Once a Small Niche, Academic "Ghostwriting" Has Become a Full-Fledged Cottage Industry

The winter semester at most colleges and universities is well underway and young scholars are beginning to face their first term paper deadlines.?For many students, it’s time to load up a thermos of coffee -- and pop a few Adderall pills -- then head over to the campus library to check out a slew of books and begin the arduous work of conducting their paper research.

But for others, the solution is much simpler:?Surf the Internet in search of a suitable ghostwriter.?

In recent years, much of the media has focused on the high-profile college admissions scandals involving Hollywood celebrities like Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

While getting students into prestigious schools -- by bribing college admissions staff, if necessary -- is one way that some parents and their children “game” the academic system, it’s what they do afterwards that may be even more shocking.

I spent weeks interviewing unemployed writers and assistant professors who say they are earning a lucrative side income by writing student term papers and essays for a fee – sometimes posing as these students online and taking an entire load of semester courses anonymously on their behalf.

It turns out that academic “ghost-writing” isn’t illegal, but it is certainly unethical. Schools have “intellectual integrity” guidelines in place that require students to do their own work or risk being expelled.

In the old days, such guidelines were mainly intended to discourage students from committing “plagiarism” by copying part or all of a previously published work and claiming it as their own.

But with the rise of sophisticated detection systems like “Turn It In,” it is much harder for students to commit traditional plagiarism without getting caught.

By hiring outside ghost-writers, students seem to have found a way around this barrier. Undeniably, the work written for them is 100% original – it’s just not their own.

A burgeoning cottage industry

The extent of student ghost-writing is truly astounding. There are now dozens of websites that offer paper writing services for students at all levels – undergraduate, graduate and PhD. Some students use these services in a pinch, when they run out of time and can’t meet a paper deadline.

But many others have built ghost-writing into their entire university career, contracting one or more “hired guns” – or “pens” -- for the bulk of their classes, and in many cases, having their supportive parents foot the bill.

One of the first and best-known academic ghost-writing websites is Unemployedprofessors.com based out of Montreal, Canada. It’s been in business for over 15 years, longer than most.

The company's web site has an appealing visual format that openly encourages students to “party” rather than write their own papers.

The system is simple and highly efficient. Students place requests for paper-writing support on the site, describing the content, length and formatting requirements of their papers and noting the deadline.

A roster of writers, each with a catchy profile, then bids on each paper project; the student then chooses one writer from among them.

Once contracted, the student uploads the fee amount for the project which is placed in escrow pending completion of the project. Once the work is complete and uploaded through the same online system, the funds are automatically released.

Unemployedprofessors.com has a $25 per page minimum which is pricier than most contracts negotiated by students and writers through other websites or through Craigslist. The system protects the writer from clients that refuse to pay. It also protects the students because writers that might fail to comply or who submit a sub-par paper receive a public rating, which stays with them as long as they are affiliated with the site.

Some of the writers I spoke to have bypassed sites like Unemployedprofessors.com and now negotiate their own rates. They also may agree to take on an entire semester or even a year of course work -- as many as 12 classes for fees as high as $15,000-$20,000.

Taking online courses often requires writers to participate in weekly discussion fora and to interact with other students, sometimes participating in team projects. In effect, they assume the identity of the student sharing fictitious information about their personal lives and professional aspirations.

One writer said an online “classmate” developed a “’crush” on him and wanted to meet when the course was over. The student was just 20 years old – he's nearly 50. He declined but she still writes to him frequently for news about his academic and professional “career.”

Sites like Unemployedprofessors.com take a 23% cut of all transactions simply for serving as the online hiring hall. I estimated that in recent years the site cleared $250,000-$500,000 annually based on the number of papers written and the kind of profit margins typically earned. That’s a pretty penny. Some writers in high demand earn upwards of $35,000 per year.

Good students cheat

Who are the cheating students??You’d be surprised:?They’re not lazy under-achievers at all.? Most are better than average students, and some are true “brains.” Many have regular jobs or family responsibilities but still attend college close to full-time.?They are pressed for time and trying to do it all.?And they are looking for an edge.

Another group is comprised of younger foreign-born students for whom English is their second language.?They cannot write as well as they think or speak — and they resent it.? They see ghost-writers balancing the scales in a highly competitive system in which they can’t afford to be mediocre — let alone fail.? And many come from wealthy backgrounds — and can afford to pay big bucks, when needed.

A study of academic cheating at Fordham University largely confirms my anecdotal experience. It found that the average GPA of academic “cheaters” was surprisingly high:? 3.41.?By contrast, the average GPA of non-cheaters was just 2.85, more than a half grade lower.?

Some writers I interviewed had extensive interactions with their student clients. Most did not; their clients preferred that the writer keep them apprised as needed, but most didnt want to be bothered with the details.

"That's why they hired me," said one. "So they don't have to think about their papers at all. Many have no idea what I am writing about for them. They're just hoping I get them a B."

For other students, ghost-writing helps them focus on the classes that matter to them most– their “core” courses, and they expect a top grade. "They want me to get them an A in some one-off film class they have to take, so they can get straight As in math and scinece," one writer said.

Academic cheating on this scale is far more widespread than schools seem to realize. Three-quarters of undergraduate students cheat at some time in their career, according to surveys.? At one level, that may not sound surprising.

But there is a difference between cheating “on the margin” — copying a classmate’s previously submitted paper or getting last year’s exam answers – and cheating as a way of academic life.? Some cheaters have established a semi-annual budget to pay a stable of ghost-writers, semester after semester, to write their papers. This is not just cutting corners – it’s an attack on the very core of academic life.

Can ghostwriting be stopped?

Many schools are aware of the existence of ghost-writing services, and some do take steps to discourage it. Some teachers require their students to orally brief their papers before submitting them, which forces students to take more ownership of their work.

But most schools I contacted are in denial about the scale of the problem. They know – but they don’t want to know. They hope it’s happening on the margins.

It’s not.

In the past, students sometimes got caught when they mixed in their own work with work performed by ghost-writers. The differences in quality and style were quite easy for their professors to detect.

But there’s an easy solution, students say: Just contract out all of your work for a given class – including not just your papers but all of your discussion postings and even your communications with the professor -- and no one will be the wiser.

Academia’s fast becoming a Brave New World that is unrecognizable to those of us that once agonized over papers on their typewriters -- and enjoyed the experience of receiving a good grade. No doubt the rise of the Internet – and today’s “cut and paste” culture -- has cheapened the value of “original” work. But that’s hardly an excuse for engaging in academic fraud and cheating yourself -- and the taxpaying public, which may be subsidizing your education with grants and loans -- out of hard-earned intellectual growth.

Some students do feel a sense of shame over their reliance on ghostwriters and keep their intellectual dependency a closely held secret. But many others celebrate the practice – and their own ingenuity – often bragging to their friends about their ability to work two jobs while achieving high grades at a top-notch school.

These days college is prohibitively expensive and the still recovering job market remains forbidding. Students are desperate to get ahead, and with tacit support from their parents, they seem to care less and less how to get there or what it might cost them and society in the long run.?And academia, despite some quiet handwringing, isn't about to stall its lucrative gravy train, either.