by J. Sanders-Nelson, 2016
Going through a freelance writer’s drought of paying gigs, I had this idea to list my writing services on Craigslist—hey we writers are always on our hustle, right? We are ridiculed for our college majors which are mainly English, Creative writing or any humanities degree and yet the same “funny” people who crack the same lame ass jokes about writers only teaching or working fast food continue year after year taking for granted that a writer is behind their current existence (from the instructions to putting together an IKEA shelf to the side effects of anti –depressants).
Now where was I, oh yes, so I went to the “services” link on Craigslist and it was like walking through the woods on a late night date with Jason Vorhees.
Chilling.
The first 100 listings were for academic writing assistance. One listing even offered, for a fee, of course, to take online classes for students! According to Neoacademic.com, “These websites employ people to write papers for undergraduates for a fee. A student might pay $2 per page for a term paper, for example. But such papers can be used in either in-person or online courses. This is not in any way unique to online courses.”
Really?
I wondered, how many paralegals, veterinarian assistants, and day care workers have used their excessive student loan dollars to pay some else to do their coursework? Yikes!
How many red-cheeked medical interns are smiling their way to the bank because some writer tucked away in a musty old home office, pounded out research papers for them? In a 2013 abstract posted by Medscape.com, “The reported prevalence of cheating among US medical students ranges from 0% to 58%. Cheating behaviors include copying from others, using unauthorized notes, sharing information about observed structured clinical encounters, and dishonesty about performing physical examinations on patients.”
How many people have cheated and really don’t know their stuff but still sit pretty and get paid to perform on a good-paying job they are NOT qualified for either by education or experience?
According to James Spencer, an IT manager, and consultant, the cost of hiring unqualified workers can be at great cost: “…your customers will come in contact with these "less-qualified" individuals. If customers are not happy with the service they receive, you risk losing them—a costly mistake. Plus, the morale of the rest of your staff may deteriorate if they are burdened with additional workload because you’ve hired workers who can’t do their job. The cost of turnover is high, and you will be faced with this expense if veteran staff members decide to leave.”
What kind of world are we living in where people can pay for some else to receive the required education? What kind of learners, workers and producers are we leaving this world to? An associate dean at the University of Florida, Chris Loschiavo addresses this issue in his article, “Why do students cheat? Listen to this dean’s words”, which suggests that 70% of college students admit to some type of cheating. Loschiavo goes on to state that students may behave this way for several reasons, the prime example being that they are “…motivated by the path to success that they see around them – people cheating without incurring any real consequences.”
Most disheartening is that fact that society seems to reward some of these behaviors with more attention.
Will there ever be laws against cyber-cheating in an attempt to instill integrity back into our culture?
Or will Craigslist simply join the growing number of for-profit education institutions?
Bibliography
Online Plagiarism and Cybercheating Still Strong – 61.9% by Richard N. Landers 2011 http://neoacademic.com/2011/02/04/online-plagiarism-and-cybercheating-still-strong/
Cheating in Medical School by Anita V. Kusnoor, MD and Ruth Falik, MD Southern Medical Journal 2013 http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/809141
TechRepublic Member: Hiring unqualified workers is no way to save money by James Spencer 2001 http://www.techrepublic.com/article/techrepublic-member-hiring-unqualified-workers-is-no-way-to-save-money/
Why do students cheat? Listen to this dean’s words by Chris Loschiavo 2015 http://theconversation.com/why-do-students-cheat-listen-to-this-deans-words-40295