<p>The</a> Shadow Scholar - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education</p>
<p>I’d rather my kid get mediocre grades than stoop to this.</p>
<p>The problem might not be hard to fix. Any student should be required to give a number of short writings in class during the first few months of arriving at the school. These are her/his signature that will be used to check against later writings. Of course, you need good computer/statistical programs to do that (as the signature may change over the years but the basic characteristics remain).</p>
<p>What a chilling article.</p>
<p>“Of course, you need good computer/statistical programs to do that.”</p>
<p>Not really. According to DH, who teaches humanities, it’s not difficult to tell a change in a student’s voice.</p>
<p>I wonder what is the going price? I want to know just in case if I see my kid having $X expenditure. Nah, D1 would rather spend the money on a handbag.</p>
<p>This does not surprise me, although it is a shame. Haven’t you ever wondered how students who cannot carry on a conversation in English manage to write quality papers? Something doesn’t add up. The suggestion for short, in class writing assignments is an excellent one.</p>
<p>I find it hard to believe that a student with limited use of the English language could submit a grammatically correct and coherant paper without being suspect of cheating. I think this writer did a very good job of writing an article for the enjoyment of those who believe that the top schools are producing cheating, lying, and lazy graduates.</p>
<p>I would more inclined to believe something like this if I saw the proof.</p>
<p>Give this guy a RAISE!</p>
<p>Elizabeth Paige Laurie, Walmart heiress, returned her USC diploma when it came to light that she paid her roommate to write several of her papers [Wal-Mart</a> heiress returns USC diploma - U.S. news - Education - msnbc.com](<a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9757284/]Wal-Mart”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9757284/)
Being a technical writer is one thing (we need more of them) but what this guy is doing is beyond slimy.</p>
<p>I can certainly see how this works for admissions essays, etc, but I guess it surprises me that professors/educators don’t require in-class writing, in order to limit the use of this type of service.</p>
<p>It seems that the Chronicle reviewed the corresondence between the author and his clients, so I am prepapred to believe in the veracity of his account.</p>
<p>Without excusing in the least the ethical transgressions committed by the author and his students, it is just as disturbing to me that professors are doing nothing to stop this type of cheating, even though it is very easy to do so.</p>
<p>The suggestion of requiring in-class writing or, even better, in-class presentations with Q&A, should certainly work. But even without setting aside class time, I do not believe this can take place without deliberate negligence bordering on complicity by the professors.</p>
<p>The author says his three primary demographics are ESL foreign students, “hopelessly deficient” students, and lazy rich kids. The latter may be harder to catch – they seem smart enough to know what to want – but it should be easy to tell when an ESL foreign student or a “hoplessly deficient” student manages to produce well-written papers.</p>
<p>Will someone please explain why professors are playing along with this?</p>
<p>Wow. Compelling reading. And sickening.</p>
<p>I guess when I see the type of work that my kids are/were required to complete at their schools, I tend to believe his services are sought after at mediocre schools. The fact that his conversations with some of these kids were stated verbatim, it is clear he is not writing for students in the upper tier schools. Kids at upper tier schools would need another $50,000 just to hire someone to write their papers and I am inclined to believe that he could not write anything that a upper tier student would want to turn in. It is an amusing piece written by a frustrated writer.</p>
<p>I thought it was interesting and depressing that education students give him a lot of his business. Future teachers and principals…</p>
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<p>momma-three, I so wish very much. I am afraid not. The author also says not.</p>
<p>momma-three…Based on my experience, I would not say this cannot happen at an “upper tier” school. I regularly interview and hire from top schools (Williams, UPenn, Wharton, Smith, Cornell, etc). Many of these student are intelligent and very capable of filling in a multiple choice exam. Writing (and even worse speaking) skills are sorely missing. Resumes and intro letters are just butchered. This typically happens with ESL students, but the fact is, it happens. I would say 2/3 of those I interview from top schools are not qualified.</p>
<p>As the letters that follow show, many professors do indeed try multiple ways to stop this. As a writing instructor, I would google lines of papers that didn’t sound right, and almost always found the source. I would then report the student for plagiarism.</p>
<p>Obviously, that wouldn’t work for this guy. When a student’s take-home work does not sound like their in-class work, I will question them. However, it is hard to prove it. Students will say that they’ve been to the tutoring center, or a friend helped them with grammar. But this doesn’t come up much at my college, because frankly, my students re too poor. They may get some help, but it’s not going to be this guy or his ilk.</p>
<p>What bothered me about the article was that he (and his alter egos in the ensuing letters) keep calling it a structural issue that needs to be addressed, but then goes on to say he can fool any attempts to smoke him out–so that even the most conscientious instructor might be fooled. At this point it is to me a fraud issue–and if structural, it’s at the level of a societal wish to not work hard at things that are hard which is true at all levels. But nevertheless it is fraud at all levels. There is a tendency to confuse the outcome with the process–that such and such a degree is the goal, not the learning that goes with it. Which is sad.</p>
<p>I think he most lost my sympathy about the whine, which i found unfathomable, that it was unfair of his elite undergraduate college not to give him an independent study to get his novel published. I don’t even think undergrad creative writing majors, which he doesn’t seem to have been, would get that granted at most good colleges; that’s not how they work. His sense of entitlement was astounding concerning this topic.</p>
<p>Interesting nellieh. Both my Williams and my Chapel Hill kids are taken to task by their professors on writing (much to their dismay) on a weekly basis and they are both good writers. Their professors strive to make them better writers. I can’t fathom how cheating would be possible with their very attentive Profs. Unless the same writer was hired, certainly a change in voice would be noticed. </p>
<p>It’s also hard to see how someone who produces such a volume of work can churn out a paper good enough for a top-tier school. D has been working on her paper for 3 weeks and is still frustrated with the quality. </p>
<p>This is one reason why I think the SAT essay is a great idea. It’s the one time the college knows that it is the student’s work.</p>
<p>The good news is that there seems to be potential employment for my only humanities S who would rather write papers than take a test :)</p>