Paid for Master's Thesis

[wcdrake]

I was made an offer to a job I did not submit a proposal to. 

It is good money to write 10 pages of the discussion section of a master's thesis. 

Is this legal? Against upWork's terms? Good for my profile?

I feel uncomfortable about it, and any advice would be helpful

[prestonhunter · Accepted solution]

re: "Is this legal?"

Everything is both legal and not legal. It depends on jurisdiction. There is not one universal set of laws that covers all people in all countries, states, provinces, local municipalities, profressional organizations, religious bodies, companies, etc.

re: "Against Upwork's terms?"

This is an important question that you should be asking.

The specific answer to your question comes from Upwork's Terms of Service, located here:

https://www.upwork.com/legal#terms-of-use

[quote]

4.1 EXAMPLES OF PROHIBITED USES OF THE SITE
The following are examples of uses that are prohibited on the Site or when using the Site Services:
...would violate... the academic policies of any educational institution...

[end quote]

[wcdrake]

Thanks for this. It was exactly what I was looking for. 

[petra_r]

---

William D wrote:

It is good money to write 10 pages of the discussion section of a master's thesis. 

---

It is academic fraud. Walk away after flagging it as inappropriate to alert Upwork.

[prestonhunter]

A long, technical answer to the original poster's complete question is this:

It is NOT illegal, and it is NOT against Upwork's rules for a client to hire you to write something in the format of a Master's Thesis. It would not violate any law or Upwork rule for you to write something in the format of a Master's Thesis. It would be highly unlikely that it would violate any educational institution's policies or any laws if you were hired to provide help with proofreading or formatting or creating illustrations for a Master's Thesis. But it is highly likely that if you were actually hired to write a Master's Thesis, which would be presented as the writing of somebody else - a candidate for a Master's Degree - then that almost certainly would violate an educational institution's policies. And thus it would violate Upwork's policies. Because Upwork has a policy banning freelancers from doing work that violates educational institution's policies.

I can't think of any legitimate situation in which an Upwork freelancer would be asked to write something "in the format of a Master's Thesis," which was not actually intended to be fraudulently used as a Master's Thesis.

So the obvious thing for any freelancer to do when faced with such an "opportunity" is to NOT do it.

re: "It is good money to write 10 pages of the discussion section of a master's thesis."

Let's imagine a very bright, very qualified graduate student in a molecular biology program. This student knows his subject matter, but he is studying at an English-speaking university and he lacks complete confidence in his English-language writing ability. The appropriate thing for him to do would be to do his best to write the discussion session of his Master's thesis, and then obtain written permission from his graduate committee to obtain help in either translating the discussion from his native langauge into English, or help editing and proofreading the discussion session he wrote in English into improved English.

If the graduate student did this, and provided his own work (in need of editing or translation), along with written permission from the graduate committee and contact information for the committee, then I think it would be completely acceptable for him to hire help via Upwork.

[anima9]

Preston, dude, just stop. 

[kfarnell]

Ignoring the legal aspects for a moment, having such a project on your profile would suggest you're willing to participate in fraud.

It could cause some clients to reject you and attract the sort of clients that make you run away screaming.

[colettelewis]

Fraud is illegal.

Preston, perhaps you have forgotten this recent case of academic fraud. If it were not illegal, then these people would not have been indicted:

https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2019/03/13/dozens-indicted-alleged-massive-case-ad...

Admittedly this concerned greasing palms but the mindset is exactly the same. And you really should not be posting ambiguous messages of this sort on the forum. 

[prestonhunter]

re: "Fraud is illegal."

Yes. I said it is illegal.

That is what I meant by "not legal."

But whether or not doing something that violates an academic institution's own policies is actually illegal or not is immaterial for the purposes of the freelancer's question. Because Upwork has a prohibition against it, and Upwork's prohibition is in effect EVEN IF writing a Master's Thesis was not considered illegal somewhere.

[petra_r]

---

Preston H wrote:

re: "Fraud is illegal."

Yes. I said it is illegal.

That is what I meant by "not legal."

---

It didn't need two loooong convoluted "maybe if a magic unicorn and Prince Charming get together to create a special magical job post..." blabla to say that.

Academic fraud is not allowed on Upwork.

The End

[Anonymous-User]

You'd make a horrible attorney, Preston. And you don't have a license but come dangerously close (frequently) in committing an illegal act yourself.

Please stop giving legal advice.

[prestonhunter]

re: "You'd make a horrible attorney, Preston."

I wonder if you're disappointed that it is impossible for me to be disbarred.

In all seriousness: You are correct that I am not an attorney (licensed or otherwise). I certainly don't claim to be one.

I wouldn't want anybody to think I'm an attorney. If I provide information or offer information within the Upwork Forum, it is only done so in an attempt to be helpful. If you or anybody else ever sees me provide incorrect information, then don't hesitate to correct me and provide accurate information. If you simply have a different opinion, that's okay, too. Offer your opinion that is different from mine.

If you feel that commenting on what is legal or not legal is something only an attorney can do (and I'm not sure if that is a correct characterization of your beliefs or not), then I would respectfully disagree.

[tlsanders]

---

Preston H wrote:

If you feel that commenting on what is legal or not legal is something only an attorney can do (and I'm not sure if that is a correct characterization of your beliefs or not), then I would respectfully disagree.

---

That would be one of those things you don't understand because you aren't an attorney and don't have relevant legal knowledge--like when you wrongly advised attorneys in another thread that it was perfectly legal for them to use Upwork. In every state that I am aware of, giving legal advice without a license is prohibited. In some states, it's a crime. Though that's super-inconvenient when someone, like an experienced paralegal, actually has the answer and can't legally advise a person on his/her situation, this discussion illustrates the reason for it: when someone who doesn't know the law but appears to speak with knowledge and authority says "It is perfectly legal to..." and the person he's advising believes him and acts on that advice, that person may suffer serious consequences.

[prestonhunter]

Tiffany:

For your reference, from the State Bar of Arizona:

Unauthorized Practice of Law

Legal Information v. Legal Advice

[tlsanders]

And what do you imagine you're doing if not "expressing a legal opinion"?

[prestonhunter]

I think you have noble intentions.

But there is simply no getting around the fact that you were a licensed attorney and you continue to look at things from a very legal-oriented, attorney-like perspective.

[researchediting]

---

Preston H wrote:

...But there is simply no getting around the fact that you were a licensed attorney and you continue to look at things from a very legal-oriented, attorney-like perspective.

---

You say that as if it were a bad thing.

I happen to think it's a worse thing when someone who is not, was not, and never will be an attorney—with the education and experience pertaining to that status—addresses simple questions that reference the law with a barrage of pseudo-legalistic hairsplitting. On legal questions, give me a "legal-oriented, attorney-like perspective" over a philosophically-derived, armchair-lawyer-like perspective any day of the week.

[prestonhunter]

re: "You say that as if it were a bad thing."

Not necessarily a bad thing.

But a different thing.

None of us are here in the Forum to offer legal advice.

I, for one, certainly have no interest in playing "armchair attorney."

On rare occasions there is discussion that references the "law" or whether or not something is "legal" or not.

There is no need to silence people from participating in these dicussions based on whether they are an attorney or not. Being an attorney or former attorney or paralegal... These are perspectives which should be welcome in the Forum, as should other perspectives.

As for my own perspective:

Althought there are rare exceptions, typically the only thing I comment on that some people think relates to legal matters is when Upwork users wonder if something is "legal". I tell them that this isn't really the important question they should be asking. I maintain that whether something is against Upwork ToS is what they should be wondering about. I have often pointed out that questions of legality or whether or not something violates rules are not universally answerable because different places, jurisdictions and organizations have different laws and rules. Regular Forum participants will recognize these repeated themes. I don't know if those are the comments that some people with legal backgrounds object to... or if it's when I talk about more specific topics that they feel some sort of stewardship over.

[tlsanders]

---

Preston H wrote:

re: "You say that as if it were a bad thing."

Not necessarily a bad thing.

But a different thing.

None of us are here in the Forum to offer legal advice.

I, for one, certainly have no interest in playing "armchair attorney."

Then you should be much clearer. Very often, the responses you say are not intended to be legal advice are posted in direct response to someone asking whether or not they can legally do something, something would violate their contract, etc. 

You tell them there's nothing wrong with doing this or that, or that it's perfectly legal or whatever, and I have no idea what you mean by that if you don't intend it to be an answer to the question it appears to be answering, but it's extremely misleading.

You speak authoritatively, as if what you are offering is fact. You offer it in direct response to a freelancer's request for advice. You know that many newer freelancers will take you at your word because you are successful here and speak categorically, as if you have the answers.

You don't preface it by saying that you're not answering their question, or that you don't know anything about the law, or that you're not offering them advice--you provide categorical answers to their questions that are almost always dead wrong from a legal perspective. Very often, you tell them things that are likely to cost them money or worse if they listen to you.

Why?

There are plenty of areas in which you have great knowledge and experience to offer. Why do you want to put inexperienced freelancers at risk by speaking authoritatively about things you know nothing about?

[prestonhunter]

Tiffany:

This is very concrete advice. Thank you.

I will try to keep this in mind. If I keep these things in mind, I can hopefully avoid potentially problematic posts.

It is clear that you aren't trying to silence people (such as myself), but you want to prevent freelancers from getting into trouble due to advice provided to them.

[prestonhunter]

re: "...like when you wrongly advised attorneys in another thread that it was perfectly legal for them to use Upwork"

This thread is not the place to discuss that subject. But for the record, the statement you are referring to, from a thread titled Upwork's Charges, Legal Fees and the Unlicensed Practice of Law, is below:

"It is fine for attorneys to offer their services through Upwork, just as it is fine for writers, graphic designers and computer programmers to do so."

[tlsanders]

---

Preston H wrote:

re: "...like when you wrongly advised attorneys in another thread that it was perfectly legal for them to use Upwork"

This thread is not the place to discuss that subject. But for the record, the statement you are referring to, from a thread titled Upwork's Charges, Legal Fees and the Unlicensed Practice of Law, is below:

"It is fine for attorneys to offer their services through Upwork, just as it is fine for writers, graphic designers and computer programmers to do so."

---

Exactly. And see, that's just not true. Because graphic designers and computer programmers are not prohibited from compensating those outside their fields on a percentage basis, but attorneys are. 

Surely you can see that anyone reading this would assume that when you say "fine," you don't mean "Well, you could be sanctioned, suspended, or even lose your license for it, but other than that there's really nothing stopping you."?

On a side note, I appreciate that you recognize that my goal here is to protect the inexperienced from mistakes that could have serious consequences for them.