The Term Paper Artist

             The Term Paper Artist, written by Nick Mamatas, is an article that describes Mamata's writing experiences.  He  states, "I'll  tell them  my horrible secret- for several years I made much of my  freelance income writing term papers." Mamatas  tells us that becoming a  writer has always been his dream.  At an early age, he was told that " such a dream was futile" which was discouraging to him, until he discovered a job at the term paper mill. At the mill, he would write term papers for money on business, economics, and literature. The term paper mill was managed by brokers, and they had a significant amount of clients. Mamatas explains to us that being in the term paper industry  is easy, once you can get the hang of it which isn't easy. He compares it by saying " It's like an old dance routine buried in one's muscle memory." The business doesn't bring in a huge income, but it satisfied his desires to be a writer.
              Mamatas classifies his customers into three groups: Dumb clients, one-timers, and the well-educated professionals who lack English language skills. The dumb clients, are simply stupid. They have to buy a paper because they do not even know how to write one on their own. They should not be in college. The one-timers are describable from their name. Mamatas says that they are the students who are  "generally lost and really did simply need a decent summary of their class readings." This group of clients also tends to get stuck on their personal statements for college. Last, the well-educated professionals who lack English language skills,  usually use their own papers. They mostly just need editing suggestions.  He tells us that, " most of the customers just aren't very bright."
               Mamata's career may not seem  right, but without him, how would many students make it through school? Although some students are being lazy, others just do not know how to write the term papers.  They do not know what the thesis statement is, what argumentative writing is, or how to do proper citations. He states, " The student's aren't only cheating themselves, they are being cheated by the schools that take tuition and give nothing in  exchange." The term paper mill may be considered as cheating, but many students use it as a last resort. Cheating is the wrong thing to do, but some students need to do anything they can to survive through school.