Anyone ever use a term paper website?

Term paper sites

Cheating is cheating, and plagiarism is plagiarism.

People that copy stuff off the web or turn in term papers off the term paper database web sites are cheating, plain and simple.

However....There is a very small subset of those web sites that offer a slightly different service. You pay a fee to have a term paper written specifically to their requirements/assignment, and then the service has one of their freelance writers write a custom paper.

I have never used one of these services as a student, BUT I used to freelance write for one such service on a number of engineering related subjects. I did it strictly for the money (does that make me a whore???), and every paper I wrote for that service was a 100% original work.

It's not plagiarism, but is this cheating? Now days, I would say yes. But if students wish to part with money to have somebody else do their homework, there will also be a place for such companies to make a buck.

-Jassen

 

Re: Term paper sites

In scholarly writing -- even plagiarising from oneself is a no-no.

This means that even when one pastes in stuff from one's own previously published work -- one must cite the original publication.

Also -- breaking a study into multiple papers that would best be presented in one cohesive whole -- another no-no.

I kid you not:

http://facpub.stjohns.edu/~roigm/plagiarism/Self%20plagiarism.html

In such an environment, then -- where even plagiarising from one's own work (in any of several different ways) is considered a non-starter -- surely there is no debate about submitting work written by another -- even if that work was tailor written.

 

I do the same thing. If I saw something that seemed to canned, a quick Googling sorted it out. What makes it suspicious? Well, one student used European number and abbreviation schemes (and he was not European) in the paper. He didn't realize there was a difference. It was for an international business class. He learned a lesson the hard way.

 

Re: Term paper sites

IMHO, this is indeed cheating.

It's not one own's work, even if it's original.

Dr. Bear mentioned people cheating in an Ethics subject. This, to me, is really amazing.

Why would anyone enrol in an Ethics class and cheat? Perhaps it was mandatory for a Philosophy majour?

 

Cheaters may prosper....but only for a bit. Eventually, they get found out. Even the rich and famous get found out. Remember when the Walton kid turned her USC diploma back in because she didn't do the work? Something always happens to get the cheaters.

 

Yeah! But the real question is this: Did the person who really did do all that work for Ms. Walton ever get a USC degree herself? Hmm.

 

EVE 1 Google 0

I think Google detects plagiarism well because students use Google to find material to plagiarize. However, after googling an obvious plagiarism in vain, I asked for help on our faculty discussion forum, and a colleague fed the work to Eve, which nailed it.

I'm certainly going to download Eve before the next batch of papers come in.

 

While your work was original and most certainly of much greater quality than the plagiarized hand-me-downs, it did nevertheless contribute to academic dishonesty? Did it not? I'd imagine most do it strictly for the money, certainly not for the students. I mean sooner or later the students find themselves in a hole so deep that they are either caught or they quit. Those that continue with the charade for years and years turn out to live very phony lives, wouldn't you say? Not something that deserves enabling....

Susanna

 

Re: Term paper sites

Let's try this argument (purely hypothetical, of course): During my entire marriage, I have never once paid to have sex with a prostitute. However, once upon a time when I was really, really broke (we were newlyweds in college, poor as church mice, you know), I hired a pimp to help me round up a few tricks. I did it strictly for the money. The services offered really were my own. Does that make me a whore? Was that cheating?

 

yes - doing it for money or drugs does make you a whore.

It is one of the few criteria I have for dating a woman (before I was married last year).

1. They had to be a woman since birth

2. They could have never sold themselves for sex for money or drugs.

OK - being disease free is also a criteria

 

Professors have to be careful when accusing students of cheating. In the tech industry, there is a fixed amount of formulas and theories. If you integrate an openly obtained theory or formula (which no one owns) -is this cheating? If you just happen to think up a statement that someone else might have said in the past, is this cheating? While I think professors have the right and obligation to check for cheating - they also must be factual when making accusations (especially in private schools where they have NO protections against civil actions)

 

who are thee to cast the 1st stone

remember Jesus when he preached to a crowd of people from stoning a woman .....

 

In the Dominican Republic cheating in papers is very common. There are at least two free Spanish web sites that contain everything from short term papers to full dissertations. When I taught marketing in the Dominican Republic all I had to do was sign in those two web sites. What I usually found was that over half of the students were turning work that was not their own. I even got cases were more than one student turned in the same paper from the same web site. Then I started combining paper assignments with testing. Giving 30% credit for the paper and 70% for the exam. Suddenly students that were cheating started failing my class. After that cheating got reduced to its minimal expression.

Just something to think about...

 

I'm not too familiar with DR's culture but there are cultures where cheating and stealing seem to not be so frowned upon.

I had lunch with some folks from India and they were telling me they could not believe that people here leave fundraiser boxes in the middle of the office...filled with candy and an envelope of dollar bills(for the candy). People in the office often bring in their children's fundraisers to sit in a common area.

They told me that in India it would be gone in a heartbeat...and the candy, too. I asked if that was looked down on there and they said not really. They said that the population there was too large to control and so anything left out is going to be stolen and no one would look at it as anything bad. One the guys said that if someone were so stupid to leave something unattended like that then it must not be worth much and should expect another to steal it.

 

Re: who are thee to cast the 1st stone

Now, wait a minute! Did I cast the first stone? Or were you talking to someone else?

 

Re: Term paper sites

Absolutely. Anything less would be immoral ;-)

One term paper mill site I'm familiar with specifies that they only accept papers from the original authors, and they must include no plagiarism :-| .

(They don't reciprocally promise to sell each to only one customer, however.)

It's a nice point. Certainly no one who buys a term paper would hesitate to sell it, after a prudent interval, so I suppose top-of-the-line, secure bogus papers have a limited shelf-life. I wonder which plagiarism detectors the mills use. . . . It would be a professional endorsement of a sort.

 

Goodness gracious... AGS, your preaching is totally inappropriate.

Susanna

 

Thank you Susanna and Ted.
Jack

 

If the theories and formulas are common knowledge, students aren't expected to cite them. If they aren't, then it's prudent, as well as honest, to cite them for credibility's sake.

The (private) school where I teach on line will only uphold a plagiarism complaint if a source is provided.

 

Re: EVE 1 Google 0

More and more universities and schools are using the online plagarism detection website "Turnitin" ( http://www.turnitin.com ) and which is quite powerful.