experience with the term paper writing services

experience with the term paper writing services

The Ethical Implications and Academic Consequences of Using Term Paper Writing Services

1. Introduction to Term Paper Writing Services

In this paper, we address two important issues related to the use of term paper writing services: 1) what are the ethical implications of such services, and 2) what are the academic consequences for students who employ such services? It should be underscored that by examining these issues, we are not advocating the use of custom-ordered term papers, essays, or dissertations. Instead, we are merely providing arguments which will allow students to evaluate the potential rewards relative to the costs associated with such a decision. If nothing else, we hope that this analysis fosters class discussion and provides teachers with the incentive to assign different topics or formats which render the purchase of custom written material irrelevant.

Many students have difficulty writing term papers in a number of courses. This is mainly a consequence of two factors: 1) the course material and ideas expressed in class and in print are often complex and difficult to interpret; 2) students have little, if any, experience in writing term papers for their courses. As a result, term paper writing services have become increasingly popular. These services offer students the opportunity to not only obtain a professionally written term paper or dissertation, but also those written by individuals who have academic training and expertise in many different disciplines. Employing term paper writing services also makes economic sense because the opportunity cost associated with the potential consequences of receiving a failing grade is usually higher than the cost of the service.

2. Ethical Considerations in Using Writing Services

Arguments in this paper have suggested that, while encouraging reliance on the guarantees of autonomous work is normatively appealing, doing so uncritically has serious negative educational and social implications. Furthermore, such prohibitions are potentially counterproductive in the long run. Taken as a whole, these arguments suggest that educational values must be given priority: if the educational benefits of students using research papers, tailored by professionals, are non-trivial, if these papers have educational content for their authors that enriches their learning and creates new growth, then colleges or universities would be remiss to ban them from their campuses. The heart of the college or university experience may be education, but such institutions have other responsibilities to their charges. Denying students access to research papers for sale is overly paternalistic and violates the design standards of the most effective learning strategies that the Academy has to offer. Institutions have no moral authority to make this prohibition: it is ultimately an empirical question that must be resolved by careful examination of the full range of costs and benefits of using term paper writing services.

What ethical and other value dimensions are involved in using professional term paper writing services? A lot of researchers have suggested that using term paper writing services is ethically suspect for at least two reasons. First, the act of paying for and submitting a piece of academic work as one’s own is seen to violate the trust between student and professor. Second, producing papers for sale is viewed by many as a harmful threat to the scholarly values and ideals of cost-benefit learning and education for intellectual growth. This condemnation is made even more severe by the harsh moral judgment that it is cheating especially when done by university students. Indeed, at many university-level institutions, academic dishonesty is punishable by academic sanctions that have a direct negative impact on students who are caught engaging in this kind of unethical behavior.

3. Academic Integrity and Plagiarism Concerns

An academic integrity board at any campus will hear plagiarism cases. The most common form of academic misconduct is plagiarism. This paper delves into the concept of plagiarism by providing a definition of what constitutes academic dishonesty and academic integrity. It also defines what is considered plagiarism. Suggestions to faculty to minimize student cheating are also highlighted. The issue of outsourcing and the unethical use of ghostwriting term paper services are also covered in this discussion. We will also discuss popular ways to discourage students from outsourcing written assignments.

Establishing academic integrity is vital in the college setting. Academic misconduct occurs when students falsify, fabricate, plagiarize, or cheat in any way. Transgressions of academic integrity have consequences. Universities have academic integrity boards which review academic misconduct and impose sanctions on offending students. Sanctions that can be imposed include failure on the element of the course in question or an F in the course, and suspension or expulsion from the university. Grades are marked on the student transcript with a footnote which indicates that academic misconduct has occurred. Notations will remain on the student’s transcript until the time of degree. There is no doubt that students who engage in academic misconduct pay for their actions.

4. Impact on Learning and Personal Development

Finally, in terms of student personal development, these services are undeveloping their abilities and technical knowledge in understanding of the field by completing tasks to get something beyond the subject material. Although term paper mill users are often inundated by the amount of academic work they are required to complete during a session demanding on average 20 to 40 hours a week, their willingness to absorb the little that is required of them is reduced by reading and writing custom papers that are not relevant to developing stronger, new, and unique technical skills. Instead, students naturally grow accustomed to express the very significant lack of personal interest considering that the type of expertise purchased is unrelated to their subject material since the materials are pre-prepared for a wide audience available at convenient times.

Students who use term paper mills as a part of their educational experiences come to develop the very wrong belief that writing is a simple task that can be easily accomplished by someone sitting in front of a computer monitor. A look at some of the responses by active users of the types of services described in this paper resonates the extent of the rote character of the ‘writing’ experience engaged by such users. The self-serving nature of such behavior is later internalized by users who now readily purport the belief that they are doing nothing wrong and question the merits for creating such a taboo. The extensive exposure to such commercially supported service creates a significant threat to sustainable ethical student behavior development. Such a threat is reinforced by the fact that unethical behavior among students is a negative behavior. Engaged students are known to exhibit good performance, leadership, and contribute positively to group interactions. The lost individual character found to result from extensive cheating potentially kills collaborative group work in preparing and understanding teaching material.

5. Strategies for Academic Success Without Writing Services

6.1 Write about a topic of interest. This sounds fairly straightforward and may be for many. However, in large lecture classes, students often have little direct experience in how to generate a term paper topic and quite often are forced to write about something for which they have little or no interest. Many students appear to hesitate or to make decisions to write based on what they perceive what they think the teacher wants to hear. It would serve to acknowledge that teachers quite often do not have a clear idea what they want out of term paper topics. Why not share the confusion and discomfort or question why we do term papers to begin with? One lecturer asked students to write a paper about something off CNN. There are boring papers to be had from newspapers! Why make them more boring by also being so stringently defined? Encouraging independence and innovation would seem to not only make the resulting papers more interesting but could impose a longer bind of consideration, as students would be writing on things they find intellectually stimulating.

In sharing our collective experiences and those of students we have spoken with when they have sought term paper services, we would like to offer a few suggestions that may provide focus to term paper writing. We in no way advocate turning them in as-is or for using them as a crutch. We are reluctant to add them, for someone equipped with the skills and approaches represented in this paper should not need such services. Many of the suggestions we would like to make are probably obvious to some readers. But having taught a great deal, we recall times we have spoken with a student who was far along in their writing before realizing what might have otherwise been obvious.