Freelance Writing: A Teacher & Future Police Officer’s View
Welcome to the 3rd edition of personal stories written by our Staff Writers at Homework Help Global. Read this very personal story about how one of our writers transitioned from teaching to policing, all while being a freelance writer.
Getting Into the Industry
Academic writing, an industry like any other, helps people do something that they don’t want to do. The question is, who is benefiting and what harm is being done by participating in the freelance industry? Educated as a teacher and in current pursuit of a police constable position, I hope that I can shed light on this concern.
Over my years of academic writing, I have faced incredible personal development and faced many changes in my own life. I began academic writing when I was in my early 20s, writing for a company online, while still in university. Most of my time was spent writing my own assignments during my undergraduate, working my part-time job or attending classes. Academic writing was simply an opportunity for me to make little extra income on my own time. Slowly, my writing developed and I became more capable of writing freely, developing my vocabulary, writing process and discipline diversity. A few years later, I moved to a new city and was ready to begin a career as a teacher.
Unfortunately, I was more likely to find the Easter bunny at the North Pole than I was to find full-time teaching positions. This prompted the realization that maybe teaching isn’t my destiny, leading to my transition into law enforcement.
While that is a whole different story, it has been interesting to facilitate these goals while maintaining a freelance position.
Finding My Morals, Values and Beliefs
Over my years of writing, I have gotten the same questions over and over, “how can you help people cheat if you want to be a teacher?,“aren’t police officers supposed to have morals?,” and so on… These questions were at first difficult for me to answer, but over time, as I worked through my own thoughts, I found solace in my responses.
While I was in school and after I graduated, I was most often questioned about being a teacher and academic writer at the same time. I was asked about supporting cheating or going against the education system. But, it’s actually more than just questioning the honesty of students and the value of a paper. When in school, students cheat more often than is recognized. In many instances, students will copy answers from one another when doing coursework, especially in math, fill in the blanks, or other types of work. Right before the bell rings, just as the teacher asks students to put their homework on their desk, there is always one or two who are scrambling to get the last of the answers from their friend. So what’s the difference between that and an entire paper? In both situations, the students are getting nothing from the task and are being provided the completion marks or grades for work that was fraudulently produced.
Well, the way I see it is that the student will not be able to perform later. If you don’t put in the time, you are only cheating yourself. Sure, a teacher can give completion marks for the homework all year but when test time comes, a failing grade will restrict academic continuation. Even when the student does manage to pass, they will not have the conceptual skills to perform with that knowledge in the future.
Academic Writing and Teaching
Another perspective towards this is related to my teaching philosophy. In my practicum experiences and throughout my education, I was never one to focus on tests, papers or mind numbing assignments that were lacking in richness or value. Students who are faced with grading systems also can find difficulty, as this eliminates self-evaluation, discriminates certain learning types and are subjective in focus, among other determinants (Barnes, 2014). Schinske and Tanner (2014) also contribute to this perspective, as they believe the assignment based focus of education has valid skepticisms and the focus of these assignments is losing purpose.
Sure, a student can learn a lot when writing a ten page research paper about Marxism, but does that foster the process to apply Marxist perspective into our social structure, allowing an understanding of the capitalist tendencies that can fuel our societal demise? Not likely. In education, I feel that a student benefits from practical application of knowledge, attained through projects and assignments that are meaningful and allow the student time to apply their perspectives, their knowledge and their skill to a topic. While I have written some of those assignments too, it is of a much smaller ratio than of basic research papers or reflections on theories, concepts or events. Because of this, I am able to support students in overlooking these tedious tasks, as the value is limited, in my perspective.
Academic Writing and Law Enforcement
Beyond teaching, as I move into the world of law enforcement, I find a whole new realm of questions, relative to the previous array but more related to my personal morals and values, rather than my beliefs based on the education system. Currently working in law enforcement and moving towards a position as a constable, there are certain expectations surrounding morals, values and more importantly, ethics.
Within policing, the measurement of integrity and other core values reflect the concerns of corruption. Fighting corruption begins through the screening process and determination of whether participation in certain activities will foster development of poor judgement in the future (Samuels, 2000). Core values of police officers often include accountability, integrity, professionalism, honesty, leadership, teamwork and respect. While these are just a few of the many, one that is prominent in focus is integrity. Hearing this term more often now days, we question what integrity really is and how we foster or diminish it within our lives. Integrity is “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.”
Breaking this down, we identify honesty as being truthful, straightforward, without lying, cheating or stealing. But, when comparing the value of honesty within integrity, we see that it is merely a component and not the heartbeat of this value. While honesty is telling the truth, integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching. Reflective of policing concerns, there are also levels of offense seriousness that contribute to these concerns and that reflect the concern for corruption (Samuels, 2002).
But, as I previously noted, my freelance work is not a secret to those I interact with and anyone who sees my resume. I boast my position and I offer explanation to anyone who questions the concept. This attribute maintains my integrity, as I do not hide behind my role and I do not waiver on my morals.
How I Sleep At Night
In the end, both of my positions foster the same question, relating to the idea of helping someone get ahead without merit. But, it is only to think that the components of tedious and meagre work are what merit is comprised of that fuels these questions. Recognition of the true competencies that are required and facilitation of those aspects of education and life development are truly the foundations of merit and any success. Thus, it is not me that should even be working to find consolation in my efforts, rather the educators that are failing the students to develop components of their courses that prompt their interest enough to participate, rather than to pass off the opportunity to learn to someone in the shadows.
Now that you’ve heard what I think about academic writing, tell me what you think. Do you complete academic writing for others? If so, how do you justify it? Or, do you think that a teacher or law enforcement member can maintain their core values while academic writing?
References
Barnes, M. (2014). 7 Reasons Teachers Should Stop Grading Their Students Forever. Brilliant or Insane, Education on the Edge. Retrieved from http://www.brilliant-insane.com/2014/05/7-reasons-teachers-should-stop-grading-their-students-forever.html
Samuels, J. E. (2000). The Measurement of Police Integrity. National Institute of Justice. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/181465.pdf.
Schinske, J., and Tanner, K. (2014). Teaching More by Grading Less. CBE Life Sciences Education, 13(2), pp. 159–166.
