Ghostwriting has been a common and often controversial practice in different industries for decades. In the academic world, ghostwriting essays refers to having someone else write an assignment, paper, or other academic work for a student and submitting it as the student’s own work. While some see ghostwritten work as unethical or a form of plagiarism, others view it as a service provided by professional writers. Let’s take a deeper look at the various aspects of ghost writing essays.
What is Ghostwriting?
At its core, ghostwriting is when one individual writes content that is credited to another person. In the academic realm, a ghostwriter is hired by a student to research and compose an entire essay, paper, or other assessment. The ghostwriter does all the work but allows the hiring student to submit it under their own name without acknowledging the ghostwriter. This constitutes academic dishonesty according to the policies of most schools and universities.
How Ghostwriting Works in Academia
The process usually involves the student hiring a ghostwriting service or individual freelance writer. They provide the ghostwriter with specific instructions, including the essay topic or question, word count or page length, any formatting guidelines, and deadline. They may also supply source materials for research. The ghostwriter then takes this information and thoroughly researches, plans, drafts, and finalizes an original work from scratch to meet all requirements. Once complete, it is turned over to the hiring student for submission without indicating anyone else composed it. The ghostwriter is paid but remains anonymous.
Ethical Considerations of Ghostwriting Essays
The primary ethical concern with ghostwriting academic work is that it constitutes plagiarism. Even if a student pays someone else to do the writing, they are still presenting work that is not fully their own and was composed by a third party without acknowledgement. This is a direct violation of academic integrity policies at nearly all educational institutions. While the student may earn credit for a completed assignment, they have not demonstrated their own knowledge and skills. It also gives them an unfair academic advantage over students who complete all assessments with only their own efforts.
Proponents of ghostwriting, Argue that it allows students who are unable to finish assignments due to factors like personal issues or excessive coursework to still pass classes. They also note many students use collaborations and study groups, so this just takes it one step further by making those writing contributions anonymous. Still, most experts agree the ethical concerns outweigh these justification attempts in an academic setting.
Legal Gray Areas of Ghostwriting
There are some legal ambiguities as well. Ghostwriting is not technically illegal on its own, but if carried out for academic submissions, it could enable violations of schools’ codes of conduct as well as potential charges of plagiarism or fraud. Some ghostwriting services do include anti-plagiarism checks and disclaimers noting the works should not be submitted verbatim. Others may not provide adequate safeguards against misuse by students looking to deceive their institutions.
On the flip side, professional ghostwriters generally have defended their services as a legitimate form of freelance writing and contracting. As long as their contributions do not violate any regulations where used, the writers themselves are not breaking laws. It becomes murky when linking their role to potential downstream offenses committed by those passing off the work as fully self-authored. Overall, the legal standing of ghostwriting remains uncertain in education.
Prevalence and Variations of Ghostwriting
While no definitive numbers exist, anecdotal evidence suggests the practice of hiring others to secretly write academic essays is widespread. It has become a multi-million dollar industry capitalizing on students willing to pay hundreds or thousands per paper. Some sources report about 15-20% of undergraduate students have used ghostwriters at some point. Demand has also likely grown due to rising educational costs, heavier course loads, and online options enabling anonymity.
There are variations in how ghostwriting services operate as well. Some focus more on editing and revisions while still requiring students to do most of the work themselves. Others specialize in total composition from provided guidelines. Pricing models differ too, from one-time papers to all-access subscriptions. Quality also varies considerably based on individual ghostwriters’ skills and service policies regarding originality.
Where Do We Go From Here?
As with many gray areas, reasonable people can disagree on ghostwriting essays. While most experts condemn it as unethical in academic contexts, others point to legitimate demands driving the market. Potential solutions aim to address root causes instead of just punishing misconduct. Examples include reforms making education more affordable and graduation requirements more flexible. Increased availability of academic support services could also curb dependence on ghostwriters out of necessity rather than dishonest intentions.
Overall, the debate seems likely to continue given complex factors on all sides. But the overwhelming consensus remains any form of secretly outsourcing major written assignments violates standards of authorship, originality and fairness core to postsecondary learning environments. Students are generally still held responsible under honor codes for any works formally bearing just their names. Until policies change, ghostwriting essays will probably stay controversial but still commonly utilized, both openly and in the shadows.
Andrew Stroud