Custom essay writing services like UK Essays

Since listening to a BBC radio program snippet recommended by a friend, entitled When does getting online help for an essay become cheating?, I have been checking out the custom essay writing services offered by the company that were interviewed, UK Essays.

They provide a pretty convincing argument as to why their custom essay service is not cheating. I’m in two minds really, on one hand, it seems obvious that some students that use this service are simply going to hand in the essay as their own work, that is quite clearly cheating. On the other hand, UK Essays state quite clearly that this is not what you should do, nor is it what they condone. I can see that having someone do the research for an essay for you, and then write what is essentially a model answer for you, would be hugely useful to read and learn from before producing your own work. Imagine the time you would save in the library by just getting the books on the custom essay’s bibliography!

I’ll let you know if I ever legitimately use their service πŸ™‚

3 Replies to “Custom essay writing services like UK Essays”

  1. I’m a university lecturer with a lot to say about UKEssays and their like, but there’s not really space here so I’ll hold back! But I think that it’s very interesting that UKEssays state very clearly that you should *not* hand their work in as your own, and that it would be cheating to do so….but just down the page they state, very clearly and explicitly, that there is no chance of your university finding out that you’ve used their service. Now, I’m not saying that that’s encouraging cheating *exactly*, but it is certainly making it clear to potential cheats that the way is clear for them to cheat without fear of being caught.

    A tiny bit of a reality check here: these essays cost quite a lot. Β£260 for a 2,000 word essay (and that’s only for a 2:1). Does anyone really, seriously think that hard-up undergraduates are going to spend 260 quid on an essay and just use it as a book list?

    And just as a p.s., UKEssays very clearly states that they do not sell you the copyright to the essay, because if they did you’d be able to hand it in and that would be cheating. Very noble. But the same team are behind Essaybay – see here http://snipurl.com/essaycheats – which does allow copyright to be sold to buyers. That seems wrong.

    Great blog – it’s nice to see these things being debated!

  2. UKEssays may provide better quality, but what they do is essentially the same. Actually, their claim is very arrogant. It is like bosting of having cheated the system. If they did not want students to hand in their assays, why would not they add the submitted to clients essays to the database of those, which have already been handed in, which are used to check new essays for similarity. Or why don’t they provide the same essays to the clients having the same topic? Is one model paper better than another? No, they simply know students need not model, but original papers.
    An educator myself, I have always been convinced that students and services should not be blamed in the first place, because is was a teacher who did not explain what and how to write, did not care to communicate with a student on the issue, etc. I have even established a blog giving essay writing tips and reviewing topics to choose from (http://make-a-stand.com/). My very first post was 6 Ground Reasons to Write an Essay on Your Own. Nevertheless, when I started looking for students bogs where they would discuss problems connected with essay writing, I have got totally frustrated and angry with essay writing companies. All the first 5, 7, 10 pages of Google is filled with services, discussions of services, services feedback, and services ratings. With the money they receive from students, they pay to market to students the need to pay more and more. I do want the students to get free useful writing help, but competing with essay writing services for the place under the Google sun seems doomed.

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