraduates who do it. Higher level undergraduates and graduate students should be expellled and the transcripts held so that they cannot transfer credits.

[Prometheus Bound]

11. It would be a pretty hopeless prof that couldn't recognize fake work from that ESL student.

[tammywammy]

12. I think the problem is how to prove it

I would assume in class writings compared to turned in essays.