I am somewhat put out by the slant of the NYT article and some of the attitudes expressed here. Ms Mary is merely a journeyman academic writer. She is not a purveyor of crack cocaine. There seems an insinuation that “what kind of people are these that can do that?” a shifting of the blame for the problem onto the true authors of the essays - when all the time it is a question of supply and demand and the demand comes before the supply. She writes according to her skill and the assignment she is given. Is she a plagiarist @Lexicat ? The hell she is. How can the original author of a document be accused of plagiarism? She does not sit an exam in another persons name. She does not write a document in another persons name. Typically the authors of these essays (unless its a one-on-one contract a la fiverr) do not even know the name of the person they are writing for. It is those lazy, talentless, sack-of-shit- cretins who puts their own names on documents they have not authored that are the plagiarists. The end user is not forced to employ the work of others - it is simply an expedient - like jumping cues, parking in the disabled zone etc. Now, is this in fact about essays for US students, or is it about essays for students in the US? Because in my experience the majority of Chinese students that apply for study in the US are manifestly ill-equipped to handle the language - and I am not even talking about academic language. They may be able to speak passable English but their writing and grammar frequently just doesn’t cut it. So having gotten a placement - what are they going to do? Two choices - go hammer and tongs at getting their language up to speed - or have someone else do the majority of their written work. I presume other foreign students have similar difficulties. That leaves the homegrown, domestic dipshits. Some of you still want to vilify the essayist? OK forging recommendation letters is tacky. Years ago I was offered this kind of work in China. I refused. “Why?. You could make a lot of money”. Because I believed that foreign university applicants should get placement based on talent and ability - not because daddy is loaded and an ivy league certificate will insure a happy life. And I would feel the same way about local students - only more so!
