by Margaret Gloag

Created on: June 14, 2008

Do These Ghosts Haunt the Candidates?

Ghost writers are commonly used by authors, some of whom mention the ghost writer and give thanks for the service provided. But there are many popular writers who churn out books by the hundreds, many more in a year than one person could possible write, and do not give credit to their ghost writers, so the implication is that the author slaves away, night and day, to produce so many books. At least one very popular author apparently writes books that are seized by her readers as soon as they hit the bookstores; the author has been dead for several years, but her name still appears on the cover of the books. Is this ethical?

One argument for the ghost writers is that Renaissance painters frequently used their apprentices to paint parts of the wonderful paintings that we admire today and attribute to just one person. Therefore, ghost writers are fulfilling the same function for today's readers. But does this argument hold good?

No, it does not. These Renaissance painters had studios; they had apprentices to whom they imparted their knowledge; they taught painting skills. Those who use ghost writers are not teaching the craft of writing. The novelists may have many more ideas for plots than they can write, and therefore use the services offered by ghost writers. This is understandable. But academics who use ghost writers are cheating, just as surely as if they had plagiarized their work.

A doctoral candidate should not have been able to proceed so far through the university system without being able to write an academic paper. This seems to imply that the entire educational system as it is today has failed if those with advanced education cannot write their own dissertations.

However, writing is only one facet of communication. Another facet is talking; putting thoughts into words. If candidates have poor writing skills, are their verbal skills equally poor? The two generally go together, as any teacher of English knows. Having had a dissertation written by another person, does the candidate defend the work, or does the ghost writer then arrive as a ghost candidate?

Perhaps the committee interviewing the candidate will be struck by the difference between the written and spoken words, just as instructors frequently notice the difference when students hand in plagiarized papers. The students are quite certain that nobody could possibly notice the difference in writing styles and word choice. Presumably the doctoral candidate will have the same thought.

Shouldn't someone who has studied and researched to gain a PhD have a more original thought?

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