Correct me if I'm wrong... but is this website there to help people CHEAT???!!!

[ShinyHappyPeopleHoldingHands]

1000s of essays available to view!

It's bad enough that people are SELLING their essays on Ebay (! Came across this when trying to buy a 2nd hand set book for my latest OU course) but this looks like a professional website!

Why is it allowed??

There is masses of stuff on the internet like this. My DH's university has just spent a load of dosh on software that checks student essays for signs of having been downloaded from a site like that.

It's v. worrying.. (thinking selfishly here) that in 3 more years of hard slog when I finally graduate, there may be people graduating at the same time who didn't actually DO all the work themsevles!

But you will have learnt loads that they won't.

Message withdrawn

Why are the sites not taken off the net though?

It certainly has changed the way that we set exams these days; home assignments are becoming rarer and a lot of thought goes into designing them so as to make cheating harder.

At the same time, students tend to vastly underestimate their tutors' intelligence: they don't seem to realise that tutors can google too, and that they are very quick to spot a discrepancy between a student's general way of coping in class/exam results and the way their essays look.

We do so many plagiarism cases these days and it never fails to amaze me what the little idiots think they can get away with. I've had students copying each other's translations in a class of 7, right down to the same misprints, and thinking I wasn't going to notice!!!

But actually sites with example essays can be very useful to someone who doesn't know how to go about starting to write one. It would be a shame to have them taken down and prevent the honest students from having access to them.

So long as the sites say all the right things about them being sample essays, to give people an idea of the kind of thing which is needed, they can get away with it. If the site actually said "copy this and submit it as your own work" it would be illegal.

Yes and no. In my previous student life, when Tipp Ex was considered dangerously advanced technology, I used to have colleagues on my course pitch up at my door and ask to borrow my essays (not because I was hot at the course - they probably thought that mine would be mediocre enough to get away with the theft). Bizarrely, I wasn't doing the same papers as them, which didn't argue too well for their general intelligence. Anyway, plagiarism has happened for a long time is all I'm saying. In current student life clearly it is a problem or perceived that way as we get a lot of anti-plagiarism propaganda.

I would think that anyone who takes routine advantage of this sort of thing would probably do very well in most work environments - quite good vocational training, in fact.

The site says

"All documents then pass through our quality control process. If they pass, they are submitted to Turnitin plagiarism detection software. This ensures that all our content can only be used as a legitimate academic resource and protects the author's intellectual property."

so assuming schools/exam boards use the same plagiarism software it can't be used for cheating.

There are sites who will write an essay for you for a price. For more money they will tailor it to a certain "age style".
MC parents are the best customers apparently.

Yes it is.

But it takes most teachers about 30 sec to recognise that it isn't written in the students 'style' It then normally take another 60 sec to find the work on Google

I try to do this 'live' using my board projector, to 'encourage' the other students to avoid this issue.

I also often down load the page as a screen dump, and 'mark' that

We now get the kids to do all their GCSE coursework in class time, and the work never leaves the classroom

Really interested in this thread as I'm doing my doctoral thesis on what students, lecturers and HE administrators think of plagiarism policy. Plagiarism is an ongoing problem, and whilst it is easier to detect some plagiarism nowadays there are constant ways to beat the system. Most students don't intend to plagiarise, they fall into it via sloppy referencing or notetaking. Do we have more sympathy with them than those who deliberately intend to plagiarise? If you buy an essay, do you think you are more likely to intentionally try to pass it off as your own or use it for guidance?

What should be done in an ideal world to solve this do you think?

Any feedback gratefully recevied!!!!

I can't comment on university level, but at school level this is a very common problem.

From very early on children are encourages to use the internet as a resource. this very often invols them cutting and pasting large amounts of information without even trying to put the information in heir own words.

'Use the internet to research THe Gunpowder plot' becomes 'Find the gumpowder plot on Wikipaedia and cut and paste it'

In part the teachers are at fault for not jumping on this hard enough. The children really think that they have done the 'work', which would be true if they were being tested on their ability to find stuff and cut and paste!

In part ir is understandable, because the kids know that the information they get on the internet looks good! and they want their work to look good.

We are getting round this bu setting up 'webquest' type activities, worksheets that make sure that the children find and read the information, before they give hand written answers on the sheet, quoting the website address.

This is an aspect of education that needs al lot of attention IMHO! We are simply not preparing the children to use the internet effectivly, and critically

Yes, at university level, it can be expensive but you can get essays/assignments to order.

Agree with MB, it does take 30 seconds to recognise it but unless it is on the internet it can take hours or even days to track down the sources.

At university, for examined material, you have to be able to demonstrate that the bulk of the material is plagiarised before the University will risk the accusation.

It's one of the joys of the exam marking season.

another story here you can buy essays for about £450. great if you're rich, just buy yourself a degree. (or get mummy and daddy to)

There always has been the ability of rich people to buy in essays etc.

This have got worse with the rise of availability on the internet, and the increase in the amount of course work element in degrees. My degree (back in the mists of time in the 80s ) was just about all based on examination, you couldn't cheat in this way under those circumstances. There was a dissertation, but that was only in year 4, and only played 1/5th of the last years marks.

I did have a student who once memorised all the answers for her exams--essay-type responses. Was very impressed. Risky strategy.

I wrote an essay for someone at university for money about 100 years ago. She was an American, and just assumed that she could find someone to do it if she didn't have time. I got her a B for an essay on St Augustine of Hippo. She gave me £20. I'm a bit horrified now - but at the itme it was a bit of a laugh - and 20 quid!

My brother is a student at Cambridge atm and tells me that they are constantly being approached by people offering them money for essays.

Its always happened. I knew of two students, one wrote an extended essay for the other, don't know if money changed hands, but somehow they were found out. Both had their final degrees awarded as pass- the writer had originally got a 1st!!

A LL says collusion is another form of plagiarism and quite hard to spot, especially if marking is spread out over lots of markers. Very interested in the comment about students being approached to sell their essays. Id expect this could be quite tempting as student debt becomes even more serious.

The remark by MB about schools being the start of this was spot on. I do wonder what really can be done about it...especially if you get a student with a photographic memory (Do you think I could order one of those, it sounds very useful and just what I need??!!)

One last thing do you think plagiarism policy actually prevents plagiarism of just is something to deal with it when it occurs?

Mega thanks all.....

My DD was gutted that DS went to a different school so she cannot sell him all her Project Work etc, and that course work is being phased out so she cannot sell him that either

Sunnylabsmum.. re your comments/questions: "Most students don't intend to plagiarise, they fall into it via sloppy referencing or notetaking. Do we have more sympathy with them than those who deliberately intend to plagiarise?..."

I certainly hope the powers that be would NOT treat sloppy referencing/notetaking resulting in plagiarisation in the same manner as somebody blatantly submitting a whole essay they did not write! It's not the same thing at all.. Obviously, as a student becomes more experienced, he/she should be able to ensure that correct referencing and/or wording is used, but to begin with, it can be quite hard to get your head around.

I started studying 4 years ago (am now on fourth year of 6 year part time BA Hons with the OU) and before that time, I had NEVER had to grapple with referencing. (had not written an essay since I was 16!).. and it can take a bit of getting used to. I sussed it early on and have never been picked up on for any degree of accidental plagiarisation.. but a few times I have discovered myself, how I need to re-word something.. or a missing reference before submitting. Very easily done.

And complete different kettle of fish to the person who does not even embark on any work of their own.. and just buys it from someone/somewhere else!