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Comment by Wohlf | Hacker News Reader

One of the basic foundations of economics is competitive advantage. No one makes everything themselves, they defer to specialists. I don't see why writing papers should be any different, considering most of the work is not about technical competence, it's about proper formatting and writing skills.

If scientists could spend all their time performing experiments, statisticians did all the statistics, and technical writers did all the writing, the replication crisis might not be as bad as it is and everyone wins.

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Technical writers should write scientific experimentation papers because the purpose of the papers is to explain the experiment to people.

I still talk to a rubber duck when writing code that I don't have to explain to anybody (probably).

The purpose of an academic paper isn't to explain anything, it's to force the student to form an idea about a thing, then find and apply evidence to support that idea. The purpose is learning, and demonstrating to the professor proof that they have learned.

None of those boxes get ticked if you pay someone to write your papers.

And nah, Shakespeare lit 101 is not the place where you "learn how the world works" by demonstrating how you can "game the system" by paying someone else to do the work. The professor is concerned with the students learning about Shakespeare and maybe a bit about literary criticism, that's it.

If you're cheating in a 101 class, you have much bigger problems than worrying about being expelled for committing fraud in a 101 class. The thing is, that isn't where people are cheating(probably), and finishing a BS in computer science is relatively easy. I'm going to stand by the fact that the hiring process is flawed, the college system is flawed, and our public school system is flawed. There's nothing motivating anyone to learn but themselves.

All of my "101" courses in uni were notoriously hard weed-out courses due to their large volume of assignments and reading material.

My computer science courses were the easiest part of my degree. Meanwhile I was up late into the evening for my British lit, psychology, and other "soft" "101" courses. Those were the courses I'd have been most tempted to cheat in if it was possible.

So you're only speaking for your own uni experience.

"Specialization is for insects.” ~ Robert Anson Heinlein

Your viewpoint is basically that we should overspecialize. I believe that the more diverse skills a person has. The better they are. Would you ask a romance author to write a highly technical piece? You wouldn't.

Papers help with communication. Communication is a skill that a lot of people lack.

Proper formatting and basic writing skills take virtually zero time once you know what you're doing.

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