I think there are several reasons why you shouldn't use such services: firstly, the whole reason you go to university is to get a degree in a subject you are interested in. When I was at university, there was a choice of different modules you choose from: sure some modules like statistics were compulsory, but the rest you were free to pick the ones you liked. I remember starting out in one module, attending one lecture and deciding that I really didn't like the lecturer. He came across as a boring old man and I decided to cut my losses whilst I could. So I ran back to the admin office and quickly enrolled myself in a different module, thankfully that other module was taught by a charming lady who was super enthusiastic about her subject, she had this quality that made me equally enthusiastic about learning from her. She encouraged us to form our own opinions and responses about the topics that we discussed in her tutorials and when it came to writing essays for her, I had a lot to say - oh yeah, I was often frustrated by the word limit for those essays. That is what university should be like - you should be studying a subject that you are passionate about, you should be so interested in what you're learning that writing the essays should be a fun process because you have that platform to express your opinions on the topic. And if you're so stuck with writing the essay because you either don't understand the topic or you're just so disinterested in it that you can't be asked to do your research, then that suggests that you're studying in the wrong course altogether and if that's genuinely the case, you have much bigger problems to worry about!
If you're doing a degree that you have little or not interest in, then how the hell are you going to use the degree to help you get a job in there future? If you're not at all interested in the subject matter as a university student, can you imagine dealing with the subject matter at work? No, it's a recipe for disaster and simply getting through the degree by cheating doesn't resolve the fundamental problem here. Yes you may end up doing something totally unrelated to your degree in your future career, but why invest so much time and energy in a degree that you have little or no intention to use? You're going to be better off cutting your losses, quitting the degree and pursuing something you are actually interested in, a field which you could see yourself making a career in. This is the kind of situation which we call 'symptomatic treatment' - so for example, if you have diabetes, you may exhibit all kinds of symptoms which the doctors can treat, offering you temporary relief, but unless they start dealing with the root cause of the problem which is the diabetes, you're still not going to make a complete recovery. This is why doctors often check to see if the ailment you're suffering from is a symptom of a far more serious condition rather than just writing you a prescription for you to deal with it. In this case, a lack of interest or desire to even write an essay for your degree course is a symptom you definitely should never ignore.
Now if you could get a really good writer to build a relationship with like a mentor, so you get the same person doing your essays every time, then maybe you could get away with it. I did wonder how Emily's tutor didn't question the fact that her essays were eloquently written in fluent English whilst she struggled with basic conversations, but at least it was the same person writing all her essays. My regular readers will recognize my distinctive style of writing and a lot of my personality does go into my writing. It is as personal and recognizable as one's thumbprints. So you could get five different writers doing five different essays for you: that means the likelihood of being caught is a lot higher even if all five essays are indeed well-written and free from plagiarism - that still doesn't change the fact that they are clearly not written by the same person and that's pretty easy to detect. Many students who use such services are counting on the fact that the staff marking their essays are overworked and simply do not have the time or inclination to bother trying to investigate. If a struggling student suddenly hands in a flawless piece of assignment, then eyebrows would be raised of course and the tutors would probably get suspicious. But that's when the student has to play it a bit more wisely, they should know that getting straight As under such circumstances is not possible but if they want to move from an E grade to a C or B grade, that's actually a lot less suspicious especially if the improvement is somewhat gradual and not drastic.
Is it tempting to cheat? Of course it is. Have I cheated before? Well yes, but not in my exams. Back in Singapore, we all had to do something called the physical fitness test (otherwise known as the IPPT - the individual physical proficiency test). One of the most difficult elements of the test is the 2.4 km run, that involves six rounds of a standard 400 meters running track. When I was in secondary school, the test was conducted like this: because the boys ran at different paces, some were fast whilst others were slow, you were meant to collect a rubber band each time you complete one lap of the track. When you finished the six rounds, you had to show the teacher the six rubber bands around your wrist to prove that you had completed the required 2.4 km. During one such test, I accidentally grabbed two rubber bands instead of one when I passed the table, but nobody noticed as it happened so quickly. When I checked in at the end of the test and showed my six rubber bands, I had ensured that I had made sure that a few boys finished ahead of me so I wouldn't look suspicious but those guys were super fast runners with amazing stamina. I had in fact ran only 2 km and not 2.4 km but I got away with it. I repeated this several times whilst in that school, the teachers weren't watching me as they were more concerned about the fat kids who struggled with the run. It's not just having a result that you wouldn't normally have been able to achieve, I think the thrill was more in being able to keep getting away with it, in having deceived all the teachers.
Okay, clearly it is not a good idea to cheat - but for the sake of writing a balanced article, let's look at the other side of the argument: can there ever be a justification of turning to these essay writing services? Well, I actually think there can be. I think it can work properly if you are willing to make it a lot more constructive. So for example, rather than just throw your assignment to someone and make them do it for you whilst having as little as possible to do with it, you really want to find a writer who is willing to sit down with you and explain what they're doing in terms of your essay - much the same way a tuition teacher would. Let me give you an example: I wanted to learn how to bake and my good friend Leila is a great baker, so one day I went round to her house one Saturday and she was going to make a variety of cakes and tasty pastries for a friend's birthday party. She did all the baking whilst I mostly observed and helped a little, but she made sure it was educational for me as she had a running commentary full of helpful explanation as to why she did certain things. When her husband came home, I cheekily said, "hey look the delicious cakes we made this afternoon!" Of course, I was claiming credit for something I didn't do as Leila did all the baking, but did I learn something from the experience? Oh of course I did and the next time I bake something, I would remember all the helpful lessons I have learnt from Leila that afternoon. Now compare that to if I simply went to one of the nicer bakeries in town and bought an expensive cake - I would have learnt absolutely nothing if I had simply handed money over to the cashier in exchange for a beautiful cake.
Actually, there are more abstract reason to support using such essay writing services: all great leaders delegate. This is why a boss in a successful company would never try to micromanage every aspect of the business - no, instead they would choose to hire experts to work in the various departments. Is this really that different? You may see university as just a stepping stone towards your ultimate career goals: maybe you're too busy trading cryptcurrencies or getting valuable work experience to handle the very heavy work load and if what you're doing is far more lucrative and important than some boring old essay, then you could argue that it makes sense to delegate and pay someone to do it for you if you have far better things to do with your time. By the same token, there's a lot more to a degree than simply writing essays: if we were to leave any kind of moral judgement at the door, then I say, hats off to the students who manages to hire someone to write their essays and get away with it because you're then developing a whole other set of skills. In order to cheat effectively, you need to first understand the system, figure out what the tutors are looking for, what would result in you getting caught and then come up with a strategy to cheat that allows you to sail under the radar and get away with it. Oh this would involve an undertaking a lot more complex than simply going to one of these essay-writing websites and getting a random person to do your assignment for you - you will need to come up with a pretty good strategy to get away with it and lessons learnt from this endeavour would serve you well in the real world where people often don't really give a shit about fair play, as long as you get the results. Welcome to the real world, the working world.
As for whether it is fair to cheat when many of the other students will do their own coursework and essays, I say that concept of fairness is totally naive. Of course life is totally fucking unfair. The rich kids will have so much money that they don't need to waste time shopping for food, cooking their meals and doing household chores: they can easily afford to order a take-away and hire a cleaner to keep their homes tidy. Poor students will usually end up in pretty nasty places to live, they may not get a decent night's sleep and on top of having to do a whole lot of housework, they will often need to work part time as well to make ends meet. So of course the playing field isn't level to begin with when they start university and more to the point, the playing field gets even more unfair once they leave university. I once worked with this guy who graduated from the university of Brighton which is near the bottom of the UK university league tables, but as his daddy was rich and influential, he managed to get all the right internships and ended up with a great job at an investment bank. Of course it is all hideously unfair, but didn't you get the memo? Whatever made you think that life was supposed to be fair? So I say if someone wishes to cheat at university, good luck to them because they risk getting caught and expelled but if they can get away with it, then hats off to them for beating the system. It certainly takes a lot more than just money to be able to cheat this way - it is probably far easier to just study hard than to cheat the system.
So that's it from me - I certainly would never advice anyone to try to use such an essay writing service, but instead to try to seek help through legitimate sources. What do you think? Do you know of people who use such essay writing services at university? Is it a black and white issue for you or are there shades of grey? Why aren't universities catching people who are using such services then? And would you ever pay someone to do an essay or assignment for you at university if you had the money? Do let me know what you think - please leave a comment below and many thanks for reading.
If you can't churn out a half-decent essay, why are you in university?
ReplyDeleteThere are many reasons why students are not enthusiastic about writing essays - imagine if you told a class there'll be no homework this weekend, how happy would the kids be? It goes way beyond laziness per se, it's about getting something for nothing. Or at least getting it for the best possible price. These young people do realize that they need a degree, they need to go to university - but how much work are they willing to put into that degree? Some universities do have quite a party atmosphere where the students suddenly realize, hey I am living away from home for the first time, I don't have to go home by 10 pm and my mum doesn't know what I am doing tonight so the temptation is to have fun, drink too much, have loads of sex and do so many other things apart from writing your essays. So such services are appealing to the students who want to have fun and don't want to spend hours writing essays (which I did as a total geek who was passionate about what I was studying). The problem though is that it is addictive to try to get someone else more qualified to do your work for you - once you start using such services, you become less able to write your own essay, to do your own research and it's a slippery slope.
DeleteI find this very disturbing that ignorant viewers will fall for it and waste their precious money. Another example is Youtubers selling tips, claiming can easy to make a living as a Youtuber. I think it is unethical for such marketers to make such claims.
ReplyDeleteIt goes beyond wasting one's money - if you get caught plagiarizing, the university isn't going to let you off with a scolding. You will be suspended and thrown off your course in most cases. You need to be extremely careful if you intend to get away with it and that's not the impression that these Youtubers gave - needless to say, many of them hurriedly removed those videos after the release of the BBC report.
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