Have you ever paid for a term paper?

[Class54]

Back in college I actually ran a business in which I provided "study guides" for my peers. I used to average 1-2k a week, more around mid terms/finals. I've always liked to write and was exploring various outlets for my talents. I might do it again once I begin grad school.

This actually helped prepare me for my (last) job: working for a consulting agency that specialized in assisting prospective entrepreneurs and startups with their business proposals to venture capitalists. Not unlike L.R. and his helping with business majors but with a lot of money on the table.

 

[scientific]

^1-2k is pretty impressive

i never even considered cheating during school but it does seem pretty widespread. guess I am not Treasury Secretary material

 

[yjeezle]

no, i can't trust anyone else with my work.

 

[blahman]

Nope. Never. I don't like taking credit which I did not earn. Besides, I didn't do liberal arts. Don't think they can do financial derivatives, computer science and mathematics - they would more likely fail you if you let them write it.

 

[acidboy]

not for the term paper but back in school word processors was still new and typewriters was still widely used. I hated typing so much and I'd hire someone to type my handwritten term papers and whatever papers to be submitted.

 

[zuhpiter]

i haven't been paid for a term paper..i wanna know about that...can you please tell me how?
or maybe teach me..

 

[L.R.]

Originally Posted by scientific

^1-2k is pretty impressive

i never even considered cheating during school but it does seem pretty widespread. guess I am not Treasury Secretary material

People are desperate for good marks.

I'm kind of pissed at the whole education system sometimes. I'm desperate for a decent job, and many of the students I tutored and helped pass presentations etc, are in nice, entry level or better jobs. But connections trump smarts at times.

 

[HgaleK]

Originally Posted by L.R.

People are desperate for good marks.

I'm kind of pissed at the whole education system sometimes. I'm desperate for a decent job, and many of the students I tutored and helped pass presentations etc, are in nice, entry level or better jobs. But connections trump smarts at times.

Then get more connections.

 

[L.R.]

Originally Posted by HgaleK

Then get more connections.

And how does one do that? My connections currently consist of peers, all of which are in entry level positions. (Or, if not, in positions that relate nothing to what I desire to do).

I have zero family connections (being the son of carpenter* doesn't bring many connections), and rather than interning in university, I worked all the time and during summers so I could afford to go. It has left me at some what of a disadvantage. I'll get to where I want someday, I have no doubt, but it'll take longer than I wish.



*Well..ok. One guy who was the son of a carpenter made it pretty big,....but He had a better extended family.

 

[Eason]

Originally Posted by Dakota rube

Let's turn the question around: Would you write a term paper for someone else, for $1000?
Never. As a decent writer, my craft relies upon the apparent incompetency of others around me. I would also never hire someone to write a paper for me, because I'm not a ******* idiot and am more than capable of writing a paper myself. Seriously, writing a paper is so easy but people go about it in all the wrong ways.

 

[Reggs]

Originally Posted by Dakota rube

Let's turn the question around: Would you write a term paper for someone else, for $1000?

Yes

 

[jrd617]

JFK did it!

Dear Cecil:

Did John F. Kennedy really write Profiles in Courage? I read that there were rumors at the time of its publication that it had been ghostwritten, and that the Kennedy family later conceded as much. Recently I visited Amazon.com and was surprised to see online reviews posted by readers praising the president for his fine writing. Is there any consensus about Profiles in Courage and who the real author is?

"” Kevin West, Los Angeles

Dear Kevin:

Yes, there's a consensus about Profiles in Courage (1956), which established JFK's intellectual credentials and helped make him a credible presidential candidate. We'll get to that. Yes, we know who did most of the heavy lifting for the book "” we'll get to that too. The principal controversy, apparently, has been what to call the curious process by which the book came to be. Even Garry Wills, a Kennedy critic, writes that JFK was the author of the book in the sense that he "authorized" it. Come now. Kennedy conceived the book and supervised its production, but did little of the research and writing. If you or I were discovered doing the same for a sophomore term paper in sociology, we'd get an F.

The idea for the book "” a study of heroic U.S. senators "” came to Kennedy in 1954, when he was a first-term senator himself. Initially he imagined it as a magazine article, but during a long convalescence after a couple back operations he decided to make it into a book. His chief assistant on the project was his speechwriter Ted Sorensen, often described as his alter ego. (Remember the bit about "Ask not what your country can do for you"? Sorensen was in on that one.) The recuperating Kennedy sent Sorensen a steady stream of notes and dictation, requested books, asked that memos be prepared, and so on. Sorensen worked virtually full-time on the project for six months, sometimes 12 hours a day. He coordinated the work and drafted many chapters. Others also made contributions, most importantly Georgetown University history professor Jules Davids.

The book was published on January 1, 1956, to lavish praise. It became a best seller and in 1957 was awarded the Pulitzer prize for biography. It established Kennedy, till then considered promising but lacking in gravitas, as one of the Democratic party's leading lights, setting the stage for his presidential nomination in 1960.

But doubts about the book's authorship surfaced early. In December 1957 syndicated columnist Drew Pearson, interviewed on TV by Mike Wallace, said, "Jack Kennedy is ... the only man in history that I know who won a Pulitzer prize on a book which was ghostwritten for him." Outraged, Kennedy hired lawyer Clark Clifford, who collected the senator's handwritten notes and rounded up statements from people who said they'd seen him working on the book, then persuaded Wallace's bosses at ABC to read a retraction on the air.

Kennedy made no secret of Sorensen's involvement in Profiles, crediting him in the preface as "my research associate," and likewise acknowledged the contributions of Davids and others. But he insisted that he was the book's author and bristled even at teasing suggestions to the contrary. Sorensen and other Kennedy loyalists backed him up then and have done so since.

The most thorough analysis of who did what has come from historian Herbert Parmet in Jack: The Struggles of John F. Kennedy (1980). Parmet interviewed the participants and reviewed a crateful of papers in the Kennedy Library. He found that Kennedy contributed some notes, mostly on John Quincy Adams, but little that made it into the finished product. "There is no evidence of a Kennedy draft for the overwhelming bulk of the book," Parmet writes. While "the choices, message, and tone of the volume are unmistakably Kennedy's," the actual work was "left to committee labor." The "literary craftsmanship [was] clearly Sorensen's, and he gave the book both the drama and flow that made for readability." Parmet, like everyone else, shrinks from saying Sorensen was the book's ghostwriter, but clearly he was.

On a related subject, did JFK's father, Joseph P. Kennedy, twist arms to get his son the Pulitzer, as some believe? Parmet finds no smoking gun. True, Profiles wasn't among the books recommended to the Pulitzer committee by its judges, a pair of expert reviewers, so when the rather slim volume came out of nowhere and trumped some seriously weighty scholarship, people got suspicious. (Supposedly Profiles won because someone on the committee said his 12-year-old grandson liked it.) New York Times columnist Arthur Krock, a friend of Joe Kennedy's, boasted that he had lobbied hard for the book, but Krock's partisanship was well known and the committee members were distinguished newspaper folk, not easily swayed. Parmet harrumphs that it would have been unlike Joe P. to let an opportunity slip, but who knows? We do know this: JFK, not for the first or last time, got credit he didn't deserve.

"” Cecil Adams

 

[oman]

Originally Posted by L.R.

I tutored throughout university. Actually... usually in courses I knew nothing of, but I could teach subjects well. (I read the text, taught the basics, had the student develop from there). I made some very good money.
fascinating, how'd you advertise?

Originally Posted by Eason

Seriously, writing a paper is so easy but people go about it in all the wrong ways.
interesting - i've always suspected this. you teach in asia, right? can we get some your thoughts on some of the "right" ways to go about it?

 

[oman]

edit - whoops

 

[HgaleK]

Originally Posted by L.R.

And how does one do that? My connections currently consist of peers, all of which are in entry level positions. (Or, if not, in positions that relate nothing to what I desire to do). I have zero family connections (being the son of carpenter* doesn't bring many connections), and rather than interning in university, I worked all the time and during summers so I could afford to go. It has left me at some what of a disadvantage. I'll get to where I want someday, I have no doubt, but it'll take longer than I wish. *Well..ok. One guy who was the son of a carpenter made it pretty big,....but He had a better extended family.
I have no clue what you're doing, and it probably doesn't matter because I have minimal experience with 98% of the jobs that people on here are interested in, but there are a few things that work everywhere. For dealing with what you have: -Don't discount any of your connections. Joe entry-level's father may have served alongside James big-timer in Vietnam. Joe's uncle may be big time. Joe's lifting partner may be a big-timer in a field that you're interested in, or knows somebody that is looking to fill a position that you're qualified for or want. If you've got solid relationships with your peers you can stretch a single connection pretty far. If it doesn't involve any risk on their end (like asking if his connections are hiring in your field or know anyone hiring) and you mean enough to them not to get screwed over by their laziness, it can stretch even further. -Make sure that people know that you're looking. Back to the first point again- they can't help you if they don't know you're looking. It's also important because employers may be willing to hire without actually needing to hire (and as such a job won't be posted), and many employers will ask around the people they trust for prospects before posting the job. -Reconsider your connections from several angles. An example for me is my mom. She actually has a **** ton of connections (people are her thing). Even if we ignore those, my mom can still provide great contacts. She does pilates in a nice part of Austin. She's made friends with the owners, the trainers, and many of ladies there. The ladies are generally wives, daughters, sisters, cousins, etc. to some sort of big timer (poors don't live in this area). If I ask her (direct contact) about getting a chance to speak with a big timer, she can ask the trainers (directly connected to her), who can ask the ladies (directly connected to the trainers), who can ask their husbands (directly connected to their wives). Each step involves a party with direct, established credibility, creating a pretty damn good connection even though it's so many steps out there. Keep in mind that this comes from my mom's recreational activity- not what you'd normally consider when looking at your network. Things for the immediate future: -Establish a relationship with more people in general. This goes back to the first point. If you join a large enough group and make friends, somebody should eventually end up knowing somebody. -Make strong relationships. Relationships based upon mutual utility are important and work in plenty of instances, but they have very serious limitations. Relationships involving intangibles (respect, love, friendship, etc.) allow you to ask for more and get more. The more somebody is emotionally invested in you, the further that your connection with them will reach. If you have credibility with somebody and they ask somebody for you that they have credibility with, and they ask somebody that they have credibility with, your reach could theoretically go on forever. People in relationships of mutual utility won't risk themselves or put out much effort if they don't think they'll see much in the way of an ROI. -Figure out where the people you to need to get to know are. My mom's pilates connections would probably be less useful if she was in a mall studio. While her credibility with the people there might allow he to reach a ways and there's a chance that there's a big timer there, the odds aren't as in my favor. If you're where your people are, you're more likely to make connections that are connected to your people, or may even directly establish a relationship with your man. -Establish relationships with somebody who's already done the leg work. Knowing somebody who's done all the networking for you shortens everything. If he/she knows somebody who's looking to hire for a position that you want, it works out doubly for them if they make the connection. Both of yall now owe him on some level. I'm making a guess from what I've read on here, but Matt sounds like an example of this type of person. I don't actually know how you find these people. I've stumbled on to mine by chance. -Establish relationship with people who deal with large numbers of people on at least a somewhat personal level. Off the top of my head are the people at your walk in coffee shop who get to know their regulars. A personal example is a personal trainer. My friend was training with a guy who was also working with an out of work construction PM. He knew that my buddy's dad was doing some sort of construction (residential in this case) and asked if he was looking for anybody. My buddy's dad didn't need anyone, but my buddy knew that my family was in construction as well and that we were thinking about hiring someone new. He cleared it with us and then sent the guy our way. He didn't get the job, but he had a chance that he wouldn't have otherwise had. -People owing you is a good thing. A lot of people are too lazy to help you out of the kindness of their hearts and aren't the sort of people that you'd like to establish a more intimate relationship with. Many of them will help you out of gratitude or to alleviate any sense of indebtedness. My buddy runs a perpetual networking machine by getting awkward people laid. He supplies parties (he always has one through connections he's made), turbo sluts who want to party (that he's met or that knows of through connections he's made), an introduction and a little talking up of the awkward dude to the turbo slut, and then guides as needed. The awkward guy feels a huge debt to my buddy, the turbo slut got drunk and got some attention, and the my buddy meets more people at the parties to repeat this. As an added bonus, many of the awkward guys are ended up fairly successful. If connections don't work: -Consider cold calls to whoever it is that you need to be speaking with. I would ask the head honchos who hire people here on this one though. Sorry for the long post. Tweaky and out of it.