paper 1: "the shadow scholar" response

"The Chronicle of Higher Education" published an article, which is more like an essay, "The Shadow Scholar" on November 12, 2010, written by Ed Dante. 'Ed Dante' is a pseudonym that an anonymous person uses for public appearances. Ed Dante writes about his experiences and personal opinion on the educational system when working as a shadow scholar, as the title of the article already presented, which implies to be someone who writes scholarly papers for students in exchange for money, which is a shady profession. With this essay, he is arrogantly addressing the issue about the shortage of attention and help the education system is giving students. Herefore, his target audience would most likely be higher education professors. In this article, it is evident that Ed Dante speaks of himself highly and is asserting his dominance among the higher education. This is accomplished through his narcissistic tone.

From reading this article, it is hard to tell weither Ed Dante is purposely using a narcissistic tone in his writing or if this tone was so integrated in his personality that he also is a narcissistic person. Even though he is addressing a topic that many other students or people in the educational field were thinking, he will still be seen as a villain due to his tone. The public is a sensitive group of people who overanalyze a lot of situations and whose expectations are hard to meet. The public expects a formality from people trying to initiate new concepts and ways of thinking that Ed Dante didn’t meet. His narcissism does make him stand out and put the topic in limelight, but his opinion won’t be taken as seriously. This article will alo set an image for other shadow scholar’s, whose believes might not be as strong or up-to-par as Ed Dante’s, which again forces them into a negative limelight.

His narcissism protrudes on numerous occassions. When he introduced himself, he called him "a hired gun, a doctor of everything, an academic mercenary" (line 21-22), quite literally trying to boast about his academic statues. He isn’t only conceited when it comes to talking about himself, but he also belittles other people he talks about. Ed Dante seems to struggle with a power complex of domination when it comes to academics. The students he brings up in the article are described as foolish, naive, and unsophisticated. “You would be amazed by the incompetence of your students' writing. I have seen the word "desperate" misspelled every way you can imagine. And these students truly are desperate. They couldn't write a convincing grocery list, yet they are in graduate school. They really need help.” Even though the students he has worked for are cheating and being unsophisticated about their academics, Ed Dante broadens the “students” title to not only the people he has worked for but the entire student body. Here he isn’t just setting apart the cheaters and the students that are achieving great academic success. This comes to show his mindset for how much power he thinks he holds over other people.

To conclude, the article explores the ethics of school systems. Through the use of Ed Dante’s narcissistic tone, he puts the concept of bad education systems and other shadow scholars into a negative limelight. This narcissistic tone protrudes as a result of him establishing his power and dominance in academics.