Bloomsbury USA has signed “Ed Dante” to write a book about cheating in American higher education. Dante, “the Shadow Scholar,” described his experiences writing student papers for hire in November in a much-discussed article in The Chronicle Review.
Dante said last week that he has set up a Web site, eddante.com, so he could have conversations with students and professors and gather material for the book. “Students, parents, faculty, administrators, as well as the American public, are all invited to join the discussion,” he says on the site. “Send me the questions you would like me to raise for general discussion. Share with us your own personal experiences. If you have solutions, send them along and we’ll see what others think.”
Dante, a pseudonym for a writer living on the East Coast, has quit his job at a custom-essay company so he can write his book. He plans to reveal his identity when the book is published in the fall of 2012.
“Eddante.com starts from the premise that students truly want to learn and faculty truly want to teach, but that there is a disconnect between what each group sees as valuable, educational and worthy of effort,” he says on the site. “I want to find out why.”
“If the article is any indication, I expect people to be forthcoming,” he said in an interview. “My position is that I want this conversation to transcend the defensiveness, where people were sniping at me and at each other about who is to blame. I want to raise the level of discussion.”—Liz McMillen
Follow PageView through your favorite RSS reader: 
3 Responses to ‘Shadow Scholar’ Is Writing a Book on Cheating
firstyearttguy - January 24, 2011 at 7:43 am
The original article about the shadow scholar as interesting, but at this point all we are doing is rewarding his anti-social behavior with free advertising. I suggest we ignore the future exploits of this underminer of education.
t_rey - January 24, 2011 at 9:18 am
Re: Post 1
I think that’s a mistake. Although his previous employment as a custom essay writer might be considered “anti-social,” the current work he is doing seems to be in the opposite direction. Student are not unaware of the options available for those willing to pay, yet it seems that many in academia are. The one’s trying to catch cheaters are about 5-10 years behind. Cheating has gotten significantly more advanced, and although students are primarily to blame, those who teach aren’t entirely off the hook. I do think we need to work toward a solution. Toward reducing the desire to cheat on the one hand, and the ability to “get away with it” on the other. While I do think their might be a bit too much hype about this, it would be irresponsible to ignore it.
arrive2__net - January 24, 2011 at 8:46 pm
I think professors have to make strong efforts to discourage cheating because laxity about cheating puts good, honest students at a disadvantage competing for grades with students who cheat. Maybe this book will serve to stimulate more efforts to stem cheating.
Bernard Schuster
Arrive2.net
Twitter.com/arrive2_net