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Parenting

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Original poster

has anyone ever bought an essay?

139 replies

sunnyjim · 02/04/2007 11:27

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?

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Ellbell · 02/04/2007 15:09

So... was the essay double-marked, sj? If not, ask for a second opinion.

Chandra · 02/04/2007 15:10

The only thing I can say then is that you need to consider moving to another university, is not that this one is preparing you as they should for the work to come if you decide to pursue a PhD.

MrsDoolittle · 02/04/2007 15:12

I can't understand this.
I don't know how a course tutor would want a degree level essay written solely on the set texts.
That simply is noit what higher education is about.
Sorry sunnyjim, I think it's far more likely that you don't undertand what you are being asked to do.

And yes, plagarism is usually pretty esay to spot. Unfortunately it's also very difficult to prove. However, I suggest that if suspected you will find that everything you write sussequently will be viewed with suspicion.

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Chandra · 02/04/2007 15:12

BTW, my DH was asked to remove a good chunk of his PhD Thesis before submission because the material, although good, distracted a bit from the point he was trying to make. Any possibility of something of the sort taking place?

hercules1 · 02/04/2007 15:12

WHat about complaining to someone higher up. SOunds dreadful if you are being criticised for including further research.

MrsDoolittle · 02/04/2007 15:13

I think it's more likely that you were marked down because you didn't critique your 'outside' material adequately.

TheArmadillo · 02/04/2007 15:19

I would never buy an essay because it would be a pointless exercise whether I got caught or not (and it is highly unlikely I wouldn't get caught).

Whether my own work got a crap mark or not I would learn from it and see where I went wrong and what needed improving.

I didn't know you could buy essays until I got a lecture on not doing it (given to the whole year).

Having to stick to course texts etc sounds like a pain in the arse and not much good for developing your own arguments etc.

I am in the final year of my history degree and we are encouraged to cover a wide range of materials. Most of the tutors are loath to recommend any set texts (though we have reading lists for each part of the module). And we need to cover an average of 10-12 works for each piece submitted.

Also we have to be up to date with current works (as well as looking at 'seminal' works). The tutors I have love challenges to their ideas as long as backed up by valid evidence.

TheArmadillo · 02/04/2007 15:23

Agree with surely that is the whole point of further education.

A large part of why my degree is useful is the ability to research. Also finding works yourself, constructing new arguments, doing new research (our dissertation has to be a worthwhile contribution to whichever part we are studying).

zippitippitoes · 02/04/2007 16:13

I am familiar with the political compass

site ...did that quiz thing on it but can't remember the result

i wouldn't be compromising my principles..if i was near the beginning of the course I would be going elsewhere if I couldn't get an essay marked because of my views but then I am that kind of person

are you at the introductory level?

sounds like you have some good tips here anyway

giddyfeet · 02/04/2007 16:19

"ah well I go down the route of intellectual dishonesty then and write an essay that I don't agree with and one which is logically flawed to fit in with my tutor's specific polticial and moral bias."

They say that you should write what you believe in it and if it is good enough and your arguement stands up then you will be marked according to that, and not your lecturers opinion.

However, what you fear did happen to me. I write a dissertation on a subject and got a good mark and then write an essay on the same subject for a different class with the same arguement and got 20% less because aparently there was no research to back up my claims!!! Funny how I did so well on my dissertation then and that I quoted research in both the essays and dissertation!!

Its a big problem in undergraduate studies. One lecturer told me there was no concensus on what makes a essay a certain grade and the lecturer can use their own descretion in marking. Which brings us back to your original problem...

Honestly just write what you believe in and at least you have your integrity in tact then...

Ellbell · 02/04/2007 16:38

Giddy, you're right in that two essays might both get, say, 60%, but be totally different in their argument and the way in which they put it together, but lecturers should try to leave their personal views out of it. I've given First Class marks to people who wrote good, well-written and clearly argued essays with an argument which I totally disagreed with. However, I'm in an arty-farty subject area which could be said to be quite subjective anyway. (FWIW also take the same view with articles for publication when I am editing...) With your dissertation, though, it could have been just that what worked in the dissertation didn't 'fit' the essay title that you were trying to answer for the other course. And, of course, an argument that will work in a 10,000-word dissertation can't be transferred willy-nilly to a 1,500-word essay (not saying this is what you did, btw, just rehearsing various possibilities). A bit naughty, anyway, to recycle!

giddyfeet · 02/04/2007 16:55

Ellbell - thanks for your response.

Well the dissertation and the essay were not recycled exactly, it was more my opinion that was recycled.

The dissertation was about social control in popular culture. The essay was a critical anaylsis on a Japanese film we were made to watch.

I took a Marxist view point on both as that is what I believe. In the essay I was told it was very good but that - basically - there had been no research to back up my Marxist claims, which is completely false. I had many quotes and a long bibliography. In the past for all other lecturers I'd been getting in the reigon of 70-85% and this lecturer gave me about 55%. This lecturer is known to be anti-marxist. It was blatantly wrong. I was going to contest it - I did lodge a complaint with my course leader who saw my point but said as it was my final mark on the course it was not worth contesting. I ended up missing a 1st by 2%... who knows if that assignment impacted on my final mark...

Really I just see it as a lesson learned for when I start my MA. I will still always write what I believe in but would also stand up for myself more in the future.

Ellbell · 02/04/2007 16:59

That makes sense, giddy.

"I did lodge a complaint with my course leader who saw my point but said as it was my final mark on the course it was not worth contesting."

Whoah! Bad advice. It's always worth contesting any anomalous mark... whether to get it second-marked internally or to get the external examiner to look at it. That individual mark would have had to have been raised a lot to get you the extra 2% you needed overall, but it might have taken you into a discretionary zone, and who knows...

Good luck for the MA.

beckybrastraps · 02/04/2007 17:25

I study with the OU and often hear the "not outside the course materials" complaint. IME the stance is actually that you don't need to go outside the course materials, and if you do you had better be very sure that you are addressing the topic in question, rather than following a lead that interests you, but may not be quite what they are after. I have certainly used secondary sources in my essays, but I have used them to support or contradict studies given in the course materials. I have not been marked down.

ANd I have certainly been encouraged, strongly, to critically evaluate the arguments made by the text authors. Indeed I have been marked down for not doing so. I have got some of my best marks for being a bit arsey

zippitippitoes · 02/04/2007 17:27

isn't that a bit like spoonfeeding?

if you have a lot of information presented in chunks and a question related to it..it seems a bit limiting

giddyfeet · 02/04/2007 17:30

Thanks, Ellbell. I found the staff really did all stick together at that university. She said it was unlikely to be changed by an external as marks are rarely changed. Who knows.

Thanks. I'm not sure when I'll be doing my MA as funds are not available at the moment, it is definitely something I want to pursue at some point though. I love studying!

Molesworth · 02/04/2007 17:31

I think it is a bit like spoonfeeding.

Having said that OU materials aren't directly comparable to whatever the arrangement is in brick universities (they are written specifically for the OU), and I have seen OU course texts on other universities' reading lists.

But at level 3 I am disappointed and rather shocked at the lack of positive encouragement to read outside the course materials.

Blandmum · 02/04/2007 17:31

I think that the OU probably have to take care thay you don't have to have stuff outside the course books, because not everyone will have equal access to university standard libraries.

I'd be shocked at accademics being cross with people reading outside the set texts. Most would cry with joy, I'd have thought!

Molesworth · 02/04/2007 17:32

oops I didn't finish my sentence

OU course texts are on other universities' reading lists, which seems to suggest they are rather well put together

Blandmum · 02/04/2007 17:33

the ones I used were very good, and well refernced if you wanted to take things further.

zippitippitoes · 02/04/2007 17:35

or the spoonfeeding approach is secretly quite appealing

beckybrastraps · 02/04/2007 17:40

OU course texts are excellent. When I moved recently I found some of my old folders from university first time round, filled with lecture notes, and thought how grateful I was to have the text books now.

As MB said, the lack of library acccess makes it difficult for the OU to provide reading lists in the way that my brick university did. I have found some using google scholar and the OU online library, and my current course (level 3) provides an offprints book for reading research studies associated with the topics studied.

I don't feel any more spoon fed this time than I did last time round TBH.

TheArmadillo · 02/04/2007 17:41

does OU provide you with Athens password or anything similar to use online journals/sources?

I find that unbelievably useful as it means I can do a lot from home.

Molesworth · 02/04/2007 17:42

Yes, OU students have athens access via the OU library. It's a brilliant resource.

Blandmum · 02/04/2007 17:43

First time round I had a copyright library to use. Had just about anything you could want.

Education, wasted on the young! How stupid I was not to realise what a solid gold oppertunity this was

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