Subject: English Language and Literature

Level: Standard
Paper: 1
Date:

Time allowed: 1 hours 15 mins

Instructions to candidates:

• Do not open this examination paper until instructed to do so.

• Write a guided analysis of text 1 or text 2.
• Use the guiding question or propose an alternative technical or formal aspect of the text to
focus your analysis.

The maximum mark for this examination paper is [20 marks].

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: English Language and Literature

Level: Higher
Paper: 1

Date:

Time allowed: 2 hours 15 mins

Instructions to candidates

• Do not open this examination paper until instructed to do so.

• Write a guided analysis of text 1
• Write a guided analysis of text 2
• Use the guiding question or propose an alternative technical or formal aspect of the text to
focus your analysis.
• The maximum mark for this examination paper is [40 marks].


Text 1:

Editor's note: Ed Dante is a pseudonym for a writer who lives on the East Coast. Through a literary
agent, he approached The Chronicle wanting to tell the story of how he makes a living writing papers
for a custom-essay company and to describe the extent of student cheating he has observed.

The request came in by e-mail around 2 in the afternoon. It was from a previous customer, and she
had urgent business. I quote her message here verbatim (if I had to put up with it, so should you): 5
"You did me business ethics propsal for me I need propsal got approved pls can you will write me
paper?"
I've gotten pretty good at interpreting this kind of correspondence. The client had attached a
document from her professor with details about the paper. She needed the first section in a week.
Seventy-five pages. 10

I told her no problem.

It truly was no problem. In the past year, I've written roughly 5,000 pages of scholarly literature, most
on very tight deadlines. But you won't find my name on a single paper.
I've written toward a master's degree in cognitive psychology, a Ph.D. in sociology, and a handful of
postgraduate credits in international diplomacy. I've worked on bachelor's degrees in hospitality, 15
business administration, and accounting. I've written for courses in history, cinema, labor relations,
pharmacology, theology, sports management, maritime security, airline services, sustainability,
municipal budgeting, marketing, philosophy, ethics, Eastern religion, postmodern architecture,
anthropology, literature, and public administration. I've attended three dozen online universities. I've
completed 12 graduate theses of 50 pages or more. All for someone else. 20

You've never heard of me, but there's a good chance that you've read some of my work. I'm a hired
gun, a doctor of everything, an academic mercenary. My customers are your students. I promise you
that. Somebody in your classroom uses a service that you can't detect, that you can't defend against,
that you may not even know exists.

You would be amazed by the incompetence of your students' writing. I have seen the word 25
"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. They
need help learning and, separately, they need help passing their courses. But they aren't getting it.
I live well on the desperation, misery, and incompetence that your educational system has created.
Granted, as a writer, I could earn more; certainly there are ways to earn less. But I never struggle to 30
find work. And as my peers trudge through thankless office jobs that seem more intolerable with
every passing month of our sustained recession, I am on pace for my best year yet. I will make roughly
$66,000 this year. Not a king's ransom, but higher than what many actual educators are paid.
Of course, I know you are aware that cheating occurs. But you have no idea how deeply this kind of
cheating penetrates the academic system, much less how to stop it. Last summer The New York Times 35
reported that 61 percent of undergraduates have admitted to some form of cheating on assignments
and exams. Yet there is little discussion about custom papers and how they differ from more-
detectable forms of plagiarism, or about why students cheat in the first place.
It is my hope that this essay will initiate such a conversation. As for me, I'm planning to retire. I'm tired
of helping you make your students look competent. 40

It's not implausible to write a 75-page paper in two days. It's just miserable. I don't need much sleep,
and when I get cranking, I can churn out four or five pages an hour. First I lay out the sections of an
assignment—introduction, problem statement, methodology, literature review, findings, conclusion—
whatever the instructions call for. Then I start Googling. After I've gathered my sources, I pull out
usable quotes, cite them, and distribute them among the sections of the assignment. Over the years, 45
I've refined ways of stretching papers. I can write a four-word sentence in 40 words. Just give me one
phrase of quotable text, and I'll produce two pages of ponderous explanation. I can say in 10 pages
what most normal people could say in a paragraph.
I work hard for a living. I'm nice to people. But I understand that in simple terms, I'm the bad guy. I see
where I'm vulnerable to ethical scrutiny. 50

But pointing the finger at me is too easy. Why does my business thrive? Why do so many students
prefer to cheat rather than do their own work? Say what you want about me, but I am not the reason
students cheat. And as far as I know, not one of my customers has ever been caught.
My client was thrilled with my work. The 75-page paper on business ethics ultimately expanded into a
160-page graduate thesis, every word of which was written by me. I can't remember the name of my 55
client, but it's her name on my work. We collaborated for months.
So, of course, you can imagine my excitement when I received the good news:
"thanx so much for uhelp ican going to graduate to now".

Adapted from Source: http://chronicle.com/article/The-Shadow-Scholar/125329/

GUIDING QUESTION: Discuss how the writer uses language to create a powerful impact on the
reader

Text 2:

Adapted from Source: https://netsanity.net/teen-slang-parents-guide/

GUIDING QUESTION: Discuss how this text uses visual features to communicate its content clearly