The industry built around academic plagiarism

“Ed Dante” earns $66,000/year writing other people’s papers for them. He works for an online firm that receives requests, charges large fees, and writes papers for students. [Yes, these do exist.] Essays for English classes, reports for history courses, business proposals, even graduate theses in any number of subjects. You name it. Mr. Dante (no doubt a pseudonym) chronicled the nature of his rather shameless employment in a (not surprisingly) well-written, sometimes humorous, and thoroughly devastating article published in The Chronicle of Higher Education. An excerpt:

In the past year, I’ve written roughly 5,000 pages of scholarly literature, most on very tight deadlines. But you won’t find my name on a single paper.

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.

The entire article is framed around Dante’s interaction with a particular (desperate) client. But we also learn how Dante got into the “business” of plagiarism. It’s very sobering stuff. It’s imperative that educators encourage students to understand that the academic process is about learning, it is not about getting grades (though we have to give them, and they ought not to be inflated). Grades are to be the objective, external measure of mastery, the byproduct of preparation. John Wooden used to tell his basketball players, “Success is the byproduct of preparation.” It was never about winning for Wooden, it was about practicing, growing, learning, the development of excellence. So it must be for us in the classroom, particularly if we’re Christians seeking to live, teach, and train others to live coram Deo, before the face of God.

This is such a crucial issue that I devote a fair amount of space to it in Thriving at College.

HT: Owen Strachan