You know, I supported myself through graduate school doing this very thing. The way I looked at it, I was being paid for my research skills and writing abilities–that was a good thing–and I was also developing them. You can look at it as work for hire, nothing more.
On the other hand, the people I was doing it for were most definitely cheating. If, as a (very underpaid) graduate assistant, I had run into a paper that I knew not to have been written by the student, I would have had to turn it in. And, had I run into one of the papers I’d written, I would have done just that.
Fortunately, I didn’t.
I also thought a lot less of them for doing it (although my most profitable client was a secretive contact from the athletic department, and I guess I couldn’t really fault a hard-working OU linebacker for hiring somebody to do his research paper on Queen Victoria during the playoff season).
I don’t even feel bad about it. (There is some writing for hire that I do feel bad about, and that was writing speeches and op-ed pieces that were delivered/printed under other peoples’ names, and there were a couple of those that made me feel like I ought to make my extra cash doing honest work like sucking peoples cocks.)
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you have to do it. I just don’t think it’s an ethical problem for you. It’s the kid’s ethical problem. And the father’s.
They’ve already demonstrated that they don’t have a problem with it. Sure, the son would probably learn something valuable by doing it himself, but he’s already got the skill he needs here–if you can’t do a quality job, pay somebody who can.
It sounds like the student’s lack of planning is catching up with him. He’s probably known for some time that the paper was due. Now, when it’s panic time, he’s looking for any out. You might remind him that he doesn’t need to get an “A” on it, but he does need to do it.
I don’t think I’d enjoy working with a guy who had issues with honesty and ethics. Don’t let yourself fall into that pit.
I like this solution. I would consider my own ethics regarding education separate from the kid’s. I would never ever do anything remotely close to cheating for my own schoolwork, but (hypothetically, of course) I would be willing to help someone out who was overwhelmed. It’s not in his field, and I don’t think it’s indicative that “he’s the kind of kid who would be willing to go out and pay for someone to steal the works of another engineer at another firm and then claim them as his own” or that your boss will want you to steal from the company in the future. I think those things are much further down a slope that’s just not that slippery. I respect that other people might equate these things, but I disagree that they’re on the same level.
But you could offer to tutor the kid, to be available for the kid (not his dad. The student himself.) if he wants to ask questions, to give the paper a look over once the kid had finished it.
If it weren’t for the boss connection I’d love the idea expressed upthread of writing a paper that passes superficial inspection but is actually full of howlingly wrong information. That would definitely bite you in the ass, though.
I guess this boils down to the same ethical dilemma faced by the (unmarried) “other woman/man” in an extramarital affair. By writing the paper for money, YOU are not plagiarizing, any more than the other party in an affair is being adulterous. You’re not a plagiarist, you’re just a freelancer. (by the same token, I can easily imagine the boss saying, "Heck, Boss Jr. isn’t cheating… he’s outsourcing!)
The question becomes one of whether aiding and abetting a cheater is wrong enough to injure your own self-worth. It doesn’t sound like it, so go ahead and write the damn thing.
To those of you who wouldn’t do it – what if they had come to Skald and asked him to write a paper that the student swore up and down would only be used as a model for his own efforts? (Whether or not to believe the promise is, of course, up to you.) Would that salve your conscience?
Ask the kid to ask the prof to take an incomplete so he can write the paper when he is less busy. Then you tutor the kid while helping him write the paper. Worked for me when I was a busy undergrad, only I still had to do it all myself without tutor. Oh, and make sure to quote the prof in the paper if he has written anything about it!!!
First, my son is an engineering major as well, so I don’t appreciate him having to compete with Daddy Warbucks and son, and the OP, together. Your ethical dilemma isn’t just about whether the kid is being helped or not.
Second, you are being tested by the Boss’ boss. Are your ethics for sale?
Third, the kid is a loser who runs to dad (to throw money at the problem) rather than taking care the work himself. What kind of college student runs to his dad with a story like this? “Gee dad, I have to write a paper and I’m so busy. The details of the project are this and this and this and the due date is then. Ok, see ya.” Sounds like he will make a great engineer. :rolleyes:
So, you want to write the paper, write it for yourself. Just don’t sell it to someone who will use it dishonestly.
Generally, academic cheating is something I’d look down on the same as most people in this thread. But in this case, I can’t get too worked up about it. He’s an engineering student who has to fulfil a literature requirement, it’s not a major or even significant part of his course. I did a straight literature degree and would never have cheated on that part of it, but if I’d had to fulfil a maths requirement that I’d probably fail just to get my literature degree, I probably would have jumped at the chance of someone doing my assignment for me.
That said, I think it is a bit skeevy of your boss to ask you. Astro’s suggestion is good - offer to walk the kid through the paper with intensive ‘tutoring’ that has you sitting beside him while he writes it. If he can’t spare a few hours to do that then he will come across as an entitled brat, and you can then refuse to write the paper for him knowing you’re not being a jerk for not helping out a genuinely struggling student. (I would help someone who really needed it, but I wouldn’t help a freeloader.)
He would be presenting his work as the work of someone else. That’s a lie. He would do so knowing that it would be used to cheat. That’s cheating. As **Vetbridge **notes, an accomplice to a crime is no less guilty of the crime.
It’s helping to perpetuate a fraud not only on the university, but on every prospectice emplyer the kid ever applied to work for. It also cheats ever student who does his own work.
I was a tutor in college and I got offered money more than once to write papers. I never even considered it.
You’re kidding, right? I was going to read the whole thread before I responded, but this is just stupid. It does not matter how intelligent the kid is–that doesn’t translate to writing well. He could be a freaking genius and still write like a moron.
Think about this logically. Lit professors are, by and large, Ph.Ds. This means that they spent approximately 8-9 years analyzing literature. This seems obvious, right? But they were studying the way people write. They were studying voice and style. They were training their eyes and their minds every single day to pick up subtle nuances that most people don’t notice or don’t care about. If this kid has turned in any work to the professor, and I would guarantee that he has at this point, then the professor will notice a difference in the style. No matter how much you think this is a challenge, the professor will notice. And if said professor is the type to run papers through online checkers, then said professor is the type to pay very, very close attention to this sort of thing. One word could be enough to make the alarms go off.
And of course, if asked, the kid will probably lie and cover his ass. I caught a student plagiarizing and I had the proof IN MY HAND. Literally. She told me she didn’t know what I could be talking about, completely innocent. So yeah, he’ll lie and there won’t be any proof, but the professor will remember it. And they’ll watch that kid like a hawk. Which means the prof will get the confirmation they want when he writes a paper that is substantially less, or it means you better settle in for a semester of paper writing to keep up the charade.
A literature class isn’t about learning deconstructionism or picking out the themes in a short story. Every time I see the argument “oh, he won’t need that” I want to slam my fist in a wall. Look, would you tell an English student she didn’t need math? Only if you’re an idiot, because people use math every single day. People who don’t know how to do math are the idiots who can’t keep their bills paid and are ripe for financial scams. Literature is about analysis. It’s about being able to present a coherent, competent argument. It’s about reading and understanding other ideas and deciding how those ideas are going to influence your own worldview. Don’t we want engineers who can do a thoughtful analysis? Don’t we want engineers who can present their arguments in clear ways? Don’t we want engineers who know how to participate in a discourse community to his/her own benefit?
And in conclusion, fuck cheaters. I hope he gets caught and kicked out of school.
Don’t do it. In the long run, you won’t be doing the kid any favors and you may end up screwing yourself too. It’s the kid’s fault he’s in trouble and it’s his responsibility to do his own work, or to talk to the teacher and get something arranged.
I’m currently taking a class that’s probably never going to be useful for me. I’m writing a paper for it that I hate. Yes, I briefly considered buying a paper, but I’m not stupid enough to try that.
By college you need to have figured out how to deal with stuff you don’t want to do, and cheating is not a good option.