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[ptarmigan]

There are now 550 comments on "Ed Dante"'s piece about ghostwriting our students' papers. There's frothing, high-horsing, hand-wringing, and confessing.

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

The practice of hiring other people to write seems to be ubiquitous, which makes me wonder:

How many people CAN actually write decent English prose?

Maybe practically everything is being ghosted by the same 37 people or so.

I write my own CHE posts, but maybe others outsource those, too. Are the many sock puppets on the fora really guns-for-hire?

Maybe the really profitable thing would be to write our own students' papers and pocket all the cash. Or just sell grades.

The Fiona

This is totally unethical.  You need to just set up shop to write other professors' students' papers, and then they can write the ones for your students.

[polly_mer]

It's interesting that this works for so many fields unless they involve math/hard-science.

You can get ghostwriters to do things for those fields as well.  One of my mentors mentions a story about an adjunct coming from the national lab at the last minute to teach a class since the regular faculty member was sick and thinking he was such a nice guy to drop the last paper that was typical for the class.  The adjunct couldn't understand why the class was so disheartened at the news that they didn't have to have a final paper, just a two tests during the semester.  The department chair clued him in with "the students are unhappy because they've already bought their papers so they are now out the money and have to study for those tests."

[geneve]

What angered me about this article wasn't that so many students hire writers to do their papers. I already knew that. What pissed me off was the tone with which "Dante" tells us this. He makes it sound as though a). it's news to us, b). we're to blame for the problem, and c). there's nothing we can do to stop him. He may be right about the latter, but really, this was the work of an egomaniac who just wanted to show "us" that "we" neglected to recognize his genius when he was a student and that he's now getting back at "us" by watching us pass students who have hired him to write their papers and dissertations.

Give me a break.

In all honesty, though, the joke's on him. In a few short weeks, I'll be leaving my faculty position to run my own writing company with my husband. Businesses call on us to write a variety of documents, none of which have our names on them either. We, too, have to write about a variety of topics that we previously knew nothing about, but it's a legitimate business, and I don't have to hide behind a pseudonym or agent. And I make a hell of a lot more than $66,000 a year doing it.

[untenured]

I just stumbled onto this article. Amazing how the author thrusts the blame sorely on our shoulders.

Imagine an article on someone who helps people produce fake results for weight watchers or a health club:

"My clients pay me to break into the WW center and modify the scales.  On weigh-in day, the scale says they've lost five pounds while they have really eaten bacon double cheeseburgers all week long.  WW sure is a stupid place for letting this happen"

[euro_trash]

I hate that bastard.

[hot_and_cold]

What's going to happen as a result of this and similar articles is the expedition of a process that is already beginning to happen right now (Dante, your antics aren't really news to us, but thanks for the heads-up anyway). What's going to happen is that more and more instructors are going to design their courses so that the most meaningful assessments occur in the classroom. People like Dante are going to drive 'the paper' or 'the thesis' into extinction in terms of it being a reliable tool for assessment.

That's unfortunate because, ideally, the traditional process of giving students out-of-class opportunities to publish is of benefit to the student. It gives students an opportunity to construct something on their own, on their own time, and as they please -- it's for the student's benefit, not the professors. In fact, I think the professors would much rather read a five page written exit exam than a 60-page thesis. That I can assure you.

What the Dantes of the world end up doing is making the lives of students a little more difficult than necessary. They do it by depriving students the opportunity to receive an alternative assessment that might just as easily demonstrate their mastery of a subject. They remove this option and force instructors to rely on anxiety-inducing examinations that are completed in class only.

What Dante does is to capitalize selfishly on the backs of students who simply aren't college material and, in the process, hurts students who otherwise are in education to demonstrate theoretical and academic proficiency in their field. It's ironic that he places the blame on the academic system for failing to educate students, and portrays himself as the guy who involuntarily has to clean up the mess left behind. No, Dante, you ARE the mess. You prevent weaknesses in the system from being exposed. If you and other ghost writers would simply allow them to fail, weaknesses in the system might be more easily identified. Instead, they are undiscovered until one day you decide it's time for a career change and you feel emboldened to brag about your exploits. Save it, man.

[fiona]

Still more and more comments at the end of his article--over 640.

What I hear in the street, though (as it were), is that many academics find the prospect of doing his job (as opposed to their own) very attractive.

He has more autonomy, fewer struggles and grade whinings, and learns a variety of things interesting to a curious person.

Except for the ethics (yes), his job sounds great.

The Fiona

[corvus_caurinus]

Except for the ethics (yes), his job sounds great.

You could say the same of Kim Jong Un.



But I bet he pulls in more than 66K.

[oldfullprof]

Hah!  I will kidnap movie stars and imprison them in Pyongyang.  Then I will fire 152mm artillery shells at you for failing to see advantages of workers' paradise under yours truly!

[untenured]

Hah!  I will kidnap movie stars and imprison them in Pyongyang.  Then I will fire 152mm artillery shells at you for failing to see advantages of workers' paradise under yours truly!

Better yet, you'll enjoy the benefits of your very own insult generator.

http://www.nk-news.net/extras/insult_generator.php

[jonesey]

But I bet he pulls in more than 66K.

Wait, there are professors who make $66K?  Where, in the land of unicorns and rainbows?  Pffft.  You almost had me there.

[fiona]

But I bet he pulls in more than 66K.

Wait, there are professors who make $66K?  Where, in the land of unicorns and rainbows?  Pffft.  You almost had me there.
[/quote

The volleyball coach at my uni is called "Professor" and makes over $100,000. I don't know who writes the volleyball players' papers.

The Fiona

[totoro]

What's going to happen as a result of this and similar articles is the expedition of a process that is already beginning to happen right now (Dante, your antics aren't really news to us, but thanks for the heads-up anyway). What's going to happen is that more and more instructors are going to design their courses so that the most meaningful assessments occur in the classroom. People like Dante are going to drive 'the paper' or 'the thesis' into extinction in terms of it being a reliable tool for assessment.

That's unfortunate because, ideally, the traditional process of giving students out-of-class opportunities to publish is of benefit to the student. It gives students an opportunity to construct something on their own, on their own time, and as they please -- it's for the student's benefit, not the professors. In fact, I think the professors would much rather read a five page written exit exam than a 60-page thesis. That I can assure you.

What the Dantes of the world end up doing is making the lives of students a little more difficult than necessary. They do it by depriving students the opportunity to receive an alternative assessment that might just as easily demonstrate their mastery of a subject. They remove this option and force instructors to rely on anxiety-inducing examinations that are completed in class only.

What Dante does is to capitalize selfishly on the backs of students who simply aren't college material and, in the process, hurts students who otherwise are in education to demonstrate theoretical and academic proficiency in their field. It's ironic that he places the blame on the academic system for failing to educate students, and portrays himself as the guy who involuntarily has to clean up the mess left behind. No, Dante, you ARE the mess. You prevent weaknesses in the system from being exposed. If you and other ghost writers would simply allow them to fail, weaknesses in the system might be more easily identified. Instead, they are undiscovered until one day you decide it's time for a career change and you feel emboldened to brag about your exploits. Save it, man.

This is what a defence is for. No? Maybe PhD etc. defences will get more serious. Here in Australia we don't even have them. When I set undergrads to write papers I usually get them to do a presentation as well if it's a big chunk of the grade. I guess they could get the Powerpoints made up too. But I never have a course that doesn't also have exams.

[oldfullprof]

Hah!  I will kidnap movie stars and imprison them in Pyongyang.  Then I will fire 152mm artillery shells at you for failing to see advantages of workers' paradise under yours truly!

Better yet, you'll enjoy the benefits of your very own insult generator.
http://www.nk-news.net/extras/insult_generator.php

Too good!  Now that Premier Hoxa's gone, we're depending on this guy!

[euro_trash]

Still hate that Dante bastard.