A college essay writer talks about his trade - Other Topics Forum - Discuss Pop Culture, Arts and Entertainment

this is an absolutely awesome/fascinating/sick read about a guy who makes a living writing college essays for all sorts of students, from the utterly incompetent to the rich and lazy. A great read, albeit long. Here's some preface:

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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.

Full article can be found here:

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

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11-17-2010 , 04:53 AM

beansroast01

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"thanx so much for uhelp ican going to graduate to now".

DAMN.

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11-17-2010 , 04:57 AM

mikekelley

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I can't believe people are that stupid, but some guy in the comments said that he had done it on a smaller scale and agreed with the author 100%.

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11-17-2010 , 04:58 AM

Wrane

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Wow, that was an amazing read. 66,000 really doesn't sound fair.

Going to read the comments now..

edit: graykitt + skaking!

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11-17-2010 , 05:14 AM

mikekelley

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LOL yeah the comments are great too.

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11-17-2010 , 05:19 AM

lagdonk

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Jesus. Christ.

I am simultaneously revolted and suddenly alive to the prospect of doing this myself for a decent income.

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11-17-2010 , 05:43 AM

Silly Skates

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Join Date: Aug 2010 Posts: 1,771

comments are just a grammar war lol.

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11-17-2010 , 05:48 AM

zzthe3rd

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Quote:

Originally Posted by lagdonk

Jesus. Christ.

I am simultaneously revolted and suddenly alive to the prospect of doing this myself for a decent income.

yeah had a friend that did it for a while and he was getting 100 per thousand words. including reading/citations etc, thats like 3 hours tops. had no clue that there are full companies for this sort of thing.. hardest part for my buddy was a regular flow of assignments.

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11-17-2010 , 09:14 AM

lippy

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Absolutely fascinating. Mainly the volume (though it doesn't seem that absurd at 15-20 pages per workday).

His cramming sounds exactly like the entirety of my school career. Upper-level political science classes learned, interpreted and regurgitated in 12 hours.

Last edited by lippy; 11-17-2010 at 09:21 AM.

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11-17-2010 , 09:26 AM

#10

samdash

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Super sweet read and some of the comments weren't that bad either.

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11-17-2010 , 09:46 AM

#11

xx44

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Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 1,067

I was a polsci major at a top 100 university in the US. THere was a vietnam vet who lived in a one room bungalow by campus. He had a mattress, a desk, a chair and a word processor as his furnishings. Any time we needed a paper done (10-20pages) we would only need to give the course books, a jar of instant coffee, 2 joints, and $5/page (this was 15years ago), all 4 days in advance, and he would produce an original A+ paper without fail. WIthout him, I would have spent so much more time working on papers and have so much less time for partying and getting laid. God bless Bill!

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11-17-2010 , 10:21 AM

#12

samdash

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11-17-2010 , 10:40 AM

#13

microbet

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My wife taught English at a University. A lot of the time it is ridiculously obvious that someone is cheating like this, but it was incredibly difficult to do anything about it. If you accused a student of cheating it was like you started a procedure where you were on trial to prove the cheating.

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11-17-2010 , 11:28 AM

#14

FlexNutz

centurion

Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 192

I have to admit, I suck at writing papers.

Which is partly why I chose science at college, but I probably would have used his services for admissions papers.

I'm still pretty bitter how little college admissions has to do with academic merit

Last edited by FlexNutz; 11-17-2010 at 11:29 AM. Reason: edit: I could have helped a loved one through cancer imo...

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11-17-2010 , 01:43 PM

#15

slownpainful

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Rally grate reed OP. Thnx four the poast.

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11-17-2010 , 01:44 PM

#16

General Tsao

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who gives a ****, no one pays to learn, they're paying for the degree.

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11-17-2010 , 01:45 PM

#17

Phildo

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Quote:

Originally Posted by FlexNutz

uh if you want to go anywhere in science you're gonna have to write a whole hell of a lot

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11-17-2010 , 01:49 PM

#18

BadBoyBenny

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Reading between the lines I would guess this guy puts in a crazy number of hours and there's no mention of any benefits. I bet you could do better in construciton.

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11-17-2010 , 01:55 PM

#19

nuisance

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Taso

who gives a ****, no one pays to learn, they're paying for the degree.

I hope to god medical students go to learn.

I saw a dateline or 20/20 episode about this topic a few years back and there were medical students doing this. Scary if you ask me.

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11-17-2010 , 02:03 PM

#20

mug3n

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great article

horrifying to see this many incompetents in academia, but then again i shouldn't be surprised

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11-17-2010 , 02:04 PM

#21

Praetor

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yeah seriously doesnt seem like a great life for him

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11-17-2010 , 02:05 PM

#22

Phildo

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Quote:

Originally Posted by nuisance

I hope to god medical students go to learn.

lol no. that's what residency is for

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11-17-2010 , 02:13 PM

#23

Bill Haywood

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I remember failing an honors student for plagiarizing a research paper. He thought it too harsh and took it to the head of the college, who promptly revoked his scholarship. He whined this would keep him out of medical school, which I said was good because he shouldn't be allowed to cut people open.