Essay mill

An essay mill, sometimes also called a paper mill, is the colloquial term for a type of ghostwriting service which specializes in the sale of essays, term papers, and other forms of homework assignments to university and college students. Students who purchase essays and term papers purchased from essay mills and then submit them as their own work are engaging in academic dishonesty or academic fraud. Universities and colleges have developed a number of strategies to combat this academic fraud, such as using Internet plagiarism detection software, which compares essays against a database of known essay mill essays, and orally testing students on the contents of their papers, in cases where a paper is a suspected 'essay mill' product.

Types of essay mill products

'Essay mill' companies hire university students, graduates, and professional writers to ghostwrite essays and term papers, and solicit business from university and college students by posting advertisements. Until the early 1990s, most essay mill companies were 'bricks and mortar' businesses offering their services by mail-order or from offices located in university or college towns. By the 2000s, most essay mill businesses have switched to an e-commerce business model, soliciting business and selling essays using an Internet website. Companies often provide free sample essays on popular topics, such as Hamlet or The Merchant of Venice to attract Internet searches.^{[citation needed]}

The most basic 'essay mill' service is the sale of a previously-written essay; services advertise essays that have allegedly gained a good grade and which have allegedly not been used for plagiarism before. Unless the company is registered and located in a region where the law covers such sales (such as in the United Kingdom) students using essay mill services have little or no legal recourse if the essay they purchase has not actually received a good grade, or if it has in fact been sold many times before.

Since submitting a previously-written essay exposes a student to the risk of detection, some students will pay a much higher price for custom-written papers that take into account the course outline, topic, number of sources and any specific grade the student wants. While some students select a high grade on the ghostwritten paper to boost their average, other students with poor grades may choose to purchase a paper that deliberately contains errors, and which will receive a grade such as "C+", to reduce the suspicion that they have committed academic dishonesty.

Criticism and controversy

The academic community has criticized essay mill companies for helping students to commit academic fraud.

Some essay mills have defended themselves against these criticisms by claiming that they are selling pre-written examples which students can use as guidelines and models for the student's own work. In 2002, a UK-based essay mill called Elizabeth Hall Associates required students purchasing essays to sign a disclaimer stating that "any material provided by Elizabeth Hall Associates [is] on the understanding that it is a guidance model only."^[1]

Other essay mills claim that they are "scholarly publishing houses" that provide students with essays that the student can then cite in the student's own work. For example, Jared Silvermintz of the Genius Papers essay-writing company stated that "...the way we want people to use (our service)... is as a research database." ^[2]However, if a student cites an essay mill's paper selected from the company database, this would demonstrate poor literature review skills, because this material has not been peer-reviewed.

Strategies for combating academic fraud

Universities and colleges have developed several strategies to combat this type of academic misconduct. Some professors require students to submit electronic versions of their term papers, so that the text of the essay can be compared by anti-plagiarism software against databases of of known 'essay mill' term papers.

Other universities have enacted rules allowing professors to give students viva voce (oral) examinations on papers which a professor believes to be 'ghostwritten'; if the student is unfamiliar with the content of an essay that they have submitted, or its sources, then the student can be charged with academic fraud, a violation of the rules by which a student agrees to be bound when they enter a university or college program.

When a student is charged with academic fraud, their case is typically heard by a quasi-judicial administrative committee, which reviews the evidence. For students who are found guilty, the punishments range from failure in the course in which the plagiarism occurred to suspension or expulsion. In some cases, students who have committed academic fraud may also have any academic honours, degrees, or awards revoked.

Subcontracting

The =contract cheating research literature, which encompasses multiple outsourcing opportunities for students, of which essay banks are one, reports that students are putting are putting assessed work to tender to essay sites. The research reports that some essay sites are not completing work for students in house. Instead, they are using auction sites to subcontract work out at a lower cost than would be required by directly paying ghostwriters. ^[3]

External links

Leeds university plagiarism site

References

^ http://www.caslon.com.au/essaymillsnote.htm
^ http://www.caslon.com.au/essaymillsnote.htm
^ Robert Clarke & Thomas Lancaster (2006-06-19). "Eliminating the successor to plagiarism? Identifying the usage of contract cheating sites". JISC Plagiarism Advisory Service/jiscpas.ac.uk. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

[1] ttp://www.caslon.com.au/essaymillsnote.htm

[2] ttp://www.caslon.com.au/essaymillsnote.htm

[3] Robert Clarke & Thomas Lancaster (2006-06-19). "Eliminating the successor to plagiarism? Identifying the usage of contract cheating sites". JISC Plagiarism Advisory Service/jiscpas.ac.uk. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

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