Can I do this?

[Litcrit]

In a nutshell: I’ve been hired to do a translation by a company I’ve often done translations for in the past. I’ve been made aware that what I’m translating is a paper for the boss’s son, who’s studying in the US. Someone wrote the paper for him, and I’m supposed to translate it into English.

So, the guy’s basically cheating and my action of translating is part of the mechanism that’s enabling it, though I believe not immoral in itself (e.g. if the guy himself wrote the paper and I translated it into English for his teachers, I don’t think this would be immoral. The immoral part is the fact that someone else wrote the paper.)

When I realized this, I didn’t decline because the employee of the company who’s my contact and who was ordered to organize this is my friend and she’ll be in trouble if she doesn’t. I don’t think she can theoretically find someone else for this deadline (tonight). Maybe I should have declined immediately, but I didn’t have the heart, because she sounded desperate, and now her situation is even worse!

I should be starting on this, but feel horrible about it. My dilemma is strictly ethical - I’m neither desperate for the money nor too lazy to do it - do I participate, however tangentially, in cheating, or do I cause lots of trouble for my friend?

 

[Litcrit]

For what it’s worth, it’s a really lousy paper…

 

[ohioszo]

Whenever did you hear the truth? If you heard the truth within the last day, you can definitely relieve your conscience of refusing it, today. Your friend will be okay with that, believe me!

 

[Barbkw]

In college, I had a biology class that did not have a book. All information had to come from class participation and note taking. A guy who sat beside me, rarely came to class except to take an exam. On one exam, he got a better grade than I did. I asked him how he achieved that, when he rarely came to class. He smiled and said his fraternity had all the answers to this professor’s tests.

I informed the professor that he needed to change his test questions- that organizations had the answers to tests. He shrugged his shoulders (tenured professor) and said he didn’t care.

 

[Totterman]

Jesus,our Lords peace be whit You.
When You do something wrong You need to stop. So my advice is: get as much miles between You and this company as You can.
We must be honest. To our self,to others and above all to God. By the way we can’t hide from Him,so even if You keep on doing this,thinking it’s OK,it is just a lousy paper,He see You,and You know it’s wrong,so stop. Remember,God sees all and there is no place to run and there is no place to hide.

 

[Litcrit]

Whenever did you hear the truth? If you heard the truth within the last day, you can definitely relieve your conscience of refusing it, today. Your friend will be okay with that, believe me!

She won’t be angry, but she’ll be in trouble.

,thinking it’s OK,it is just a lousy paper,.

No, I meant the paper itself is really lousy - whoever wrote it for him has no clue and the guy is sure to fail. The paper is full of blatant mistakes, and if I’m to translate it, I’ll feel guilty for not correcting them and allowing him to fail - but I certainly wouldn’t correct them, because I’m only a translator.

 

[Litcrit]

Well, the horrible quality of the paper helped me out of this.

This is what I’m doing: I’m translating the thing as it is, for free, because I’d promised my friend, BUT I’m letting her know that it is an absolute disaster and the guy is sure to fail. I’m also offering to help him with his *own *paper, again for free - take a look at it, suggest improvements, stuff like that, something anyone would do for anyone, nothing dishonest.

This way my conscience is clear - I do what I promised to do, but also make sure the translation is NOT used for cheating. He would be an idiot to use it, and I made sure they understand that.

 

[Litcrit]

Finished.

I did the translation because I’d promised my friend, but made it VERY clear that the ‘cheat’ paper is a sure way to fail.

Then I corrected the student’s original paper (it’s actually much better) - just the grammar and spelling, he’s a foreign student, after all. That’s not dishonest.

I included a tirade on the dishonesty and immorality of cheating in the e-mail I sent him.

I charged nothing.

If he decides to use the ‘cheat’ paper, it serves him right. I translated everything verbatim, which means unfinished, illogical sentences, horrible style and a very clear lack of basic understanding of the subject matter. My conscience is clear either way.