To report this girl to her university?

[no1understands]

I am a private tutor, working with A level and degree students. This academic year, I have had enquiry after enquiry from university students asking me to do their coursework for them. I always say no, I'll help, point you in the right direction, do an assignment outline but I will not do the assignment for them. They show no interest! I feel like saying 'so, you are telling me you aren't prepared to put in ANY effort whatsoever to get your degree?' One girl said she has got someone to do her coursework for 2 years but now he can't do it, she's looking for someone else. She told me what uni it was and I've had others from there asking the same thing. I feel like ringing the university and telling them what's happening. I need more students to make my business viable. I feel like just doing the coursework for a wad of cash but when it comes down to it, I can't because I'm so angry with them! I feel like I should do something!

PS At least she's in good company - Martin Luther King plagiarised his PhD.

Indeed, dontrun.

He's not alone in that, dontrun.

He had a good wordsmith.

Really?! From whom?

Several of my colleagues are moving back towards exam-based assessment, purely because cheating on coursework is getting ridiculous.

He plagiarised from a number of sources - fairly obscure theologians. It wasn't until the 1990s that historians realised this. It sent us historians in to a tizz....

Aha! The well-researched plagiarist. A rarity nowadays.

Trouble is, if they get away with it at this level, they'll continue to do it in their professional life - I used to subedit a professional journal and someone with a Masters degree turned in an article that was pretty poorly written and had some conflicting "facts". So I checked them on the internet - and found whole segments of the "article" had just been directly lifted from internet articles and pasted together!! Obviously we couldn't use the article, it was plagiarised pretty much from start to finish. Equally obviously we never asked for an article from that "author" again. Shocking.

Wow. That's really interesting (in a disappointing way!). Thanks dontrun.

I really feel sad about the idea of going back to exam-based assessment. It makes me so angry that some cheats force universities to consider this. Being dyslexic, I really needed coursework pieces to show I could do this stuff. And coursework is arguably a better predictor of how good someone might be at research than exams are.

YANBU

As a recent grad it devalues my degree - I worked hard and referenced everything I ever wrote accurately, we used the software but it was rumoured the girl who got a first simply asked her sister (had an MA in subject) to write ehr work and indeed said girl had failed 2 degrees before getting her first so does make you wonder...

DH is an undergrad now and 3 students were let off for submitting plagiarised essays with a warning: that would never happen at my university.

We both had exams at undergrad level though, despite wildly different subjects (me religion him electronic engineering) which is a plus; none of the MA i am doing now but I assume the field is small enough it would be picked up.

It is really, really hard to identify plagiarised coursework. We often suspect something is nicked but it's hard to build a case as unless sentences are cut and pasted in their entirety, Google/Turnitin and so on struggle to cope. It's either strike lucky on our part, or give up.

Even worse are essay mill purchases.

If you could report this, the university would most likely be very, very grateful indeed for your input. I know I would be.

I think the only way around the trend is to set supervised projects where the students have a couple of tutorials to discuss drafts and their writing before producing the finished object. Then there is an audit trail.

In addition to teaching, I do a bit of editing and proof-reading for university students. I know that what you describe is wide-spread at my own uni.

You should report it. Don't be surprised, though, if nothing comes of it. I have both heard of and personally encountered outrageous cases of cheating and plagarism, which the university has declined to pursue because of fears of legal action by students.

It is bonkers.

Please do report it to the university. They should know what to do next. It is absolutely not fair on students who do do their own work.

I agree it's hard to identify plagiarised work. Or, at least, it's often difficult to prove its plagiarised. Occassionally you get someone really stupid who has copied and pasted from Wikipedia (and other sources) and even left in bits of sidebar/different fonts etc, but often you know it's plagiarised but you can't find any evidence.

It is possible for someone to have a genuine disaparity in exam / coursework though, though mine was always odd as I am better in exam conditions (probably as only quiet i get!0

Well, there are several ways to do exams. You can have seen exams, or open-book exams, or coursework given with a very tight deadline (i.e. you get an essay question on monday and it's due in on Friday). All of which make it harder to pay someone else to write your essay for you. Also, learning to function well under pressure is a very useful, transferable skill.

Ds was researching for an essay and called me over to the computer because up came numerous sites offering to write essays for you. Fees ranged from quite modest amounts for ordinary school essays to ££££££ for bespoke pieces of work guaranteed to evade any plagiarism-busting software.

Now, given the number of sites offering essay-writing services, it surely follows that there must be many customers.

Off on a slight tangent... sil wrote all her dd's university essays. She even attended the flippin' lectures with her... No one apparently questioned this.

Does your SIL not have a life?

Report them. It's not fair on all the other students who actually did their own work. It's also not fair on any employers who offer them a job on the basis of their degree.

Sil is such a helicopter you can hear her whirring.

I need more students to make my business viable. I feel like just doing the coursework for a wad of cash but when it comes down to it, I can't because I'm so angry with them! I feel like I should do something!

Principled poverty is admirable, but business is business....I suspect the Universities know about it more than you think as well, and are turning a blind eye.

'Principled poverty is admirable, but business is business....'

Quite.

I couldn't do it too dishonest imo.

Numerous Cambridge students appear to write essays for essay mills. They become better at their work and make money, while the other students fail to improve yet still get degrees, albeit slightly worse ones. It's the market in action.

The real money belongs to the freelancer with the good reputation. Anyone who's savvy will avoid essay mills at all costs, even if they offer bespoke work.

Word of mouth is the way to go.

OP, if you really want business, this isn't a bad way to supplement your income, particulary if you enjoy researching and writing. Just research things very very well, particularly your pricing and payment collection. Once you get a reputation, work will find you.

It's not illegal. You just register as self-employed if you haven't already. What the client does with the material you produce isn't your lookout.