Cheaters Often Prosper

Just in time for back-to-school season, Dave Tomar’s rambling, sometimes very funny book The Shadow Scholar expands on his Chronicle Of Higher Education article (written under the pseudonym “Ed Dante”) about his 10 years writing term papers and other classwork for college students who advertised for ghostwriters through various Internet companies. (He knew how to find such companies because a website set up to discourage academic cheating posted a handy list.) At one point, Tomar even wrote love poems for some poor sap whose heart, and wallet, outmatched his vocabulary. He did draw the line at playing Cyrano for a prospective employer who wanted someone to write her profile for a dating site and script her responses to likely romantic candidates.