出版与作家生涯2011chronicle.com
代写论文者的自白（2010）
Confessions of a custom-essay writer (2010)
导读
这是一位替大学生代写论文的“影子学者”的自述：他靠检索与写作技巧批量生产课程论文，也由此反思教育、署名与能力之间的关系。写作者值得一读，因为它把“写得好”与“署你的名”“真正掌握”之间的裂缝摆到了明处。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
把“按时交付一个完整成品”当成写作训练的一部分：读者和客户看的是结果，而不是你的过程。
- 02
能靠检索拼出一篇通顺文章，练到的是整合与交付技能，不是学科知识；写的时候要清楚自己练的是哪一半。
- 03
署名与作者常常分离：网上署你名字的文字未必出自你手，反过来也一样，写作的可信度最终建立在可验证的现场能力上。
- 04
想检验自己真实水平，就给自己来一次“现场演示”：限时、闭卷、不检索地写一段，暴露没有外挂时的实力。
HN 评论精选
代笔的普遍程度让人怀疑署名，但“按时交付成品”本身就是一种可迁移的能力。
我做博主和作者的代笔时，经历过非常类似的情况：到后来我甚至在替一些人写评论和回复，因为他们不知道怎么为自己的作品辩护。以我对网络内容的了解，我不禁怀疑我们读的东西里有多少真是署名那个人写的。至于学校，我并不介意：大学学习的一部分就是学会赶截止日期、拿出成果，重要的不是论文是否你自己写，而是给最终用户交付一个成品，这种技能以后会很有用。
nhangen查看英文原文
During my life as a ghost writer for bloggers and authors, I had very similar interactions. It got to a point where I was writing comments/replies on behalf of some people because they didn't know how to defend work. Knowing what I know about online content, it gets me wondering how much of what we read is really written by the name attached to it. As for the topic of schools, I'm not bothered by it. Part of the learning in college comes from learning how to meet deadlines and get results. It's not so much about writing the paper on your own, but providing an end product to the end user. That type of skill will serve people well later in life.
用检索和写作技巧“黑进系统”通过课程，换来的是可迁移技能而非学科知识。
我从来没钱请这类代笔，但作为大学生我知道他们存在，同班就有人用。有意思的是，这个无名写手做的事和我对付那些从不去的课的做法差不多：谷歌图书和维基百科是我的主食，花几个小时写一篇论文、通过一门我其实一无所知的课只为拿学位时，我笑得很开心。我可能对本学科该学的学得少了，但学到了很多可迁移到未来的技能，比如比女性文学课更实用的东西。
int3rnaut查看英文原文
I never had the money to invest in one of these writers. I don't know if I ever would but I knew as a University student they were around and that there were people in the classes I took that used them. I find it incredibly interesting that this no-name writer basically did the same thing I did to courses I never attended (essentially his main demographic); Google books and Wikipedia were my bread and better and it always lit a huge smile on my face when I'd "beat the system" as it were and put a few hours into a paper and pass a course I knew nothing about just to get my degree. I don't know what it says about the education system, but hacking it in this particular way did a lot for me in terms of personal growth. I probably learned less about the subject at hand then I could have, but at the same time I learned a lot of useful skills that are transferable to my future compared to something like Women's lit (not that there's anything bad with that--oh how I remember the cold stares). I'm sure you could argue for or against these methods, I just wanted to put my personal perspective out there.
教育与文凭脱节，只有“当场演示”式的考核才最接近验证真实能力。
理想情况下学校提供两样东西：领域专长（教育）和对专长的认知（文凭），但这两者严重脱节。备考、做研究、做项目可以带来教育，但不必然如此；不做这些作业也能有效受教。于是只关心其中一半的人，可以用更少的力气去优化那一半。现场考试若重新出题并保密，很难作弊，可惜通常可以突击、仍可能作弊，还奖励应试技巧。最有效的大概是实操考试：让声称有技能的人当场演示；但它不适合研究型学科，比如研究生阶段。
amalcon查看英文原文
School ideally provides two things: domain expertise (by way of education) and the perception of domain expertise (by way of a credential). The problem is that these two functions are significantly disjoint. Studying for exams, doing research, and doing projects can provide education, but it is not necessarily so. Likewise, one can be educated effectively without actually completing such assignments. As such, someone who is more interested in one half of the result can optimize to obtain that half with less effort than would be required for the whole. These are not likely to be brought into alignment any time soon. Session exams, if re-created from scratch and kept confidential, are difficult (though not impossible) to cheat. Unfortunately, they are typically possible to cram, still possible to cheat, and they reward test-taking skills as much if not more than subject mastery. The practical exam is probably the most effective, where one purporting to have a skill is simply asked to demonstrate it on the spot. Unfortunately, not everything is amenable to this, and they are still possible to cheat, though there are really only two ways[1]. Practical exams are unfortunately not so good for research-heavy subjects (like, say, all of graduate studies). You can do it (research this topic, take all the notes you like, bring them into class, answer some questions (possibly in long-form), but it is a less effective exam than the normal research paper if the latter is done honestly. Still, I think they are the only way to go if you really want to put an end to cheating. [1]-Impersonation and outright bribery. There was a big scandal about the former in one of my classes back at Uni, in which six students were expelled. I've never heard of the latter, but I find it implausible that it never occurs.
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