academic writing companies

academic writing companies

The impact of academic writing companies on education

1. Introduction

On any given site at a given time, a prospective client is apt to be presented with a menu of services to choose from, whether it be purchasing a product, participating in peer tutoring, or consulting a professor. At face value, the higher-tier services are an expeditious method of achieving case study analysis and other modes of data collection that are on the lower echelon of the learning curve. At the same time, the viability of this potential market is a by-product of another feature that is more problematic; that of the increasing levels of academic dishonesty that is taking place at a variety of levels. This brings us to another key concern. The scale of utilization of these services can only be speculated upon, but as it happens, many people use these services, whether it is in a team that is paid to develop a project or an individual seeking a better grade. In any event, the effects – whether intentional or not – would invariably have an adverse impact on academic instruction.

The emergence of a market for companies that provide academic writing services has grown steadily in the last few decades. This has primarily been due to an increasing reliance on the internet, an attitude that is at odds with current modes of educative thought, and a self-perpetuating cycle of academic dishonesty. The use of these so-called “essay mills” is primarily seen as a response to the increased burden of academic tasks placed on students, and also a response to the need for higher levels of education. Companies offering these services to college students have been a recurrent topic of discussion in higher education from as early as the mid-1990s. Despite the frequency with which this issue is discussed, a unified understanding of the industry has yet to be reached. This can primarily be attributed to the industry being so young; on one hand, on a positive note, there has been a swift pace of technology development, but conversely, this has been to the detriment of long-established academic ethics.

2. Controversies surrounding academic writing companies

Concurrently, the aforementioned onus of suspicion may serve to create an opportunity cost for honest and competent students, who may be forced to “stoop to the level” of use of academic writing services in order to compete in a system they feel to be unfair. An example of such a case is provided in a recent sob story by a blogger who explains his reasoning for purchasing an essay so that he can have more time to work on a more important project, as he is incapable of affording to do poorly on the less important subject. This creates the more intangible dilemma of the actual weight of the assignments relative to what is being learned in courses where the assignments serve as measures of comprehension rather than developing writing skills. All of these factors beg the question of there being a need for more concrete recourse against academic writing services.

These agencies frequently sit on the fence as to whether or not they provide original work or contract out an essay to the very students that have enlisted their services. It is easy to see why they are a source of vexation for teachers, who have to not only contend with students that have outsourced their assignments, but also that the assignments may not have been completed by the student in question. As Turnitin admin John Barrie points out in an interview with the Maclean’s, “It’s the Wild West in terms of the number of attempts through the use of a ghost writer and it just isn’t feasible for the editing staff and the integrity of the system to keep up with it.” This carries the implication that instructors should continuously run students’ submissions through detection software to determine whether they are authentic. This in turn puts an onus of suspicion on students at large, as instructors are faced with the challenge of ensuring that an essay is indeed the original work of the submitting student.

3. Advantages of using academic writing companies

A final, but perhaps underestimated advantage of using academic writing services is that it saves students’ time and effort. Students will often have to write several essays on a wide range of subjects and in differing styles. All these assignments take up a large amount of time, and if a student has a large course load, then it is important to search for services that can write a better paper at the same or greater quality.

Another advantage is that the final document that the student receives may lead to a greater grade than what they would have achieved themselves. The reason for this is if a student spends their time writing an essay and it turns out to be of low quality, they will often receive an average grade, even if they are capable of a much higher grade. Also, a large number of students have a lack of proper writing skills and research about the given topic, among differing faculties.

The main advantage of using academic writing services is that the student receives high-quality assistance with their essays. A professional at an academic writing company can quickly, and most of the time, at a greater quality, complete assignments that a student may have trouble completing after spending many hours.

4. Disadvantages of using academic writing companies

It is not only the advantages which attract the students to use these writing services. A vast majority of students using these services find them to be unethical. This is because instead of the student working upon the assignment themselves, they buy the services of someone else, possibly even a professional, who produces the work for them. This means that the student is not learning any research and writing skills which the assignment was designed to promote. This, in the long term, is a big disadvantage for the student which actually defeats the whole objective of education. Education is about learning, and as long as a student has the cash, they can pass someone else’s work off as their own. However, when it comes to exams, the student will find themselves at a loss as their lack of research and writing skills will become apparent. This is no fault of the writing service, just a drawback of the student’s choice to cut corners. This is very much a short term versus long term trade-off. Students may not even be fully aware of what they are getting themselves into. Often, the work they buy is poorly written, has been copied from another source, or in some cases, it fails to fulfill the brief that was originally ordered. These incidents are obviously very damaging for the student, including possible expulsion from the education establishment. And what is often even worse is that there is no compensation from the writing service. The damage from this kind of scenario can be far-reaching.

5. Conclusion

The main goal for academic writing companies was to provide an extra hand to students struggling with their homework. Many students returned to writing companies not just for their quality but because they had a lot of assignments to do. The evolution in essay buying indicates that what students want is not someone to aid them with their work, but a way to do their work for them. When one takes into account the amount of time that it would take to write an assignment themselves, then compare it to the cost that they might pay someone else to do their assignment, sometimes it is worth using the money to save time. The increase of assignment buying and its acceptance has supported the idea that students do not carry that desire to improve themselves or their education. The lack of student involvement is a vast contributor to this decrease in academic effort. A study done by J. Frederick Sontag, a social work administrator, noted that “extracurricular involvement is positively related to academic performance”. With students working less on their assignments, they have more time to spare doing extracurricular activities, often times being activities that won’t benefit them in the long run.