It's the day before a major research paper on the Industrial Revolution is due for history class. For a variety of reasons, the student whose paper is due couldn't get started on research and writing. Panic starts to set in, and it's 11 p.m. and no amount of last-minute research seems to be helping with making headway on the five-page assignment. The student thinks, "I should buy an essay online" for this Industrial Revolution paper and just promise himself never to get into this mess again.
This scene plays out daily on college campuses and in homes around the world where college and university students reside. The impulse to buy an essay online is strong, and it seems too simple, too easy. That's because it is.
Pros of Buying an Essay on the Industrial Revolution Online
There is only one pro to buying a paper from an academic essay mill: it's easy. The student does a quick search for "buy essay online," "buy history paper," "pay for academic papers," or other phrases and finds a site. So what happens next?
- She creates an account.
- The student conducts a search and reads the first paragraph or so of the paper.
- She reads the details – word count, outlined points, number of references, and price.
- She clicks to buy a paper, pays the fee via credit card or PayPal, and downloads the essay on, say, the role of child labor in the Industrial Revolution.
- The student copies and pastes the paper into her own document, formats it to make it look like her own original work, and either prints, uploads, or emails the paper to the course professor.
Cons of Buying an Essay on the Industrial Revolution Online
In five easy steps the student commits academic fraud. This is the biggest "con," of course, to making a purchase from an essay mill. All colleges and universities prohibit plagiarism or academic dishonesty. Enrolled students must submit original academic work that they researched and wrote. Research studies show a correlation between lower SAT scores and higher rates of buying essays online and plagiarism.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, the definitive source for news and analysis for colleges and universities, published an extensive piece of investigative journalism focusing on essay mills in 2009, titled "Cheating Goes Global as Essay Mills Multiply." Whether students buy an essay from mills that offer existing papers, or buy from an "academic writing service" – a fancy term for academic ghostwriting - the result is the same.
It's cheating. Not by any subjective measure, but by objective university standards for academic integrity and originality. According to a 2002 study published in Issues in Writing, 72 percent of college students admitted to cheating on an exam or paper. While the campus culture of plagiarism, academic dishonesty and cheating may be widespread, it nonetheless violates academic standards.
Download Essays From Academic Writing Services – The Catch
Students may think, "Sure, I know. But what are the chances I'll get caught if I download essays?" These days? Pretty high, now that faculty and administrations at most colleges use technology to catch papers purchased through essay mills and academic writing services. Turnitin, a popular anti-plagiarism software program used by many colleges and universities, scans many of the most popular essay mills and paper-writing services – so there really is no hiding from the very real possibility of getting caught.
Plagiarism anecdotes abound of professors seeing the same paper twice in a class, submitted by two separate students who purchased from the same site. Other students find, to their horror, that the paper they paid $200 for (the going rate for an "original" paper written to a student's specifications) is being sold repeatedly by the same paper service they used, increasing the chance that they'll be caught by plagiarism software.
In the end, students who find themselves in a time crunch are best served not by buying an essay online, but by emailing or calling the professor and asking for help or for an extension. The best course of action is to prepare in advance. Short of that, being honest and asking for help is second best. There's no guarantee that help or an extension will be granted, and in that case the student learns a valuable lesson that will carry them through to the world: there is no way to cheat the system without cheating yourself.
Industrial Revolution Essay Articles
To find strong sources for papers on the Industrial Revolution, please read the following articles:
AP U.S. History for Dummies – a great overview of the Industrial Revolution helps students brush up on the main themes and concepts.
Through Women's Eyes: An American History – working on an Industrial Revolution topic related to women? Find an entire chapter, with great primary documents to support any essay.
References:
Blum, Susan D. My Word! Plagiarism and College Culture. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009.
Dee, Thomas S. and Jacob, Brian, "Rational Ignorance in Education: A Field Experiment in Student Plagiarism" (January 2010). NBER Working Paper Series, Vol. w15672, 2010. Available at SSRN.
Kraus, J. "Rethinking plagiarism: what our students are telling us when they cheat." Issues in Writing, 13(1), (2002): 80-95.
Melanie Zoltan - Melanie Zoltan is a former college professor and administrator who has written for About.com, PCWorld, Brain Child, Thomson Gale, and ...
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