Mamatas' Interview

Throughout the whole interview, Mamatas was very calm and honest. Nick seemed overly okay with the fact that he was helping college students cheat their way through class. Bob Garfield even asked him if he felt any guilt helping these students cheat. Mamatas said no because he thinks they got theirs in the end of it all.
Hearing Mamatas' opinion does not change my opinion on his work at the paper mill. I still think the work is sleazy and dishonest, and Nick wasn't helping anyone. I still think the students buying those papers were doing nothing but cheating themselves of an education.
However, hearing Mamatas' opinion rather than seeing it, might have a different effect on other viewers. Nick's calm and collected attitude on the subjected may have people thinking that it's not such a bad thing. They may also think Mamatas doesn't take plagiarism or cheating seriously.

The Term Paper Artist Explication

In Nick Mamatas' article The Term Paper Artist, he tells us about his job as a term paper writer and the kind of clients he would write for.  Nick got the job at a term paper mill through an ad.  He says, "Then, in the Village Voice, I saw just such an ad. Writers wanted, to write short pieces on business, economics, and literature. It was from a term paper mill, and they ran the ad at the beginning of each semester."  Throughout the article, Nick explains the three types of clients: "the DUMB CLIENTS, the one-timer, and the well-educated professionals who simply lack English-language skills."  Nick also tells us that, over a period of time, he has written every type of paper you could think of.
Nick says, "Writing model term papers is above-board and perfectly legal. Thanks to the First Amendment, it’s protected speech, right up there with neo-Nazi rallies, tobacco company press releases, and those "9/11 Was An Inside Job" bumper stickers. It's custom-made Cliff Notes."  It's legal, but is it really helping anyone? The students ordering these papers aren't gaining anything, and they certainly aren't learning anything except how to be bad students.  However, Nick is right about one thing.  He says, " I know something they don't know; I know why students don't understand thesis statements, argumentative writing, or proper citations.  It's because students have never read term papers."  No one can explain to us how to write a thesis sentence, they have to show us.  Since no one ever shows us how to write a term paper, we have no idea where to begin.