Friday, January 20, 2006

A sad commentary on American post-secondary education

I offer Cheatingresearch.com, for your jeers, sneers, and general disapproval. These enterprising souls are trying to recruit papers-for-hire from at least one writer's board.

From their website:

There are a number of important steps you need to take in order to ensure that you don’t get caught when you buy a paper.
1. Never admit anything!
2. Only use a custom written paper, pre-written papers are easy for teachers to track down.
3. If you have gotten "D"s all semester, let your writer know. If you get an A+ on the final after a pattern like this, a red flag will be raised in the teacher’s mind. If the teacher does ask why this paper is so much better, just say that you felt badly about how you slacked off in the early part of the course, and really went the extra mile to make up for it with this paper.
4. If you are accused, offer to show the teacher a rough draft of your work. (Don’t expect to get away with it if you buy a paper from a site that doesn’t give you rough drafts.)
5. Only buy papers from companies that check their writers for plagiarism. Many supposedly custom paper companies will sell the same paper over and over, or copy it outright from somewhere else.
6. Make sure that you understand all the words in your paper. If you get a rough draft filled with words you don’t know, tell the writer.
7. Make sure you can briefly state the main argument of the paper and the conclusion.
8. Finally, hold your ground, if you follow all of these steps, there is absolutely no way anyone will be able to prove anything.
Lovely. Just lovely. They even offer a sample essay.

I especially like the way they check their writers for plagiarism. Cuz, ya know, that's just the kind of world we live in. People cheat, if they think they can get away with it, right?

When did students stop thinking of their education as an actual means of improving themselves, but rather an asset or a commodity, to be purchased?

And what the hell kind of unethical asswipes are writing these papers, in the first place?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The 'Cheater's Manifesto' is particularly lovely, wherein they try to justify their existence.

http://cheatingresearch.com/articles-Essay%201.html

Anonymous said...

Are these people related to the ACLU?

How the hay are ya, Mac?

Anonymous said...

This stuff kills me. I'm sure some of my classmates use crap like this to get out of papers. There's a large population of "Daddy buys me whatever I want" kids on campus these days. Really gives the serious students agida. I wish there were ways to bust them!

Joanne said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Joanne said...

What's wrong with kids these days? Worse...what's wrong with the people who condone this garbage. This first sentence on their website sickens me. "There are a number of important steps you need to take in order to ensure that you don’t get caught when you buy a paper."

As if literacy in this world isn't bad enough. These people are encouraging kids to be illiterate and dishonest about it at the same time. Good God!

Unknown said...

I completely abhor sites like this. The abundance of such sites is the largest reason I no longer go to Freelancewriting.com.

The thing about them checking their writers for plagiarism cracks me up, thought. It sounds like a case of "Hello, pot. This is Kettle."