The Medium and the Message

      In Mamatas interview, you really begin to understand him as a person, just through listening to his tone, diction, and voice. Throughout the interview, his tone is full of sarcasm. You see how he perceives his customers just by listening to him talk. Constantly you could hear him laughing when mentioning the "DUMB CLIENTS." Not only did he laugh about them, he repetitively would insult them, calling them stupid, and other negative descriptions. Something else that you could pick up is how while receiving these random questions about his article, he would almost hesitate before answering throughout the interview. Once he knew what he would say to the interviewer, he would quickly answer the questions as fast as possible. This to me made me feel as if he was uncomfortable talking about this subject now that it's in the past. If that's the case, then you can interpret that he feels quite guilty about his "whoreish" ways. Even though he seems to be an intellectual man, he has no morals. He doesn't care if he's promoting laziness, because it was benefiting him, which shows he's also very self centered.
       My opinion of Mamatas hasn't changed much at all. The only difference is that now I see how he is a selfish man that finds humor in others stupidity. However, even though it's a shady type of job, I still see no reason to object to it. First of all, he was giving them MODEL papers. They weren't supposed to hand in that work, they were supposed to make it there own. They signed a contract saying how they wouldn't plagiarise his work, and if they did that is there fault not his. You must also look at it like this; Mamatas used this as an entrance of his writing occupation. Everyone most start somewhere and this was the only opportunity he had. If he hadn't done this, then he may have never been able to pursue his writing career. Since writing truly is his passion anyone should be able to understand that when you strive for something you may do anything in order to achieve it.
       I think that this gave the audience a surprised reaction. When you read the written story, you have a different way of looking at it then when you listen to the media instead. Different types of people must have had different view on it. The audience could either look at him as a corrupt man or they could view the situation as its survival of the fittest.
       It is very important to figure out what kind of media you feel is best for that situation. When you want to make yourself look impressive and more formal, you have a better chance at succeeding through paper. That way you have time to write, and fix what is on your mind , When using audio though, its probably better just to listen. Not only will you get a a feeling of your speaker, but also you will also get a better opinion on how the author is trying to get there point across. Considering you can usually take things more than one way, its easier to decide which way the author is trying to lead you.

http://www.onthemedia.org/episodes/2008/11/28/segments/116673

The Term Paper Artist

In this article, Nick Mamatas, the author explains his path to becoming a writer. "I always wanted to be writer, but was told from an early age that such a dream was futile." Nick felt that his dream would never come true, but eventually things began to slow work out for him. He states how one day he was looking through a newspaper add and happened to come across an advertisement, this opened his opportunities to fulfilling his passion to become a writer. He soon began working at this term paper mill, which he describes in his article.
      Nick has written many model papers while working there, he said they were "Virtually any subject, almost any length, all levels of education." These models he wrote were "perfectly legal," "Thanks to the first amendment, it's freedom of speech" The business has been run by brokers who will take financial risks by accepting credit card payments by the clients who are in need of their work.  When the brokers write for the clients they have to know the type of person their client is. As the author said, "One of my brokers would even mark assignments with the code words DUMB CLIENT." In other words, if they were writing for a non-educated writer then they would have to use simpler words in their writing. If they didn't, then they always had the problem where a client would call them back asking what specific words meant. This was to much of a nuisance, so they tried to eliminate the issue before it happened.
      The author categorizes the clients into three groups; DUMB CLIENTS, one timers, and lastly as he says the "most tragic," those who are educated highly but came from a different country, therefore their English is not strong. The first group simply should just not even be enrolled in college, they don't know how to even construct an essay so they must buy the models to even hand in anything decent. The second group is described as people who are just thrown in a class simply cause it's required they take it, even though they don't need it. These people for example could be trying to become a chemist and are required to take a poetry class, therefore their stuck with subjects they don't excel in. Lastly, the third group, where they aren't native to the U.S aren't very fluent in the English language. As the author states about these people "in their home countries they were engineers, medical professionals, and scientists. In the United States, they drive cabs and have to pretend to care about "Gothicism" in "A Rose For Emily" for the sake of another degree. "
Terms papers aren't the way to make lots of money all the time, however they are easy and fast cash for some people. He would charge college students $100 per page on an essay. Although this seems outrageous to some, it seems like a better route to some. The reason for that is if you end up failing the class you wasted your money paying for the class, and you'll have to pay more to retake it, so in the end it can be an easy escape to some.
      Nick Mamatas even gave some us hints on how to overcome writing term papers when telling us how he completes them. He compares writing them to remembering dance routines that are built in your muscle memory. Once you get the idea of how to do it, you will find them less aggravating to complete. He said "You have to make your own fun."
      What he does should not looked at negatively. Everyone has their own strengths and weakness'. The fact that everyone isn't a writer is clear, but everyone who wants an education is still required to complete various writing assignments. Some people just aren't cut out for it, and they should still be considered educated people because of there own special talent. Since that's not how it goes though, people are lucky to be able to find these skilled writers that will use their talents to not only benefit others but also support themselves, while  doing something that they're passionate about. Everyone has to support themselves some way and this is a perfect way for writers to get that fast cash they might need. Some believe that this is a "shady" job, however every job has it's shady parts to them. Not all of the jobs out there are as visibly shady, but in some way everyone has their skeletons that they hide in the closet, just so they can support themselves. So why should you point out a writer for supporting themselves the best way that they can?