I consider myself an ethical person so perhaps that is what brought me to the decision I made this week. I had offered my skills as a writer to an individual I found through an online freelance site. I worked for them for about a week, writing a variety of papers for their clients. However, I continued to have this nagging pain, which seemed to be emanating from deep inside, from where I imagine my soul would reside.
I attempted to push that worry aside, but it kept festering and infecting my thoughts, just like the heartbeat famous in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart. I tried to rationalize my actions, focusing on the fact that I was being paid to do something that I loved…research and academic writing. However, no matter how much I focused on that aspect, I felt the guilt suffocating me, like a scarf that was cinching down upon my windpipe.
To make matters worse, the works that I had put many hours into researching and writing, were being critiqued by the customers, who themselves had horrid grammar, spelling, and punctuation. How could some rich brat of a kid criticize my work? The work that they themselves wouldn't even attempt? When I saw the replies to my submissions, I became furious and decided that I could not continue.
Perhaps it is because I would never think of paying someone to write something that I would then attach my name on, passing it off as my own work. When it boils down to it, I was helping an anonymous individual commit the academic crime of plagiarism, which I do not condone. Education is something that should be praised and enjoyed, for it is a lifelong process, not something that you pay someone else to do for you.
Some of the assignments were for introductory courses in a community college. If students are buying papers in the beginning of their post-high school education, perhaps they need to reexamine their plan. Some companies charge upwards of $20 per page, depending on level of expertise and time constraints, and the sad thing…they are able to remain in business, as students are still willing to pay. I even helped to edit a thesis on turbojet engines. Granted, that was a bit of an easier job, and a necessary one, but it was based on the actual work of the student, rather than just a figment of the farmed out writer’s imagination.
As the new quarter is about to start, finishing up my first year of graduate school, I wonder how many of my fellow students, both past and present, use such services. I'd rather earn a failing grade, than buy my way through life. Fortunately, I am able to maintain a near perfect grade point average and take pride in my work. When people buy papers, they really are just cheating themselves.
#DoWorkDontCheat
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