An Academic Ghostwriter Tells His Story

An Academic Ghostwriter, the 'Shadow Scholar,' Comes Clean

When The Chronicle published a confessional essay two years ago by a writer for a student-paper mill who had spent nearly a decade helping college students cheat on their assignments, it provoked anger, astonishment, and weary resignation.

The writer, under the pseudonym Ed Dante, said he had completed scores of papers for students who were too lazy or simply unprepared for their work at the undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels.

The academic ghostwriter has retired, and in his new memoir, he reveals his true identity: Dave Tomar, 32, a graduate of the bachelor's program in communications at Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus and, now, a freelance writer in Philadelphia.

Read rest here: chronicle.com/article/An-Academic-Ghostwriter-the/133904/

this looks like a good read, thanks for posting

LOL I know the guy. He got fired for plariarizing paper. He has to come clean about that too.

where did he work?

How do you know this?

Would he face any legal trouble by going public with his name? Can essay writers get in any trouble?

This how 90% writers end career with companies. Good writer take too much job and sooner then later start plagiarism. Ask him how many account he had and WHY he stop working with particular sites. Answer - at least in one case - is plagiarizm.

I'm not going to pan this without reading it, but haha, nice photo d-bag, and also, **** this "academic Ghostwriter" bs. a ghostwriter still has their name there in print; you're a term paper hack! it's like saying you're a "sanitation technician."

anyway, I'm not going to read that ****, either; it looks like an addiction memoir.

someone needs to get going on a real "treatment" of this industry, like using it for the background of a movie about mobbed-up people.

He recently came out with a book: tinyurl.com/9w6kcwm

He was also on The Today Show earlier this month.

Super interesting. Essay writers can not get into trouble. I am not sure why people think this. You really need to research your legal issues.

Compare a ghostwriter with a writing agency: https://essayscam.org/freelance-writer-vs-writing-service/

While I had a different start in my academic writing career from Mr. Tomar, I would have to say that she share similar experiences and that our enlightenment was on similar paths.

I did try to justify the work I was doing back then in terms of being a helpful service to privileged students. Students who had no idea what they were doing in college in the first place.

These clueless students helped me stay afloat financially, although they did tend to tax my health with their seemingly endless revisions and arguments regarding why their paper was written in a certain way. It took longer to explain their homework to them than it did to actually do the work.

Am I sorry I did the job back then? Nope. I found myself being better educated over the years I spent as an academic ghostwriter than all the combined years I spent in school.

Yes, I count early grammar school in that as well. It was nice of him to write the book. While it was more of a soul cleansing on his part, the fact that he called universities on their dollar sign education helped to explain why academic ghostwriters exist and why the profession will not be disappearing anytime soon or in the foreseeable future.

I haven't heard of any academic writer who was ever placed in hot water over the work that he chose to do. This reading can help any writer, who seems to be conflicted about his work come to terms with his occupation. The writers are not the enemies here. They are the good guys in this story because they offer an assist to struggling students whom the university educators would most likely brand slow or unteachable.

The writers job is to ensure that the student manages to get through the education mill unscathed or untraumatized by the educational process. The universities frown upon academic assistant services and yet they do nothing to make the learning process easier for the students. It is bad enough that the students feel like their money is wasted in college because they are not learning anything or they are slow on the pick up. These professors don't really care about the student as long as they have tenure and get their regular salary anyway. So they are all just in it for the money indeed.

I don't feel bad about the work I do. Maybe that's partly because I know that many of the students I help truly want to write their own papers but just plain suck at putting ideas together. Many can orally discuss their ideas all day, but when it comes to writing about them, it's muddled gibberish. They are smart enough to seek help. I also know there are plenty of students who are just lazy and don't want to do the work. Do I still help them, yes, as long as I am treated kindly. I don't always know a client's personality until the project is well underway, but if I encounter a difficult client, their current project becomes the final project. Like many here in this forum, I work hard. I provide quality work, and I treat people fairly. I expect the same in return, or they can take a hike. What I won't do for any client or amount of money is take a class for a student. Helping with a paper here and there is one thing, but when you get into taking a class (logging in, posting discussions, etc.) that is not helping. That is flat out cheating. Now, some may say "well, the same clients you're helping are probably turning in your writing as their own." They may be, but I make my terms clear. What you do with the project after it's in your hands is your business, but if I do find out they turned it in, I don't work with them again.

Tomar and I were writing for the same company at the time and his last name is actually the writer ID that he used. He used the pseudonym "Ed Dante" for his magazine article, but I recognized him as soon as his book came out under his real name, along with some of the specific projects he mentions in the book, including the 160-pg International Financial Reporting Standards project that he describes (on p.175) as having remained on the assignment board for weeks in 2009 "untouched" before the payout got bumped up an extra $400. I actually pointed that project out on my screen to my wife at the time and she asked if I was going to take it.

Tomar and I both used to get a lot of customer requests (which is the only way that we writers ever became familiar with any other writer's ID) and I considered him to be one of my toughest competitors for the best projects. My main problems with him are that, as he admits in his article and book: (1) he was dishonest with customers who asked about his academic background, in that he, essentially, told them he had degrees in whatever field matched their projects, and (2) he deliberately padded his projects with a lot of fluff, just to satisfy the page (or word) count.

This is one thing that I truly admire about some of the students that I've worked with in the past. I've found that some of them admitted that they're quite closed-off with the idea of seeking the service. But because they are fully aware and know that it is not in their best interest to even attempt to accomplish everything on their own, they go ahead and try it out. It works out for the most part.

I believe that academic writers should not hide behind the guise of "freelance writers" anymore. Seemingly trying to cover what their actual job is by using a veil of generality in their job description. There is nothing to be ashamed about when working at this job. It is an honest living and I am proud to tell people what my actual job entails. I don't understand why Mr. Tomar felt the need to hide it from his peers. He was representing a job that offers a valuable service to the students. He should have written this memoir earlier in his career. His experiences can really help educate those who are considering entering the world of academic writer. Regardless of what other people say, this is a true writing career and the writer deserves respect for the job that he does. Consider where these helpless students would be without academic writers and one can easily understand why an academic writer deserves the same amount of respect as a (tenured) professor does.