You have the top-notch ideas but your command of the written English is limited. You can speak in English and understand the language, but you cannot even spell 75 percent of what you say. Your grammar construction is, almost always, something to jeer about. Nevertheless, you possess the academic degree and the know-how you insanely desire to share with your intellectual peers through published scientific papers. Would you ever let a lexical deficiency hinder your rise to the top of the scholastic ladder?

No way – says few of the people I know. I personally know a research scientist whose first language is not English, whose sub-par writing skills could easily send peers to frown, if not, jerk. But he manages to impress people with good write-ups and well-written documents. The key is to be smart — let others do the writing or the editing (read: flipping it 75%, recall that you cannot even spell 75% of your words) for you! Hire or pay for an academic ghostwriter for your scientific papers. Or get it for free by befriending the better-schooled American writers. Or could also be any person whose English skills are par excellence, someone who could spell receive with “e after c” and not “i after c”. A ghostwriter could edit and refine your rough draft or even create an article from start to finish based on your basic idea.

What do you get from using an academic ghostwriter’s services? What advantage does it contribute to your academic profile when you allow others to compose your ideas? You get credits from a work you never did. You get recognition from peers for a piece of article done by someone else.

All credits go to the research scientist. My non-native-English-speaking friend did not even cited the ghostwriter in the acknowledgment. No mention or trivial hint of the name. But that is the main charm of the ghostwriter — to remain in the shadows, even if it means to be unknown forever.

I have heard of ghostwriting many years ago, but it was mostly about paid writers for book publishing. It was only recently that I learned about getting a thesis or dissertation written by a ghostwriter (paid or not paid). What is wrong with ghostwriting? In terms of legality, online site offering ghostwriting services looks legal to me. For instance, the Academic Ghostwriting website offers to write your research proposals, research methodologies, literature searches, literature reviews, data analysis, and full editing service. And they do it with high quality standards. Their writers and researchers acknowledge the dissertation for what it is, the “culmination of your studies and a major investment.” Also, they promise a service that gives the highest security and delivers utmost discretion.

What could go wrong? You hire them. The ghost writer earns a living or in few cases, is happy to help you. You get your idea published. Everyone is happy. Is this illegal? Maybe not. But it is unethical. The university requires you as a doctoral student to do the dissertation and paper writing by yourself. To employ someone to write the work for you is pure cheating; an academic fraud. PhDs should be capable writers, no matter what your nationality is, regardless of what language you’re writing your dissertation in. If you are a non-native English speaker, and you write your papers in English, learn how to be capable. Remember that your dissertation should demonstrate not only how well you know your subject matter but how effectively you can communicate your ideas through writing. Writing is a skill a doctoral student must develop in the first two years of the doctoral degree.

I have been blessed to have an advisor who’s more than willing to help me improve my scientific-writing skills. I admit that I am way far from being a wordsmith to getting my ideas sell in the academic market. This deficiency, however, made me look at the value of the PhD degree in a much broader perspective. It is not easy to showcase the research if English is not up to the standard the scientific community requires. The perfect solution to this is to learn the tricks of good writing the quickest time possible. How? Learn from your boss. Whatever comments on grammatical structure you receive from a draft paper you make, take them seriously. Read and read more published articles from well-respected scientists on your field. Study their styles. Get some help books. Then write, rewrite and proofread. No ghostwriter. Employing the services of someone other than those involved in the paper, or yourself as in the case of your dissertation, is an admission of failure.

Professors and advisors must also demand excellence from their research/teaching assistants or PhD students. Passing a comprehensive written exam must not be used as a measure of an inherent specialist skill.

With English as a second language, it may be hard to compete. So you and me must trust ourselves a bit more. A scientific paper with grammatical mistakes, may not sound uplifting. But seeing the fruits of having to try harder each time brings a sense of accomplishment.

Believe me, the best decision you can make in your academic life is not to “own” somebody else’s work. Finn (1993) said “that the problem is that writing forces people to think, and delegating writing means delegating thinking. Ghostwriting means ghost-thinking. A society which is managed by people who don’t take the time to think is leaderless.”

Take time to think. Spare a room for written-English development. Don’t you want to be the real person behind the words?