Jihad Watch reader James has kindly alerted me to the existence of a precooked term paper on my book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades):
Papers on "Robert Spencer's "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam"" and similar term paper topicsPaper #102300 :: Robert Spencer's "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam"
Buy and instantly download this paper nowThis paper is a critical review of Robert Spencer's "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam".
Written in 2008; 1,101 words; 1 source; MLA; $ 38.95
Two questions:
1. Where is the subversive anti-MESA Nostra renegade professor who is assigning a term paper on this book?
2. Why would anyone plunk down $38.95 for a thousand-word prefab essay when they could get the book for $13.57 at Amazon and write their own?
Trust me on this, Robert...laziness is expensive. The younlings can't afford to take time away from Grand Theft Auto 4 to write. That would take time. Time is Money. Pay now, get a nice inflated grade later!
Where is the subversive anti-MESA Nostra renegade professor who is assigning a term paper on this book?
Maybe the term paper was on the subject of Islam and your book was the one used by the student(s). Given its title, a critical essay would probably have been well-received by the professor, particularly if the professor is in the Muslim Studies area.
Robert - Students accustomed to downloading papers from the internet and watching the movie version of a novel rather than reading, or paying the "class nerd" to do their homework, would have no problem paying $38.95 not to have the read or think about the book in the context of the parameters of assignment. Nor do they want to put out the effort to write the paper and edit the paper, which can be troublesome even in the era of grammar-and-spellcheck software.
Sad, but not a shock.
"Where is the subversive anti-MESA Nostra renegade professor who is assigning a term paper on this book?"
Now that is the $64,000.00 question.
*doubles over with laughter*
Now this is an essay I'd like to read. Those things are notoriously terrible.
Robert --
Why don't you write a review of this Politically Incorrect Guide, and offer it for sale here at $37.95? Why should others be making the money?
They have a wide search engine. It's not clear how, but anyone looking for research on Robert's book will be led to stories on TV Guide ($55.95), premature babies($28.95) and this one:
Robert Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis, 2002.
An analysis of the role of Robert Kennedy in defusing the Cuban Missile Crisis through his negotiations.
1,650 words (approx. 6.6 pages), 7 sources,
$62.95
Well, well, well. You learn something new every day. I didn't know Islam played a role in the Cuban missile crisis. (Then again, maybe it was the missiles in Turkey.)
You should write term papers based on your own books, and sell them for fourty bucks. You probably won't get rich, but there may be a gallon or two of gas for the Maxwell in it...
Actually, I have a third question--is this "critical review" of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam" fair? Or does it assume Robert Spencer is "Islamophobic"?
As upset as I am by the growing incidents of cheating at all academic levels, though, the very existance of this "term paper" does show that the book is being read (or in the case of lazy, unethical students, at least being assigned).
If there were no market for such a paper, it wouldn't be available.
hmm i just did a yahoo search with Robert Spencer and islam as the search terms and i found a link to a torent link came back and i found someone apparently has made a pdf copy of the book and posted it on the net so unfortunely a lazy, unethical student can steal the book
Seriously: the PIG to Islam and the Crusades would make an EXCELLENT upper high school or first-year- university teaching text.
Hmm. Any chance you will use digital distribution as a primary channel, Robert? That would be quite an interesting model; something approaching Webscriptions for Baen Books.
Yeah, I'd like to see that essay myself too.