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Re: essay writing service??
Posted:
Mar 14, 2008 1:36 AM
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> This thread has been simultaneously fascinating and
> appalling for me.
. . .<snip>
> As an instructor for many years teaching evening
> courses for City University (Bellevue WA), I hope I
> would have been able to detect course work that was
> hired out. City U even supplied search software that
> you could put a paper through, and it would try to
> match it up with existing papers on the internet.
. . .<snip>
> I'd say some fault lies with an instructor who simply
> says "write me an essay about six sigma" (or fill in
> the subject with whatever). Hopefully at the college
> level we aren't having students just do book report
> essays. If so, such an instructor probably deserves
> it if their students "hire out" their work. I
> usually tried to provide experiences (like the Red
> Beads) during courses, which the students would then
> have to write their personal feelings and
> interpretations about. And I usually required them
> to tie it to personal work experiences. So, I
> believe (or am I deluding myself) that such a task
> would be hard to hire out, and in fact, the student
> would have some motivation to want to do themselves.
>
> I did have one paper that was basically a cut and
> paste job from the internet, but that was very easy
> to detect, and it was of such poor quality that it
> faired poorly in the grading anyway.
>
> I wonder if these essay shops purposely insert errors
> so that the instructor doesn't become suspicious of
> the "perfect" paper?
>
> Steve Prevette
> Fluor Hanford
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I agree professors can make it difficult to plagiarize or buy a ghostwritten paper when the assignments are keyed to the classroom experience, rather than some "generic" topic like "Six Sigma Initiatives." Steve Prevette's presentations of Deming's Red Beads are a good example of a topic which would be next to impossible to write about (including specific examples of specific Willing Workers and Managers) unless the author had been present at the presentation. Alas, all professors are not diligent in giving such "ghostwriter proof" assignments.
Over the years, I have sometimes even seen my own work plagiarized by some fool which then comes back to me either directly or indirectly because the entity receiving the written report or research paper has recognized it as something similar to my views or research and had asked my opinion or as a "heads up" that someone was copying my work.
Certainly, even when I was a college student almost 50 years ago, students who were desperate or lazy (or both) who had enough money could buy the brains and talent of someone equally as desperate, but much shorter of funds, to research and write papers. Most of the folks selling their services tried to justify it as "tutoring."
The only difference I have seen in fifty years is it is easier to make a connection via the internet than by using the personal referrals so prevalent in sororities and fraternities in my day.
The beauty and irony is that the internet makes it so much easier to detect
plagiarism (copying without payment or acknowledgment to the real author)
and
ghostwriting (payment to an author who agrees to remain unacknowledged.)
especially when the same paper or research is sold by a ghostwriter to multiple buyers.
In regard to the ethics or morality of the practice:
Folks whose work is plagiarized are hurt most when the thief stealing their work is able to sell the work for money and deprive the true author of income.
Ghostwriters choose to take the money and delude themselves it is a victimless crime (same as any prostitute or pimp defends the practice.)
Ultimately, the folks who plagiarize (steal) someone else's work or buy the ghostwritten work are detected as charlatans when they are unable to perform in real life as well as the promise of the ghostwritten work led employers and clients to expect. Rarely a month goes by without a well-publicized case of plagiarism or ghostwriting hitting the news, followed by the public humiliation of the thief or fraud trying to pass off someone else's work as his own.
In many cases, the public simply doesn't care when some famous athlete or celebrity comes out with a "book" he tries to pass off as his own when it is an open secret the guy is barely literate enough to sign his own name with something other than an "X." Rarely, the celebrity is honest enough to publish the book as an "As told by [celebrity] to [competent ghostwriter.]"
My personal opinion is little is served by "Tsk! Tsking" the guy trying to buy a ghostwriter's services - he's already made up his mind that it is (for him) the lesser of two evils - the greater evil being immediate detection as an incompetent. That does not mean, however, that we should aid and abet the guy in his quest for a ghostwriter. There is an old-fashioned way of showing disapproval of someone's moral lapse (or expressed intention to violate some ethical standards.) It's called "shunning." In one online Forum, members can effectively shun an ethically-challenged Forum poster by setting the Forum software to "ignore" an individual with the result ALL that poster's posts are rendered "invisible" to the person who clicked "ignore." The end result is when a critical mass of Forum users "ignore" a poster's posts, no matter how provocative, the ignored poster soon abandons the Forum - it's no fun ranting if nobody acknowledges you even exist, let alone having no one respond to ANYTHING!
- Wes Bucey, Quality Manager
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