If you teach at a university, this will the most frightening thing you read today.

Written under a pseudonym for the Chronicle of Higher Education, this is an essay by a professional writer who gets paid to help college students cheat.

He writes term papers on pretty much any subject you can imagine.

In this essay, he tells of the astonishingly vapid and intellectually challenged college students he routinely connects with - students who are desperate - and yet can't actually spell "desperate."

One telling graf.

For those of you who have ever mentored a student through the writing of a dissertation, served on a thesis-review committee, or guided a graduate student through a formal research process, I have a question: Do you ever wonder how a student who struggles to formulate complete sentences in conversation manages to produce marginally competent research? How does that student get by you?

This essay is causing some heads to turn across higher education today. The online comment section is a particularly lively community.

Here's the story.

This is absolutely fascinating.

A novelist has written an essay in a Drexel University publication recounting his days as a term paper author-for-hire.

Yes, that's right. Billy the college kid doesn't have time to write 12 pages on MacBeth, so he goes online and buys one. Pays several hundred bucks or more. The paper broker contacts the author, who bashes out the term paper and sends it in.

Incredible.

The writer here, Nick Mamatas, says there are several types of people who buy term papers. Some are just too dumb to do the work. Others are people from other countries who are educated but struggle with language. And some are the protected and coddled; here's his description of one client whose mother — yes, his mother! — bought a term paper on his behalf. In other words, mom paid for sonny to cheat.

"[My son] is a very kind hearted young man. One who will make a difference in whatever he does. Barely can go unnoticed because of his vivacious character, happiness and joy in life. He is very much in tune with his fortune and often helps the less fortunate."

Wow. I guess I too would be filled with happiness and joy if mom solved all my problems for me.