buy the assignment online in canada

buy the assignment online in canada

Exploring the Ethical Implications of Buying Assignments Online in Canada

1. Introduction to the Issue

The internet has made shopping for work as simple as clicking a few buttons, so it may shock no one that students in Canadian colleges are turning to these sites. In an informal survey conducted recently, the National Student Employment Service, a not-for-profit organization that connects Canadian students and employers, discovered that 47% of 123 students surveyed had heard of or knew someone who uses these essay-writing services. According to the survey, a further 19% considered purchasing work from these websites. “There are lots of students who buy assignments due to many different reasons,” Goldfarb says, adding that she considers her organization’s findings to be “an extremely conservative estimate.”

Buying assignments online is big business. Type “essay writing services Canada” into an internet search engine, and you’ll be confronted by a wall of companies with names like “EWrite Canada” and “MyAdmissionsEssay.” Many of these businesses offer to write coursework for students enrolled in Canadian post-secondary institutions. The internet, and the pandemic turning so much education digital, have made these sites easier to access than ever before. But is using them ethical? And what, if anything, can be done to clamp down on the practice? “It’s very easy to look at this as a black and white issue, but it’s not,” says Amy Kaufman, a researcher at Trent University.

2. Understanding the Current Landscape of Online Assignment Services in Canada

In recent years, some of these individual academic writing services have become extremely proficient, proving complete solutions for student learning from high school through to postgraduate studies. Those companies are sophisticated operations, often advertising on college and university classrooms. One such agency, Essay Canada, provided the author with a price estimate for two 4,000-word master’s level papers of $6,366, stating that it would take approximately two months to complete the full papers, and allow for revisions beyond that timeframe. Dozens of such companies were studied through their public-facing websites, social media platforms, and reviews submitted to third-party sites like Trustpilot. These services are advertised by more than a hundred student life hack Instagram accounts. These pages outline the variety of services offered by a given operation and often have strong followings on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

Many students turn to online assignment services as a source of academic writing when they are unable to complete their own work. In a nationwide survey conducted by the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, it was found that nearly all student respondents (97.5%) identified purchasing an assignment at least once during their time in college or university; more than three in five student respondents (63.7%) had paid for assignments over the last six years. These services generally fall into one of a few categories, including individual eBay sellers or corporations offering their services through ad-hoc websites, social media services like Facebook and Kijiji, hosted eCommerce websites like Thoughtwaves, and freelance websites like Upwork.

3. Ethical Considerations and Academic Integrity

Although I think that Fisher is right about the near-absence of such public discussions, I doubt that this is because most stakeholders in the academic community do not recognize that using essay mills is unethical; almost certainly, a significant portion of the student body, faculty, and administration is averse to effectively cheating as well.

The ethical dilemma in which such a practice places this student encompasses the choices they face in either cheating and potentially placing their career integrity at risk, or maintaining their integrity and taking a “more appropriate amount of time” to learn the skills they need. Reflecting on this anguish, Fisher wonders about the plausibility of this question being resolved through dialogue at a societal level, with input from post-secondary institutions, students, and educators. “Discussions over custom essay writing services involving students and educators alike,” argues Fisher, “are exceedingly rare and could remain so in the absence of further public recognition of this issue” (2018).

What effects might ordering your next assignment from the growing industry of online essay mills in Canada have on the academic integrity of the student body, the reputation of our post-secondary institutions, and the culture of post-secondary pedagogy among educators? This question is at the heart of Fisher’s (2018) reflection on the ethics of using essay mills, in which he reflects critically about “a considerable financial investment” and “their own educational achievements” as a compromise for a student who faces challenges in maintaining good grades through cheating.

4. Impact on Education and Learning Outcomes

For those looking at contract cheating from a misconduct perspective, it is not known how society will react to qualifications and graduates that may not mean as much now as they once did. Misconduct takes an instrumental toll, which is framed as detrimental, not only to the misconducter, but to society and the public at large. This commission has similarly emphasized that “a sound academic qualification system is something to strive for and protect so that the national labor market not only has the skillset and knowledge to grow but also has the quality workforce that people trust. It is not difficult to surmise our reaction, then, if we found, as we have, that scale, facilitation as outlined in this case, was at least partially behind that decline. We prefer to educate than irritate.”

A second, rather alarming implication of contract cheating is on education more broadly. Being found in middle and high income countries, it is education systems with which these countries are most concerned. This is because these systems are in a position to create the human capital their economies require, which underpins their global competitiveness and standard of living. The danger associated with contract cheating in institutions is that it may drive down educational standards. As has already been mentioned, the rise has followed the recent, substantial expansion of higher education. Not only are there more students now attending university and college globally, but the profile of students doing so has also changed radically. The range in prior academic attainment and learning styles is wider than has ever been encountered before. Academic writing and skill deficits have multiplied. Educators and institutions therefore also have to invest more in helping students, especially those from low-SES communities, adjust to the demands of tertiary study.

5. Recommendations for Addressing the Issue

Our recommendations for individuals would start with resisting the services and systems that normalize the practice of buying others’ work. One of the first steps someone could take is to familiarize themselves with the kinds of paid work available online. Even in the places these companies advertise, it is easy to see the variety of services they offer by browsing the logos and ‘order now’ options on magazine-like index pages. If you are a student, one of the most effective ways to minimize the negative impact of these purchasing practices is to opt for individual assignments that reflect your own skills and knowledge. Whenever it is reasonable to select a topic, we recommend that students move towards issues, questions, and problems with clear and tailored prompts. These might include debates in the public or scholarly world, locally situated research and experiments, and application-focused coursework. Instructors have identified other assignment attributes students might consider when trying to avoid cheating services. To prompt yourself to demonstrate your learning throughout the course, aim for shorter response pieces that are cumulative and tying of threads. Feeling stuck or not sure where to start? Make an appointment at your university’s writing center or visit the career development center to talk through a project with an advisor.

In light of the gravity and insidious nature of the cheating services industry present in Canada, and the possible ways the market can grow and become even more damaging, students and educators are right to be concerned. While it might feel like an intractable issue, there are potential solutions and ways, on the individual, organizational, and governmental level, to better combat these concerns.