has anyone ever bought an essay?

[sunnyjim]

there seem to be loads of those 'write your essay for you' sites. HOw on earth do they work? I mean most unis have set text books for a course so how coudl they manage to write your essay for you without those texts?

Most unis now give students a very long and detailed description of what plagiarism is and make them sign a declaration that they have read and understood it, so there is no get-out for students who want to claim they did it unintentionally.

sorry - not going to write the 'brave' essay as not willing to lose out on marks. Yes in a lovely ideal world I wouldn't get marked down for disagreeing with my univeristy and tutors political stance. I would get credit for outside research. I would be praised for noticing the inherent contradictions in the course material.

But please - get real, we dont' live in an ideal world and tutors are just as narrowminded and politically biased as anyone!

btw my essay is on international politics and trade liberlisation.

I disagree with the implicit and explicit judgement that developed nations are 'bad'

I believe there is an inherent contradiction between suporting trade protectionism via trade unions and labour laws protecting the workers, but then stating that trade protectionism is a 'bad' thing because it keeps the poor workers in an isolated state.

I KNOW that the course material doesn't include the most recent schools of thought on neoliberlism and it doesn't consider the Post-positivist/reflectivist theories.

I disagree fundamentaly with the normative approach to the social sciences which is characterised in some of my course material.

to write the essay my tutor expects/wants I have to forget all the above, and try and forget the information I have to draw solely from the course material. I also have to remember to interprit the material in the appropriate(political) way.
The hardest of all is I have to try and ignore things that I already KNOW, and accept theories in the course material which have since been disproved or deconstructed.

see why i thought it would be easier to get someone else to do it!

I'm doing this because I want to do a PHd and due to illness didn't complete my first degree when I was young and impressionable!

Write the brave essay. Go on, you know you should.

or write the cowardly essay

but don't cheat!

why - so I fail the course and don't get onto a PHd program?

Well best of luck, Sunny Jim, and obviously you know best what your department is like.

However, the fact that you want to do a PhD would make me even more inclined to hope that you will go for the 'brave' option, or at least find a way to make use of all the extra knowledge you have.
The reason for this is that when you're assessing PhD applications (which I have done lots of though not in your field) you are looking out in particular for originality and independence of thought and research beyond the limits of your course materials. You don't just go on marks IYKWIM.

I accept that it's a hard balancing act for you though, as of course if you end up with really low marks this could indeed undermine your application.

I wonder if there is another strategy you could come up with. I reckon you are right to foreground the stuff in the course materials (because lecturers get really irritated by students who they think haven't engaged with course materials properly) but I wonder if maybe you could use footnotes to add another layer of sophistication to your argument? I just don't like to think of you having done all this extra reading (which IME is the sign of someone who is potentially an excellent research student) and not getting any credit for it

the whole point of doing a qualification is to learn, surely

I am assuming you don't want to do your PhD with them btw!

So will you tackle all this in your PhD? Or will you always toe the party line?

I guess i find it morally worse to write the cowardly essay -in my world actually putting effort into writing something I disagree with academically, violates my personal morality.

buying a sodding essay doesn't register in the same way on my own moral radar.

yes I know that is weird, and yes of course I will write the sodding essay myself. I'm just very tired of having to play 'dumb woolly liberal' to get decent marks.

Have you written 'brave' essays before and been marked down for them, btw?

Don't do it. It is very easy to find this stuff on the net.

for my GCSE and AS students it often takes me less that a minute to find the original.

And then you could be in deep shit

The main problem with buying an essay (and yes, I offer assistance with written assements to students and have done for a while now for private clients who come to me by word of mouth) is that the marker comes to know your written style.

And they'll know when a piece of work is not your style. Because they're not stupid and they've been marking for longer than you've been a student, I can guarantee you.

So I would advise you not to purchase an essay if it's more than a one-shot deal - i.e., if you require more than one written work for assessment in that semester, a year-long course, an academic whom you will be working with more than one semester, etc.

As for the joy of learning and all that, well, my personal feelings are that a person's decision to pay money to go to university is multi-faceted and it's neither my concern nor my business why he or she is there.

The other issue is if you have to do a written class or degree exam in a timed setting.

Again, if the style differs sharply from that of your written submissions, this may set off alarm bells in the academic's mind.

And may I remind you that their minds are generally quite sharp.

But surely if you have to copy other peoples work in order to get a qualification to enable you do to a Phd then you're aiming beyond your reach.

Plus where's the satisfaction? You will know you got where you got through cheating...

So if the course materials are one-sided, and you're liable to be marked down if you stray from the course materials, perhaps it would be possible to qualify the statements you make in the essay ("y is the case ... if x is true" sort of thing with an implied ), and raise some questions (without straying off the course materials in order to answer them) which would at least suggest the existence of another point of view. At least then you are sticking to the course materials but still allowing some room for challenging them?

kathy - thanks for support. Yes I have been marked down before for 'brave' essays.

I don't want to do my PHd through them although it was one tutor in this department who said I ought to do a PHD. Her words were
"you are producing post grad quality work with good independant research. You obviusly understand this subject very well but this is an undergraduate course and you need to just include material from our course even if it is out of date, we don't specifically mark you down for independant research but that takes you away from our materials so you will get lower marks."

I think sunnyjim wants to let off steam with this thread rather than seriously looking to buy an essay tbh

I can always tell when work is not that of the student. Granted I see them every week, but I do see a lot of them. Normally I 'suss' then in the first paragraph. It then takes me less than a minute to find the original.

You would be risking so much.

Yes, MB, I agree, it's very circumstantial. It tends to work best in a very large, introductory course type setting where the instructors may vary and/or not be able to get to know particular students due to class size.

I still think the reliance on "course material" sounds odd...

universities have changed I think

No, but I've sold a couple

I don't know about brick universities, but the OU seems to be a real stickler for "sticking to the course materials". Even at level 3 (third year undergraduate level) there is zero encouragement to read independently. My tutor said he had been told off by the university for recommending books to students

herculus,

imagine there is a parenting/childcare topic that you feel very strongly on. You have done LOTS of reading and research into this subject and have subscriptions to journals that preview the latest research etc.
Now you decide to take a course on this area to back up your knowledge with a paper based qualification.

The course material was written 3 years ago and so is out of date, this isn't just abotu 'feelings' or beleifs there are actual factual pieces of research which yu have read which contradict the course materials.

Also the people marking the course essays etc come from a certian school of thought about childrearing based on when THEY studied. They have written papers on the subject and being human they find it very hard to admit that their research/view is now 'wrong'

In order to pass the coure you have to answer questions using ONLY the course material (which you know to be wrong and incomplete).

How easy would you find it?

I've sold a lot .