I've recently discovered (via the joys of Facebook) that an old housemate of mine now works for a company called Academic Answers. Basically, they edit/write your essays for you for a price. I think this kind of thing is simply unacceptable - but it's all over their website how it "isn't cheating" (www.academicanswers.co.uk). But it is to me. Just wondered what others' opinions were on this matter? I think it goes against the spirit of academia entirely!

I saw a programme about this and the people who ran similar websites say that the student doesn't actually hand in the essay they produce - its just for reference' (cynical smilie).

I think it is cheating, although I guess students could argue that they used it as a basis for their own essay, then maybe it isn't technically!??

I have received emails from these type of companies asking if I want to write for them - they seem to pay about 5p per 1500 word essay! or very low anyway, to earn anything you would have to be writing 24 hours a day - rubbish! and I don't really understand why anyone would work for them, as its your work being sold to other people who then claim it as theirs - wierd.

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Yes, it is cheating. But in this economic crisis I don't blame the graduate students that work for these essay mills. In any case, the outrage of universities is kind of missplaced anyway in my opinion. Everybody knows that the corporate university is a 2.1 degree mill for middle-class student customers. Marking schemes and appeals are all linked to pleasing customers and giving them what they have paid for. In my experience I have seen many GTA's give essays thirds or 2.2's and have them moderated upwards These essay mills clearly cater to wealthy /lazy students who need help or an in actuality ill-suited to degree level study. In part this is the fault of universities for taking such students on in the first instance. It interests me how universities will talk about these mills threatening their standards - but actually, far greater a threat is the pressure from within to comform to a business model (keeping customers happy, statistics, etc)...

In a neo-liberal state, essay mills and corporate universities handing out mass 2.1s are the logical outcome of education. Both are the marketisation of education.

Just my tuppence.

Totally cheating. You do the most refined part of your thinking in your writing and communicating of ideas-well you do in social sciences and arts at any rate. The only time I would think that it wouldn't be is if the person had a disability or barrier that prevented them from writing and the person hired acted as a scribe or secretary.

this reminds me!! back in my undergrad days I had a friend whose boyfriend did her assignments for her :-) :-) :-)
he actually enjoyed doing them--and all she had to do was concentrate on the labs and prepare for the FINALS!!!!!!!
love satchi

ya.. its truly cheating........ But there cases when people needs to cheat, for some unavoidable reasons. We have a group of nine students in our batch. We all are very broad minded and love to explore new things. We are Physics student and use to learn new things.
But we hate wasting time in making assignments and in exams........ but still we have to do that. We are frustrated but still we do all these. In fact there was time when we had done assignments which will not be helpful in any case. So what we use to do is that, we share the problems among ourselves and solve and then again redistribute the solutions and submit . It may be cheating for people but we know we are not cheating.......We are just avoiding unnecessary headache and saving our time.......

ya.. its truly cheating........ But there cases when people needs to cheat, for some unavoidable reasons. We have a group of nine students in our batch. We all are very broad minded and love to explore new things. We are Physics student and use to learn new things.
But we hate wasting time in making assignments and in exams........ but still we have to do that. We are frustrated but still we do all these. In fact there was time when we had done assignments which will not be helpful in any case. So what we use to do is that, we share the problems among ourselves and solve and then again redistribute the solutions and submit . It may be cheating for people but we know we are not cheating.......We are just avoiding unnecessary headache and saving our time.......

Ok I don't understand that reasoning at all.  It's just cheating not a way to remove a headache. If you are studying something you enjoy then doing these assignments should be your favourite thing.  You get to research and examine something that is of great interest in your subject. Assignments were my favourite way of learning...and it lets you explore your subject in a different way than just simply turning up to lectures.

Not doing assignments yourself is just wasting your time at uni...

Exactly.

If you present work that someone else has done, as your own, then that's cheating. It doesn't matter if people get together and do it as a group, or whether it's done because they think a particular assignment is pointless/beneath them. It's cheating.

And like Gennia points out, you're just wasting your time. If an assignment is to have any benefit then it has to be done. You're not going to learn or get better at techniques by osmosis. Niether are you going to be able to have a group huddle during exams or real life situations.



But it's not unavoidable. You could just do the work - individually, as set. It's not like someone is holding you to gun point and making you cheat.

There's absolutely no reason to cheat there. The work's part of the degree. It's to prove to people you can do it, consistantly, as well as give you the practice and experience you need. If you can do it, like you said, then just do it. If you can't do it then you get official help or just put some effort in and get through it. It's how you learn.



But it's the very definition of cheating. It doesn't matter how you justify it, or how well you tie yourself up in knots so that you don't feel bad. It's still by it's very nature cheating. All you're doing it attempting to defuse the congitive dissonance that comes along with it. It's the same with anything from academic answers. It doesn't matter whether people dress it up as reference material that's not meant to be handed in or as a study guide. It's handing in someone elses work.

Grrr. Sorry I'm ranting but cheating gets to me. I worked hard for my degree, and my current PhD. And during my teaching and marking I've seen plenty of other people work hard too. It doesn't seem fair that our efforts should be essentially devalued by other people taking the easy route. I feel the same about quacks and such. Take Gillian McKeith. She tried to pass herself off as a Doctor (medical or PhD) and lots of people beleived her and bought into it. In reality her qualification can be bought. It's not from an accredited institution and you can't get a copy of her thesis. She's not earnt the title, she's not done the work and she shouldn't get to use it. Just like if someone cheats when it comes to their degree. If you've not done the work you don't deserve the degree, no matter how you dress it up.

Peljam I really agree with what you're saying, especially the part about working hard. I think that's what upsets me the most about these "easy answers": the fact that I have struggled to get where I am, it doesn't just come 'easily', postgrad work is hard and often you have to sacrifice a lot. If you make that commitment, you should honour it, and it upsets me that people such as that horrible troll Gillian McKeith exploit it. Well said!