Academics Getting Paid To Write
Photo by 愚木混株 cdd20 on Unsplash
I once was in the position to see the editing of an international research position paper. I was able to see contributors, editing, and writing styles first hand by academics from my industry. What I saw was shocking.
First, while I have true sympathy for writers who attempt academic English when English is not their native language -- because I will agree that academic English is like another language altogether -- I saw one writer who is a famous name in my industry who could not write their way out of a wet paper sack. Literally one paragraph that was meant to contain a definition of "immersion" contained five sentences that were the same sentence reworded. It was exactly like watching a Freshman college student open, work on a paper by writing one floppy sentence, then hitting save, put the paper away for a day, then re-open it, start again in the same paragraph and forget that they should be adding thought and simply re-work the same thought they had the day before, and then think that they were profound. The result is that they sounded like a bullshitter; verbal diarrhea. Their work needed major rewriting; every sentence.
This is a doctoral holder who is director of a major research/production house with the US.
Second, a contributor who is famous -- like hits the podcasts weekly for their opinions in my industry-- contributed a page and a half of writing and was paid US$5,000. (Actually all three examples I give here were paid $5,000 each for their writing). It didn't need much editing but...hey...could you sleep at night knowing you gave that kind of contribution? The final paper was 75 pages.
$5,000 for 1.5 pages of writing? Nice work if you can get it.
The last contributor actually gave good writing and a decent amount of it. Unfortunately, this contributor does not get off scot free. I personally tech supported the person as they were supposed to present in an admittedly difficult XR platform. They didn't attend a rehearsal. The time of the event, their sound didn't work. I brought them outside of the auditorium to troubleshoot. But as I went through the standard list of fixes (which all centered on the user and their Windows settings), I got a healthy heaping of sighs and "I should be inside presenting" statements. Eventually, the contributor gave up on me and the tech and decided to go in on cell phone patched in through contributor #1 (the can't writer).
Still was paid $5,000. But had an attitude that would not fit through the door sideways, apparently.
All doctoral holders, all famous names in the industry. All unpleasant to work with, to put it mildly.
Disclosure: I contributed to the early stage of this same writing project. However, there is no proof that any of my contributions, or indeed much of any of the contributions of the 54 unpaid, early stage writers showed up in the final project other than just in name. The early contributions were supposed to be read, condensed, and included in the final version. There is absolutely no proof that actually happened. (Even at one point, I had heard a story that a spurious quote attributed to an
early writer that never happened; they didn't write/say that. That writer strongly objected to the quote for obvious ethical reasons and the editors backed down.) It seems much more likely that the 3 contributors above plus the editors simply restarted a new document in their preferred image.
The further editing was a mess as editors worked with different writing programs
and had distinctly different approaches to what was acceptable academic
writing. In the end, the main author was so disgusted by the writing
that they refused to have the document qualified as academic writing and
it was spun as a "market report" (interesting, given that it was
written entirely by academics) instead. It didn't really work. The document hit the presses
more than 6 months late to little acclaim.
"Thus says the LORD:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
whose trust is the LORD.
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
Jeremiah 17:5-10