Ghostwriting Reflection

My younger brother, Mike, is currently applying to colleges right now and his application for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which he is about to begin, requires a personal statement for the essay requirement. I met with him this past weekend and discussed his experiences and achievements in the last four years of his high school career. I acted as a ghostwriter and wrote his personal statement for him.

As I was writing his personal statement, I was working diligently and quickly because so many ideas were flowing that I did not really stop and react to what I was actually doing. It was after my introduction that began with a story he had experienced, that I encountered my first quick feel of uneasiness. It was hard for me to write “I” and “my” when it came to feelings, when I was not actually that person feeling that way. On the other hand, the easy part of ghostwriting this for me was that I knew my brothers achievements and work ethic because I had gone to school with him and also worked at Fannie May with him. Come time to the reflection of his achievements however, it was difficult to write because I still am unsure if I pinpointed the exact feelings he described to me. In the end, this experience left me feeling somewhat uneasy and guilty.

I think that my experience is typical to other students in this class who have completed the assignment, yet I do not think actual ghostwriters who are professionals in this field feel the same way I do. I feel this way because they have chosen the path to become a ghostwriter, therefore knowing what they are getting into, and I have been (in a way) forced into completing an assignment that has made me into a ghostwriter. I believe that someone who would write a presidential speech most likely does not feel guilty or uneasy, but rather honored and proud.

I believe that this worked helped change the relationship I have with my brother slightly. Like I stated previously, I have understood his accomplishments and extracurriculars, but not to the extend of how they made him who he is today. I often felt proud writing his personal statement as an older sister to have a brother that has accomplished so much in a small period of time. It was this pride that helped create a stronger relationship with my younger brother.

Upon completing this assignment, it has really made me reflect on what I have so far learned about what an author is. It confuses me because I do feel like the author of this paper, yet an author has been set in my mind as someone who is the originator of the work. My brother told me what to write; therefore I am unsure if he would be considered the author even though he didn’t write it. He came up with the ideas and I put them on a document. I was a “writer” but maybe not an “author.” Overall, this assignment has made me feel slightly uneasy, strengthen a relationship with a sibling, and reflect on the principles of authorship.

Fear and Plagiarism

After reading about ghostwriting and plagiarism this week, I started to reflect on the ghostwriting assignment due Monday. I am choosing to do a personal statement for my younger brother because I originally thought it would be simple because I am his older sister and know the majority of extracurricular he has participated in. I sat down to write an outline for it and I actually think I am going to feel guilty talking about accomplishments and reflections as if they were my own. I feel like a plagiarist.

After reading Howard it really opened my eyes to all the different forms of plagiarism and the different consequences. Growing up, plagiarism was never an option for me, because I felt I would always get caught and end up in far more trouble than it was worth. I think by administering fear in policies of plagiarism, it reflects how that person writes. When I do any type of scientific paper, I am so scared if a teacher enforces strong rules about plagiarism, that I honestly think my paper will turn out worse that if fear wasn’t so incorporated. My question is, if fear was less of an issue, would plagiarism occur more often?

Unethical Writers

I know we haven’t gotten into too much discussion on ghostwriting, but the topic has always really fascinated me. I do not understand how a person has it in them to think it is ethical for someone to write a book for them and then take full credit for it. Being a student where the consequences for this are extremely high, I cannot help but to look at it the same way for grown adults. If you take credit for something that is not yours, not only your name should be damaged, but also your bank account and whatever other measures are necessary to get the point across to other celebrities or politicians that are doing the same thing.

One question I am thinking about is whether or not that book would sell, had the real author been listed on the cover. I think than in one way, people are purchasing it solely because they like that person, and if someone else wrote it, it wouldn’t make much of a difference. On the other hand, I would never purchase a politicians book because I always have the thought that maybe there is a ghostwriter behind it. I guess my question would be what types of people (celebrities, athlete, politicians, etc.) does it seem to be less of a crime if a ghostwriter is behind it?

"What Is an Author" and who is our 'Community'

Although I thought the reading “What is an Author?” was a hard one to understand, I think it held some great points about authors and the “author function.” What I liked about the reading is that it made me think strongly about the points made about the possibility to forget who an author is without taking away from the texts. I think that is an extremely hard thing not to look at an author and be judgmental for whatever reason. For example, I think this was brought up in class, but if I was more interested in global warming and saw “An Inconvenient Truth” written by Al Gore I would be more hesitant to personally pick up that book than if there were an actual expert who wrote it. I know it shouldn’t happen, but I personally do think I judge a book too much based on the author. On the other hand, I think it is good that we have authors listed because we ARE then able to pick out people that have background knowledge opposed to people that feel they need to stretch the truth or blatantly lie.

On our talk of “Smart Mobs” and dealing with ‘community’ I was thinking and I was wondering if we get to choose who our community is. We do by the people we surround ourselves with, but sometimes our privacy is invaded because we choose to put it public. By choosing to do that, does that mean we ‘chose’ that as our community?