e-term papers--curiouser and curiouser

[Anne McKnight]

        First off, let's just declare that plaigarism is one of the most
baleful and dispiriting topics ever on the face of the earth to anyone
involved in education--people who are far too overworked with their
regular work to have time to moonlight as cops, even if they harbored
such an impulse, which is extremely unlikely.

    As annoying as the subject of e-term papers is to all educators, I
feel I need to clarify exactly why the subject might be worth paying
attention to in the context of image studies such as some of us do, and
more of us consume.  I got a couple e-mails from people which rendered
visible the fact that e-term papers are a phenomenon that's riding on
the changes in American academic and its relation to e-commerce, whose
implications are very different for people not living in the US.   I'm
curious--do these kinds of sites (anonymous academic papers for sale)
exist in other languages, places?  Has their role changed since the
demand to use and cite new technologies has increased?
    In the US context, commodities like e-term papers don't sit in the
back of the comix with the garlic gum and whoopie cushions anymore, or
in the desk drawer of the fraternity president.   The practices of
display and marketing, and the interfaces of cool graphics and
up-to-date topics (many sites include huge lists on ethnic studies
topics and sexuality and gender, for example) give the impression--in
the avant-gardist discourse which says that new, cutting edge is most
meaningful--of real market viability in terms of the "virtual market."
    Many people in education, whether they're trying to keep their
schoolroom computers updated with expensive revisions of current
software, or trying to get or keep a job themselves, are having to deal
with the speed-up of the market.  I think these term papers, and the way
they both generate and satisfy the anxiety about the "market out there,"
are a really interesting symptom of the whole problem.
    After all they do give an idea (if a highly cynical one) of what one
part of the market thinks is the lingua franca of academic discourse in
its most commodifiable sense:  which is to say, the paper that can slide
by without notice, with a modicum of the individual writer's style (as
papers are typically indexed by search engines by topic, for example,
you supply the title, and thereby the flourish of individuality).  It
was interesting to me to look at sites and see what the most
commodifiable/scavengeable dimensions of Japanese film were assumed to
be.  It is a question worth thinking about in terms of any syllabus or
exhibition.
    I think actually the cultural politics of international markets
surfaces interestingly here--especially since a) students of all ages
are being pressed to produce using "technology" and web biblio
resources, especially in the context of instrumentalizing themselves as
good candidates for future jobs using computers and tech skills.  As we
all know, many of these web resources look like research if you hold
them out at arm's length, but are poorly research and argued junk.
There are, however, zillions of sites--even sites called the 200 best
essay sites, a staggering number really.  Even given the fact that many
of these sites may be put together by undergrads with lots of time and
tech skills on their hands, and may never make a dime (however, the
extremely detailed instructions on mode of payment suggests differently,
and suggests an interface that has learned a lot from trial and error),
I think they are worth taking seriously as a symptom of the different
kinds of fantasy, at the level of both euphoria and anxiety, that
web-based markets are establishing parameters for.
    (And re:  credibility, let's put aside the fact that most e-commerce
sites are losing money hand over fist and have challenged the basic
assumptions consumers make about the economics of bricks-and-mortar
stores and industry.  I'm not sure I want to chime in with Alan
Greenspan here, but irrational exuberance seems like a relevant, if
moralistic, way to describe new ways of investing in and psychologizing
the market. )
    Furthermore, b)  Let's put aside  term paper customers in the US
made up of the lazy and the slick (i.e. the ideal readers of
schoolsucks.com).  The remarkable thing about the web is its ability to
make accessible, to deterritorialize information and make it accessible,
while not rendering the politics of translation visible very often.
Since film studies is, more than most, a cosmopolitan discipline based
on forms of internation exchange (conversation, festivals, etc),
students may be conducting  research on their own in markets where
research in English is helpful and/or valuable, and they need to
demonstrate those skills, as well as learn from them.  Since part of
independent research now often requires students to acquire literature
in English, demonstrate command of the field, and contribute to the
field in English, people have to be extremely resourceful about getting
and contextualizing information in what is _assumed_ to be the lingua
franca of English.  Since there _are_ substantial generational
differences in research methodology, and one needs to be independently
resourceful, and getting hold of books in foreign languages can be
prohibitively expensive for students, I can see how an overseas market
could easily develop for term papers written by ghostwriting graduate
students in US institutions, as could a US market where the supply of
film-related resources is only a shadow of the demand of the perceived
"market."
    In any case, I hope I've made it a little more legible why I think
such new ways of disseminating information are worth thinking about in
the context of contemporary visual studies.  Any thoughts?
    Please write back soon because I sent five bucks to a guy in Idaho
last week I met in a chat room, and the riches should be pouring in
soon, after he sends it on to 5 other people, and they send it on to 5
other people, and I'll be buying myself that gold watch and checking out
of here.
    Sincerely,
    Anne McKnight, UC Berkeley, Comp Lit