Photocopied Journalism

Thank you for applying for the summer science-writing internship at Chemical & Engineering News. Please excuse the delay in getting back to you. We received 38 applications for this internship, and it has taken more time than expected to consider them all carefully. Choosing one person was challenging because of the high caliber of the applicants. I am sorry to say that we have now decided in favor of another applicant. Thank you again for your interest in C&EN and for taking the time to apply for this position. I wish you well in your future endeavors.

Wow! 1 out of 38! So Andrew should not have expect anything from it because of the heat competition around here. He is from an English-as-second-language country with no journalism experience.

He borrowed a textbook from the library today, though, perhaps hoping to improve himself journalistically a bit. It is the famous News Reporting and Writing, 9th Ed. by Melvin Mencher. It is not an original edition which is available in US, but a photocopied version jointly published (by McGraw Hill) with a local Chinese publisher. I know this book from the recommendation of a undergraduate 师妹 majoring this subject.

Photocopied versions (legally by local publishers, with reduced prices of course) of foreign textbooks enable most of the Chinese students to afford the access of the best educational materials worldwide, although the prices are sometimes still quite high. Cell and Molecular Biology, Concepts and Experiments, 3rd Ed. by Gerald Karp, RMB 68. Supramolecular Chemistry by J. W. Steed and J. L. Atwood costs RMB 68.00, the same price of Flory's holy Principles of Polymer Chemistry. Solid State Physics by Neil W. Ashcroft and N. David Mermin, RMB 98. Isaac Neil's Physical Organic Chemistry, a classic, RMB 166.00. Vogel's Textbook of Practical Organic Chemistry, RMB 298. Random House Webster's College Dictionary, 385!

Ironically, if you really photocopy these books the cost may be much lower. Average price per A4 paper here is RMB 0.10. So take the Vogel's huge volume for example, the whole 1500 pages will cost only RMB 75 (two page per A4 paper) or less due to discount for such a large business. Actually Andrew photocopied the Advanced Organic Chemistry, Reactions, Mechanisms, and Structures, 4th Ed. by Jerry March, the whole book!

Finishing Reading all these book is another things of course, especially considering the cost. Fortunately Andrew read these book quite hard (except the recent-shopped Solid State Physics and Supramolecular Chemistry). But I doubt if it were not the high price, he would not have paid so much effort on them...