Struggling students are paying writers for essays they can pass off as their own. But what can be done to tackle this cheating epidemic and the ‘essay mills’ who profit from it?
The first time Chris wrote an essay for someone else, he was paid in food. A friend said his student girlfriend needed help, so Chris agreed to proofread her essay. But it needed more than an edit – “the logic was too messy” – so he rewrote the whole thing. It did the job: the essay was good and the student got a high grade. Chris’s friend was pleased too. “He treated me to hotpot in Singapore – that was the first time I’d been to a hotpot restaurant,” he recalls.
Then the student asked him to help her with another assignment. “I said: ‘I can’t eat hotpot every day, I should charge a price.’ Then she introduced me to her classmates and that’s how everything began,” says Chris. Today, he runs what’s known as an ‘essay mill’ – a highly lucrative business writing assignments for students struggling to complete them on their own.
Student cheating has been in the spotlight recently, after the US college admissions scandalmade global headlines. It’s not the first such scandal: India, for example, is still dealing with the fall-out of apparently large-scale medical school admission examination fraud. But it’s not just admissions: there’s also the problem of what some students do once they get into university - and the role played by people like Chris.
It grew after that first student moved to Australia to do her master’s degree and passed his name on to other people. He writes at least one essay a week but, as a global studies major, farms assignments on subjects like business and finance out to his specialists. He charges about 1 RMB per word, so a 1,000-word piece would come in around 1,000 RMB (£115, $150).
如今，学生找专业写手代写论文的现象屡见不鲜。我们应如何打击这种学术造假？“论文工厂”到底如何盈利？
克里斯第一次当写手的报酬是一顿大餐。据他说，一开始朋友的女朋友只需要找人来检查一遍自己的论文是否有误。结果等克里斯看到论文才发现，文章写的乱七八糟，因此他干脆全部推倒重来。而Chris的心血也并未白费——论文分数很高，并被评为优等。克里斯的朋友很高兴。“他直接请我去了一家新加坡的网红餐厅，以前我可从来没去过这种餐厅，”克里斯说道。
而后，克里斯很快就收到了第二单生意。“当时我跟那个同学说，你可别请我吃大餐了，天天吃我也受不了，直接付我钱好了”。后来我的第二个客户又给我介绍了她的同学，我的生意也渐渐有了起色。如今，克里斯运营着一家吸金能力超强的“论文工厂”——帮助有需要的学生撰写论文。
随着美国高校招生丑闻在全球范围内发酵，学生论文舞弊的现象也逐渐引起了各方的重视。事实上，舞弊事件并非美国独有——印度目前刚刚处理了一起大规模医学院招考舞弊案件。事实上，招考舞弊的影响绝不会止步于招生这个环节——这还关系到走后门的学生会在大学里如何表现、以及像克里斯这样的写手是否会存在的问题。
克里斯的第一位客户已经前往澳大利亚继续继续研究生阶段的学习了，并将克里斯介绍给了更多的朋友。克里斯每周至少会完成一单生意，同时他也非常注意“专人专项”——讲商业、金融等专业的论文分配给“懂行”的写手来完成。克里斯开价单字1人民币，因此，一篇1000字的论文会收取1000人民币（115英镑或150美元）的费用。
单词注释：
- mill 工厂、磨坊epidemic 传染病、流行病、风尚proofread 校对、校勘hotspot 热点、热区lucrative 有利可图的、赚钱的assignment 任务、作业admission 许可、录用scandal 丑闻finance 金融、融资farm out to sb. 给……人分配任务
句式分析
1.But （1）it needed more than an edit – （2）“the logic was too messy” – （3）so he rewrote the whole thing.
（1）it……edit：主句成分，表明文章需要的不仅仅是检查校对；
（2）the……messy：插入语，修饰说明为何文章需要大动；
（3）so……thing：主句成分，承接上文的“but……edit”。
2.Today, （1）he runs what’s known as an ‘essay mill’ – （2）a highly lucrative business writing assignments for students （3）struggling to complete them on their own.
（1）he……mill：主句成分，表明克里斯开始运营“论文工厂”；
（2）a……students：同位语成分，表明“论文工厂”的工作内容；
（3）struggling……own：等同于“who struggle to”，动词现在分词形式修饰学生，表明他们“论文产出困难”的问题；
简说：全球化的“翟天临”现象
如果时间可以倒流，翟天临一定不会在直播中说出“知网是什么？”这句话。随着网友们刨根问题，大家发现原来所谓的“高知形象”全靠胡编乱造和抄袭。事实上，“翟天临”事件并非中国特色，在很多国家学术舞弊现象也层出不穷——泰国电影《天才抢手》便是讲述了出身贫寒的天才学生为富人子弟代考的故事。也许，学校需要做的不仅仅是“抓现行”，更应该是从源头“选好苗子”，这样才能从根本上杜绝学术舞弊现象的诱因。