How To Write a Term Paper

[randomness]

My friend nihilistic_kid is a published novelist who used to make something vaguely resembling a living as a term paper artist. In the above titled post, he gives some advice to undergrads:

Spring Break is over, at least in the US, and so now the shank of the semester has begun. Time for term papers! As a former term paper artist I've learned a few things about papering. Things you will not learn from other sources simply because almost nobody has the experience I have. Composition specialists, your professors, and writing center tutors have not written 5000+ model term papers in virtually every field and in every length and format.

So, if you hear different from what I am saying, remember that I am right and they are wrong.

Note: this is "How To Write a Term Paper" not "How To Learn Something." Learning is your problem!

The remainder of the post outlines the process in eight steps.

I also recommend his piece about writing for a term paper mill, "The Term Paper Artist" published in The Smart Set, at Drexel University.

I think if I'd read his post when I was an undergrad, I would have handed in more of my papers on time.

Comments

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

(continuing previous comment)

Think of it this way: if people actually believed that what they were trying to accomplish were being served by writing papers, they would write the papers themselves. That they are finding it easier to pay other people to write papers is a sign that something is wrong. Perhaps it is because the people are deluded as to what purpose is being served. Perhaps it is because no one has ever explained to them what the purpose actually is behind the act of writing papers. Perhaps it is because they know and disagree, but are being told they must produce papers. Some might still game the system, but if their interests were aligned with the production of papers they would only be cheating themselves, as my teachers used to like saying.

I recognize the difficulty of changing the way this society trains new generations. I think some of the problems are, in fact, based on the tension between the market economy and the academic system. And the interests entrenched on all sides are powerful. I deny none of that. Nor do I have an answer; if I did, I'd be out there finding a way to make it happen, not least of all because there is a market opportunity to do so, but also because I would dearly love to get all the people who don't want to be forced to get some semblance of a liberal education into a different system so that those of us who want one can get down to the business of getting one without the distraction and disruption people who don't can cause just by being there.

None of this is to take anyone off the hook for their individual decisions. But if you think it's easier to change moral beliefs and behavior in a society than to change some academic and economic incentives, I invite you to examine the history of the culture war over the last few generations. I just want to fight the easier battles first.

[meepodeekin.livejournal.com]

I don't have time to do justice to the length of your comment, for which I apologize. Just a few notes--There are many things wrong with higher (and primary and secondary) education in the United States. Many things. However, the world grows more complicated every day. A solid college education is as necessary to having a hope of approaching our world as an educated adult in the 21st century as a high school education was in the 20th or a grade school education in the 19th. A "liberal arts" education isn't some cockamamie idea for the educated elite. It's a way of helping people to be good citizens and informed members of society. Creating an explicitly two-tiered system where some youth get that and some youth get a vocational certificate or credential would further the already vast socio-economic gulfs troubling our society, just as sorting kids in high school between "vocational" and "college prep" tracks does. I have many complaints about the system for which I work, but the fact that we try to give kids an education rather than a certificate is not one of them. That more and more kids only want the piece of paper is a flaw of our society, which is overly materialistic and has a ridiculously narrow definition of the word "success." It's not a flaw of the higher ed. system.

Also, saying that you disagree with the system and then using that to justify making personal profit egging the system on (as term-paper mills undoubtedly do) is wrong. Disowning individual responsibility simply because we live in a flawed world is a slippery slope. If thinking that makes me a "Traditionalist," then I am proud to be one.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

There are two points I'm going to address right off, because while I have a longer reply these two points in particular I feel I need to address immediately:

You are not reading what I am writing. I recognize that you are angry about this, but arguing points I am not making is not helpful. I feel like you are shouting past me. This isn't unusual in online conversation, so please don't feel that I'm singling you out here for some personal failing, but I want to say this explicitly now, because in some parts of conversation we are in violent agreement, as one of my friends likes to describe it.

I think you should ask yourself why more of your flist that actually works in higher ed. isn't replying to this thread, especially since you explicitly directed it at them. I happen to know that at least one of them is so depressed by the thread that they are really upset and afraid to comment.

This is a point I want to address right now. If I explicitly directed this thread at anyone other than as a reply to you, I don't know who it is. Moreover, if they are upset by things I am saying, that is not my intent. In fact, in general my intent is not to piss people off or make them depressed, unhappy, or afraid. That much should be obvious, but many obvious things need to be stated in online communication.

If they are upset and afraid to comment I am sorry that they are, and I invite them to send me personal email or call or contact me in whatever way they feel comfortable with doing.

I have a longer, more substantive reply where I discuss where I think some of your comments are attacking someone who isn't me, and someone who didn't say what I said.

But I had to get those two points out first.

[meepodeekin.livejournal.com]

You are not reading what I am writing. I deleted that part of my comment for a reason, and I think quoting it and responding to it is deliberately fanning flames. I may not be responding to the points you think you are making but I don't think you're responding to my points either, which were originally directed at the entire thread and in particular the way several people jumped on marmota for making an honest attempt to express what I consider to be legitimate moral outrage. Maybe I am not expressing myself well.

I 100% respect your right to say what you want in your thread on your journal. Feel free to take me to pieces so the rest of your flist can continue to laugh at me. However I won't be returning to this thread. I don't have time to.