Thinking about paying for someone else to write your essay online or buying an essay? Please don’t! Students should not buy essays online regardless of how tempting this may be.
Sadly, many students admit to having used an online essay writing service, sometimes called ‘essay mills’. These websites either have pre-prepared essays for students to buy or for an increased fee, a writer will produce a new essay from scratch based on the instructions provided by students.
Tempting as this may be it is not a good idea. Not only is it pricey (some websites charge up to £250 for one essay) it is also risky. Universities and colleges are getting pretty good at catching students who cheat and the consequences can be pretty harsh.
There are several reasons why you should stay clear of essay writing sites.
High plagiarism percentage
As all students will know avoiding plagiarism is important when writing an essay. This is ten times more difficult when you are buying an essay from a website. Many of the essays produced by these sites are sold in bulk to lots of people. Even the essays that are supposedly ‘new’ will likely contain similarities to other essays.
See our article on plagiarism for more information.
It is easier than you think for your university/college to find out
University and college lecturers are not idiots. It is easy to spot an essay that has not been written by the student. If lecturers are in doubt whether an essay was actually written by the student they will likely investigate. This may involve:
- Comparing with examples of the student’s previous work.
- Asking the student to explain their essay i.e talk about the main ideas, their research process etc. If the student has not written the essay themelves it is likely they will struggle with this.
Students who are found to have submitted an essay that is not theirs will be in breach of university/college rules. More on this next.
Breach of university/college policy
At the risk of stating the obvious, it is against university/college policy to submit coursework that is not yours. Not only is it considered to be plagiarism but deliberately paying someone else to write an essay for you is likely to also amount to student misconduct. If you are caught submitting essays that are not yours you will face disciplinary action.
No guarantees about quality when buying online essays
Just because an essay site has written the essay for you does not mean it will be of any use. Remember, writers working for these websites are being paid to quickly write an essay about a subject they probably know very little about. Plus, these sites are highly unlikely to double-check the quality of the work. A spelling/grammar check is the most they will probably do.
So if you want an A grade it is probably wise to stay clear of essay writing services.
It is morally wrong
Whilst it is not illegal to buy essays online it is not very ethical. The whole point of attending university or college is for YOU to gain a degree, not for someone else to do the work for you.
However, many academics are pushing for new laws to be introduced that will ban the practice of buying and selling essays online. Some governments are listening and in some countries, there are restrictions on the advertising of essay writing services.
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