In its 10-year history, ACAD WRITE the ghostwriter, a leading international agency for academic ghostwriting, has sold over 8,500 academic papers, including BA-, MA- and PhD-theses.
“Basically, we will do anything from 5 to 200 pages, covering all academic disciplines” says Thomas Nemet, founder and CEO of the agency.
His company anonymously connects clients who want someone else to write their thesis, seminar paper, or even just a homework assignment to one of 350 ghostwriters, all of them experts in their field who hold at least an MA degree.
Last year, the agency had a turnover of 2.7 Million USD and completed thousands of jobs. Forty dissertations alone were sold, each for the price of a compact car. The industry of buying and selling academic papers is booming.
“It’s like doping. Technically it is cheating, but everybody does it,” says Nemet.
Indeed, many people seem to be open for hiring ghostwriting services, besides all moral qualms. In a recent poll by the Swiss news portal 20min.ch, 45% of the more than 11,000 participants stated that they would have a ghostwriter do their academic work.
Of course, having someone else write your papers is ethically questionable, but it’s not illegal.
“The legal position was carefully checked by experts,” Nemet assures.
After requesting a ghostwriter, customers sign that they will not hand in the paper in their own name. If they do it anyway (and most of them, if not all, will) it is no concern to the agency.
The process of hiring a ghostwriter is rather simple. Customers go to acad-write.com/en and fill out a request form. Once they have told the agency what exactly they need they will receive an estimate. If the customer agrees to the conditions, ACAD WRITE the ghostwriter finds the author who is capable of doing the best job.
All contact between the client and the ghostwriter is anonymous. Initial conference calls provide efficient communication between the two.
Legal issues only arise if the customer has to sign a declaration of authorship. But then again, this does not affect the agency. Also, it is practically impossible to prove that a paper was not written by the person who claims to be the author.
“Most professors have so many students that it’s unmanageable for them to identify the writing style of every single one,” Nemet says.
And even if someone is caught the consequences are usually not too harsh, depending on the country’s legislation and university policy. Hardly any countries have laws against academic fraud, and in most cases students would be granted a second chance by the university if they are caught.
“Besides that, it never came to my attention that any of our clients got into trouble,” adds Nemet.
But who are the customers of ACAD WRITE the ghostwriter (http://acad-write.com/en)? Are all of them rich-kid college students who can afford to hire someone else to do their work while they go out partying or play video games?
“Some of them certainly are, but not all of our customers are lazy. Most of them have to arrange their degree next to a fulltime job. They get their papers started but run out of time, then they come to us and ask for help. But there are also regular customers who demand our services throughout their degree.”
ACAD WRITE the ghostwriter receives most requests from business and economy students, followed by arts and humanities. Around one-third of the jobs are in German, the rest are mostly in English.
Thomas Nemet started his company from a studio apartment in Dresden 10 years ago. Before that he was trying to make a living as a freelance journalist – “which is a nice euphemism for an unemployed philosophy-major,” he explains. The papers didn’t pay well.
But when he started offering his services as a ghostwriter, the demand exceeded his expectations; he soon had to expand and founded ACAD WRITE the ghostwriter. Since then the company, with its headquarters in Switzerland, has grown continuously, now operating branches in the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada, Germany, and Austria.
“Like others sell delicious food or efficient vacuum cleaners, I sell excellent papers,” Nemet, who is visibly proud of his work, wipes off all moral qualms. “Of course it’s not fair, but that’s capitalism. Money makes things easier. This also goes for education. And if I don’t offer it, someone else will.”
Of course, quality has its price. “If you buy cheap, chances are you will get copy and paste,” Nemet explains.
ACAD WRITE the ghostwriter carefully checks every paper for plagiarism, using the same software as universities. Additionally, every paper is subjected to a quality check by a second author.
The price for a 100 page MA-thesis would be around $9,990 USD, breaking down to approximately $99/page.
“But obviously, a paper on rocket science is more expensive than a paper on arts or business,” Nemet explains.
But, how can one be an intermediary for academic fraud in good conscience?
“My position is similar to an arms manufacturer,” says Nemet, “they are also not responsible for what people do with their products.”
