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On November 22 2010 07:14 red_b wrote:
at the end of the day a diploma is just a piece of paper whether you work for it or not.
you dont learn shit in school, you learn it on the job, you just need the registrar of your university to say you fulfilled your requirement.
you actually learn a shit ton in school unless you majored in something like art history.
On November 24 2010 10:27 Reikobi wrote:
I've written a couple of people's essays before, sometimes for cash and sometimes for free (usually girls, lol). Looking back, I kind of regret contributing to the problem of near-illiterate graduate-level students in my own minuscule way.
was it actually for free or did the girls compensate you in a different manner ?
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On November 24 2010 10:12 MoonfireSpam wrote:
66k is pretty decent, especially if you get paid some in cash :>
$66k is probably really good depending on where he lives. If he lived in NJ, NY, CA or some other expensive state to live in, $66k might not be that good, but if he lives in some more rural state then $66k is really damn good.
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3861 Posts
This is what I do for a living.
I "edit" personal essays and "help" students with college apps. Wheee!
My job is easier than his though, I'm only writing at a high school level 
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Edit: On second thought, this post came off as quite chauvinist and disrespectful to one of TL's most celebrated contributors.
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On November 18 2010 04:28 emythrel wrote:Show nested quote +[B]On November 18 2010 04:23 shindigs wrote: The interesting part to me is that this extends even to the levels of PhD thesises (thesi?) I believe the plural is the same as the singular, i can't remember off the top of my head.
FYI: The plural is "theses" (singular: thesis).
Wow. I recently graduated with my master's (never used one of these services) and was shocked at how widespread this is. I even worked as a graduate teaching assistant, and did the paper grading for some courses. I read an innumerable amount of essays and... would not have believed them to be fakes, but who knows? I guess I could've been duped.
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I dunno how many of you are making over $66k a year but by the sounds of it you're really trivializing how easy the money is for the amount of time and work he has to put into it. He's basically doing the same thing you did in college except instead of paying out the ass for it he's getting paid ~$66k a year DEPENDING ON HOW HARD HE FREELANCES. He's got financial freedom. That in itself makes his job better than yours. He doesn't HAVE to do his job every day or every week, but once in a while he'll dedicate a day to making a couple thousand dollars.
Sounds pretty fucking good compared to making $33 an hour 40 hours a week. And I'm guessing most of TL makes less than $33 an hour.
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On November 22 2010 07:14 red_b wrote:
at the end of the day a diploma is just a piece of paper whether you work for it or not.
you dont learn shit in school, you learn it on the job, you just need the registrar of your university to say you fulfilled your requirement.
This is absolutely not true. Succeeding in school isn't a terribly difficult task, but it does require a lot of time and fair bit of intelligence. A diploma is, or at least is treated to be, testimony of your ability successfully handle the included varied range of tasks. This includes time management, ability to complete assignments, research, manage social life and school, etc. Having a diploma doesn't mean you're an expert at these sorts of things, or an expert in a specific area (although it does have this connotation somewhat with a MA and definitely with a PhD), but it does mean you were good enough at these things to be trusted be able to handle an entry level or similar position at a company.
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[B
I'm in the same boat. My freshman year especially had a group of about 40 people taking a University based Honors Calculus class.. and not one of us passed that class without cheating.
Ok, I have to laugh at the Irony of an Honors calculus class where nobody passed without cheating.
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I knew two people who were/are doing this kind of job for a living. Anything as major as working for a company but just getting customers through word of mouth etc. As far as I know they only do university level papers though. $500 - $1500
I'm surprised that these paid writers thing isn't common knowledge though.
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My high school english teacher said he would proof last minute essays for about $300. He wouldn't write it for them, but I think his friends who were going for a masters or something were desperate for some revision.
Its just the nature of a competitive academic environment. It'd be great if everyone was sincere about learning at school so we wouldn't need grades, but the world isn't like that.
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On November 24 2010 17:46 shindigs wrote:
My high school english teacher said he would proof last minute essays for about $300. He wouldn't write it for them, but I think his friends who were going for a masters or something were desperate for some revision.
Its just the nature of a competitive academic environment. It'd be great if everyone was sincere about learning at school so we wouldn't need grades, but the world isn't like that.
Proofreading is ethical and accepted practice - there has never been a case of someone getting 'busted' for proofreading, since no illicit content is being made. Every big name writer has relied heavily on an editor to make their work publishable.
That said, if your high school english teacher was offering money to his own students we have a problem.
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This is pretty sad IMO. Writing is a skill; we learn it through reading, trial and error, peer review... Learning how to write is a long and arduous process; however it is very rewarding. I can't blame the people who offer their services to these college kids. The fact is: I would gladly write a 15 page paper for as little as $200 (which would be little in comparison to the rates listed in the website). Be that as it may, it doesn't excuse the students for seeking the help of these writers. Challenge is the best means to learning.
I look at my previous papers, as recent as my college admission essay, and I wonder: how the hell did I manage to write something so poorly? It is much more rewarding to develop a skill rather than pay someone else to provide the illusion of having it.
That being said; I believe this is morally permissible if you already know how to write well. What you are doing is, basically, paying someone to complete a simple task, that you could perform, but choose not to, because you have more interesting things to do and can afford it.
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Man, that was a great read. He IS a good writer.
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On November 18 2010 07:20 zaldinfox wrote:The guy in the article is a sad story. His claims about "contributing to research" in graduate studies is laughable and his boasts about writing 75 pages in two days go to show he has not understood what University or graduate studies is about. One word: "revision." This guy churns out tons of crap that he proudly holds up as being "un-edited," when the whole point of research is that it be constantly looked over, reshaped, challenged, edited, and made into a valuable contribution. I realize he is simply exposing the depth of corruption in the system, but he shows quite clearly that much of this extends from his unwillingness to learn the point of University. The process of writing papers, reading, and being challenged in lectures and seminars is the point. What makes me sad is how on-board TLers are about cheating. You don't understand the irony that you are cheating yourself, as in the following: Show nested quote + I am a 3rd year chemistry major and if I can someone to write all my papers for English/History/*insert course name that has nothing do with my degree here* I will probably do it. The point of taking English and History and other stuff is to compliment your degree so you aren't a specialist who has no exposure to other disciplines and ideas before you go sit in a lab all day. Think of how we all react to 5 year-old kids who are pushed into beauty pageants and made to look inhuman. That is what your brain looks like without breadth. Show nested quote +Sorry, but a fictional writer from 500 years ago has absolutely nothing to do with me, or my future. How sadly mistaken you are. Shakespeare (whom I am assuming you are referencing) shaped the very language you use to communicate. The Science majors think History, Anthro, Philosophy, Literature, Cultural Studies, and all the other Arts are a load of crap and a waste of time. But all studies of science and math find their roots in the Arts. Chronological Snobbery is what the above quote is, plain and simple...
Hey you get out of here with your reasonable posts!
My bachelors is in Physics and I can still remember the papers I wrote for that program. That's why writing a paper is so damn important because to write a decent length about a single subject means that you learn it really well. In my experience I found papers to be about the best way to gain a fundamental understanding of a subject. If you want to talk relativistic electrodynamics, the "recent" (up to 2007) cavity quantum electrodynamics computing experiments, or the prospects of detecting exploding primordial black holes using GLAST (I think it changed names to Fermi or something like that, again 2007), I still remember what the gist of it is because of papers I wrote.
As for the group saying that English or Humanities has nothing to do with your intended major you're so wrong. First, there's the fact that if you intend to pursue a career you're going to have to write well. Clearly communicating a point through an e-mail, whitepaper, technical document, peer-review article, or anything is of paramount importance. Second, people who are Humanities oriented by in large operate differently then those who are Math/Science oriented. By taking humanities courses you expose yourself to different modes of thought, different ways of seeing things. This is fundamentally important and will help you in your proposed careers. To this day I still say that the best course I ever took was a Sophmore/Jr. Level English course on the enlightenment and romanticism. It changed the way in which I view the world as well as improved my writing skills. I say this after having gotten a Masters in Electrical Engineering and being a practicing EE for over a year now.
Ultimately by using these services you hurt others, but, you hurt yourself more.
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On November 24 2010 12:53 lilsusie wrote:This is what I do for a living. I "edit" personal essays and "help" students with college apps. Wheee! My job is easier than his though, I'm only writing at a high school level
Is this for students who don't have good enough English skill to get into university?
If so, I really really disapprove of your job and think it's ruining post-secondary education. How can a teacher properly explain complex concepts when half of the students in a class struggle with even simple English?
I have no problem with people immigrating here without knowing English; it's not necessary to know it if you stay within your country's immigrant diaspora and get a job serving them in their language. However, if you want to go to university here you'd better know English and know it damn well.
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3861 Posts
On November 25 2010 01:20 bonifaceviii wrote:Show nested quote +On November 24 2010 12:53 lilsusie wrote:This is what I do for a living. I "edit" personal essays and "help" students with college apps. Wheee! My job is easier than his though, I'm only writing at a high school level Is this for students who don't have good enough English skill to get into university? If so, I really really disapprove of your job and think it's ruining post-secondary education. How can a teacher properly explain complex concepts when half of the students in a class struggle with even simple English? I have no problem with people immigrating here without knowing English; it's not necessary to know it if you stay within your country's immigrant diaspora and get a job serving them in their language. However, if you want to go to university here you'd better know English and know it damn well.
I try to make it as legit as I can - students write first drafts, I just help with brainstorming. But the final polish goes through me. They also take the SAT and TOEFL exams though - so at least they aren't complete idiots. I edit their essays to match their capabilities.
I understand that it sounds terrible and I agree, it is. Being an English major myself, I enjoyed writing my own papers (and through this job, I'm starting to hate it) and thus, I believe that people should write to their own abilities. However, this is a competitive world, one that is not "fair" and there are people who want to pay for services.
I don't make $66K a year though.
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I know that in Poland writing papers for others is a pretty bad case as there's a lot of people who just want the paper stating they finished university but are not quite suited for it and a lot of people who were suited, finished uni but can't find a good job so they're willing to earn extra money by writing stuff for others.
Bachelor's degree is not worth anything in Poland. Enginner (which would be Bachelor's equivalent for technical studies) and Masters are what counts.
I once wrote a paper for my friend (for free) so he could pass aesthetics. He passed but got C instead of A for the paper as the woman discovered he wasn't the one to write it (he was dumb not to check it out and learn the intricacies of it before and he didn't know what axiology was when she asked him about it).
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On November 25 2010 10:19 lilsusie wrote:Show nested quote +On November 25 2010 01:20 bonifaceviii wrote:On November 24 2010 12:53 lilsusie wrote:This is what I do for a living. I "edit" personal essays and "help" students with college apps. Wheee! My job is easier than his though, I'm only writing at a high school level Is this for students who don't have good enough English skill to get into university? If so, I really really disapprove of your job and think it's ruining post-secondary education. How can a teacher properly explain complex concepts when half of the students in a class struggle with even simple English? I have no problem with people immigrating here without knowing English; it's not necessary to know it if you stay within your country's immigrant diaspora and get a job serving them in their language. However, if you want to go to university here you'd better know English and know it damn well. I try to make it as legit as I can - students write first drafts, I just help with brainstorming. But the final polish goes through me. They also take the SAT and TOEFL exams though - so at least they aren't complete idiots. I edit their essays to match their capabilities. I understand that it sounds terrible and I agree, it is. Being an English major myself, I enjoyed writing my own papers (and through this job, I'm starting to hate it) and thus, I believe that people should write to their own abilities. However, this is a competitive world, one that is not "fair" and there are people who want to pay for services. I don't make $66K a year though.
Yeah maybe you charge too little
Imagine not documented side of that business who are mediators, if they have a few guys like him they are making huge profit.
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On January 15 2011 00:50 Jakalo wrote:Yeah maybe you charge too little Imagine not documented side of that business who are mediators, if they have a few guys like him they are making huge profit.
well it's only high school students not graduate theses so I guess it's reasonable.
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EPT
