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    The McMaster Department of Philosophy has now put together the following notice commemorating Barry: Barry Allen: A Philosophical Life Barry…

The Ethics of Ghost-Writing Papers for Students

Brian Leiter

Brendan Ritchie, a grad student at Maryland, calls my attention to this story.  Mr. Ritchie writes:

It is about a site where unemployed professors write papers for students that has recently been created. It is deeply unsettling, especially in light of the "argument" on the part of the site's creators that they have somehow removed the "ethical dimension" on their side. To quote from the article: "This removes the ethical dimension on our side as we have no control over what a client does upon paying for and receiving the project "

Apparently the argument is:

(1) we have nothing in place to make sure students don't use our service to cheat.

(2) Therefore, we bear no moral responsibility if students use our service to cheat.

I find this argument rather unconvincing. But perhaps I am alone in this respect.

I suspect most readers will agree with Mr. Ritchie, as I do.  Thoughts from readers?  Signed comments strongly preferred.

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21 responses to “The Ethics of Ghost-Writing Papers for Students”

  1. Justin Coates

    From the papers website discussed in the above story: http://www.unemployedprofessors.com/index.php (apparently, it's an "epistemology party")

    Here are some answers to FAQs. Methinks they're not too concerned about complying with moral or professional norms.

    IS IT UNETHICAL FOR ME TO BUY AN ESSAY?

    If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? Only you can answer that question.

    ISN'T IT REALLY UNETHICAL FOR YOU TO BE WRITING THESE ESSAYS FOR CASH?

    Incredibly so, and because the academic system is already so corrupt, we're totally cool with that. We even all have matching tweed t-shirts.

    And here's my "favorite" q&a:

    HOW FAST CAN YOU WRITE MY ESSAY?

    How much money are you willing to pay? In all seriousness, our online bidding system allows you complete control over the speed at which your essay can be written. Because our greedy unemployed professors are bidding on your essays, you can set the timeframe in which you need the work done and the market will dictate a price. Put more simply, we can write your essay as fast as your last one-night stand or as slow as the travails of a tantric master's love-making. We promise you, though, that we will make sweet tender love to your essay if you want it within a reasonable time-frame, or f*ck it back to the stone age if you want it hard and fast.

    Reply
  2. Matt

    The FAQ on the site contains the following question and answer:

    "ISN'T IT REALLY UNETHICAL FOR YOU TO BE WRITING THESE ESSAYS FOR CASH?

    Incredibly so, and because the academic system is already so corrupt, we're totally cool with that. We even all have matching tweed t-shirts."

    This is obviously different – if perhaps equally specious – reasoning from the justification offered in the National Post article. I suspect it might also be closer to how the ghost writers really feel…

    Reply
  3. Steven Hales

    (1) we have nothing in place to make sure students don't use our service to cheat.
    (2) Therefore, we bear no moral responsibility if students use our service to cheat.

    Ghost-written papers don't cheat, students cheat. Wait, where have I heard this before? Oh, that's right: guns don't kill people, people kill people. Apparently unemployedprofessors.com is the NRA of the academy.

    Reply
  4. Aldo Antonelli

    What ethics? It's the free market at work. These are not cheaters, they are job creators.

    Reply
  5. Brian Hood

    I find the irony of the pitch interesting. It suggests that the consumers (students) are the ones exploiting the "unemployed professors," though clearly the students who use this service are the ones being exploited. For those who teach online or teach at an institution where online teaching is strongly encouraged (to the point of being just short of compulsory, such as at my own institution), I direct your attention to this page:

    http://www.wetakeyourclass.com/

    Reply
  6. Richard Baron

    If you go to the terms and conditions page (link at the bottom of the home page, or here:

    http://www.unemployedprofessors.com/html.php?id=terms )

    you will find some anti-plagiarism conditions, under the headings "Plagiarism-free zone" and "Warranties".

    I think that most of the essay mills have something like that, somewhere on their websites. If you try to register as a student, you have to check the box to say you accept the terms and conditions, but you don't have to click the link to read them.

    This does not excuse what they do, of course. One could hold an interesting seminar for students on the ethics of this kind of thing, asking about the conditions (if any) under which it might be acceptable, and how much fault, of what kind, would lie with which party. It would be tempting to look out for students who blushed when the topic was announced.

    Reply
  7. Michael V. Wedin

    Heck, we didn't force 'em to shoot up, we just gave 'em smack for a fair market price.

    But where's the worry?–now we get to make up who we are (world class marathon times included). So that's just what these students are doing. And, besides, there's an argument that at least they're not plagiarizing. Maybe that's worth extra credit.

    Reply
  8. Sam Rickless

    Is "wetakeyourclass.com" a joke? The site looks like a Colbert-parody of itself.

    Reply
  9. Charles Pigden

    I'm thinking of an advertising campaign:

    Some colleges offer you the best education that money can buy.
    [pan to distingiuished-looking ivy league college ]
    But we know that for some of you that is not enough.
    [Handsome jock shakes his head with a look of dissatisfaction]
    Here at wetakeyourclass.com we offer you the best GRADES that money can buy. So much better!
    [Handsome jock looking happy contemplating an A+]

    Come on! Treat yourself. You know you're worth it!
    {Handsome jock plus pretty girls throwing caps in the air at graduation at distinguished ivy league school]

    Reply
  10. Anon Philosopher

    After working at a big public university, I can sympathize with the claim that teachers have no system in place.

    I remember one case where we had short assignments in class (a sort of system in the above regard). One student went from handwriting nearly illegibly and incoherently to writing a lucid research paper. But how exactly I was to prove that to the higher ups was unknown to me, so I let it go.

    The fact of the matter is, however, that if the infrastructure is right (meaning a professor knows a kid's work well enough), the professor will notice. But considering the role of adjuncts, huge class sizes, and research-heavy demands on professors, you can see how this is a mess. And a site like this just takes advantage of the muck to shroud its shady dealings.

    Reply
  11. Account Deleted

    With medical ghostwriting, pharmaceutical companies pay both professional writers to produce papers and then pay other scientists or physicians to attach their …

    Don,
    http://yesshop.yolasite.com/blog.php

    Reply
  12. Landon Schurtz

    Eccentric paper prompts have helped me avoid getting pre-written papers, but I've almost given up on actually being able to catch those who avail themselves of bespoke essays. I don't think many students do this, yet it feels wrong to just throw in the towel. On the other hand, I am not sure how to go about addressing the issue. Limiting the writing in a philosophy class to that done in-class doesn't seem feasible. Can anyone with more teaching experience tell me if requiring outlines and/or drafts in advance of the finished product seems to help with this?

    Reply
  13. Steven Hales

    Landon, I recommend using Turnitin. See if your college/university subscribes. Students submit their papers electronically, and Turnitin provides a plagiarism probability report by comparing it to their extensive database of papers.

    Reply
  14. Shane Glackin

    That doesn't address the bespoke problem, though; if Student X pays Professor Y to write him a brand new paper, Y's paper won't be in the turnitin database any more than if X had written it honestly himself.

    Reply
  15. Richard Baron

    Landon Schurtz, Steven Hales and Shane Glackin highlight the problem of detecting the bespoke essay, and Anon Philosopher's point about class sizes and workloads makes it clear that the ideal solution, talking to each student about his or her essay to work out whether he or she knows the subject as well as the essay suggests, is not a practical answer.

    If, however, a student submits several essays, stylometric software might help. I don't know how sophisticated it is these days, or how easy to use or how cheap, but if it could show that two essays from the same student were probably written by different people, the professor could then talk to that student about his or her essays. The mere knowledge that professors had this tool at their disposal, and that the anonymity of those who work for the essay mills makes it impossible to guarantee that a student will be able to hire the same writer every time, might have a substantial deterrent effect.

    Reply
  16. Derek Bowman

    How much instructional time and how many institutional resources should be devoted to detecting or deterring this form of cheating? And what are the additional costs of such a pre-occupation with cheating to the student/teacher relationship?

    Certainly if our primary job is to provide a credentialing service, we must protect against forms of cheating that undermine the value of that credential. But if we also place a high priority on educating and engaging with those students who are there for those purposes, perhaps we should have a higher tolerance for the possibility of undetected cheating.

    Reply
  17. David Williams

    I want to ask a simple question. Are there are laws in place (either at the federal or state level) that represents a serious attempt to address this kind of fraud? And if so, has anyone been prosecuted? The problem with simply having university-based sanctions is that the authors of these papers and their organizations are completely immune from any kind of penalties. So they have every (immoral) to continue offering their services.

    And if no such laws exist, why is that? And is there any good reason NOT to pursue this kind of legislation? I can imagine that prosecutions might be difficult to pursue, but at the very least, it seems, it would make it more difficult for these websites to present themselves so brazenly to students as a temptation to plagiarize.

    Reply
  18. Landon Schurtz

    Could one argue that students receiving a scholarship commit fraud when they attempt to obtain a passing grade in this manner? The scholarship undoubtedly has financial value, but is contingent on making certain grades, which is presumed to be based on the work of the student.

    Reply
  19. Jonathan Livengood

    If a professor or university could establish that the cheating harmed him/her/it, wouldn't the cheating be a straightforward case of fraud?

    The student presents something as true — namely that the paper is the original work of the student — which is false and known by the student to be false. The student intends that the professor rely on the false presentation (as if true). The professor relies on the presentation of the claim as true in giving the student a grade, has a right to do so, and does not know that the student's representation is false.

    It seems to me that professors and universities whose students cheat *are* harmed, but I don't know if the harm is specific enough to allow actual prosecution for fraud. What do the attorneys around here think?

    Reply
  20. Tim O'Keefe

    That doesn't address the bespoke problem, though; if Student X pays Professor Y to write him a brand new paper, Y's paper won't be in the turnitin database any more than if X had written it honestly himself.

    Yes, but that's presuming both of the following:

    (i) The company really does have the paper freshly composed as promised, instead of plucking something off of the internet or out of a bin of its own previously-composed papers and presenting it as freshly-composed.

    (ii) Professor Y (and why trust that Y is really a professor?) composes the paper without himself plagiarizing chunks of stuff in a way that could be detected by turnitin or a google search.

    I don't know much about how these companies operate, and perhaps they're totally on the up-and-up with delivering the product just as promised, in order to improve their reputation and viability. But it wouldn't shock me if they're not.

    Reply
  21. bill w

    David Williams' suggestion is a good one. Joe Biden could head a task-force.

    Reply

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