Slashdot Mirror
Shadow Scholar Details Student Cheating
vortex2.71 writes "A 'shadow writer,' who lives on the East Coast, details how he makes a living writing papers for a custom-essay company and describes the extent of student cheating he has observed. In the course of editing his article, The Chronicle Of Higher Education reviewed correspondence he had with clients and some of the papers he had been paid to write. 'I've written toward a master's degree in cognitive psychology, a Ph.D. in sociology, and a handful of postgraduate credits in international diplomacy. I've worked on bachelor's degrees in hospitality, business administration, and accounting. I've written for courses in history, cinema, labor relations, pharmacology, theology, sports management, maritime security, airline services, sustainability, municipal budgeting, marketing, philosophy, ethics, Eastern religion, postmodern architecture, anthropology, literature, and public administration. I've attended three dozen online universities. I've completed 12 graduate theses of 50 pages or more. All for someone else.'"
No the source of the problem is the value of the degree exceeds the value of the courses.
The piece of paper at the end is the important part, the classes leading to that piece of paper are failing to provide sufficient benefit to the students.
When was the last time a person with an English Degree really had value in society?
Many people with English degrees become teachers. I've had several such teachers, some quite talented. Are you saying teachers aren't valuable?
And since when is essay writing all that valuable in say the techie world?
When you work for a small company that can't afford a technical writer. Holy fuck is it annoying to completely rewrite document after document produced by a bunch of slackers who think because they know how to ping something that means they can be practically nonfunctional at everything else including such basic things as language.
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
I hardly ever used my "cheat sheets". By the time I was done studying and had created my sheet I knew the material well.
And since when is essay writing all that valuable in say the techie world?
A software developer who can't communicate is worthless.
On the other screen of my computer right now is a design proposal that is every bit as linguistically complex and eloquent as any essay or term paper I wrote in school. It is a deliverable requirement for a major software project and is, in fact, more highly valued than the source code that will eventually back it up.
Godaddy is a scam and a ripoff.