Custom Essays… for dummies?
Posted on February 17, 2009
Filed Under Custom written essays, Discussion |
Having delved into the murky world of customized essay writing, I’ve decided to look a little further and discuss the issue in more detail in the form of a short Q and A session…
What is a custom essay?
Tradition demands I should start a quick definition: A custom essay is a paper written by a professional essayist who is paid to write but who doesn’t receive any credit for it. In the case of a custom essay, it is custom for the reason that it has been written to the student’s exact essay question. Such an essay should be differentiated from the pre-written essay obtained from essay banks, an earlier form of this business. These types of essay samples are past essays contributed by students, either in exchange for part of the sale proceeds or in exchange for access to other pre-written essays. These will be essays written in answer to a particular topic and therefore not custom term papers, written to the student’s particular essay question.
Alternatively, getting another student to write your paper for you is one of the oldest cheats in the book. This could be in exchange for cash, drugs, sexual favours (don’t laugh) or, if the student is a weakling, as a result of violent threats. I’ve been doing this job for a few years now and believe me, these things all happen.
Where on Earth did custom essays come from and how do such services work?
In modern times, a customer orders their essay on the internet, usually through an essay company’s website. The Company then sends out the order to their panel of writers and those writers who are in a position to complete the project put themselves forward to do the work. The Company usually seeks payment from the customer at this juncture. When the customer pays, the Company picks the writer they think is best suited to the project and tells them to start. These custom term papers is delivered on the agreed day.
Is it ethical to use a custom essay service?
This is the big question. Arguably, to use the service alone is not cheating. Take, for example, a lecturer who sets a nice easy essay question: ‘Who was George W. Bush and where did it all go horribly wrong?’ Most students will use Google to search for initial information on this topic and they will find some fifty million answers to their question. The process of reading through these answers is not cheating. On the other hand, if the student takes one of the answers and hands it in, passing it off as their own work, then without doubt, they are being deceitful.
In fact, there are many more intelligent ways they could use their material to cheat, such as rewording a website they’d found, rearranging the words, citing the source but relying too heavily on the bits and pieces, and so on. They could also use the material as a guide and inscribe their own, original answer to the question. Likewise, a student who orders a custom analytical essay, for example, can use the essay as a guide and can write their own unique answer to the question that has been set for them. They can, conceivably, even do their own research. So, where do you draw the line?
How do students profit from custom essays?
Universities are often cited as saying that when a student orders a custom essay, they are being lazy because all the work is being done for them. However, the earlier example of using Google shows that there are times during the research process when the student will come across what they think is the right answer. However, this does not mean they have to duplicate the answer word for word, neither does it mean that what they have found is the ultimate answer and they are supposed to stop researching. If a student takes a custom essay and uses the sources to read up on a subject, and to help them generate more sources and a superior level of understanding, then the custom essay is just a stepping-stone to something greater. It is an example - a template, if you like - for students to see how the question could be dealt with - but after doing their own research, the student could well think that there are far better ways of dealing with the query.
When is using a custom essay service really cheating?
A problem that is often discussed is that not all students who use custom essay services will use the service openly, honestly or in the spirit in which they are intended to be used. Some, most perhaps, hand in the essay without doing any work themselves. When custom essays are analysed in this context, they really are helping students to cheat and therefore reduce the value of a university education. Honest students, who do their own research and writing, are angry to know that their counterparts have completed the same degree, gained a better mark than them without having lifted a finger for themselves; this is cheating and just ain’t right.
Why are custom essays still permissible then?
Custom essays are legal, just as the model answers that lecturers give out are officially permitted. Question and Answer books are also above-board and, on occasion, the questions in those are very, very close to the questions set for essays and for exams. The notion of these resources is that they are used as guides; they are not to be copied word for word without any other research being done.
We should therefore remember that there are many things that are open to misuse that are still legal. All these things have a use, as do custom essays. However, because the custom essay industry arose from somewhat shady beginnings, people have not been educated properly in their use and therefore they do use them to deceive. This decent into quandary is further hastened by the fact that a huge number of essay companies are happy to let their customers just hand in the work and don’t offer any guidance on how it should be used. Additionally, because the work is customised, it’s difficult for teachers to detect that the student is cheating.
So… to use or not to use?
Ultimately, the answer to this dilemma is a matter of your own opinion; if you’re planning on using a custom essay service to cheat, then it’s likely you’ll be caught. That’s right boys and girls, your professor will often have the experience to pick out a dodgy essay in a matter of seconds. The fact that the essay is ostensibly an original piece of work is no protection from your lecturer’s keen eye and if you’ve not done your research, you could be caught out when asked difficult questions about the content or the sources you’ve read. If you’re planning on using the custom essay properly, it can work as an extraordinary piece of research to use as a starting point for your own work.
Nevertheless, don’t forget that there are many dishonest websites out there; make sure you know where they’re based and ensure they are genuine, or you’ll end up paying a lot for something you could have found on Google for free.
Comments
Leave a Reply