The Shadow Scholar

The author of The Shadow Scholar makes a living writing custom papers for college students, from admissions essays to graduate theses. He makes more money than most of the professors who assign the work.
You've never heard of me, but there's a good chance that you've read some of my work. I'm a hired gun, a doctor of everything, an academic mercenary. My customers are your students. I promise you that. Somebody in your classroom uses a service that you can't detect, that you can't defend against, that you may not even know exists.

I work at an online company that generates tens of thousands of dollars a month by creating original essays based on specific instructions provided by cheating students. I've worked there full time since 2004. On any day of the academic year, I am working on upward of 20 assignments.

In the midst of this great recession, business is booming. At busy times, during midterms and finals, my company's staff of roughly 50 writers is not large enough to satisfy the demands of students who will pay for our work and claim it as their own.

It's not plagiarism, as each paper is paid for and written to specifications with the understanding that the author will receive no writing credit. But the student does none of the work to produce the paper. There's a serious discussion at Metafilter on whether this activity is wrong or not. I was surprised that there was any question as to the ethics of hiring someone to do your college work, but I graduated over 30 years ago, and the world has changed a lot since then. What you do think? Is this cheating or just another path to your goal? Link -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Jonathan Barkat for The Chronicle Review)

depends on your degree.

want an mba? well this just shows cheeky initiative. i mean you are outsourcing to professionals not some robot that generates it automatically.

want a masters in osteology? you may have just paid for a class to get some knowlege and then paid to not have the knowlege you initially paid for. what you now dont know may fail you at a job interview.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Of course it is cheating! If you were to copy "word for the word" the essay of a classmate then more than likely neither of you would get credit for the assignment, right? Why would this not be considered cheating just because you can't get caught?
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
It is unquestionably cheating, clearly by it's own definition. It's not ethical but could be utilized logically given the correct means. I think it would be fine maybe once in a college career, when someone has too much on their plate, someone has died, etc; but even out of the realm of ethics this is illogical on any students part if used for a majority/all assignments. It may make it easy for the student and allow them to graduate, but if they learn nothing and graduate to attain a career in their field of 'study' then they will fail in the professional world. It doesn't matter what one's grades look like if they cannot be applied to the profession they are essentially training for.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
I've been doing this since September of 2008 via Craigslist. It started as just philosophy papers....

I'd get $125 for a 3-5 pager, $200 for 5-7 pages, $275 for 7-10 pages, and $350 for 10-15 pages.

We'd actually work together (the students and I) to craft their papers before due dates, and I'd offer free minor re-writes / edits to increase the final grade. I wish I could get hooked up with these companies and work remotely, but for now I work with about 7 students and it helps get by during this rough time.

I've just always wondered if as a producer of black market academia if I'm considered a cheater... I don't feel so as I'm not profiting academically, which I suppose would just make me an opportunist.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
It's cheating. Frankly I'm amazed that anyone could think that it's not.

clm42 wrote, "want an mba? well this just shows cheeky initiative."

Nice try, but you can't outsource your actual education. Would you be okay if your doctor had "outsourced" his medical education? No, I thought not.

It's not, "cheeky initiative". It's cheating.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Yep, cheating. I would wager that the people who are paying for these services were raised by people who gave them everything. Not necessarily rich, but people who are not hard workers.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
"you may have just paid for a class to get some knowlege and then paid to not have the knowlege you initially paid for."

-exactly.

If you don't have the chops under your belt and learned when the rubber meets the road and you actually NEED that well of training and context, your actual performance will suffer greatly.

Besides, good grades are no guarantee of genius.

The Valedictorian of my HS class was universally agreed upon as an airhead, a parrot and a ditz; especially among the guys who would go on to work at NASA.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
i think the vast majority of professors give are clear about their academic honesty policies in their syllabuses. i'm sure most of them consider commissioned school work passed off as your own to be cheating.

clearly, only the wealthy can afford this. does that annoy anyone else besides me?
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
I'll have to go with 'yes' on cheating too. However, its nice work for those people who are good at academics, eh? I wonder how people get hired. I also wonder if any professors work there as a side job? Hmm...
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
I agree, it is cheating. And I believe this person will eventually be found out, because he is talking about it. He clearly wants some recognition. He sounds like he doesn't want to be anonymous anymore. As soon as you start bragging about what you are secretly doing, then it is no longer a secret.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Of course it's cheating, also, it deprives you of one of the main goals of education, learning how to research a topic and prepare and defend a viewpoint of that topic. The actual knowledge is intermediary, as anyone can look it up nowadays. How many people care about the roles of women in Chaucer? Few. But being able to construct a valid viewpoint is important and that's REALLY what the assignment is about. There's little value in the actual paper.

That being said, my wallet is glad that I actually enjoy writing research papers and find it easy. I didn't have to work in college because of people with money that can't do research.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
This is pretty much our university's definition of plagiarism. Whoever told you it isn't is full of it. If a student turned in a wonderfully written, fully cited, and thoughtful paper that they didn't write I'd send them to the dean faster than you can blink.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Nobody told me; I looked it up.

Dictionaries use the word "unauthorized" or "stolen", meaning the user does not have the author's permission to use the writing.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plagiarism
http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarize

However, I see now that Universities define it as using someone else's work, whether authorized or not, which means cheating.
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/plagiarism.html
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Hmmm.

Why advertise it like this now? You have a successful business, making thousands of dollars per month, and you feel the need to go more public with it? Maybe those essay-writers aren't as smart as they want to appear. I would just keep my mouth shut and rake in the cash.

Sounds to me like he/she is trying to drum up business with this.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Plagiarism is claiming credit for work that you did not do. It doesn't matter if the other is fine with not receiving credit; it isn't your work. If it isn't your work then what's the point of going to college?

I worked hard for the degree I have and am continuing to do so for my next degree. For anyone who argues that this is not cheating, stop and think: would you honestly want someone treating you for a medical condition; working your case; advising you on investments; or even teaching your children who didn't actually EARN their degree? The reason for papers, no matter how dumb and pointless, is to learn from them. If you don't do them, you don't learn; if you don't learn, you can't teach.

Ridiculous.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
To to person who asked if pre-med students do this...cheating is nothing new. It's apparently much easier, even with professors that require students to submit papters to websites that check for plagarism.

Yes, and it was going on 30 years ago. I told my housemate, who was writing a paper for a pal, that I would turn him in if he didn't stop. He went to med school, but I never followed up on his buddy.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Login to comment.
Click here to access all of this post's 28 comments




Email This Post to a Friend
"The Shadow Scholar"

Separate multiple emails with a comma. Limit 5.

 

Success! Your email has been sent!

close window
X

This website uses cookies.

This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using this website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

I agree
 
Learn More