English SL - "Shadow Scholar" Guided Textual Analysis

On November the 12th, 2010, "The Chronicle" published an article, or more correctly, an essay, written by an anonymous person going by the pseudonym "Ed Dante". Ed Dante describes his job as a "Shadow Scholar" - which coincidentally is also the essay title - and provides an insight into the dark truth of plagiarism in the modern world and the ease wherewith this occurs undetected. He himself is a "Shadow Scholar" meaning he writes scholarly papers for students around the world on a commission basis. Throughout the text, Ed Dante lays a stark contrast between his relatively sophisticated use of the English language and that of one exemplar customer of his. Quite interestingly, Dante also commences his story in media res, cutting straight to the action by narrating an anecdote of his.

As mentioned before, I believe it is firstly important to analyse the importance of the different uses of language presented throughout the text. As is evident, the writer of the text is fluent in english and is proficient enough to write a convincing and professional text whereas his client (as quoted by Ed Dante, is not proficient in English and struggles to write in complete and coherent sentences. We see this as, Ed Dante, while remaining relatively informal, manages to write coherent sentences which make sense and his paragraphs are structured logically. His client's use of the English Language, on the other hand, does not exhibit this same level of proficiency, as she writes the following: "You did me business ethics proposal for me I need proposal got approved pls can you write me paper?". Now, besides the fact that she writes using abbreviations ("pls") she also does not coherently structure her sentences (she begins by mentioning the previous paper Dante wrote for her and, seems to try to clarify why he should write a complete paper for her) and she seems to be incapable of using any correct syntax ("You did me business ethics proposal..."). I believe this stark contrast present in the text serves to exaggerate the main issue presented in the text: that students are being left behind and are shockingly incapable of doing the tasks they are asked to do. In this case, Dante's inclusion of several quotations from one of his customers, serves as a juxtaposition with a shocking effect.

Also worthwhile, is the fact that Ed Dante commences his "story" in media res, which captivates the reader's attention. We see that Dante commences his essay in media res due o the fact that he does not provide a clear introduction to his text, does not fully introduce himself, and immediately presents the reader with a scenario in which he has found himself before; which e does by directly quoting his client and by opening with the following sentence: "The request came in by e-mail around 2 in the afternoon". The effect of this opening structure is that the reader gets captivated and interested into the essay he has written which also serves the purpose of encouraging the reader to read on.

Conclusively, we can see that Ed Dante has managed to create a captivating, and truth-revealing story which is enjoyable to read whilst it still reveals a shocking truth about the US higher education system. This he does by contrasting his client's writing style with his own, as well as his opening text structure; where he commences his story in media res. Overall, this strikes home the message in an effective way.