by Stephanie Cage
Have you ever thought about writing non-fiction but been put off by the amount of research involved? Writing about what you know helps, as you’re likely to have the information you need at your fingertips, or at least know where to find it, but if you’re anything like me, you will still need to check up on a detail every so often.
The truth is, research is hard to avoid. Even as a fiction writer, you will still need to check facts once in a while. It might be a historical detail (would your hero have been wearing a top hat or bowler?), a fact about a place or person, or even the lyrics of your heroine’s favourite song.
Sometimes you can avoid the problem by being vague. Instead of naming the song, say, ‘He was humming that annoying tune again.’ If you don’t know exactly how big the boat was, say, ‘It was about the length of a swimming pool’. However, do this too often, and you lose the sense of reality, of a scene coming alive, that comes from a precisely imagined and described story world.
So how do you go about finding the information you need to fill the gaps in your story or article? As a researcher, there are five main sources of information I turn to, roughly in this order:
1 – Home reference books
Looking things up at home is quick and convenient, and a good encyclopaedia can fill in background information on a huge range of topics. However, it may not contain the specific information you’re looking for, and sometimes even if it contains the answer, it may be hard to find. For example, if you know want to find out more about Ellen MacArthur, it’s great, but it’s not much help if you can’t remember the surname of ‘that woman who sailed around the world – Ellen someone.’
2 – The Internet
The Internet is a great starting point if you can’t remember the exact details of what you’re looking for. Type ‘Ellen’ and ‘around the world sailing’ into Google and the odds are that sooner or later the name ‘MacArthur’ will crop up. It can be useful for tracking down poetry and song lyrics too, because it doesn’t matter if you can’t remember the title or first line – if it’s on the Internet, then typing any line into a search engine will help you track it down.
3 - Libraries
If you can’t find what you need at home, in most cases the next stop will be your local library. They will have a wider range of reference books, as well as other subject-related books. For example, if you need to add colour to your novel about a woman sailor, you could look out for interesting details in a biography of Ellen MacArthur.
If you’re really new to a subject, start from scratch with a child’s reference book. They’re often surprisingly informative as well as having lots of helpful illustrations.
If your local library fails, you may have to resort to a larger library further afield – main copyright libraries have every book you could wish for, although it’s worth calling in advance to check that the book you’re looking for is immediately available.
4 - Tourist information
Sometimes libraries aren’t much help because the information you’re looking for changes frequently. This is particularly true in travel writing, where you can end up looking foolish if a hotel or restaurant has closed down since your visit, or a museum or gallery has changed its opening hours. That’s when the area’s tourist information is invaluable.
5 - People
If you haven’t found what you’re looking for using any of these methods, or if you want more details than the average reference book provides, you’ll need to look for someone in the know who can help you out. For general information, museum curators, gallery owners and librarians are often very helpful, but sometimes you’ll need something more specific.
In that case, the best tactic can be to find an association related to the topic. If you want to find out about details of the Civil War for your battle scene, is there a re-enactment society near you? There’s bound to be someone who can answer your questions, and you might even get a chance to see the atmosphere of a Civil War battle for yourself and pick up some details you’d never have thought to ask about.
Finally, if that fails, fall back on the theory that everyone on the planet is connected by just six links and ask everyone you know (work colleagues, fellow writers group members, friends and relatives) whether they know anyone who might be able to help you. Tell them it’s for a book (or magazine article, or whatever) and most people are glad to help – that’s the beauty of being a writer.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephanie Cage is a writer and researcher based in Berkshire, UK. She writes regularly for The Agony Column and newbooksmag and has also been published in e-Quip (the e-zine of the British Society of Comedy Writers) and Link (the magazine of the National Association of Writers’ Groups), where this article first appeared. Visit her at www.stephaniecage.co.uk
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Extreme Research: 10 Snappy Rules for Success
by Christopher Brown
So you want to learn to research well, and not waste any time. Let's do it. Here are a few NECESSARY preliminary points.
1. First, adopt an aggressive I-am-taking-over-this-place mindset.
2. Develop a system for executing the research process. By creating your own rules to follow systematically, you really speed things up. Don't have one? No worries. You can use mine. I happen to have "research animal" stamped on my forehead.
3. Follow the rules. You can tweek them to suit your own style after a couple of runs with this method. But these make for great training wheels.
4. Before going into battle, always ready your weapons.
Do not go near a library or desk to start research unless and until everything you will need sits neatly arranged all about you for quick access. This one is your call. I use 2 or 3 pens and a pad of paper to scratch out notes and thoughts, and a pack of index cards for especially important notes. Then come the highlighters. In college, I used to work the highlighters until they overheated.
Some people like sticky notes (post-its). You can stick 'em all around you as you work. You will want a rolodex and a phone nearby in case you have to call someone you know to ask questions. For instance, if you have a specially-gifted techie friend in your inner circle, or know a professor, you may want to put him on speed dial. Think a bit about anything else you might need. Some folks study and research well to music, so get your headphones if you need them. Okay, here we have the system lined up for you.
PART #1: Begin Reconnaissance. You're going in.
A. Get an overview and "contextualize" your topic. Learn its timeline of events and the major historical factors associated with it. When did it happen? What did it do? Why do people care about it at all? Find a short article that outlines the history of, or at least offers a timeline for, your topic. Everything has a history, and gaining a quick overview of your topic's chronology will give you the context into which all your other sources will fit.
B. Next, ride the wave. This is the surfing and browsing stage. Start with what you know. Pick out words associated with your topic or subject and Google them. When you land a starting topic (you can change this as you go, no worries. Just start somewhere.), use online encyclopedias and other resources to get a "quick snapshot" of the general views on the subject that exist out there already. Try to see your subject from as many angles as possible, as it were, "walking all the way round it," inspecting as you go. Ask questions in your head, or even out loud like I do (caution: this may scare people), and put them down on paper in a special spot. Slap a sticky note on it that reads "QUESTIONS I HAVE."
To aid and abet developing a "snapshot overview," start looking up books on the topic. Find 10 of them. Note the titles on maybe 50 books -- if you can find that many -- about your subject or topic. Note the overlap in words used in the titles about your topic. This will give you a quick idea about who or what this topic means to others who have already studied it.
Next, read the bibliographies of books. One good book can give you 5-10 great leads you might never have found otherwise. Note the titles that show up repeatedly in different bibliographies. In research geekspeak this is "bibbo," bibliographic overlap. Bibbo identifies your IRT's -- Initial Research Targets. Photocopy or print out from your IRT's: the table of contents; the first chapter; a middle chapter that looks interesting or helpful; and the final chapter. Then read these and highlight the Dickens out of them. This gives you a snapshot, and a working knowledge, of the entire book extremely fast. It works too. Use your scribbled out question set as a filter for "what to look for" -- and highlight or take notes on -- when reading your IRT's. Write down any further questions that develop. These can be as simple as "Who is that guy?" Let your curiosity guide you, and let the sticky notes FLY!!
Next, read journal and magazine articles. How do you find these? Try checking your Bibbo. Or just follow any that you think might land you somewhere interesting. Play the detective. Follow your nose if you smell a good lead.
PART #2: Compile and organize your sources.
Use the old-fashioned vanilla file folders and mark them up, so you know which is what. Then get a file box to keep them handy.
PART#3: Determine which are the most relevant features of your topic from its effects or imlplications in 3 different areas of study. For instance, if your topic reads, "Interesting stuff about World War II," then you will need to ask and study questions like, "Who did it cost, and how much did it cost them, to have this war?" Follow the money (economics). Then, you might ask "How did this war change the mindset or values of American society" (sociology or philosophy). Finally, ask maybe, "What inventions did Europeans develop to fight this war?" (technology).
By looking at your topic from at least three disciplinary viewpoints, you will gain a broad understanding of it, and find yourself -- somewhat suddenly -- asking GREAT questions about it.
PART#4: Find and choose a controversial feature of topic, and choose a side of the issue.
Write down your viewpoint in one sentence. This we call your "thesis." Arguing this point well now constitutes your "objective." Ask the question of your thesis, "How do you know this is the case?" Ask this three times. Each time you ask it, give a brief answer in writing from one of your three areas you chose. Each answer must reflect views formed from a different area.
PART#5: Next, Re-read or skim your sources to develop an outline (in order to support your three points offered in defense of your thesis). Now pull out the photocopied (or printed out) chapters from your IRT's and highlight and scribble all over them -- but keep it legible. Argue your case vigorously with your imaginary critic who knows what you know. Take his side and argue against your thesis the best you can. Shoot it down, developing three criticisms. Some of these will already have circulated in print in your sources. Line them up. Then answer the critic. Refute his three points. Your outline is nearly finished.
PART #6: Organize your notes into subgroups listed under the branches of your outline. Draw a picture of the flow of your argument and objections as though it were a tree, and label the parts. Modify the outline as needed. Add relevant subheadings (you will come across new info in your scribbling) under the branches of the outline. Fill out relevant details from your notes to form the arguments for each section and subsection. Your rough draft is now complete.
PART#7: Rewrite your rough draft 5 times using our rules of good writing.
PART:#8 Study the cleaned-up draft for logical errors in arguments. See our "Blogic For Writers" website for this; modify and strenghten your case. Use T Edward Damer's "Attacking Faulty Reasoning" for this too.
PART#9 -- Write your conclusion. This final paragraph spells out "what important point or points you have learned from doing all this hard work (e-search). Here, you make the case for why your research has value. Also, here either write or rewrite your introductory paragraph to "hint at" (anticipate) the concluding paragraph. Most of the time it actually makes the best sense to write your introduction LAST, since this way you write with a view of the WHOLE work, which you did not have at the beginning.
In the introduction, hint at your conclusion, but don't give away the whole story. This makes for a smooth and logical flow from start to finish, giving your work a stylish symmetry, where the first part foresees the end, and the end reflects on the beginning. All good stories have this symmetry.
PART #10. Do the footnoting (or endnoting) and contstruct an extensive bibliography. Add title page and Table of Contents. See Kate Turabian's or an MLA manual online for this, and for grammar and style. You can also use the resources we list in our sidebar.
You are DONE. Your paper or article "so totally rocks," and you get an "A." Your readers love you, and you then become wealthy and famous. Your actual mileage may vary, batteries not included, offer void where prohibited.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christopher Brown has taught English and philosophy for two colleges, attended the California State University, and went to seminary in Orlando, FL. In 2004, he and two friends incorporated a business (Ophir Gold Corporation) that offers free services that help people. You may find them at: http://scriberight.blogspot.com (Writing With Power) and http://ophirgoldcorp.blogspot.com (OGC's Free Web Traffic).
So you want to learn to research well, and not waste any time. Let's do it. Here are a few NECESSARY preliminary points.
1. First, adopt an aggressive I-am-taking-over-this-place mindset.
2. Develop a system for executing the research process. By creating your own rules to follow systematically, you really speed things up. Don't have one? No worries. You can use mine. I happen to have "research animal" stamped on my forehead.
3. Follow the rules. You can tweek them to suit your own style after a couple of runs with this method. But these make for great training wheels.
4. Before going into battle, always ready your weapons.
Do not go near a library or desk to start research unless and until everything you will need sits neatly arranged all about you for quick access. This one is your call. I use 2 or 3 pens and a pad of paper to scratch out notes and thoughts, and a pack of index cards for especially important notes. Then come the highlighters. In college, I used to work the highlighters until they overheated.
Some people like sticky notes (post-its). You can stick 'em all around you as you work. You will want a rolodex and a phone nearby in case you have to call someone you know to ask questions. For instance, if you have a specially-gifted techie friend in your inner circle, or know a professor, you may want to put him on speed dial. Think a bit about anything else you might need. Some folks study and research well to music, so get your headphones if you need them. Okay, here we have the system lined up for you.
PART #1: Begin Reconnaissance. You're going in.
A. Get an overview and "contextualize" your topic. Learn its timeline of events and the major historical factors associated with it. When did it happen? What did it do? Why do people care about it at all? Find a short article that outlines the history of, or at least offers a timeline for, your topic. Everything has a history, and gaining a quick overview of your topic's chronology will give you the context into which all your other sources will fit.
B. Next, ride the wave. This is the surfing and browsing stage. Start with what you know. Pick out words associated with your topic or subject and Google them. When you land a starting topic (you can change this as you go, no worries. Just start somewhere.), use online encyclopedias and other resources to get a "quick snapshot" of the general views on the subject that exist out there already. Try to see your subject from as many angles as possible, as it were, "walking all the way round it," inspecting as you go. Ask questions in your head, or even out loud like I do (caution: this may scare people), and put them down on paper in a special spot. Slap a sticky note on it that reads "QUESTIONS I HAVE."
To aid and abet developing a "snapshot overview," start looking up books on the topic. Find 10 of them. Note the titles on maybe 50 books -- if you can find that many -- about your subject or topic. Note the overlap in words used in the titles about your topic. This will give you a quick idea about who or what this topic means to others who have already studied it.
Next, read the bibliographies of books. One good book can give you 5-10 great leads you might never have found otherwise. Note the titles that show up repeatedly in different bibliographies. In research geekspeak this is "bibbo," bibliographic overlap. Bibbo identifies your IRT's -- Initial Research Targets. Photocopy or print out from your IRT's: the table of contents; the first chapter; a middle chapter that looks interesting or helpful; and the final chapter. Then read these and highlight the Dickens out of them. This gives you a snapshot, and a working knowledge, of the entire book extremely fast. It works too. Use your scribbled out question set as a filter for "what to look for" -- and highlight or take notes on -- when reading your IRT's. Write down any further questions that develop. These can be as simple as "Who is that guy?" Let your curiosity guide you, and let the sticky notes FLY!!
Next, read journal and magazine articles. How do you find these? Try checking your Bibbo. Or just follow any that you think might land you somewhere interesting. Play the detective. Follow your nose if you smell a good lead.
PART #2: Compile and organize your sources.
Use the old-fashioned vanilla file folders and mark them up, so you know which is what. Then get a file box to keep them handy.
PART#3: Determine which are the most relevant features of your topic from its effects or imlplications in 3 different areas of study. For instance, if your topic reads, "Interesting stuff about World War II," then you will need to ask and study questions like, "Who did it cost, and how much did it cost them, to have this war?" Follow the money (economics). Then, you might ask "How did this war change the mindset or values of American society" (sociology or philosophy). Finally, ask maybe, "What inventions did Europeans develop to fight this war?" (technology).
By looking at your topic from at least three disciplinary viewpoints, you will gain a broad understanding of it, and find yourself -- somewhat suddenly -- asking GREAT questions about it.
PART#4: Find and choose a controversial feature of topic, and choose a side of the issue.
Write down your viewpoint in one sentence. This we call your "thesis." Arguing this point well now constitutes your "objective." Ask the question of your thesis, "How do you know this is the case?" Ask this three times. Each time you ask it, give a brief answer in writing from one of your three areas you chose. Each answer must reflect views formed from a different area.
PART#5: Next, Re-read or skim your sources to develop an outline (in order to support your three points offered in defense of your thesis). Now pull out the photocopied (or printed out) chapters from your IRT's and highlight and scribble all over them -- but keep it legible. Argue your case vigorously with your imaginary critic who knows what you know. Take his side and argue against your thesis the best you can. Shoot it down, developing three criticisms. Some of these will already have circulated in print in your sources. Line them up. Then answer the critic. Refute his three points. Your outline is nearly finished.
PART #6: Organize your notes into subgroups listed under the branches of your outline. Draw a picture of the flow of your argument and objections as though it were a tree, and label the parts. Modify the outline as needed. Add relevant subheadings (you will come across new info in your scribbling) under the branches of the outline. Fill out relevant details from your notes to form the arguments for each section and subsection. Your rough draft is now complete.
PART#7: Rewrite your rough draft 5 times using our rules of good writing.
PART:#8 Study the cleaned-up draft for logical errors in arguments. See our "Blogic For Writers" website for this; modify and strenghten your case. Use T Edward Damer's "Attacking Faulty Reasoning" for this too.
PART#9 -- Write your conclusion. This final paragraph spells out "what important point or points you have learned from doing all this hard work (e-search). Here, you make the case for why your research has value. Also, here either write or rewrite your introductory paragraph to "hint at" (anticipate) the concluding paragraph. Most of the time it actually makes the best sense to write your introduction LAST, since this way you write with a view of the WHOLE work, which you did not have at the beginning.
In the introduction, hint at your conclusion, but don't give away the whole story. This makes for a smooth and logical flow from start to finish, giving your work a stylish symmetry, where the first part foresees the end, and the end reflects on the beginning. All good stories have this symmetry.
PART #10. Do the footnoting (or endnoting) and contstruct an extensive bibliography. Add title page and Table of Contents. See Kate Turabian's or an MLA manual online for this, and for grammar and style. You can also use the resources we list in our sidebar.
You are DONE. Your paper or article "so totally rocks," and you get an "A." Your readers love you, and you then become wealthy and famous. Your actual mileage may vary, batteries not included, offer void where prohibited.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christopher Brown has taught English and philosophy for two colleges, attended the California State University, and went to seminary in Orlando, FL. In 2004, he and two friends incorporated a business (Ophir Gold Corporation) that offers free services that help people. You may find them at: http://scriberight.blogspot.com (Writing With Power) and http://ophirgoldcorp.blogspot.com (OGC's Free Web Traffic).
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Adventures in Cheating: A guide to buying term papers online
I found this article at Slate.com and could not refrain from publishing it. The article is really interesting yet informative; it is written by Seth Stevenson, one of the contributors to Slate.Students, your semester is almost over. This fall, did you find yourself pulling many bong hits but few all-nighters? Absorbing much Schlitz but little Nietzsche? Attending Arizona State University? If the answer is yes to any or (especially) all these questions, you will no doubt be plagiarizing your term papers.
Good for you—we're all short on time these days. Yes, it's ethically blah blah blah to cheat on a term paper blah. The question is: How do you do it right? For example, the chump move is to find some library book and copy big hunks out of it. No good: You still have to walk to the library, find a decent book, and link the hunks together with your own awful prose. Instead, why not just click on a term paper web site and buy the whole damn paper already written by some smart dude? Que bella! Ah, but which site?
I shopped at several online term paper stores to determine where best to spend your cheating dollar. After selecting papers on topics in history, psychology, and biology, I had each paper graded by one of my judges. These were: Slate writer David Greenberg, who teaches history at Columbia; my dad, who teaches psychology at the University of Rhode Island (sometimes smeared as the ASU of the East); and my girlfriend, who was a teaching assistant in biology at Duke (where she says cheating was quite common). So, which site wins for the best combination of price and paper quality? I compared free sites, sites that sell "pre-written papers," and a site that writes custom papers to your specifications.
Free Sites
A quick Web search turns up dozens of sites filled with free term papers. Some ask you to donate one of your own papers in exchange, but most don't. I chose one from each of our fields for comparison and soon found that when it comes to free papers, you get just about what you pay for.
EssaysFree.com: From this site I chose a history paper titled "The Infamous Watergate Scandal." Bad choice. This paper had no thesis, no argument, random capitalization, and bizarre spell-checking errors—including "taking the whiteness stand" (witness) and "the registration of Nixon" (resignation). My judge said if they gave F's at Columbia, well … Instead, it gots a good old "Please come see me."BigNerds.com: Of the free bio paper I chose from this site, my judge said, "Disturbing. I am still disturbed." It indeed read less like a term paper than a deranged manifesto. Rambling for 11 single-spaced pages and ostensibly on evolutionary theory, it somehow made reference to Lamarck, Sol Invictus, and "the blanket of a superficial American Dream." Meanwhile, it garbled its basic explanation of population genetics. Grade: "I would not give this a grade so much as suggest tutoring, a change in majors, some sort of counseling."
OPPapers.com: This site fared much better. A paper titled "Critically Evaluate Erikson's Psychosocial Theory" spelled Erikson's name wrong in the first sentence, yet still won a C+/B- from my dad. It hit most of the important points—the problem was no analysis. And the citations all came from textbooks, not real sources. Oddly, this paper also used British spellings ("behaviour") for no apparent reason. But all in all not terrible, considering it was free.
OPPapers.com, purely on style points, was my favorite site. The name comes from an old hip-hop song ("You down with O-P-P?" meaning other people's ... genitalia), the site has pictures of coed babes, and one paper in the psych section was simply the phrase "I wanna bang Angelina Jolie" typed over and over again for several pages. Hey, whaddaya want for free?
Sites Selling Pre-Written Papers
There are dozens of these—I narrowed it down to three sites that seemed fairly reputable and were stocked with a wide selection. (In general, the selection offered on pay sites was 10 times bigger than at the free ones.) Each pay site posted clear disclaimers that you're not to pass off these papers as your own work. Sure you're not.
AcademicTermPapers.com: This site charged $7 per page, and I ordered "The Paranoia Behind Watergate" for $35. Well worth it. My history judge gave it the highest grade of all the papers he saw—a B or maybe even a B+. Why? It boasted an actual argument. A few passages, however, might set off his plagiarism radar (or "pladar"). They show almost too thorough a command of the literature.
My other purchase here was a $49 bio paper titled "The Species Concept." Despite appearing in the bio section of the site, this paper seemed to be for a philosophy class. Of course, no way to know that until after you've bought it (the pay sites give you just the title and a very brief synopsis of each paper). My judge would grade this a C- in an intro bio class, as its conclusion was "utterly meaningless," and it tossed around "airy" philosophies without actually understanding the species concept at all.
PaperStore.net: For about $10 per page, I ordered two papers from the Paper Store, which is also BuyPapers.com and AllPapers.com. For $50.23, I bought "Personality Theory: Freud and Erikson," by one Dr. P. McCabe (the only credited author on any of these papers. As best I can tell, the global stock of papers for sale is mostly actual undergrad stuff with a few items by hired guns thrown in). The writing style here was oddly mixed, with bad paraphrasing of textbooks—which is normal for a freshman—side by side with surprisingly clever and polished observations. Grade: a solid B.
My other Paper Store paper was "Typical Assumptions of Kin Selection," bought for $40.38. Again, a pretty good buy. It was well-written, accurate, and occasionally even thoughtful. My bio judge would give it a B in a freshman class. Possible pladar ping: The writer seemed to imply that some of his ideas stemmed from a personal chat with a noted biologist. But overall, the Paper Store earned its pay.
A1Termpaper.com (aka 1-800-Termpaper.com): In some ways this is the strangest site, as most of the papers for sale were written between 1978 and '83. I would guess this is an old term paper source, which has recently made the jump to the Web. From its history section, I bought a book report on Garry Wills' Nixon Agonistes for $44.75, plus a $7.45 fee for scanning all the pages—the paper was written in 1981, no doubt on a typewriter. Quality? It understood the book but made no critique—a high-school paper. My judge would give it a D.
I next bought "Personality as Seen by Erikson, Mead, and Freud" from A1 Termpaper for $62.65 plus a $10.43 scanning fee. Also written in 1981, this one had the most stylish prose of any psych paper and the most sophisticated thesis, but it was riddled with factual errors. For instance, it got Freud's psychosexual stages completely mixed up and even added some that don't exist (the correct progression is oral-anal-phallic-latency-genital, as if you didn't know). Showing its age, it cited a textbook from 1968 and nothing from after '69 (and no, that's not another Freudian stage, gutter-mind). Grade: Dad gave it a C+. In the end, A1 Termpaper.com was pricey, outdated, and not a good buy.
With all these pre-written papers, though, it occurred to me that a smart but horribly lazy student could choose to put his effort into editing instead of researching and writing: Buy a mediocre paper that's done the legwork, then whip it into shape by improving the writing and adding some carefully chosen details. Not a bad strategy.
Papers Made To Order
PaperMasters.com: My final buy was a custom-made paper written to my specifications. Lots of sites do this, for between $17 and $20 per page. PaperMasters.com claims all its writers have "at least one Master's Degree" and charges $17.95 per page. I typed this request (posing as a professor's assignment, copied verbatim) into its Web order form: "A 4-page term paper on David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. Investigate the semiotics of the 'addicted gaze' as represented by the mysterious film of the book's title. Possible topics to address include nihilism, figurative transgendering, the culture of entertainment, and the concept of 'infinite gestation.' "
This assignment was total hooey. It made no sense whatsoever. Yet it differed little from papers I was assigned as an undergrad English major at Brown.
After a few tries (one woman at the 800 number told me they were extremely busy), my assignment was accepted by Paper Masters, with a deadline for one week later. Keep in mind, Infinite Jest is an 1,100-page novel (including byzantine footnotes), and it took me almost a month to read even though I was completely engrossed by it. In short, there's no way anyone could 1) finish the book in time; and 2) write anything coherent that addressed the assignment.
I began to feel guilty. Some poor writer somewhere was plowing through this tome, then concocting a meaningless mishmash of words simply to fill four pages and satisfy the bizarre whims of a solitary, heartless taskmaster (me). But then I realized this is exactly what I did for all four years of college—and I paid them for the privilege!
When the custom paper came back, it was all I'd dreamed. Representative sentence: "The novel's diverse characters demonstrate both individually and collectively the fixations and obsessions that bind humanity to the pitfalls of reality and provide a fertile groundwork for the semiotic explanation of addictive behavior." Tripe. The paper had no thesis and in fact had no body—not one sentence actually advanced a cogent idea. I'm guessing it would have gotten a C+ at Brown—maybe even a B-. If I were a just slightly lesser person, I might be tempted by this service. One custom paper off the Web: $71.80. Not having to dredge up pointless poppycock for some po-mo obsessed, overrated lit-crit professor: priceless.
Adventures in Cheating: A guide to buying term papers online
I found this article in blog and could not refrain from publishing it. The article is really interesting yet informative; it is written by Seth Stevenson, one of the contributors to Slate.Students, your semester is almost over. This fall, did you find yourself pulling many bong hits but few all-nighters? Absorbing much Schlitz but little Nietzsche? Attending Arizona State University? If the answer is yes to any or (especially) all these questions, you will no doubt be plagiarizing your term papers.
Good for you—we're all short on time these days. Yes, it's ethically blah blah blah to cheat on a term paper blah. The question is: How do you do it right? For example, the chump move is to find some library book and copy big hunks out of it. No good: You still have to walk to the library, find a decent book, and link the hunks together with your own awful prose. Instead, why not just click on a term paper web site and buy the whole damn paper already written by some smart dude? Que bella! Ah, but which site?
I shopped at several online term paper stores to determine where best to spend your cheating dollar. After selecting papers on topics in history, psychology, and biology, I had each paper graded by one of my judges. These were: Slate writer David Greenberg, who teaches history at Columbia; my dad, who teaches psychology at the University of Rhode Island (sometimes smeared as the ASU of the East); and my girlfriend, who was a teaching assistant in biology at Duke (where she says cheating was quite common). So, which site wins for the best combination of price and paper quality? I compared free sites, sites that sell "pre-written papers," and a site that writes custom papers to your specifications.
Free Sites
A quick Web search turns up dozens of sites filled with free term papers. Some ask you to donate one of your own papers in exchange, but most don't. I chose one from each of our fields for comparison and soon found that when it comes to free papers, you get just about what you pay for.
EssaysFree.com: From this site I chose a history paper titled "The Infamous Watergate Scandal." Bad choice. This paper had no thesis, no argument, random capitalization, and bizarre spell-checking errors—including "taking the whiteness stand" (witness) and "the registration of Nixon" (resignation). My judge said if they gave F's at Columbia, well … Instead, it gots a good old "Please come see me."BigNerds.com: Of the free bio paper I chose from this site, my judge said, "Disturbing. I am still disturbed." It indeed read less like a term paper than a deranged manifesto. Rambling for 11 single-spaced pages and ostensibly on evolutionary theory, it somehow made reference to Lamarck, Sol Invictus, and "the blanket of a superficial American Dream." Meanwhile, it garbled its basic explanation of population genetics. Grade: "I would not give this a grade so much as suggest tutoring, a change in majors, some sort of counseling."
OPPapers.com: This site fared much better. A paper titled "Critically Evaluate Erikson's Psychosocial Theory" spelled Erikson's name wrong in the first sentence, yet still won a C+/B- from my dad. It hit most of the important points—the problem was no analysis. And the citations all came from textbooks, not real sources. Oddly, this paper also used British spellings ("behaviour") for no apparent reason. But all in all not terrible, considering it was free.
OPPapers.com, purely on style points, was my favorite site. The name comes from an old hip-hop song ("You down with O-P-P?" meaning other people's ... genitalia), the site has pictures of coed babes, and one paper in the psych section was simply the phrase "I wanna bang Angelina Jolie" typed over and over again for several pages. Hey, whaddaya want for free?
Sites Selling Pre-Written Papers
There are dozens of these—I narrowed it down to three sites that seemed fairly reputable and were stocked with a wide selection. (In general, the selection offered on pay sites was 10 times bigger than at the free ones.) Each pay site posted clear disclaimers that you're not to pass off these papers as your own work. Sure you're not.
AcademicTermPapers.com: This site charged $7 per page, and I ordered "The Paranoia Behind Watergate" for $35. Well worth it. My history judge gave it the highest grade of all the papers he saw—a B or maybe even a B+. Why? It boasted an actual argument. A few passages, however, might set off his plagiarism radar (or "pladar"). They show almost too thorough a command of the literature.
My other purchase here was a $49 bio paper titled "The Species Concept." Despite appearing in the bio section of the site, this paper seemed to be for a philosophy class. Of course, no way to know that until after you've bought it (the pay sites give you just the title and a very brief synopsis of each paper). My judge would grade this a C- in an intro bio class, as its conclusion was "utterly meaningless," and it tossed around "airy" philosophies without actually understanding the species concept at all.
PaperStore.net: For about $10 per page, I ordered two papers from the Paper Store, which is also BuyPapers.com and AllPapers.com. For $50.23, I bought "Personality Theory: Freud and Erikson," by one Dr. P. McCabe (the only credited author on any of these papers. As best I can tell, the global stock of papers for sale is mostly actual undergrad stuff with a few items by hired guns thrown in). The writing style here was oddly mixed, with bad paraphrasing of textbooks—which is normal for a freshman—side by side with surprisingly clever and polished observations. Grade: a solid B.
My other Paper Store paper was "Typical Assumptions of Kin Selection," bought for $40.38. Again, a pretty good buy. It was well-written, accurate, and occasionally even thoughtful. My bio judge would give it a B in a freshman class. Possible pladar ping: The writer seemed to imply that some of his ideas stemmed from a personal chat with a noted biologist. But overall, the Paper Store earned its pay.
A1Termpaper.com (aka 1-800-Termpaper.com): In some ways this is the strangest site, as most of the papers for sale were written between 1978 and '83. I would guess this is an old term paper source, which has recently made the jump to the Web. From its history section, I bought a book report on Garry Wills' Nixon Agonistes for $44.75, plus a $7.45 fee for scanning all the pages—the paper was written in 1981, no doubt on a typewriter. Quality? It understood the book but made no critique—a high-school paper. My judge would give it a D.
I next bought "Personality as Seen by Erikson, Mead, and Freud" from A1 Termpaper for $62.65 plus a $10.43 scanning fee. Also written in 1981, this one had the most stylish prose of any psych paper and the most sophisticated thesis, but it was riddled with factual errors. For instance, it got Freud's psychosexual stages completely mixed up and even added some that don't exist (the correct progression is oral-anal-phallic-latency-genital, as if you didn't know). Showing its age, it cited a textbook from 1968 and nothing from after '69 (and no, that's not another Freudian stage, gutter-mind). Grade: Dad gave it a C+. In the end, A1 Termpaper.com was pricey, outdated, and not a good buy.
With all these pre-written papers, though, it occurred to me that a smart but horribly lazy student could choose to put his effort into editing instead of researching and writing: Buy a mediocre paper that's done the legwork, then whip it into shape by improving the writing and adding some carefully chosen details. Not a bad strategy.
Papers Made To Order
PaperMasters.com: My final buy was a custom-made paper written to my specifications. Lots of sites do this, for between $17 and $20 per page. PaperMasters.com claims all its writers have "at least one Master's Degree" and charges $17.95 per page. I typed this request (posing as a professor's assignment, copied verbatim) into its Web order form: "A 4-page term paper on David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. Investigate the semiotics of the 'addicted gaze' as represented by the mysterious film of the book's title. Possible topics to address include nihilism, figurative transgendering, the culture of entertainment, and the concept of 'infinite gestation.' "
This assignment was total hooey. It made no sense whatsoever. Yet it differed little from papers I was assigned as an undergrad English major at Brown.
After a few tries (one woman at the 800 number told me they were extremely busy), my assignment was accepted by Paper Masters, with a deadline for one week later. Keep in mind, Infinite Jest is an 1,100-page novel (including byzantine footnotes), and it took me almost a month to read even though I was completely engrossed by it. In short, there's no way anyone could 1) finish the book in time; and 2) write anything coherent that addressed the assignment.
I began to feel guilty. Some poor writer somewhere was plowing through this tome, then concocting a meaningless mishmash of words simply to fill four pages and satisfy the bizarre whims of a solitary, heartless taskmaster (me). But then I realized this is exactly what I did for all four years of college—and I paid them for the privilege!
When the custom paper came back, it was all I'd dreamed. Representative sentence: "The novel's diverse characters demonstrate both individually and collectively the fixations and obsessions that bind humanity to the pitfalls of reality and provide a fertile groundwork for the semiotic explanation of addictive behavior." Tripe. The paper had no thesis and in fact had no body—not one sentence actually advanced a cogent idea. I'm guessing it would have gotten a C+ at Brown—maybe even a B-. If I were a just slightly lesser person, I might be tempted by this service. One custom paper off the Web: $71.80. Not having to dredge up pointless poppycock for some po-mo obsessed, overrated lit-crit professor: priceless.
Making Money from Freelance Writing
by Amber McNaught
It’s the question that every aspiring freelancer eventually finds themselves asking: is it really possible to make money from this? The kind of money that lets you keep a roof over your head and feed your kids occasionally, that is?
Well, yes, it is. But let’s be honest: it’s not easy. In fact, you probably just picked one of the most difficult career paths in the world. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that with the right approach and the right attitude, you can earn a respectable wage from freelance writing. Here are a few tips on how to do it:
Love your writing career
If you’re anything like the thousands of other freelance writers out there, you’re probably not in this for the money. If money was your main objective, you’d probably be working your way up the corporate ladder right now in a nice, safe office job, washing the car on Sundays and forgetting all about writing.
If that kind of lifestyle is anathema to you, then congratulations – freelance writing could be the right career choice after all.
At the bottom line, most freelance writers do it because they love to write, and because they want to be able to make a living doing something they enjoy. And that’s a good start. If you really want to make a success of your freelance writing career, you’re going to have to love what you’re doing, and really want to make a success of it.
This is a rule that doesn’t really apply to conventional working. You don’t have to love Big Macs to work in McDonalds, or love filing to work in an office. You just have to turn up on time, do what’s required from you and then walk away. If your career is freelance writing, you never get to walk away. The truth is that at first (and often for a long time afterwards) you’ll spend much more time looking for work than you’ll spend actually writing. Looking for work will become all-consuming. When you’re not writing, you’ll be either thinking about writing, or looking for writing you can do to make money. If you don’t love what you’re doing, and if you’re not absolutely determined to keep on doing it, you’ll find it very hard to keep that up.
But enjoying what you’re doing isn’t going to be enough: if you really want to make a living out of your writing, you’re going to have to treat it like a business.
Treat freelance writing as a business
As we’ve said, the chances are that you write because you love to write. Or because you want a job you can work around your kids, your hobbies or your other commitments in life. Whatever you do, though, never lose sight of the fact that your writing is, first and foremost, a business. And as with any business, you need to work at marketing it and growing it.
This may not come easy at first. You’re a writer, after all, not a marketer! If you wanted to sell things, you’d have found a job in sales, right?
Wrong. You DID find a job in sales. Freelance writing is as much about selling as it is about writing. You picked a competitive industry to work in. No matter how good you are at writing, there’s someone out there who’s as good or better. There are even people out there who aren’t nearly as good at writing as you are, and yet they’re getting more jobs. Why is that?
The difference is in the selling. The mediocre writer who does a good job of getting out there and selling their services (and themselves) will ultimately be more successful than the excellent writer who sits at home and waits for the work to come and find them. The truth is that the work will never come. You need to go and find it – and when you find it, you need to make sure you pitch yourself well enough to secure it. If you don’t know anything about marketing, it’s time to learn.
Remember the golden rule of writing
Of course, there are ways to make things easier on yourself. There are a whole host of websites out there which allow you to “bid” for writing jobs. Great idea, no? Well, it depends. Remember the golden rule: money flows towards the writer. If you’re thinking of signing up with an agency that requires you to pay money to join, you’re already breaking the number one rule.
Be wary of bidding sites, too. Often the competition is so fierce that you have to be willing to practically work for free in order to secure the job. And working for free isn’t paying your mortgage or feeding your kids.
Love your work, market yourself, and remember the golden rule. Welcome to the wonderful world of freelance writing!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amber McNaught runs www.WritingWorld.org, an online agency for writers, editors, proofreaders and translators. Chat about all aspects of writing and the writing life at the WritingWorld.org forum! Amber is also a director of Hot Igloo Productions Ltd., the website design and small business specialists.
It’s the question that every aspiring freelancer eventually finds themselves asking: is it really possible to make money from this? The kind of money that lets you keep a roof over your head and feed your kids occasionally, that is?
Well, yes, it is. But let’s be honest: it’s not easy. In fact, you probably just picked one of the most difficult career paths in the world. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that with the right approach and the right attitude, you can earn a respectable wage from freelance writing. Here are a few tips on how to do it:
Love your writing career
If you’re anything like the thousands of other freelance writers out there, you’re probably not in this for the money. If money was your main objective, you’d probably be working your way up the corporate ladder right now in a nice, safe office job, washing the car on Sundays and forgetting all about writing.
If that kind of lifestyle is anathema to you, then congratulations – freelance writing could be the right career choice after all.
At the bottom line, most freelance writers do it because they love to write, and because they want to be able to make a living doing something they enjoy. And that’s a good start. If you really want to make a success of your freelance writing career, you’re going to have to love what you’re doing, and really want to make a success of it.
This is a rule that doesn’t really apply to conventional working. You don’t have to love Big Macs to work in McDonalds, or love filing to work in an office. You just have to turn up on time, do what’s required from you and then walk away. If your career is freelance writing, you never get to walk away. The truth is that at first (and often for a long time afterwards) you’ll spend much more time looking for work than you’ll spend actually writing. Looking for work will become all-consuming. When you’re not writing, you’ll be either thinking about writing, or looking for writing you can do to make money. If you don’t love what you’re doing, and if you’re not absolutely determined to keep on doing it, you’ll find it very hard to keep that up.
But enjoying what you’re doing isn’t going to be enough: if you really want to make a living out of your writing, you’re going to have to treat it like a business.
Treat freelance writing as a business
As we’ve said, the chances are that you write because you love to write. Or because you want a job you can work around your kids, your hobbies or your other commitments in life. Whatever you do, though, never lose sight of the fact that your writing is, first and foremost, a business. And as with any business, you need to work at marketing it and growing it.
This may not come easy at first. You’re a writer, after all, not a marketer! If you wanted to sell things, you’d have found a job in sales, right?
Wrong. You DID find a job in sales. Freelance writing is as much about selling as it is about writing. You picked a competitive industry to work in. No matter how good you are at writing, there’s someone out there who’s as good or better. There are even people out there who aren’t nearly as good at writing as you are, and yet they’re getting more jobs. Why is that?
The difference is in the selling. The mediocre writer who does a good job of getting out there and selling their services (and themselves) will ultimately be more successful than the excellent writer who sits at home and waits for the work to come and find them. The truth is that the work will never come. You need to go and find it – and when you find it, you need to make sure you pitch yourself well enough to secure it. If you don’t know anything about marketing, it’s time to learn.
Remember the golden rule of writing
Of course, there are ways to make things easier on yourself. There are a whole host of websites out there which allow you to “bid” for writing jobs. Great idea, no? Well, it depends. Remember the golden rule: money flows towards the writer. If you’re thinking of signing up with an agency that requires you to pay money to join, you’re already breaking the number one rule.
Be wary of bidding sites, too. Often the competition is so fierce that you have to be willing to practically work for free in order to secure the job. And working for free isn’t paying your mortgage or feeding your kids.
Love your work, market yourself, and remember the golden rule. Welcome to the wonderful world of freelance writing!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amber McNaught runs www.WritingWorld.org, an online agency for writers, editors, proofreaders and translators. Chat about all aspects of writing and the writing life at the WritingWorld.org forum! Amber is also a director of Hot Igloo Productions Ltd., the website design and small business specialists.
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