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:O Essays to order: students warned (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter AsyLum
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Sweet_Lemon
Final Sem'
Essays to order: students warned
http://smh.com.au/news/national/essays-to-order-students-warned/2006/04/01/1143441378330.html
UNIVERSITY students are paying up to $50 a page to have essays and reports ghost-written for them by anonymous, internet-based authors.
The made-to-order assignments, thought to be written mostly by postgraduates and former students, are hard for academics to detect and often avoid being caught by anti-plagiarism software.
Known as "papermills", the websites often accept credit card payments.
Macquarie University copyright co-ordinator Matt Connors said students caught handing in fraudulent work faced heavy penalties, including subject failure.
"There's nothing wrong with paying someone to answer a question you put to them," Mr Connors said.
"But there is something wrong with handing it in at university as your own work."
One website of interest to Mr Connors, http://www.essayhelp.com.au, says it is "staffed exclusively by Australian scholars".
The website promises students that: "Using our service will increase your grades and help make sure that you never fail."
Among the services on offer are essay writing, thesis writing and report writing.
Employment opportunities for "expert scholars" are also spruiked at the website. A warning highlights the dubious nature of the operation: "There may also be some other requirements regarding confidentiality, exclusivity and copyright. These can be worked out on a case by case basis."
There are some telltale signs that alert academics to potentially fraudulent essays, Mr Connors said.
"With a creative writing assignment, seven students all [wrote about] protagonists that were all based in the same city and the city was not in Australia. That suggested the essays were all generated by the same papermill."
An inconsistent writing style is another indicator of a possible scam. And checking whether the references cited by the students are actually in the university library is a tactic favoured by some academics.
"[Websites] based in Australia are of more concern," Mr Connors said. "They are tailoring the content a bit more closely to what we are studying."
The pressure on students to pass university assignments can be enormous, he said.
"Students have got a lot of incentive to pass, so spending $50 to $100 on an essay may seem cheap. I've heard they charge up to $50 a page. Considering the financial penalties in [failing], $200 for an essay might seem like money well spent."
A spokesman for federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said students were "cheating themselves out of a major aspect of a tertiary education" if they handed in fake essays.
Opposition education spokeswoman Jenny Macklin encouraged universities to crack down on any essay cheats.
"Universities have a duty to do everything in their power to stamp out plagiarism."
http://smh.com.au/news/national/essays-to-order-students-warned/2006/04/01/1143441378330.html
UNIVERSITY students are paying up to $50 a page to have essays and reports ghost-written for them by anonymous, internet-based authors.
The made-to-order assignments, thought to be written mostly by postgraduates and former students, are hard for academics to detect and often avoid being caught by anti-plagiarism software.
Known as "papermills", the websites often accept credit card payments.
Macquarie University copyright co-ordinator Matt Connors said students caught handing in fraudulent work faced heavy penalties, including subject failure.
"There's nothing wrong with paying someone to answer a question you put to them," Mr Connors said.
"But there is something wrong with handing it in at university as your own work."
One website of interest to Mr Connors, http://www.essayhelp.com.au, says it is "staffed exclusively by Australian scholars".
The website promises students that: "Using our service will increase your grades and help make sure that you never fail."
Among the services on offer are essay writing, thesis writing and report writing.
Employment opportunities for "expert scholars" are also spruiked at the website. A warning highlights the dubious nature of the operation: "There may also be some other requirements regarding confidentiality, exclusivity and copyright. These can be worked out on a case by case basis."
There are some telltale signs that alert academics to potentially fraudulent essays, Mr Connors said.
"With a creative writing assignment, seven students all [wrote about] protagonists that were all based in the same city and the city was not in Australia. That suggested the essays were all generated by the same papermill."
An inconsistent writing style is another indicator of a possible scam. And checking whether the references cited by the students are actually in the university library is a tactic favoured by some academics.
"[Websites] based in Australia are of more concern," Mr Connors said. "They are tailoring the content a bit more closely to what we are studying."
The pressure on students to pass university assignments can be enormous, he said.
"Students have got a lot of incentive to pass, so spending $50 to $100 on an essay may seem cheap. I've heard they charge up to $50 a page. Considering the financial penalties in [failing], $200 for an essay might seem like money well spent."
A spokesman for federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said students were "cheating themselves out of a major aspect of a tertiary education" if they handed in fake essays.
Opposition education spokeswoman Jenny Macklin encouraged universities to crack down on any essay cheats.
"Universities have a duty to do everything in their power to stamp out plagiarism."
cpjeeves
Totally dibble!
So much time travelling...makes my head hurt. This whole thing is pretty funny though.
ETA: My 200th post! It's only taken 2 years or therabouts..lol
ETA: My 200th post! It's only taken 2 years or therabouts..lol
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xeuyrawp
Guest
I personally think that anyone caught with majority of their essay plagiarised should be suspended for a semester, and be failed in all the subjects.
Put it this way.
Student X: 'Fuck, I don't know anything about metaphysics. I'm going to fail, I mayaswell cheat. If I get caught, it's no worse than if I didn't cheat...'
Put it this way.
Student X: 'Fuck, I don't know anything about metaphysics. I'm going to fail, I mayaswell cheat. If I get caught, it's no worse than if I didn't cheat...'
You're really bringing into question ethical issues here.
First and foremost, is it morally justifiable to achieve success as opposed to failing, if such a move could be for a greater good?
Secondly is the question of moral infallibility and the censuring of the human psyche. If it is justifiable, does that make this second concept mutually exclusive?
Just kidding
First and foremost, is it morally justifiable to achieve success as opposed to failing, if such a move could be for a greater good?
Secondly is the question of moral infallibility and the censuring of the human psyche. If it is justifiable, does that make this second concept mutually exclusive?
Just kidding
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xeuyrawp
Guest
I was totally about to respond to that. 
X
xeuyrawp
Guest
Clever boy. Didn't you just answer your own question then?politik said:
iwannarock
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hahahha philosophy essay questions. always entertaining.:rofl:AsyLum said: