On a Sunday afternoon, I was hanging out with my friends downtown. I could tell Bob was not in the mood. Something was going on in his mind. I asked him what was wrong, and he started complaining about his master’s program.
He started talking about how hard it was for him to read so many articles, summarize them, and send them to his professor as a proof that he has done his homework. “Is this a master class or elementary school?” James asked sarcastically. Apparently, Bob’s couldn’t help it. His master’s program was wearing him out. I sensed that he was not okay when we asked him to get together. The guy was so behind schedule. We had helped him once before but it was so exhausting and time consuming. He appreciated it, but we apologized for not being able to do it again.
James suggested an idea to Bob — hiring other people to rewrite his articles for him. Bob had no idea that such a thing was really a thing. He had heard about selling products on eBay and translation services on Fiverr. He was surprised when he heard that people offered a variety of services related to writing and translation such as writing articles for blogs, rewriting pre-existing articles, and proofreading different types of papers.
Later James showed Bob where he could buy a rewriting gig at a low cost.
Guess what? Bob was the one who invited us the following week. He was not stressed out like before. He started buying two to three gigs a week. He admitted that he hadn’t even read some of the articles he was supposed to read. He read just the summaries he bought online. This sounds like a lazy way to get around things, but sometimes it’s necessary to find your shortcuts when there is no time. I guess Master’s students reading this article won’t blame my Bob.