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Buying College Essays Is Now Easier Than Ever. But Buyer Beware

Tovia Smith

Concern is growing about a burgeoning online market for essays that students can buy and turn in as their own work. And schools are trying new tools to catch it. Angela Hsieh/NPR hide caption

Concern is growing about a burgeoning online market for essays that students can buy and turn in as their own work. And schools are trying new tools to catch it.

As the recent college admissions scandal is shedding light on how parents are cheating and bribing their children's way into college, schools are also focusing on how some students may be cheating their way through college. Concern is growing about a burgeoning online market that makes it easier than ever for students to buy essays written by others to turn in as their own work. And schools are trying new tools to catch it.

It's not hard to understand the temptation for students. The pressure is enormous, the stakes are high and, for some, writing at a college level is a huge leap.

"We didn't really have a format to follow, so I was kind of lost on what to do," says one college freshman, who struggled recently with an English assignment. One night, when she was feeling particularly overwhelmed, she tweeted her frustration.

"It was like, 'Someone, please help me write my essay!' " she recalls. She ended her tweet with a crying emoji. Within a few minutes, she had a half-dozen offers of help.

"I can write it for you," they tweeted back. "Send us the prompt!"

The student, who asked that her name not be used for fear of repercussions at school, chose one that asked for $10 per page, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"For me, it was just that the work was piling up," she explains. "As soon as I finish some big assignment, I get assigned more things, more homework for math, more homework for English. Some papers have to be six or 10 pages long. ... And even though I do my best to manage, the deadlines come closer and closer, and it's just ... the pressure."

In the cat-and-mouse game of academic cheating, students these days know that if they plagiarize, they're likely to get caught by computer programs that automatically compare essays against a massive database of other writings. So now, buying an original essay can seem like a good workaround.

"Technically, I don't think it's cheating," the student says. "Because you're paying someone to write an essay, which they don't plagiarize, and they write everything on their own."

Her logic, of course, ignores the question of whether she's plagiarizing. When pressed, she begins to stammer.

"That's just a difficult question to answer," she says. "I don't know how to feel about that. It's kind of like a gray area. It's maybe on the edge, kind of?"

Besides she adds, she probably won't use all of it.

Other students justify essay buying as the only way to keep up. They figure that everyone is doing it one way or another — whether they're purchasing help online or getting it from family or friends.

"Oh yeah, collaboration at its finest," cracks Boston University freshman Grace Saathoff. While she says she would never do it herself, she's not really fazed by others doing it. She agrees with her friends that it has pretty much become socially acceptable.

"I have a friend who writes essays and sells them," says Danielle Delafuente, another Boston University freshman. "And my other friend buys them. He's just like, 'I can't handle it. I have five papers at once. I need her to do two of them, and I'll do the other three.' It's a time management thing."

The war on contract cheating

"It breaks my heart that this is where we're at," sighs Ashley Finley, senior adviser to the president for the Association of American Colleges and Universities. She says campuses are abuzz about how to curb the rise in what they call contract cheating. Obviously, students buying essays is not new, but Finley says that what used to be mostly limited to small-scale side hustles has mushroomed on the internet to become a global industry of so-called essay mills. Hard numbers are difficult to come by, but research suggests that up to 16 percent of students have paid someone to do their work and that the number is rising.

"Definitely, this is really getting more and more serious," Finley says. "It's part of the brave new world for sure."

The essay mills market aggressively online, with slickly produced videos inviting students to "Get instant help with your assignment" and imploring them: "Don't lag behind," "Join the majority" and "Don't worry, be happy."

"They're very crafty," says Tricia Bertram Gallant, director of the Academic Integrity Office at the University of California in San Diego and a board member of the International Center for Academic Integrity.

The companies are equally brazen offline — leafleting on campuses, posting flyers in toilet stalls and flying banners over Florida beaches during spring break. Companies have also been known to bait students with emails that look like they're from official college help centers. And they pay social media influencers to sing the praises of their services, and they post testimonials from people they say are happy customers.

"I hired a service to write my paper and I got a 90 on it!" gloats one. "Save your time, and have extra time to party!" advises another.

"It's very much a seduction," says Bertram Gallant. "So you can maybe see why students could get drawn into the contract cheating world."

YouTube has been cracking down on essay mills; it says it has pulled thousands of videos that violate its policies against promoting dishonest behavior.

But new videos constantly pop up, and their hard sell flies in the face of their small-print warnings that their essays should be used only as a guide, not a final product.

Several essay mills declined or didn't respond to requests to be interviewed by NPR. But one answered questions by email and offered up one of its writers to explain her role in the company, called EduBirdie.

"Yes, just like the little birdie that's there to help you in your education," explains April Short, a former grade school teacher from Australia who's now based in Philadelphia. She has been writing for a year and a half for the company, which bills itself as a "professional essay writing service for students who can't even."

Some students just want some "foundational research" to get started or a little "polish" to finish up, Short says. But the idea that many others may be taking a paper written completely by her and turning it in as their own doesn't keep her up at night.

"These kids are so time poor," she says, and they're "missing out on opportunities of travel and internships because they're studying and writing papers." Relieving students of some of that burden, she figures, allows them to become more "well-rounded."

"I don't necessarily think that being able to create an essay is going to be a defining factor in a very long career, so it's not something that bothers me," says Short. Indeed, she thinks students who hire writers are demonstrating resourcefulness and creativity. "I actually applaud students that look for options to get the job done and get it done well," she says.

"This just shows you the extent of our ability to rationalize all kinds of bad things we do," sighs Dan Ariely, professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University. The rise in contract cheating is especially worrisome, he says, because when it comes to dishonest behavior, more begets more. As he puts it, it's not just about "a few bad apples."

Felicity Huffman And 12 Other Parents To Plead Guilty In College Cheating Scandal

"Instead, what we have is a lot ... of blemished apples, and we take our cues for our behavior from the social world around us," he says. "We know officially what is right and what's wrong. But really what's driving our behavior is what we see others around us doing" or, Ariely adds, what we perceive them to be doing. So even the proliferation of advertising for essays mills can have a pernicious effect, he says, by fueling the perception that "everyone's doing it."

A few nations have recently proposed or passed laws outlawing essay mills, and more than a dozen U.S. states have laws on the books against them. But prosecuting essay mills, which are often based overseas in Pakistan, Kenya and Ukraine, for example, is complicated. And most educators are loath to criminalize students' behavior.

"Yes, they're serious mistakes. They're egregious mistakes," says Cath Ellis, an associate dean and integrity officer at the University of New South Wales, where students were among the hundreds alleged to have bought essays in a massive scandal in Australia in 2014.

"But we're educational institutions," she adds. "We've got to give students the opportunity to learn from these mistakes. That's our responsibility. And that's better in our hands than in the hands of the police and the courts."

Staying one step ahead

In the war on contract cheating, some schools see new technology as their best weapon and their best shot to stay one step ahead of unscrupulous students. The company that makes the Turnitin plagiarism detection software has just upped its game with a new program called Authorship Investigate.

The software first inspects a document's metadata, like when it was created, by whom it was created and how many times it was reopened and re-edited. Turnitin's vice president for product management, Bill Loller, says sometimes it's as simple as looking at the document's name. Essay mills typically name their documents something like "Order Number 123," and students have been known to actually submit it that way. "You would be amazed at how frequently that happens," says Loller.

Using cutting-edge linguistic forensics, the software also evaluates the level of writing and its style.

"Think of it as a writing fingerprint," Loller says. The software looks at hundreds of telltale characteristics of an essay, like whether the author double spaces after a period or writes with Oxford commas or semicolons. It all gets instantly compared against a student's other work, and, Loller says, suspicions can be confirmed — or alleviated — in minutes.

"At the end of the day, you get to a really good determination on whether the student wrote what they submitted or not," he says, "and you get it really quickly."

Coventry University in the U.K. has been testing out a beta version of the software, and Irene Glendinning, the school's academic manager for student experience, agrees that the software has the potential to give schools a leg up on cheating students. After the software is officially adopted, "we'll see a spike in the number of cases we find, and we'll have a very hard few years," she says. "But then the message will get through to students that we've got the tools now to find these things out." Then, Glendinning hopes, students might consider contract cheating to be as risky as plagiarizing.

In the meantime, schools are trying to spread the word that buying essays is risky in other ways as well.

Professor Ariely says that when he posed as a student and ordered papers from several companies, much of it was "gibberish" and about a third of it was actually plagiarized.

Even worse, when he complained to the company and demanded his money back, they resorted to blackmail. Still believing him to be a student, the company threatened to tell his school he was cheating. Others say companies have also attempted to shake down students for more money, threatening to rat them out if they didn't pay up.

The lesson, Ariely says, is "buyer beware."

But ultimately, experts say, many desperate students may not be deterred by the risks — whether from shady businesses or from new technology.

Bertram Gallant, of UC San Diego, says the right way to dissuade students from buying essays is to remind them why it's wrong.

"If we engage in a technological arms race with the students, we won't win," she says. "What are we going to do when Google glasses start to look like regular glasses and a student wears them into an exam? Are we going to tell them they can't wear their glasses because we're afraid they might be sending the exam out to someone else who is sending them back the answers?"

The solution, Bertram Gallant says, has to be about "creating a culture where integrity and ethics matter" and where education is valued more than grades. Only then will students believe that cheating on essays is only cheating themselves.

15% of students admit to buying essays. What can universities do about it?

Sessional Academic in English, Australian Catholic University

Disclosure statement

Jedidiah Evans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Australian Catholic University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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New research on plagiarism at university has revealed students are surprisingly unconcerned about a practice known as “contract cheating”.

The term “contract cheating” was coined in 2006 , and describes students paying for completed assessments. At that time, concerns over the outsourcing of assessments were in their infancy, but today, contract cheating is big business.

In 2017 alone, the UK’s Daily Telegraph reported more than 20,000 students had bought professionally written essays from the country’s two largest essay-writing services.

According to a 2018 study , as many as 31 million university students worldwide are paying third parties to complete their assessments. This staggering figure was drawn by reviewing 65 studies on contract cheating. Since 2014, as many as 15.7% of surveyed students admitted to outsourcing their assignments and essays.

The growth in contract cheating speaks volumes about the modern view of education as a commodity.

Read more: Buying essays: how to make sure assessment is authentic

Who’s cheating?

A recent survey , led by the University of South Australia, found international students demonstrated proportionately higher cheating behaviours. So did students who spoke a language other than English at home.

In 2013, a large online survey on academic honesty at six Australian universities found international students were significantly less aware of academic integrity processes, and much less confident about how to avoid academic integrity breaches.

A 2015 study of US student demand for commercially produced assignments found students with English as their first language who liked taking risks were about as likely to buy an assessment as students who were reluctant risk-takers, but who spoke English as a second language.

It’s no surprise that students whom we aggressively court for their higher fees and who are working in a less familiar language environment are turning to these services at higher rates.

A recent study on contract cheating in Australia concluded that the over-representation of non-native English speaking students in cheating surveys is linked to the failure of universities to provide support for language and learning development. Students are tasked with completing assessments for which they lack the basic English language skills.

What’s being done about it?

Widely used plagiarism-detection companies, such as Turnitin , can detect similarities to material that already exists. But essay-writing companies loudly promote the fact their product is original.

In February this year, Turnitin announced plans to crack down on contract cheating. Its proposed solution , authorship investigation, hopes to automate a process familiar to any human marker: detecting major shifts in individual students’ writing style that may point to help from a third party.

But despite these technological advancements, students who are turning to such services have reasons far more complicated than laziness or disregard for personal responsibility.

Read more: Universities run as businesses can't pursue genuine learning

Is it worth it?

Despite the moral panic over grades for cash, there’s some evidence to suggest students turning to essay mill services are not getting what they pay for. A 2014 mystery shopping exercise in the UK revealed the astonishingly low standard of commissioned work produced by essay mills. Of all the essays purchased, none received the requested grade, and many fell dramatically short of expected academic standards.

Rather than buying top grades, desperate students are being exploited by companies that take advantage of the very shortcomings (lower literacy and an ignorance of plagiarism protocols) students are hoping to mitigate.

One less obvious aspect of contract cheating that can’t be fixed by intelligent software is the predatory nature of essay mill companies. According to a 2017 study on cheating websites, commercial providers rely on persuasive marketing techniques. They often repackage an unethical choice in the guise of professional help for students who are weighed down by a demanding workload.

How can we discourage it?

In recent years, several scholars have explored the legality of contract cheating, along with the possibilities of defining a new offence under criminal law of providing or advertising contract cheating.

In 2011, for example, a law was introduced in New Zealand that makes it a criminal offence to provide or advertise cheating services. Yet the criminalisation of such services leads inevitably to the prosecution of cheating students, something the legal system has so far been reluctant to do.

But even discounting the possibility of legal action, plagiarism has hefty consequences for university students under misconduct policies, including revoking course credits, expulsion, and a permanent record of cheating.

Redesigning assessments is the primary way to tackle the growing problem of contract cheating. Recent suggestions focus on the development of authentic assessments: tasks that more closely mirror the real-world demands students will face after they graduate from university.

Rather than simply completing an essay, for example, a history student might be tasked with interviewing a local non-profit organisation, and producing a podcast episode.

Teachers who use authentic assessments hope to reduce cheating by tying learning to student’s hopes for their futures, but one obvious benefit is the difficulty of cheating in such individualised tasks. One key problem for overhauling assessment design is the troubling proliferation of casual labour in universities. The development of assessments is rarely, if ever, accounted for in casual teaching rates.

Turnitin works to reduce students’ work into patterns and algorithms, weeding out supposed cheats and frauds. But a more considered response must take into account the complex reasons students turn to these services in the first place.

Understanding why students are willing to pay for assessments might also illuminate a problem at the heart of tertiary education – one that is related to our present repackaging of knowledge as a resource to be bought, rather than an ennobling pursuit that is worthy of all the energy, time, and attention teachers and students can devote to it.

Read more: Assessment design won’t stop cheating, but our relationships with students might

• MyMaster cheating scandal
• Contract cheating

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You don't need a plagiarism checker, right?

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But what about accidental plagiarism ? It’s more common than you think! Maybe you paraphrased a little too closely, or forgot that last citation or set of quotation marks.

Even if you did it by accident, plagiarism is still a serious offense. You may fail your course, or be placed on academic probation. The risks just aren’t worth it.

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Scribbr is committed to protecting academic integrity. Our plagiarism checker software, Citation Generator , proofreading services , and free Knowledge Base content are designed to help educate and guide students in avoiding unintentional plagiarism.

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Frequently asked questions

No, the Self-Plagiarism Checker does not store your document in any public database.

In addition, you can delete all your personal information and documents from the Scribbr server as soon as you’ve received your plagiarism report.

Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker is powered by elements of Turnitin’s Similarity Checker , namely the plagiarism detection software and the Internet Archive and Premium Scholarly Publications content databases .

The add-on AI detector is powered by Scribbr’s proprietary software.

Extensive testing proves that Scribbr’s plagiarism checker is one of the most accurate plagiarism checkers on the market in 2022.

The software detects everything from exact word matches to synonym swapping. It also has access to a full range of source types, including open- and restricted-access journal articles, theses and dissertations, websites, PDFs, and news articles.

At the moment we do not offer a monthly subscription for the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker. This means you won’t be charged on a recurring basis – you only pay for what you use. We believe this provides you with the flexibility to use our service as frequently or infrequently as you need, without being tied to a contract or recurring fee structure.

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Your document will be compared to the world’s largest and fastest-growing content database , containing over:

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Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Plagiarism

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This page outlines just some of many frequently asked questions regarding plagiarism. For more information about how to avoid plagiarism, as well as best practices, visit some of our additional plagiarism resources.  

When is it Plagiarism? 

There are instances when something is clearly  intentional  plagiarism : buying, stealing, or borrowing a paper from someone else. This includes:  

• C opying a blog post or stealing an article from online.   
• Hiring someone to write your paper for you.   
• Copying a large section of text from a source without making it clear it comes from somewhere else through quotation marks or proper citation.   
• I ntentionally  failing to  cite someone else’s work,  to claim  that the ideas and words belong to you .  
• It is possible to plagiarize from yourself . In academia, if you repurpose a paper from previous class or write one paper for two classes without the instructor’s permission  this is plagiarism .   

Writers may also  unintentionally  plagiarize. This usually happens for a few common reasons:  

• The writer doesn’t fully understand the citation system they are using and ends up missing key elements of the source attribution.  
• The writer thinks they are paraphrasing (restating a source’s point in their own words) and ends up accidentally directly quoting words or phrases without realizing; in this case there is usually some attribution to the source, but not the right kind (paraphrasing vs quoting).  
• The writer misattributes a quote or idea to the wrong source; this is especially common in larger research projects where the writer is dealing with a lot of source material.

What could happen if I plagiarize?  

Students who unintentionally plagiarize often (but not always) have a meeting with their teacher, who usually goes over the issue with the student and explains how to avoid it in the future. Many teachers understand that citation practices are complex and can be difficult for beginners to learn, and therefore treat one instance of accidental plagiarism as a learning opportunity.    

However, this is not always the case. Program or department policy may force teachers to begin disciplinary proceedings about plagiarism immediately; you should always be aware that this issue is serious and not to be brushed off or ignored. The best defense against disciplinary proceedings is knowledge —  fully understanding citation practices and employing them in your writing so that you don’t plagiarize is always going to be your best option. You can find our extensive citation resources here.

The corporate world and universit ie s in particular have very strict guidelines for those accused of plagiarism. It is important to familiarize yourself with your university policy, because the consequences can be serious, which includes:  

• Automatic failure of the paper  
• Automatic failure of the class  
• A report to the Dean of Students  
• Some universities make it their policy for it to appear on your Official Transcript, which are usually needed when applying for jobs or graduate school   
• Some programs will dismiss you; for example, the English department at your university may tell you to apply to a different area of study  
• The university may dismiss you completely   
• In the corporate world, you may face litigation depending on who the victim is  
• Your job may fire you in order to avoid the company being associated with a plagiarist

Some of these consequences may seem harsh or extreme, but they are meant to stop students from plagiarizing. This is a crime and it is also an ethical dilemma. You are in school to learn and produce original work; you are doing yourself a disservice by paying someone else to write your work or reuse an old paper.   

If you find yourself in a situation when you are out of time to work on a research project, which is usually one of the common reasons why well-meaning students plagiarize,  it is always better to have an open communication with your professor  before you turn to plagiarism. Professors are there and want to help students, but they cannot help you if they do not know you need it.   

When should I cite a source to avoid plagiarizing?  

  Always give credit where credit is due. If the words that you are including in your research belong to someone else, give credit.   

Here is  a brief list of what needs to be credited or documented :  

• Words or ideas presented in a magazine, book, newspaper, song, TV program, movie, website, computer program, letter, advertisement, or any other medium  
• Information you gain through interviewing or conversing with another person, face to face, over the phone, or in writing  
• When you copy the exact words or a unique phrase  
• When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other visual materials  
• When you reuse or repost any digital media, including images, audio, video, or other media  

There are certain things that  do not need documentation or credit, including :  

• Writing your own lived experiences, your own observations and insights, your own thoughts, and your own conclusions about a subject  
• When you are writing up your own results obtained through lab or field experiments  
• When you use your own artwork, digital photographs, video, audio, etc.  
• When you are using "common knowledge," things like folklore, common sense observations, myths, urban legends, and historical events (but  not  historical documents)  
• When you are using generally accepted facts (e.g., pollution is bad for the environment) including facts that are accepted within particular discourse communities (e.g., in the field of composition studies, "writing is a process" is a generally accepted fact).  

What if I am accused of plagiarism, but I didn’t plagiarize?

It is important to keep notes and previous drafts of your paper, especially if you become a victim of theft yourself. This can happen in many different ways (a roommate copying your files, using a computer from a lab that still has someone else’s log in, etc).

There are some simple and easy tips to keep your intellectual property safe:

• You might have research_paper001.doc, research_paper002.doc, research_paper003.doc as you progress.
• Do the same thing for any online files you are working with. Having multiple draft versions may help prove that the work is yours (assuming you are being ethical in how you cite ideas in your work)
• Do not rely only on your hard drive, it can crash.
• Do not rely only on a USB drive, you can lose it.
• Do not rely only on cloud services, you might not be able to gain access for whatever reason.
• Many students typically use one or more of the methods above to secure their files, including emailing themselves or emailing a friend, with their permission.
• If you have to leave the computer lab for a bathroom break, lock or log out of your station
• This is possible in all sorts of programs, from Adobe Acrobat to Microsoft Word
• Just don’t forget your password
• If you have never tried this method before but would like to, use a different file for a test run to see how it works.
• If this is a habit you currently, you can make sure you have a Master Copy that you will eventually turn in, and open or create new documents and save them in the filing method mentioned above.

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February 28th, 2017

University students are buying assignments – what could, or should, be done about it.

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Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

University students are paying other people to complete their assessments, a process known as ‘contract cheating’. Here, we examine the impact of research on strategies to tackle the issue.  This is a fast-evolving, currently understudied topic and utilising high-quality research is important because of the serious implications of contract cheating. For example, some of the most important roles in society may be undertaken by people who have not personally demonstrated the necessary learning. Engineers, doctors, midwives, lawyers, nurses, judges, dentists, etc. can all buy assignments; contract cheating offers a bypass of the gatekeeping function of university assessment, undermining the value of a university degree.

Contract cheating scandals are regularly covered by the mainstream media . Stories highlight the mismatch between what companies say they do and the consequences of what they actually do, as well as the bold advertising used in public, legitimising activity. However, we don’t really know how many students are using contract cheating services (although a forthcoming research project will give us an idea; in Australia, at least). Many academics have anecdotal stories, horror stories mostly, of students using these services. Chat forums acting as a sort of Tripadvisor for the industry are full of similar tales.

Image credit: Giant Gavel by Sam Howzit. This work is licensed under a CC BY 2.0 license.

What we do know is fairly hair-raising, though. Almost any type of assessment can be purchased, and, as our forthcoming research will show, hundreds of websites offer these services. Although a range of services are offered, a quick Google search shows that most sites have the word ‘essay’ in their name, making it fairly clear where most of their business comes from. Services offered do not cost a lot, and have a rapid turnaround . When students were asked how (if at all) other students should be penalised for using these services, they chose only modest penalties : namely that any purchased assignment should be failed. This is in stark contrast to the UK higher education sector standard, which is for students to be withdrawn.

So what could be done about this? There are many ways this issue could be addressed, with four common, overlapping themes: assessment design, stakeholder education, university regulations, and the law. The use of a legal approach was endorsed by the UK regulator of higher education, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) in the summer of 2016, which specifically suggested the 2006 UK Fraud Act be used to tackle UK-based companies offering contract cheating services.

To determine whether or not the UK Fraud Act might, in fact, be used successfully, our research compared the common business practices of the contract cheating services, including their advertising and terms and conditions, against the Act. In our academic view, the Fraud Act is not likely to be effective in prosecuting companies that offer contract cheating services. Disclaimers commonly found in the terms and conditions often assert that assignments written by companies are not to be used as students’ own work, but rather as ‘model answers’. Although some of the aforementioned media reports and, particularly, some of the companies’ advertising methods often appear in direct conflict with these terms and conditions, we believe this would still not be sufficient to deploy the Fraud Act (although it might be grounds for using Trading Standards or other consumer protection laws).

Following that research, we proposed a new law which would create an offence of strict liability on the sale of essays, subject to a due diligence defence which would put the burden of proof on the ‘essay mill’ company to establish legitimate use rather than on the prosecuting authority to establish wrongdoing through ‘intent’. The need to demonstrate intent is a major barrier to legal enforcement. Strict liability offences are regulatory offences deployed, usually by Parliament-made (statute) law, in areas of significant public interest in which it is important that the law act as a deterrent to regulate behaviour. Specific examples include sections 143 and 87 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 – driving uninsured and driving without a full licence: both of these offences are ones of strict liability which can be committed without any intent on the part of the driver. It would therefore be appropriate to include a strict liability offence in relation to essay mills in the Higher Education and Research Bill.

Again, this is a fast-evolving issue. An amendment to the current Higher Education and Research Bill was tabled, proposing to make essay mills illegal, although this still required the demonstration of ‘intent’. It was debated in the House of Lords on 25 January , with our research ( here and here ) directly cited by Lord Storey of Liverpool in support of the amendment. However, the government response was to propose greater emphasis on guidance from, and for, universities and other stakeholders. The amendment was not supported in its current form.

Then, Jo Johnson, Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation, last week issued a statement calling on universities to do more to stop students buying custom written essays online, saying:

“This form of cheating is unacceptable and every university should have strong policies and sanctions in place to detect and deal with it”.

The Minister asked for guidance aimed at universities, and information for students to help combat the use of these services as well as other forms of plagiarism. The Minister also called for guidance to include tough new penalties for those who make use of essay mills websites, as well as the need to educate students about the potentially significant negative impacts on their future career should they be caught cheating. This would seem to show less enthusiasm for a change in the law, although Department of Education briefings to the media did appear to leave the door open for a legal approach .

This issue is too important to be cast into the graveyard of ‘guidance’. Proposals need backing up with regulation, whether in law or in the QAA’s requirements. Indeed, the QAA was specifically mentioned by Johnson as being “tasked to take action against the online advertising of these services and to work with international agencies to deal with this problem” – we sincerely hope this will result in universities being required to use, at least in part, assessment methodologies that cannot be contracted out so quickly and cheaply.

This brings us to other means by which contract cheating might be tackled: stakeholder education, assessment design, and university regulations. These need more research. The aforementioned project in Australia will examine a relationship (or not) between ‘authentic assessment’ and contract cheating. Authentic assessment is a term used to describe assessment methods that are more reflective of the ways in which students will actually use the knowledge they learn; practical exams, face-to-face assessments, etc. One view is that such assessment methods are harder to contract out.

On university regulations, Michael J. Draper has moved to introduce a regulation that prohibits the simple commissioning of an essay, to reinforce that commissioning an essay from a third party is considered an academic offence in its own right (in addition to the submission of an unattributed commissioned essay). In other words, the simple act of asking one of these companies to write an assignment would be an academic offence. Whilst evidencing such activity is difficult, this is seen as a statement of intent as well as a principle with deterrent value.

In addition to a regulatory framework that reinforces these values, students can be supported in their learning development through instructional tools. One such support tool is an online, interactive, customised module developed as part of the Skills for Learning, Skills for Life project run by the Swansea Academy for Inclusivity and Learner Success and the Centre for Academic Success , in conjunction with universities in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Feedback from pilots undertaken strongly indicates that students engage with these resources most effectively when supported by their academic tutors, either through bespoke or timetabled sessions or when referenced in student handbooks and teaching materials at key points of modules.

Finally, there is the possibility of a coordinated approach across Europe. The Council of Europe has established the ETINED platform to tackle corruption in education, including a stream dedicated to contract cheating. The platform will produce guidance for member states aimed at tackling the issue. If you aren’t au fait with the details of European politics, the UK will remain a member of the Council of Europe after Brexit. However, of interest is that the UK is one of the few member states not to formally send a representative to the ETINED platform, despite many UK academics (Philip Newton included) appearing to give expert evidence to the project.

In summary, research into contract cheating has made an impact and will continue to do so. Hopefully this will result in it being harder for students to submit assignments they have paid someone else to do, thereby upholding the quality and standards of higher education.

This blog post is based on the authors’ article, ‘ Are Essay Mills committing fraud? An analysis of their behaviours vs the 2006 Fraud Act (UK) ’, published in the International Journal for Educational Integrity (DOI: 10.1007/s40979-017-0014-5).

This article gives the views of the authors, and not the position of the LSE Impact Blog, nor of the London School of Economics. Please review our  comments policy  if you have any concerns on posting a comment below.

About the authors

Philip M. Newton is the Director of Learning and Teaching at the Swansea University Medical School. He teaches neuroscience and educational theory to students in the school and was the 2015 BMA Cymru Swansea Teacher of the Year. His research interests are in the area of evidence-based education, particularly academic integrity, and he is the programme director for the Research in Health Professions Education (RiHPE) professional doctorate programme. @newtonsneurosci

Michael J. Draper is Associate Professor in College of Law and Criminology, Swansea University; and Director of the Swansea Academy Inclusivity and Learner Success. He is also Chair of the University Regulations and Student Cases Board.

About the author

10 Comments

I think it is not possible to talk about this issue without discussing the conditions that have made it possible. Academic fraud has been around since I remembered, but what was not happening was that teachers had difficulties detecting it. I think that these difficulties should not be separated from the progressive standardization of higher education and the working conditions of the academics, which have allowed, for example, hundreds of tests and questions to have been collected by previous students and archived in forums that are available for the new generations (I speak from my experience as a student at the University of Chile). This would not happen if the subjects involved a creative component every year on the side of the academic, where the evaluation depended on the knowledge of discussions that occur in the classroom and with renewed texts, according to the teacher as a researcher evolution. Disciplinary measures in a context of commodification of higher education only deepen this commodification.

It’s so funny that UK is considered to be the best place for higher education where 99% students pay agencies to work on their assignments. I guess it’s considered to be having the worst education system where no one is obliged to anything apart from social validation and branding, no matter how they have obtained the result. What a pitty! Being a student I am literally witnessing this in the UK, hardly 1% students work on their assignments in their own, the rest font even attend classes and pay agencies for working on their assignments and get good grades. This country made me pay 18000 pounds for experiencing this. Companies hire students from UK universities should be hiring students from India, China and Australia who are running these assignment agencies to help the brits clear their degree.

Blockchain could be part of the solution

This is all outrageous! I’m a fierce opponent of these servers and would imprison all of their founders. And students would be punished with fines. Unfortunately, it is difficult to compute these. Tools like plagiarism checker Unicheck is unable to detect when a student employs a ghostwriter to complete a new assignment. But I greatly believe that tool like Emma will cope with it. This uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to study the innards of each author’s writing style and attributes authorship on their basis and able to analyze and understand the way people write. I don’t know how good their technology is. But I hope such programs will appear and they’ll overcome this terrible phenomenon.

With the increase in “distance learning” by completing courses online I suppose the situation will become worse. How do prospective employers determine how authentic a job applicant’s academic credentials are?

In the past, I have had the unhappy job of interviewing job candidates. I found that it is not easy to sort them out as some are quite skilled as appearing more qualified then they actually are.

The rate of students using contracting agencies to do their assignments is obviously on the increase. The use of these agencies fastens academic quality depreciation – a situation that will adversely affect the economy. These students dishonest are not easily detectable by the schools because the students present their results in plan platforms that cannot easily be traced to the assignment solution agency. I used to wotk for such an agency, however all assignments solutions are directly submitted to the students on papers without the company’s logo. The assignments solutions are electronically transmitted to them in their lecturer specified format after conducting playgiarism test. I think it will be difficult for instructors or the school to catch them because the chances are minimal. More so, these agencies are using intelligent and experienced individuals with good knowledge of the academic community. I guess the only viable solution here is consistent and adequate orientation of the students against playgiarism.

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Wouldn’t a good plagiarism checker be able to detect even the ghost written material? Or some software that can cross sompare with other work to see if it was original work. There are options like plagiarism checker x (plagiarismcheckerx.com/side-by-side-comparison) and I think Copyscape does does cross comparison based detection as well.

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Buying College Essays Is Now Easier Than Ever. But Buyer Beware

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As the recent college admissions scandal is shedding light on how parents are cheating and bribing their children's way into college, schools are also focusing on how some students may be cheating their way through college. Concern is growing about a burgeoning online market that makes it easier than ever for students to buy essays written by others to turn in as their own work. And schools are trying new tools to catch it.

It's not hard to understand the temptation for students. The pressure is enormous, the stakes are high and, for some, writing at a college level is a huge leap.

"We didn't really have a format to follow, so I was kind of lost on what to do," says one college freshman, who struggled recently with an English assignment. One night, when she was feeling particularly overwhelmed, she tweeted her frustration.

"It was like, 'Someone, please help me write my essay!' " she recalls. She ended her tweet with a crying emoji. Within a few minutes, she had a half-dozen offers of help.

"I can write it for you," they tweeted back. "Send us the prompt!"

The student, who asked that her name not be used for fear of repercussions at school, chose one that asked for $10 per page, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"For me, it was just that the work was piling up," she explains. "As soon as I finish some big assignment, I get assigned more things, more homework for math, more homework for English. Some papers have to be six or 10 pages long. ... And even though I do my best to manage, the deadlines come closer and closer, and it's just ... the pressure."

In the cat-and-mouse game of academic cheating, students these days know that if they plagiarize, they're likely to get caught by computer programs that automatically compare essays against a massive database of other writings. So now, buying an original essay can seem like a good workaround.

"Technically, I don't think it's cheating," the student says. "Because you're paying someone to write an essay, which they don't plagiarize, and they write everything on their own."

Her logic, of course, ignores the question of whether she's plagiarizing. When pressed, she begins to stammer.

"That's just a difficult question to answer," she says. "I don't know how to feel about that. It's kind of like a gray area. It's maybe on the edge, kind of?"

Besides she adds, she probably won't use all of it.

Other students justify essay buying as the only way to keep up. They figure that everyone is doing it one way or another — whether they're purchasing help online or getting it from family or friends.

"Oh yeah, collaboration at its finest," cracks Boston University freshman Grace Saathoff. While she says she would never do it herself, she's not really fazed by others doing it. She agrees with her friends that it has pretty much become socially acceptable.

"I have a friend who writes essays and sells them," says Danielle Delafuente, another Boston University freshman. "And my other friend buys them. He's just like, 'I can't handle it. I have five papers at once. I need her to do two of them, and I'll do the other three.' It's a time management thing."

The war on contract cheating

"It breaks my heart that this is where we're at," sighs Ashley Finley, senior adviser to the president for the Association of American Colleges and Universities. She says campuses are abuzz about how to curb the rise in what they call contract cheating. Obviously, students buying essays is not new, but Finley says that what used to be mostly limited to small-scale side hustles has mushroomed on the internet to become a global industry of so-called essay mills. Hard numbers are difficult to come by, but research suggests that up to 16 percent of students have paid someone to do their work and that the number is rising.

"Definitely, this is really getting more and more serious," Finley says. "It's part of the brave new world for sure."

The essay mills market aggressively online, with slickly produced videos inviting students to "Get instant help with your assignment" and imploring them: "Don't lag behind," "Join the majority" and "Don't worry, be happy."

"They're very crafty," says Tricia Bertram Gallant, director of the Academic Integrity Office at the University of California in San Diego and a board member of the International Center for Academic Integrity.

The companies are equally brazen offline — leafleting on campuses, posting flyers in toilet stalls and flying banners over Florida beaches during spring break. Companies have also been known to bait students with emails that look like they're from official college help centers. And they pay social media influencers to sing the praises of their services, and they post testimonials from people they say are happy customers.

"I hired a service to write my paper and I got a 90 on it!" gloats one. "Save your time, and have extra time to party!" advises another.

"It's very much a seduction," says Bertram Gallant. "So you can maybe see why students could get drawn into the contract cheating world."

YouTube has been cracking down on essay mills; it says it has pulled thousands of videos that violate its policies against promoting dishonest behavior.

But new videos constantly pop up, and their hard sell flies in the face of their small-print warnings that their essays should be used only as a guide, not a final product.

Several essay mills declined or didn't respond to requests to be interviewed by NPR. But one answered questions by email and offered up one of its writers to explain her role in the company, called EduBirdie.

"Yes, just like the little birdie that's there to help you in your education," explains April Short, a former grade school teacher from Australia who's now based in Philadelphia. She has been writing for a year and a half for the company, which bills itself as a "professional essay writing service for students who can't even."

Some students just want some "foundational research" to get started or a little "polish" to finish up, Short says. But the idea that many others may be taking a paper written completely by her and turning it in as their own doesn't keep her up at night.

"These kids are so time poor," she says, and they're "missing out on opportunities of travel and internships because they're studying and writing papers." Relieving students of some of that burden, she figures, allows them to become more "well-rounded."

"I don't necessarily think that being able to create an essay is going to be a defining factor in a very long career, so it's not something that bothers me," says Short. Indeed, she thinks students who hire writers are demonstrating resourcefulness and creativity. "I actually applaud students that look for options to get the job done and get it done well," she says.

"This just shows you the extent of our ability to rationalize all kinds of bad things we do," sighs Dan Ariely, professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University. The rise in contract cheating is especially worrisome, he says, because when it comes to dishonest behavior, more begets more. As he puts it, it's not just about "a few bad apples."

"Instead, what we have is a lot ... of blemished apples, and we take our cues for our behavior from the social world around us," he says. "We know officially what is right and what's wrong. But really what's driving our behavior is what we see others around us doing" or, Ariely adds, what we perceive them to be doing. So even the proliferation of advertising for essays mills can have a pernicious effect, he says, by fueling the perception that "everyone's doing it."

A few nations have recently proposed or passed laws outlawing essay mills, and more than a dozen U.S. states have laws on the books against them. But prosecuting essay mills, which are often based overseas in Pakistan, Kenya and Ukraine, for example, is complicated. And most educators are loath to criminalize students' behavior.

"Yes, they're serious mistakes. They're egregious mistakes," says Cath Ellis, an associate dean and integrity officer at the University of New South Wales, where students were among the hundreds alleged to have bought essays in a massive scandal in Australia in 2014.

"But we're educational institutions," she adds. "We've got to give students the opportunity to learn from these mistakes. That's our responsibility. And that's better in our hands than in the hands of the police and the courts."

Staying one step ahead

In the war on contract cheating, some schools see new technology as their best weapon and their best shot to stay one step ahead of unscrupulous students. The company that makes the Turnitin plagiarism detection software has just upped its game with a new program called Authorship Investigate.

The software first inspects a document's metadata, like when it was created, by whom it was created and how many times it was reopened and re-edited. Turnitin's vice president for product management, Bill Loller, says sometimes it's as simple as looking at the document's name. Essay mills typically name their documents something like "Order Number 123," and students have been known to actually submit it that way. "You would be amazed at how frequently that happens," says Loller.

Using cutting-edge linguistic forensics, the software also evaluates the level of writing and its style.

"Think of it as a writing fingerprint," Loller says. The software looks at hundreds of telltale characteristics of an essay, like whether the author double spaces after a period or writes with Oxford commas or semicolons. It all gets instantly compared against a student's other work, and, Loller says, suspicions can be confirmed — or alleviated — in minutes.

"At the end of the day, you get to a really good determination on whether the student wrote what they submitted or not," he says, "and you get it really quickly."

Coventry University in the U.K. has been testing out a beta version of the software, and Irene Glendinning, the school's academic manager for student experience, agrees that the software has the potential to give schools a leg up on cheating students. After the software is officially adopted, "we'll see a spike in the number of cases we find, and we'll have a very hard few years," she says. "But then the message will get through to students that we've got the tools now to find these things out." Then, Glendinning hopes, students might consider contract cheating to be as risky as plagiarizing.

In the meantime, schools are trying to spread the word that buying essays is risky in other ways as well.

Professor Ariely says that when he posed as a student and ordered papers from several companies, much of it was "gibberish" and about a third of it was actually plagiarized.

Even worse, when he complained to the company and demanded his money back, they resorted to blackmail. Still believing him to be a student, the company threatened to tell his school he was cheating. Others say companies have also attempted to shake down students for more money, threatening to rat them out if they didn't pay up.

The lesson, Ariely says, is "buyer beware."

But ultimately, experts say, many desperate students may not be deterred by the risks — whether from shady businesses or from new technology.

Bertram Gallant, of UC San Diego, says the right way to dissuade students from buying essays is to remind them why it's wrong.

"If we engage in a technological arms race with the students, we won't win," she says. "What are we going to do when Google glasses start to look like regular glasses and a student wears them into an exam? Are we going to tell them they can't wear their glasses because we're afraid they might be sending the exam out to someone else who is sending them back the answers?"

The solution, Bertram Gallant says, has to be about "creating a culture where integrity and ethics matter" and where education is valued more than grades. Only then will students believe that cheating on essays is only cheating themselves.

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Know What You Don't Know

Nine Things You Should Already Know About PLAGIARISM

Plus . . . Six Excuses That Don't Work

And . . . Three Things You Don't Need To Worry About

An informational tool brought to you by the Office of the Provost, the Office of Academic Integrity Programs, and the Integrity Council, with special thanks to the First-Year Composition Program, Department of English.

If you are reading this, it is probably because you are interested in avoiding the number one kind of academic misconduct reported at the University of Oklahoma: plagiarism. Reading the material below and completing the accompanying quiz will help ensure that you know what plagiarism is, why it is unacceptable, and how you can avoid it.

The concept of plagiarism may seem vague or complicated. Perhaps you have heard it discussed in vague or complicated ways, or perhaps you have never heard it discussed it at all. The basics are very simple -- as long as you stay focused on what writing really is, and what written assignments in college are for.

Some of the material in the following lessons may seem extremely simple. If so, a quick review can't hurt. Some of the material may seem naive or unrealistic -- for example, the idea that college is above all an opportunity to "learn and grow." There are plenty of reasons for universities and students to consider plagiarism unacceptable on less idealistic grounds as well. The approach taken here is not the only one, but it is probably the shortest and simplest.

Once you have read through the material, you can take a quiz to show your mastery of all the material. The quiz is available at https://static.lib.ou.edu/academicintegrity/player.html . Once you pass the quiz, you will be able to print off a certificate of completion.

Nine Things You Should Already Know... page 1

Nine Things You Should Already Know About Plagiarism

1. What is the point of writing assignments?

The point of any writing assignment is to improve your understanding of a particular topic or problem, to help you express your understanding in writing, and to let the professor evaluate how well you can understand and write. As with any academic assignment, the important part of a writing assignment is not the paper itself or the grade you get, but the opportunity to learn and grow.

2. What is academic misconduct?

Academic misconduct is cheating. More precisely, it is any action that a student knows (or should know) will lead to the improper evaluation of academic work. If the professor does not detect it, academic misconduct defeats the purpose of academic work because you are pretending to know more or write better than you actually do.

3. What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is a form of academic misconduct in which you represent someone else's words or ideas as your own. The basic expectation in every class is that whatever you write will be your own words , generated from your own understanding . Therefore it is acceptable to incorporate someone else's words in your paper only if you clearly indicate the words are someone else's. (It is also possible to plagiarize other forms of expression -- someone else's computer code, mathematical expressions, technical designs, artistic works, etc. Here we are concentrating on plagiarism of words.)

Nine Things You Should Already Know... page 2

The important part of a writing assignment is the opportunity to learn and grow.

4. What's wrong with plagiarism?

First, plagiarism defeats the purpose of writing assignments . When you substitute someone else's understanding or expression for your own, you avoid the work of using and improving your own expressive ability. Therefore, plagiarism also defeats the university's goal of teaching students to write, not just copy.

Second, plagiarism is a form of lying , because the professor is expecting to read your words, not someone else's. Plagiarism destroys the mutual respect that should exist between professor and student. Many professors take plagiarism very personally. If you have ever taken your time to teach someone something you consider valuable and then found that your time was wasted, you will understand the feeling.

Third, plagiarism defeats the purpose of scholarship. Thus it is unacceptable from all scholars, not just students. The goal of scholarship is to discover, understand, and create. That purpose is defeated when old knowledge is fraudulently presented as original and new. For the same reason plagiarism is also unacceptable in many nonacademic professional fields such as journalism and creative writing.

Exceptions in certain fields do not extend to students. There are certainly some times in industry and the professions where originality and authorship are not important and it is appropriate to take other people's words without citing them. (For example, an executive might copy text for a business plan without being expected to cite the source, or a lawyer might copy language from one contract to another.) However, even if you are training for such a profession, you are a student who is still learning the craft. Whatever the conventions are in the "real world" of employment, in the real world of teaching and learning you are expected to do your own writing and avoid plagiarism no matter what class you are in.

Sometimes plagiarism is described as a form of stealing or copyright infringement . It can be. However, it is always unacceptable to plagiarize, even if the author of the work says you can use it.

5. How do I avoid plagiarism?

Nine Things You Should Already Know... page 3

Plagiarism defeats the University's goal of teaching students to write, not just copy .

There are three things you need to do to avoid plagiarism: Think, Write, and Signal . "Putting in the references" is only one-third of the job.

Think . Think about your paper topic and the research you have done. Make sure you have actually thought about everything in your paper well enough to explain it in your own words. Make sure you start the assignment soon enough to think and understand, not just research and type.

Write . Generate your own words to express your own understanding. If you cannot get started, or if you think your words are just too clumsy or inadequate, get help from your professor or the Writing Center. Other people's words should always be a supplement, not a substitute, for your own writing.

Signal . Clearly signal whenever you are using someone else's words, whether you are using them by direct quotation or paraphrase. Any direct quotation must be indicated by two things: "quotation marks" (or else "block quotation") plus a "reference" (also called a "citation") to the source. A reference alone is not sufficient to signal a direct quotation. In addition, when you are writing your own words you will naturally tend to signal a quotation with an indication in your paper, in your own words, about where the quotation comes from and why you included it -- perhaps because it is well-known, or was written by an expert, or even that it expresses an idea that is particularly mistaken or silly.

6. How do quotation marks, block quotations, and references work?

Quotation marks are a form of punctuation used to indicate that words were said or written by someone else. Unless you are writing in a foreign language, a quotation mark looks like this: " Put one quotation mark at the beginning of the quotation and another one at the end. Quotation marks are usually used with quotations no longer than 20 or 25 words.

Nine Things You Should Already Know... page 4

Avoiding plagiarism: Think. Write. Signal.

A block quotation separates a quotation from the rest of the text by beginning a new line for the quotation, indenting it, then indenting each additional line of the quotation in the same way. "Indenting" means making the line of text farther from the left-hand edge of the paper, usually one inch farther than the rest of the text. Block indentation is usually used with quotations longer than 20 or 25 words. Some systems of citation also require single-spacing and indenting both margins of any block quotation, so be sure to check the appropriate style for your paper.

A "reference" or "citation" tells the reader where quoted material comes from. The most common reference forms are text references, footnotes, and endnotes. Which form you should use depends on what class your paper is for. Text references provide source information within the body of the text, usually in parentheses. Footnotes and endnotes consist of a signal in the text, usually a numeral, that is inserted right after the quotation or paraphrase then is reproduced, along with information about the source, either at the bottom of the page (footnote) or at the end of the paper (endnote). All three kinds of references may be accompanied by an extra page at the end of the paper, usually entitled "Bibliography" or "Works Cited" that lists all of the paper's sources in alphabetical order. Merely including the source in your bibliography is totally insufficient to indicate that a passage quoted from that source is not your own writing.

Your professor may or may not care which citation system you use. For the purpose of avoiding plagiarism, it doesn't matter, as long as you clearly indicate where every quotation and paraphrase comes from.

7. What is "paraphrase"?

Paraphrase is repeating in your own words the thought expressed in someone else's words . Paraphrase ranges from a very loose rewording of the text's basic idea (okay) to a nearly-identical version of the words or sentence structure of the original text (not okay). This spectrum means there is no sharp boundary between appropriate and inappropriate paraphrase. Basically, paraphrase is inappropriate where a reasonable person would say that you have stopped thinking and writing in your own words and are simply restating someone else's thoughts without admitting it.

Most commonly, students get in trouble by writing words that stay too close to the original for too long with no signal but a reference to indicate the source. Here are three tips to avoid those problems:

Nine Things You Should Already Know... page 5

Don't stop thinking. Understand your source well enough to explain its meaning in your own words. Never paraphrase by copying someone else's words into your paper and then changing them around.

Keep paraphrase as short as possible . If your paraphrase goes over a sentence or two, you've probably stopped writing your own words.

Signal your source in the text , not just with a reference. If you are in a conversation and think someone else's words are important enough to repeat, you ordinarily explain who said it. Similarly, if a source is important enough to paraphrase, it is important enough to mention in your text, not just in a footnote.

8. What are the most common kinds of plagiarism?

At OU there are three common kinds of plagiarism: whole-paper, cut- and-paste, and cut-and-paste with references.

Whole-paper plagiarism . In this form of plagiarism, all or most of the student's paper is lifted from another student or a published source, for example the Internet, a book, or a print article. It is especially bad to buy a paper from any source that offers ready-made term papers. Students who have engaged in this form of plagiarism in the past have been expelled from the University.

Cut-and-paste plagiarism . In this form of plagiarism, parts of a paper ranging from phrases and sentences to entire paragraphs are taken from the Internet or somewhere else and incorporated into the student's paper with no signal that they are not the student's own expression.

Cut-and-paste plagiarism with references . In this form of plagiarism, words or ideas in a paper are included from another source, a reference to the source is included, but there is no quotation signal. Again, the problem is that a reference indicates only that the accompanying text is somehow derived from or related to the cited source. A reference alone does not show that the text is a direct quotation from that source. Thus a reference alone

Nine Things You Should Already Know... page 6

Never paraphrase by copying someone else's words into your paper and then changing them around.

does not suspend the professor's expectation that the words are your own words. A direct quotation with a reference but without quotation marks is plagiarism.

9. What are the penalties for plagiarism?

At OU, acts of plagiarism can receive institutional penalties ranging from a letter of reprimand to required coursework to expulsion. All academic misconduct offenses also receive grade penalties determined by the instructor. Grade penalties are not restricted to the value of the assignment and may be up to an F in the course . Juniors and seniors who plagiarize any significant portion of a paper should expect at least a suspension for a spring or fall semester. Under the right circumstances even freshmen and sophomores may also receive suspensions or even be expelled for plagiarism.

Six Excuses That Don't Work

"But I didn't mean to plagiarize!"

"I didn't mean to" is the most common excuse to a charge of plagiarism. The test in an academic misconduct case is whether the student knew or should have known that his or her actions amounted to misconduct. Whether or not you learned them in high school, whether or not you took freshman English, whether or not you ever heard a teacher mention them, as an OU student you are expected to know the basic rules of academic integrity. If those basic rules get broken, you are guilty of academic misconduct.

"But I just forgot to go back and add the references!"

Another frequently-heard excuse is that the student included material from another source and then either "just forgot to add the references" or else put them in but "accidentally turned in the wrong draft." Unless the plagiarism is truly minor, the student would still be in trouble even if such excuses are true. Cut-and-paste papers usually contain lots of directly-quoted material that substitutes for the student's own writing, appears without

Nine Things You Should Already Know... page 7

"I didn't mean to" is the most common excuse to a charge of plagiarism.

quotation marks, and lacks any textual indication that the material is quoted. In such cases, the quoted text substitutes for the student's own writing. Merely "adding the footnotes" never cures plagiarism if words have been directly quoted. Curing the plagiarism with footnotes and quotation marks often reveals that the student did a lot of copying but very little actual thinking or writing. Really curing plagiarism means starting from the beginning: thinking and writing first, quoting and signaling as appropriate. Stringing together words downloaded or copied from elsewhere has nothing to do with true writing and is never, ever a good way

to write even a first draft.

"I just wasn't careful enough to make the writing my own words!"

Sometimes students "write" a paper not by generating words from their own understanding, but by copying text, then changing a few words so the passage is no longer an exact quotation. This approach is a form of improper paraphrase. It defeats the purpose of the writing assignment, which is to form a real understanding and then express it in one's own words. If the words and structure of the original are changed enough, the end result of the copy-then-change approach may be different enough from the source that it finally becomes your "own," sort of. Usually, that requires far more work than just writing your own words in the first place. Far more often, the work is only superficially different and the result is a charge of plagiarism. Never paraphrase by copying someone else's words into your paper and then changing them around.

"But I'm presenting facts, not ideas."

Sometimes students think they only need to use their own words for ideas, not facts. Even when it's possible to tell the difference between the two (and it's usually not) the fact-idea distinction is irrelevant. Except for clearly-signaled quotations, every bit of any writing exercise needs to reflect the student's own expression of the student's own understanding. Sometimes it may seem that there is only one way to express some things -- highly technical lab procedures, for instance. Don't worry too much about this: once you have understood it, put the original source away and rely only on your own understanding when you write your own words. When you write from your own understanding, you will express yourself uniquely enough to avoid plagiarism.

Nine Things You Should Already Know... page 8

"But this writer said it so much better than I can."

Maybe so, but students who only copy will never learn to say anything very well. This excuse points to another possible problem. In order to write from your own understanding, you must give your understanding a chance to operate. If you limit your research to one source, you might truly start to think there is only one thing to say on a topic, and it has already been said. The cure for that is more research, and more thinking too.

"But plagiarism only applies to term papers or English classes."

All writing for any class is presumed to be the student's own expression of the student's own understanding. Even in open-book, open- note exams, even in highly technical courses, even when the professor says he or she "isn't particular" or "doesn't care" about references, it is always plagiarism to present copied words as the expression of your own understanding. It is still plagiarism if you copy from a source like the class textbook or the professor's website. And although it's not plagiarism if you signal those words appropriately, you should be aware that there is almost no assignment at the college level that can be appropriately completed just by copying large amounts of text.

And finally...

Nine Things You Should Already Know... page 9

Using other people's work means understanding it well enough to use it in your own thought and explain it in your own words.

Three Things You Don't Need To Worry About

" How can I ever do research for my paper if it's wrong to use other people's words and ideas? "

It's not wrong to use other people's words and ideas. It's wrong to present them as your own. Using other people's work without simply copying it means you have to understand it well enough to explain it in your own words and use it in your own thought.

"How can I ever be sure my paper doesn't include some phrase I forgot I read somewhere?"

The "your own words" requirement doesn't mean you have to make up a language. Some English phrases are very common and will obviously show up in the writing of many different people. Plagiarism only arises when a string of words or thoughts is long enough that individual variations in expression are likely to occur. Most people are unable to remember enough consecutive words from another source to make unintentional quotation a real problem.

"What if someone else had an idea first and I don't know about it? "

The "your own understanding" requirement doesn't mean you have to discover ideas no one else has ever had. It doesn't mean you have to give a reference for ideas or facts that everyone is aware of. It doesn't mean you are in trouble if a similar idea was expressed in a book you haven't read. A problem arises only when the idea is so unusual, or your expression of the idea comes so close to its expression in the other text, that reasonable people would think you probably copied it. Is it possible that could happen by accident? Despite the theoretical possibility of such a coincidence, there is no record at OU that it has ever happened.

Nine Things You Should Already Know... page 10

Millions of students are buying 'plagiarism-free' essays for as little as $13 — and it's nearly impossible for teachers to prove

• An estimated one in six students is buying school assignments from "essay mills" that claim to offer original, "plagiarism-free" essays, term papers, dissertations, and more for payments of as little as $13 per page.
• "We write your papers, you get top grades!" Extra Essay advertises on its website.

Lawmakers in the US and globally have recently started cracking down on contract-cheating services as their usage has proliferated.

• "There's a whole economy around this. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent on contract cheating," Bill Loller, the vice president of product management for the cheating-detection service Turnitin, said.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Millions of students are paying companies to complete their school work in a widespread epidemic known as contract cheating that has a potentially far greater reach than the recent US college-admissions scandal .

The companies that provide work for purchase are widely referred to as "essay mills." They claim to offer original, "plagiarism-free" essays, term papers, dissertations, speeches, and other assignments for payments of as little as $13 per page.

"We write your papers, you get top grades!" one of the companies, Extra Essay, advertises on its website.

Pay for Essay's website says: " No one will find out about you using our service. The whole world will think you write all assignments by yourself!"

The rise of contract cheating is a growing global phenomenon, with research suggesting that as many as one in six students — or an estimated 31 million — has engaged in the practice.

And it's more difficult to detect than plagiarism, which has become relatively easy to identify through the use of software programs such as Turnitin.

"There's a whole economy around this," said Bill Loller, the vice president of product management for Turnitin, which provides cheating-detection services to more than 18,000 institutions globally. "Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent on contract cheating."

Ads for the services are showing up where students spend a lot of time: on YouTube , WhatsApp , LinkedIn, and other social-media and messaging apps. 

Some services offer to match customers' writing style, in an implicit — and sometimes explicit — promise to avoid detection.

"We offer the option to live chat with the chosen author who will make sure to take care of all your individual needs," Essay Service says on its website. "Now you can work directly with the paper writer to make sure that every given requirement is fulfilled while also mimicking your personal writing style!"

Related stories

Costs range from under $20 for a single-page assignment to hundreds of dollars for longer assignments due on short deadlines. 

BuyEssays.net, for example, charges $13 per page for an assignment with a two-week deadline, or $39 per page for an assignment due in four hours.  

New Zealand and several US states have implemented laws banning them. Similar legislation is being considered in Australia and Ireland.

University leaders in the UK last year urged the education secretary to make essay mills illegal, and the UK Advertising Standards Authority ruled in January that Oxbridge Essays, which says it has sold more than 70,000 essays, posted misleading claims on its website that its services are risk-free for students.

Detection is difficult, but proving cheating is harder

It's harder for teachers to detect contract cheating than other forms of cheating, such as plagiarism.

So Turnitin has updated its software to help identify signs that students purchased their assignments. 

The software detects inconsistencies in students' writing, such as the sudden appearance of Oxford commas or double spaces after periods in cases where students had previously used single spaces.

The software also analyzes the education level of the writing — from high-school level to the postgraduate one — and reads documents' metadata, which can reveal clues about unusual editing activity.

Loller said this is an effective strategy for identifying problematic essays. But there's a much bigger problem than detection, which is proving that a student actually cheated.

"There's all these little clues that point to contract cheating," Loller said. "But actually taking that to a conclusion and saying in some kind of quasi-judicial process that 'Hey, you cheated. And we know it.' That's very hard to do."

So, in some ways, contract cheating carries little risk. And if left unchecked, it could put the millions of students who complete their own schoolwork at a disadvantage.

Watch: Almost 80% of the textbook industry is dominated by 5 publishing companies that make books so expensive most students skip buying them

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Risks Associated with Buying Essays Online: And How to Avoid Them

buying essays online risks

Buying essays online refers to paying for pre-written academic papers and submitting them as one’s original work. However, it is now a growing trend among students seeking to ease their academic workload or improve their grades.

While it may offer short-term benefits, students need to be aware of the significant risks associated with this practice. 

Even so, these risks include plagiarism, poor quality work, and the possibility of being scammed by fraudulent websites. It is vital l to address these risks and find ways to avoid them, as they can have severe consequences, such as academic penalties, legal issues, and damage to one’s reputation.

In this article, I will examine the risks associated with buying essays online and provide tips on avoiding them.

 Risks of Buying Essays Online  

1. Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty

When students buy essays from online sources, there is a risk that the work may have been copied or stolen from another source.

Such can lead to serious consequences, including failing grades, academic probation, or even expulsion.

Most importantly, students should avoid these risks, such as working with reputable writing services or taking the time to research and write their essays.

2. Poor Quality and Lack of Originality

When buying essays online, students face a risk of receiving poor-quality work that lacks originality. Also, some online services may not have qualified writers, leading to poorly researched, poorly written essays and lacking originality. 

Beyond that, this can result in a lower grade or even rejection of the essay and, ultimately, a waste of time and cash for the student. Perform thorough research and vet any online essay writing service before purchasing to ensure the quality and originality of the work.

3. Legal and Ethical Concerns

Buying essays online can raise legal and ethical concerns, especially if the content is copied from copyrighted sources or the student submits the essay as their own work. Such careless acts could lead to academic penalties, legal action, and damage to the student’s reputation. 

Additionally, some essay writing services may not be transparent about their business practices, further complicating the ethical considerations of buying essays online. Students need to be aware of the legal and ethical implications of using such services before making any purchase decisions.

4. Compromised Privacy and Data Security

When purchasing essays online, there is a risk that the privacy and security of personal information could be compromised.

Notably, some websites may not have secure payment methods or protect user data adequately, leaving individuals vulnerable to cyberattacks, fraud, or identity theft. 

Additionally, if a student is caught purchasing essays, it could negatively impact their academic reputation and future career prospects.

Therefore, it is essential to ensure that any website chosen for purchasing essays has proper security protocols, such as SSL encryption and two-factor authentication, to safeguard sensitive information.

5. Financial Risks

Scammers may demand high payments upfront, promise top-quality papers, and fail to deliver.

Also, some may even steal sensitive financial information from unsuspecting customers, leading to identity theft and other financial crimes. 

Plus, students caught buying essays may face fines or other financial penalties and harm to their academic and professional reputations.

Therefore, exercising caution and carefully researching any online writing service is vital before making a financial commitment.

6. Reputation Damage

Buying essays online can also pose a risk to one’s reputation, especially if the purchased essay is discovered to be plagiarized or of poor quality. More importantly, this can result in negative consequences, such as failing grades or even suspension or expulsion. 

Employers and graduate schools often look into applicants’ academic records, and a history of academic dishonesty can harm one’s chances of being accepted for a job or further education.

Consequences for Personal Growth and Learning

• Inhibits academic and intellectual growth : By purchasing essays, students miss out on the opportunity to nurture critical thinking and writing skills necessary for academic and personal growth. They become dependent on the work of others and fail to develop essential skills.
• Hinders character development : Purchasing essays online promotes cheating and academic dishonesty, which can negatively affect a student’s character. It can erode their moral and ethical values and diminish their integrity and self-respect.

Ways to Mitigate Risks 

Conducting thorough research.

It is important to conduct thorough research to mitigate the risks associated with buying essays online. Such actions include:

• Looking for reliable and reputable essay writing services.
• Reading reviews and feedback from other customers.
• Checking the writers’ credentials.

This can help ensure that the essay purchased is high-quality and original.

Choosing Reputable Sources

You can choose reputable and trusted sources by researching and selecting websites or companies that have a proven track record of providing high-quality and original content.

Choosing reputable sources can help ensure that the essay you purchase is legitimate and meets your academic standards.

Verifying the Credentials of Writers

You can verify writers’ credentials by checking their educational background, experience, and qualifications to ensure they can produce quality work.

Also, choose reputable websites with a rigorous screening process for their writers. The intention is to minimize the risk of receiving poor-quality work or falling victim to scams.

Reviewing Samples and Testimonials

Reviewing samples and testimonials of the writing service or writer can give an idea of the quality and originality of their work. 

Ensuring that the samples and testimonials are legitimate and not fabricated is important. Additionally, it can be helpful to seek recommendations from trusted sources, such as peers or academic advisors.

Using Plagiarism Detection Tools

Using plagiarism detection tools helps check the paper’s originality and authenticity before submission. Some of the popular plagiarism checkers include Turnitin, Grammarly, and Copyscape.

They analyze the content and compare it against a database of other academic papers, online sources, and publications to detect any signs of plagiarism or unoriginal content.

Clarifying Terms and Conditions

Carefully review the terms and conditions of the website or service provider. Such measures help you understand their policies on plagiarism, refunds, and revisions.

Even so, clarify any questions or concerns before placing an order. This can help ensure that you are fully aware of the risks and responsibilities involved in the process.

Protecting Personal Information

Choosing a reliable and trustworthy service provider to protect personal information is important. Carefully read the privacy policy and terms of service to ensure that the provider has appropriate data protection measures. 

Using a pseudonym or a separate email address can further protect personal information. It is also advisable to avoid sharing sensitive information such as credit card details unless necessary and verified to be secure.

Avoiding Pre-Written Essays

It is best to avoid pre-written essays and opt for custom-written ones to avoid the risk of plagiarism and poor quality. Custom-written essays are specifically tailored to your needs and requirements, reducing the risk of getting caught for academic dishonesty. 

Custom-written essays are often of higher quality and contain original content. While pre-written essays may seem like a quick and easy solution, they can be risky and negatively affect your academic career.

Seeking Feedback and Revisions

Seek feedback and revisions to ensure that the work meets the required standards. Better yet, this will help to identify any errors or issues with the paper and ensure that the writer delivers the necessary changes to make it satisfactory.

Reputable writing services will often offer free revisions as part of their service, so it is crucial to choose a reliable source.

Conclusion 

It is crucial to be aware of the risks associated with buying essays online and to take steps to mitigate them.

Making informed decisions by conducting thorough research, verifying credentials and using plagiarism detection tools can help prevent academic dishonesty and plagiarism.

Uphold academic integrity by avoiding pre-written essays and seeking feedback and revisions. By taking these measures, students can ensure they receive quality work and avoid the potential consequences of plagiarism and compromised privacy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can i get caught buying essays online.

Yes, it is possible to get caught buying essays online. Many academic institutions use plagiarism detection software to identify academic dishonesty leading to serious consequences.

Is it legal to buy essays online?

It is not illegal to buy essays online; however, it is generally discouraged by educational institutions as it is considered a form of academic dishonesty.

How can I protect my personal information when buying essays online?

Using a reputable and secure website, you can protect your personal information when buying essays online. Also, avoid sharing sensitive information, using a VPN, and checking the website’s privacy policy and terms of service before purchasing.

Can I request revisions for purchased essays?

Most reputable essay writing services offer free revisions to ensure customer satisfaction. Also, reviewing the company’s revision policy before placing an order is important to understand the time frame and any limitations or conditions for requesting revisions.

Are there any alternatives to buying essays online?

Yes, there are several alternatives to buying essays online, including seeking help from tutors, professors, or peers; utilizing writing centers or workshops; and improving one’s writing skills through practice and self-study.

Prioritize academic integrity and avoid plagiarism, which can have severe consequences.

Josh Jasen or JJ as we fondly call him, is a senior academic editor at Grade Bees in charge of the writing department. When not managing complex essays and academic writing tasks, Josh is busy advising students on how to pass assignments. In his spare time, he loves playing football or walking with his dog around the park.

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Articles & Advice > Majors and Academics > Articles

Plagiarism: What It Is and How to Avoid It on Assignments

Plagiarizing can hurt you now and way into the future. But do you know what really counts as plagiarism? Hint: it's way more than copying someone else's essay.

by Jon Frank CEO, Admissionado

Last Updated: Jan 25, 2024

Originally Posted: May 13, 2016

Plagiarism: You know it’s bad. You know if you do it, you’ll get into trouble. So, you know not to go online, find an essay someone else wrote, and submit it as your own. That’s obviously plagiarism, after all. But there are a lot of other things that count as plagiarism too, things that aren’t quite as obvious—but can get you into just as much trouble. And that’s why we’re here! To make sure you are 100% clear on what counts as plagiarism so you can stay on the right side of the law in your high school work, your college applications, and the work you do once you get into college.

What counts as plagiarism?

First things first:  what is plagiarism?  The easy answer is that plagiarism is using someone else’s work and saying it’s your work. More importantly, plagiarism is cheating, and schools do  not  tolerate it. If you’re caught plagiarizing, you could fail a class, be put on academic probation, get suspended from school, or expelled entirely. (And if you’re caught plagiarizing on your college applications, well, you’ll just never get accepted to the school, simple as that.)

Lying about doing the work yourself

The biggest and worst form of plagiarism is just straight-out lying about the work you turn in. If your English professor assigns an essay on The Great Gatsby and you find an essay online, copy it, and put your name on the top, that’s plagiarism. And it’s not only the worst form of plagiarism—it’s the dumbest form. First of all, teachers and even college TAs have a very good sense of your work, so when you turn in something that doesn’t sound like you , it’s going to raise suspicion. And as easy as it was for you to hop on Google and find that essay, it’s just as easy for your professor to do the same…and fail you. Second of all, many professors run every essay they receive through special plagiarism-detecting software—software that’s way better at finding plagiarism than you think. So it is not worth taking the risk. You will be caught. And fast.

Not properly citing your sources

A much more common and often unintentional form of plagiarism is not citing a quoted source. Let’s say you’re writing a paper about civil engineering and you look it up in the encyclopedia to get a definition. If you read the encyclopedia article and explain what you learned in your paper, that’s not plagiarism. Once you learn some general knowledge, like definitions and famous historical events and dates, you can just use that in your work. However! If you copy part of a sentence, a sentence, or a paragraph directly out of the article and put it in your paper—maybe because the original author just said it the simplest and best way possible—then you have to quote it and cite it. Even if you just paraphrase an idea without saying where it came from, that’s plagiarism. So any time you want to use someone else’s words or ideas, make sure you give credit to that person. Really, when in doubt, cite it out. In terms of how to cite something, different schools and different departments have different citations styles (MLA, APA, and Chicago styles, just to name a few), but your professor should make clear how to cite your work at the beginning of the semester, so make sure you know what they expect from you.

Related: 3 Myths About Plagiarism All Students Should Know About

Why you should never plagiarize

Okay, so now that you’re super clear on what plagiarism looks like, let’s dig a little bit deeper into why you should never, ever do it (no matter how tempting it can be). Of course, the first and most obvious reason is because you don’t want to fail the class or get in trouble. That’s easy. (And if it’s not, just think for a moment about what happens when you have to explain it to your parents. Are you convinced yet?) But even more, think about why you’re at school: you’re there to learn. And we don’t even mean this in a touchy-feely “learning is the best” way. We mean it in the most practical way possible. You need to learn so you can graduate, g et a job that makes you happy , and be successful for the rest of your life. If you just find someone else’s work and say it’s your own, you’re not actually learning anything. Coasting never works in the long run. When you finish school, that’s knowledge that you missed out on, stuff you needed to know for the real world. Sure, you won’t use everything you learn in high school and college, and you might save some time on an assignment by plagiarizing, but is it worth risking all that time and money and your reputation? No, it’s really not.

Related:  This Is What Happens When You Cheat in School

Plagiarism can be obvious, but it can also be subtle and easy to overlook. So be careful out there as a student trying to complete assignments quickly just to get it done. Plagiarism is a serious thing, and you want to make sure to avoid it at all costs so you don’t risk your future—and your degree upon graduation.

Still struggling with assignments that make plagiarizing seem appealing? Check out all the tips you could ever need with Our Best Advice for Homework, Studying, and Tests .

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A publication of the harvard college writing program.

Harvard Guide to Using Sources 

• The Honor Code
• What Constitutes Plagiarism?

In academic writing, it is considered plagiarism to draw any idea or any language from someone else without adequately crediting that source in your paper. It doesn't matter whether the source is a published author, another student, a website without clear authorship, a website that sells academic papers, or any other person: Taking credit for anyone else's work is stealing, and it is unacceptable in all academic situations, whether you do it intentionally or by accident.

The ease with which you can find information of all kinds online means that you need to be extra vigilant about keeping track of where you are getting information and ideas and about giving proper credit to the authors of the sources you use. If you cut and paste from an electronic document into your notes and forget to clearly label the document in your notes, or if you draw information from a series of websites without taking careful notes, you may end up taking credit for ideas that aren't yours, whether you mean to or not.

It's important to remember that every website is a document with an author, and therefore every website must be cited properly in your paper. For example, while it may seem obvious to you that an idea drawn from Professor Steven Pinker's book The Language Instinct should only appear in your paper if you include a clear citation, it might be less clear that information you glean about language acquisition from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy website warrants a similar citation. Even though the authorship of this encyclopedia entry is less obvious than it might be if it were a print article (you need to scroll down the page to see the author's name, and if you don't do so you might mistakenly think an author isn't listed), you are still responsible for citing this material correctly. Similarly, if you consult a website that has no clear authorship, you are still responsible for citing the website as a source for your paper. The kind of source you use, or the absence of an author linked to that source, does not change the fact that you always need to cite your sources (see Evaluating Web Sources ).

Verbatim Plagiarism

If you copy language word for word from another source and use that language in your paper, you are plagiarizing verbatim . Even if you write down your own ideas in your own words and place them around text that you've drawn directly from a source, you must give credit to the author of the source material, either by placing the source material in quotation marks and providing a clear citation, or by paraphrasing the source material and providing a clear citation.

The passage below comes from Ellora Derenoncourt’s article, “Can You Move to Opportunity? Evidence from the Great Migration.”

Here is the article citation in APA style:

Derenoncourt, E. (2022). Can you move to opportunity? Evidence from the Great Migration. The American Economic Review , 112(2), 369–408. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20200002

Source material

Why did urban Black populations in the North increase so dramatically between 1940 and 1970? After a period of reduced mobility during the Great Depression, Black out-migration from the South resumed at an accelerated pace after 1940. Wartime jobs in the defense industry and in naval shipyards led to substantial Black migration to California and other Pacific states for the first time since the Migration began. Migration continued apace to midwestern cities in the 1950s and1960s, as the booming automobile industry attracted millions more Black southerners to the North, particularly to cities like Detroit or Cleveland. Of the six million Black migrants who left the South during the Great Migration, four million of them migrated between 1940 and 1970 alone.

Plagiarized version

While this student has written her own sentence introducing the topic, she has copied the italicized sentences directly from the source material. She has left out two sentences from Derenoncourt’s paragraph, but has reproduced the rest verbatim:

But things changed mid-century. After a period of reduced mobility during the Great Depression, Black out-migration from the South resumed at an accelerated pace after 1940. Wartime jobs in the defense industry and in naval shipyards led to substantial Black migration to California and other Pacific states for the first time since the Migration began. Migration continued apace to midwestern cities in the 1950s and1960s, as the booming automobile industry attracted millions more Black southerners to the North, particularly to cities like Detroit or Cleveland.

Acceptable version #1: Paraphrase with citation

In this version the student has paraphrased Derenoncourt’s passage, making it clear that these ideas come from a source by introducing the section with a clear signal phrase ("as Derenoncourt explains…") and citing the publication date, as APA style requires.

But things changed mid-century. In fact, as Derenoncourt (2022) explains, the wartime increase in jobs in both defense and naval shipyards marked the first time during the Great Migration that Black southerners went to California and other west coast states. After the war, the increase in jobs in the car industry led to Black southerners choosing cities in the midwest, including Detroit and Cleveland.

Acceptable version #2 : Direct quotation with citation or direct quotation and paraphrase with citation

If you quote directly from an author and cite the quoted material, you are giving credit to the author. But you should keep in mind that quoting long passages of text is only the best option if the particular language used by the author is important to your paper. Social scientists and STEM scholars rarely quote in their writing, paraphrasing their sources instead. If you are writing in the humanities, you should make sure that you only quote directly when you think it is important for your readers to see the original language.

In the example below, the student quotes part of the passage and paraphrases the rest.

But things changed mid-century. In fact, as Derenoncourt (2022) explains, “after a period of reduced mobility during the Great Depression, Black out-migration from the South resumed at an accelerated pace after 1940” (p. 379). Derenoncourt notes that after the war, the increase in jobs in the car industry led to Black southerners choosing cities in the midwest, including Detroit and Cleveland.

Mosaic Plagiarism

If you copy bits and pieces from a source (or several sources), changing a few words here and there without either adequately paraphrasing or quoting directly, the result is mosaic plagiarism . Even if you don't intend to copy the source, you may end up with this type of plagiarism as a result of careless note-taking and confusion over where your source's ideas end and your own ideas begin. You may think that you've paraphrased sufficiently or quoted relevant passages, but if you haven't taken careful notes along the way, or if you've cut and pasted from your sources, you can lose track of the boundaries between your own ideas and those of your sources. It's not enough to have good intentions and to cite some of the material you use. You are responsible for making clear distinctions between your ideas and the ideas of the scholars who have informed your work. If you keep track of the ideas that come from your sources and have a clear understanding of how your own ideas differ from those ideas, and you follow the correct citation style, you will avoid mosaic plagiarism.

Indeed, of the more than 3500 hours of instruction during medical school, an average of less than 60 hours are devoted to all of bioethics, health law and health economics combined . Most of the instruction is during the preclinical courses, leaving very little instructional time when students are experiencing bioethical or legal challenges during their hands-on, clinical training. More than 60 percent of the instructors in bioethics, health law, and health economics have not published since 1990 on the topic they are teaching.

--Persad, G.C., Elder, L., Sedig,L., Flores, L., & Emanuel, E. (2008). The current state of medical school education in bioethics, health law, and health economics. Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics 36 , 89-94.

Students can absorb the educational messages in medical dramas when they view them for entertainment. In fact, even though they were not created specifically for education, these programs can be seen as an entertainment-education tool [43, 44]. In entertainment-education shows, viewers are exposed to educational content in entertainment contexts, using visual language that is easy to understand and triggers emotional engagement [45]. The enhanced emotional engagement and cognitive development [5] and moral imagination make students more sensitive to training [22].

--Cambra-Badii, I., Moyano, E., Ortega, I., Josep-E Baños, & Sentí, M. (2021). TV medical dramas: Health sciences students’ viewing habits and potential for teaching issues related to bioethics and professionalism. BMC Medical Education, 21 , 1-11. doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-021-02947-7

Paragraph #1.

All of the ideas in this paragraph after the first sentence are drawn directly from Persad. But because the student has placed the citation mid-paragraph, the final two sentences wrongly appear to be the student’s own idea:

In order to advocate for the use of medical television shows in the medical education system, it is also important to look at the current bioethical curriculum. In the more than 3500 hours of training that students undergo in medical school, only about 60 hours are focused on bioethics, health law, and health economics (Persad et al, 2008). It is also problematic that students receive this training before they actually have spent time treating patients in the clinical setting. Most of these hours are taught by instructors without current publications in the field.

Paragraph #2.

All of the italicized ideas in this paragraph are either paraphrased or taken verbatim from Cambra-Badii, et al., but the student does not cite the source at all. As a result, readers will assume that the student has come up with these ideas himself:

Students can absorb the educational messages in medical dramas when they view them for entertainment. It doesn’t matter if the shows were designed for medical students; they can still be a tool for education. In these hybrid entertainment-education shows, viewers are exposed to educational content that triggers an emotional reaction. By allowing for this emotional, cognitive, and moral engagement, the shows make students more sensitive to training . There may be further applications to this type of education: the role of entertainment as a way of encouraging students to consider ethical situations could be extended to other professions, including law or even education.

The student has come up with the final idea in the paragraph (that this type of ethical training could apply to other professions), but because nothing in the paragraph is cited, it reads as if it is part of a whole paragraph of his own ideas, rather than the point that he is building to after using the ideas from the article without crediting the authors.

Acceptable version

In the first paragraph, the student uses signal phrases in nearly every sentence to reference the authors (“According to Persad et al.,” “As the researchers argue,” “They also note”), which makes it clear throughout the paragraph that all of the paragraph’s information has been drawn from Persad et al. The student also uses a clear APA in-text citation to point the reader to the original article. In the second paragraph, the student paraphrases and cites the source’s ideas and creates a clear boundary behind those ideas and his own, which appear in the final paragraph.

In order to advocate for the use of medical television shows in the medical education system, it is also important to look at the current bioethical curriculum. According to Persad et al. (2008), only about one percent of teaching time throughout the four years of medical school is spent on ethics. As the researchers argue, this presents a problem because the students are being taught about ethical issues before they have a chance to experience those issues themselves. They also note that more than sixty percent of instructors teaching bioethics to medical students have no recent publications in the subject.

The research suggests that medical dramas may be a promising source for discussions of medical ethics. Cambra-Badii et al. (2021) explain that even when watched for entertainment, medical shows can help viewers engage emotionally with the characters and may prime them to be more receptive to training in medical ethics. There may be further applications to this type of education: the role of entertainment as a way of encouraging students to consider ethical situations could be extended to other professions, including law or even education.

Inadequate Paraphrase

When you paraphrase, your task is to distill the source's ideas in your own words. It's not enough to change a few words here and there and leave the rest; instead, you must completely restate the ideas in the passage in your own words. If your own language is too close to the original, then you are plagiarizing, even if you do provide a citation.

In order to make sure that you are using your own words, it's a good idea to put away the source material while you write your paraphrase of it. This way, you will force yourself to distill the point you think the author is making and articulate it in a new way. Once you have done this, you should look back at the original and make sure that you have represented the source’s ideas accurately and that you have not used the same words or sentence structure. If you do want to use some of the author's words for emphasis or clarity, you must put those words in quotation marks and provide a citation.

The passage below comes from Michael Sandel’s article, “The Case Against Perfection.” Here’s the article citation in MLA style:

Sandel, Michael. “The Case Against Perfection.” The Atlantic , April 2004, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/04/the-case-against-pe... .

Though there is much to be said for this argument, I do not think the main problem with enhancement and genetic engineering is that they undermine effort and erode human agency. The deeper danger is that they represent a kind of hyperagency—a Promethean aspiration to remake nature, including human nature, to serve our purposes and satisfy our desires. The problem is not the drift to mechanism but the drive to mastery. And what the drive to mastery misses and may even destroy is an appreciation of the gifted character of human powers and achievements.

The version below is an inadequate paraphrase because the student has only cut or replaced a few words: “I do not think the main problem” became “the main problem is not”; “deeper danger” became “bigger problem”; “aspiration” became “desire”; “the gifted character of human powers and achievements” became “the gifts that make our achievements possible.”

The main problem with enhancement and genetic engineering is not that they undermine effort and erode human agency. The bigger problem is that they represent a kind of hyperagency—a Promethean desire to remake nature, including human nature, to serve our purposes and satisfy our desires. The problem is not the drift to mechanism but the drive to mastery. And what the drive to mastery misses and may even destroy is an appreciation of the gifts that make our achievements possible (Sandel).

Acceptable version #1: Adequate paraphrase with citation

In this version, the student communicates Sandel’s ideas but does not borrow language from Sandel. Because the student uses Sandel’s name in the first sentence and has consulted an online version of the article without page numbers, there is no need for a parenthetical citation.

Michael Sandel disagrees with the argument that genetic engineering is a problem because it replaces the need for humans to work hard and make their own choices. Instead, he argues that we should be more concerned that the decision to use genetic enhancement is motivated by a desire to take control of nature and bend it to our will instead of appreciating its gifts.

Acceptable version #2: Direct quotation with citation

In this version, the student uses Sandel’s words in quotation marks and provides a clear MLA in-text citation. In cases where you are going to talk about the exact language that an author uses, it is acceptable to quote longer passages of text. If you are not going to discuss the exact language, you should paraphrase rather than quoting extensively.

The author argues that “the main problem with enhancement and genetic engineering is not that they undermine effort and erode human agency,” but, rather that “they represent a kind of hyperagency—a Promethean desire to remake nature, including human nature, to serve our purposes and satisfy our desires. The problem is not the drift to mechanism but the drive to mastery. And what the drive to mastery misses and may even destroy is an appreciation of the gifts that make our achievements possible” (Sandel).

Uncited Paraphrase

When you use your own language to describe someone else's idea, that idea still belongs to the author of the original material. Therefore, it's not enough to paraphrase the source material responsibly; you also need to cite the source, even if you have changed the wording significantly. As with quoting, when you paraphrase you are offering your reader a glimpse of someone else's work on your chosen topic, and you should also provide enough information for your reader to trace that work back to its original form. The rule of thumb here is simple: Whenever you use ideas that you did not think up yourself, you need to give credit to the source in which you found them, whether you quote directly from that material or provide a responsible paraphrase.

The passage below comes from C. Thi Nguyen’s article, “Echo Chambers and Epistemic Bubbles.”

Here’s the citation for the article, in APA style:

Nguyen, C. (2020). Echo chambers and epistemic bubbles. Episteme, 17 (2), 141-161. doi:10.1017/epi.2018.32

Epistemic bubbles can easily form accidentally. But the most plausible explanation for the particular features of echo chambers is something more malicious. Echo chambers are excellent tools to maintain, reinforce, and expand power through epistemic control. Thus, it is likely (though not necessary) that echo chambers are set up intentionally, or at least maintained, for this functionality (Nguyen, 2020).

The student who wrote the paraphrase below has drawn these ideas directly from Nguyen’s article but has not credited the author. Although she paraphrased adequately, she is still responsible for citing Nguyen as the source of this information.

Echo chambers and epistemic bubbles have different origins. While epistemic bubbles can be created organically, it’s more likely that echo chambers will be formed by those who wish to keep or even grow their control over the information that people hear and understand.

In this version, the student eliminates any possible ambiguity about the source of the ideas in the paragraph. By using a signal phrase to name the author whenever the source of the ideas could be unclear, the student clearly attributes these ideas to Nguyen.

According to Nguyen (2020), echo chambers and epistemic bubbles have different origins. Nguyen argues that while epistemic bubbles can be created organically, it’s more likely that echo chambers will be formed by those who wish to keep or even grow their control over the information that people hear and understand.

Uncited Quotation

When you put source material in quotation marks in your essay, you are telling your reader that you have drawn that material from somewhere else. But it's not enough to indicate that the material in quotation marks is not the product of your own thinking or experimentation: You must also credit the author of that material and provide a trail for your reader to follow back to the original document. This way, your reader will know who did the original work and will also be able to go back and consult that work if they are interested in learning more about the topic. Citations should always go directly after quotations.

The passage below comes from Deirdre Mask’s nonfiction book, The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power.

Here is the MLA citation for the book:

Mask, Deirdre. The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2021.

In New York, even addresses are for sale. The city allows a developer, for the bargain price of $11,000 (as of 2019), to apply to change the street address to something more attractive.

It’s not enough for the student to indicate that these words come from a source; the source must be cited:

After all, “in New York, even addresses are for sale. The city allows a developer, for the bargain price of $11,000 (as of 2019), to apply to change the street address to something more attractive.”

Here, the student has cited the source of the quotation using an MLA in-text citation:

After all, “in New York, even addresses are for sale. The city allows a developer, for the bargain price of $11,000 (as of 2019), to apply to change the street address to something more attractive” (Mask 229).

Using Material from Another Student's Work

In some courses you will be allowed or encouraged to form study groups, to work together in class generating ideas, or to collaborate on your thinking in other ways. Even in those cases, it's imperative that you understand whether all of your writing must be done independently, or whether group authorship is permitted. Most often, even in courses that allow some collaborative discussion, the writing or calculations that you do must be your own. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't collect feedback on your writing from a classmate or a writing tutor; rather, it means that the argument you make (and the ideas you rely on to make it) should either be your own or you should give credit to the source of those ideas.

So what does this mean for the ideas that emerge from class discussion or peer review exercises? Unlike the ideas that your professor offers in lecture (you should always cite these), ideas that come up in the course of class discussion or peer review are collaborative, and often not just the product of one individual's thinking. If, however, you see a clear moment in discussion when a particular student comes up with an idea, you should cite that student. In any case, when your work is informed by class discussions, it's courteous and collegial to include a discursive footnote in your paper that lets your readers know about that discussion. So, for example, if you were writing a paper about the narrator in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried and you came up with your idea during a discussion in class, you might place a footnote in your paper that states the following: "I am indebted to the members of my Expos 20 section for sparking my thoughts about the role of the narrator as Greek Chorus in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried ."

It is important to note that collaboration policies can vary by course, even within the same department, and you are responsible for familiarizing yourself with each course's expectation about collaboration. Collaboration policies are often stated in the syllabus, but if you are not sure whether it is appropriate to collaborate on work for any course, you should always consult your instructor.

• The Exception: Common Knowledge
• Other Scenarios to Avoid
• Why Does it Matter if You Plagiarize?
• How to Avoid Plagiarism
• Harvard University Plagiarism Policy

PDFs for This Section

• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Online Library and Citation Tools

5 Reasons You Shouldn't Buy from an Essay Mill

Many students, whether they’re working on a particularly difficult assignment or just simply don’t feel like doing the work, may be tempted to purchase an assignment from an essay mill.

However, even if we ignore the fact that buying an assignment is cheating and raises serious ethical issues, there are many reasons to be wary of buying a paper online.

So, if you’re contemplating buying a paper online, here are five reasons, beyond purely ethical ones, why you should should reconsider.

1: Many Essay Mills Are Scams

Here’s a quick question: What are you going to do if you pay for a paper and it’s’ never delivered? Are you going to leave a bad review? File a lawsuit? Complaint to the police?

For many who buy papers through essay mills, this is not a hypothetical question, as highlighted by a 2017 article in The Guardian .

It costs virtually nothing to set up an essay mill website, make a few sales and when the papers come due, simply close up shop. They can then reopen under a different name and repeat the whole process.

Doing business with an unscrupulous company is always going to be risky and there is little to stop them from not delivering at all, leaving you poorer, closer to your deadline and still without a paper.

2: Essay Mills Do Low Quality Work

But even if the essay mill does do the work they promise, there’s no guarantee it will net you an A. Study after study on the work of essay mills find that they do, at best, mediocre work.

A 2010 study by economists at Duke University found that even expensive essay mills only returned “gibberish” for their dollar. A 2013 study by Write Check had similar results .

Authors at essay mills are tasked with cranking out large volumes of essays on topics they know little about with very little time. This is hardly a setup conducive to quality academic writing and it shows.

If you want a good grade on your paper, an essay mill is not the way to go.

3: There May Still Be Plagiarism

Authors who are tasked with large amounts of writing in short periods of time often take short cuts. Essay mill authors are no different.

The demands of writing for an essay mill coupled with sloppy citations makes it so that your “guaranteed original” essay may still trigger a plagiarism investigation. Once again, if you’re not satisfied with the project, there isn’t much you can do. Even if you can get your money back, how does it repay for the punishment you’ll likely face?

The only way to be 100% sure your paper doesn’t contain plagiarized passages is to write it yourself and follow the standards set forth by your class and school.

4: Security Risks

Most major credit card processors are reluctant to work with essay mill websites. To make matters worse, many are located internationally, where financial protections many take for granted are not present.

Even if you manage to complete the transaction and get a decent essay, you’ve still provided your financial data to a less-than-credible company and their credit card processor. While they may not abuse that information directly, credit card breaches can happen and, without proper disclosures, you might be completely unaware.

From a security standpoint, buying an essay is a high-risk activity and one that’s best avoided.

While it’s easy to make justifications and excuses when buying a paper, many students find they feel different after they submit it .

There’s’ a sense of pride and accomplishment that comes with working hard and completing an assignment well. For most, there’s a very opposite feeling that comes from cheating their way through it.

Even if you get an A on your paper, you’ll always know that the accomplishment is not yours. You’ll not only rob yourself of that accomplishment, but what you might have learned completing it.

No matter what grade you get, you can’t avoid the fact that you cheated yourself too.

That may well be the biggest cheat an essay mill provides.

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What are secondary sources.

To cite secondary sources or to not cite secondary sources?

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Citation and team projects.

Some helpful pointers to help students understand how to avoid collusion and, instead, collaborate ethically in team projects.

Why Recycling Your Work is (Usually) Plagiarism

Don't Get Buried

Writers often claim that because they are the authors, they can reuse their work, either in full or in excerpts, over and over again. How can republishing one's own work be defined as plagiarism if the author has only used his or her own words and ideas? This white paper explores the definition of self-plagiarism, how it crosses into copyright laws and ethical issues, and the different ways an author can avoid this increasingly controversial act of scholarly misconduct.

The Plagiarism Spectrum 2.0 identifies twelve types of unoriginal work — both traditional forms of plagiarism and emerging trends. Understanding these forms of plagiarism supports the development of original thinking skills and helps students do their best, original work.

What is self-plagiarism? Self-plagiarism—sometimes known as “duplicate plagiarism”—is a term for when a writer recycles work for a different assignment or publication and represents it as new.

By completing this form, you agree to Turnitin's Privacy Policy . Turnitin uses the information you provide to contact you with relevant information. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time.

Reusing your previous work has a number of names: recycling, repurposing, resubmitting and even self-plagiarism.

However, students and instructors alike often ask the same question: Is this a form of plagiarism?

The answer to that is very often yes: As mentioned in an earlier blog , in most circumstances it is simply not acceptable to reuse your previous work without clear citation. It is against the guidelines of research organizations, school honor codes, and may even run afoul of copyright law in some cases.

But the question is simple: Why is this unethical? After all, if you are reusing your content, you’re not plagiarizing or victimizing someone else. Shouldn’t it be ok?

The answer is no, but to understand why we have to look at the fundamentals of why plagiarism is considered unethical and how reusing your work without citation fits into it.

The Lie of Plagiarism

Plagiarism, on its most fundamental level, is a lie. The plagiarist is claiming to have written or created something original that they did not and are taking credit for work they did not do.

But who is harmed by that lie? Though many assume the only person harmed is the person who is plagiarized, there are actually two separate groups that are impacted when one plagiarizes:

• The Victim : The most obvious person impacted is the person or group, being plagiarized. They are the ones being denied credit for their work and expertise. Though that credit might seem to be insignificant, attribution is often a core part of their professional reputation, i.e. how they further their careers, establish competence, or let others know about their work.
• The Audience : In addition to the person or people being plagiarized, the audience is also a victim. After all, the audience is being fed a lie. They were led to believe they are reading an original by the author, only to be reading the previous work of someone else. In short, the audience is not getting what they were promised.

That is because, when you put your name on a work and present it to an audience as your own, you’re creating a contract with your audience. Though the exact terms of that contract change based on the type of work and who the audience is, the contract is there and typically includes the following agreements:

• The work is yours unless otherwise specified
• The work is new and original, also unless otherwise specified
• If the work is non-fiction, you’ve done your best to ensure the accuracy of the work

The second point is crucial: while you may not be victimizing a third party with your plagiarism, you are still undermining an unspoken contract with your audience. Whether that audience is the thousands of people reading your publication or just your teacher, you are breaking that promise by reusing your previous works without making it clear you are doing so.

In short, you’re trying to get double the benefit from the same amount of work.

There are exceptions to this rule, such as the legal field where lawyers often reuse parts of previous filings to save time or computer programmers who reuse code. However, in both of those cases, the acceptance of recycling is due to the authorship and writing challenges of those specific fields. In general, your audience has a reasonable expectation that your writing will be unique, meaning new, in addition to being originally created by you.

This raises another question: If you need to or want to, how do you reuse your content ethically?

Ethical Recycling

If a situation does arise where you want or need to reuse your previous work, there’s a very simple solution to doing so: Be honest and open about it.

For example, if your instructor gives an assignment that is extremely similar to one that you turned in previously, simply handing in your previous work and passing it off as an original is a form of plagiarism. However, if you talk with your instructor and explain the situation, they may well agree to allow you to do so.

If you speak with your instructor and they agree to it, you’ve changed the audience expectation and it’s no longer misleading or a lie.

Another possibility, especially if you just want to use short passages from your previous work, is to quote and cite it the same as you would any other outside source. This includes quoting any direct passages you reuse as well as providing a full citation for the original paper.

This may be awkward from a writing standpoint, but usually can be done. However, you’ll likely want to speak with your instructor before doing this, just to make sure that it meets the criteria for the assignment.

Conclusions

In the end, it comes down to the expectations of your audience. If your audience is expecting a wholly original work and you simply turn in something that you’ve already published or submitted elsewhere, you have broken your contract with them. That, ultimately, is a form of plagiarism.

However, there are ways to ethically reuse your previous content. As long as you understand that the audience is expecting an original work (original meaning new) and you adjust their expectations accordingly, you can often reuse your previous work ethically with proper citation.

Recycling, much like traditional plagiarism, isn’t about saying you can’t use outside work in your writing, it’s about saying how you use it so that you treat your audience with the respect that they deserve.

Want to provide meaningful student feedback and deter plagiarism? Learn more about Feedback Studio .

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How to avoid plagiarism when buying an essay online.

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Working with an essay writing service can save you time as a student juggling a full workload. It can also assist you in the learning process. But for students who decide to buy essays online, plagiarism can be a huge concern. For instance, how can you be certain the paper you receive is original and not plagiarized? How can you rest assured that purchasing an essay online is safe?

These are all valid and important questions. This post will clarify how to be sure you receive a plagiarism-free paper, what you need to know to stay safe when you buy essay papers online, and how to use them to enhance your education experience.

How to Buy Essay Papers that are Plagiarism-Free

If you are thinking about purchasing an essay online but are concerned about plagiarism, use these 6 steps as a guide to find and buy essay papers that are plagiarism-free, online.

1) Buy essay papers from a top-tier writing service

There are a few different benefits of working with top-rated essay writing service when you buy essay papers which can help you avoid plagiarism. Use these benefits as a checklist to qualify an essay service while you are searching. If the service does not include these features, consider continuing your search.

• 1. Plagiarism-checked, original content. Nothing is more critical than being confident you are safe from plagiarized content. Top services will provide 100% custom-created, original writing. To ensure writing is original, and that a writer didn’t accidentally write something too similar to content published elsewhere, most top services run drafts through plagiarism-checking software before delivering them. Plagiarism is considered a serious offense which is why top writing services, such as Ultius, actually prohibit their writers from plagiarizing.
• 2. Direct communications with your writer. Being able to communicate with your writer can help put your mind at ease if you are wanting to make sure your paper is top-quality, original writing. A top essay service will allow you to message your writer directly to make sure instructions are clear and your writer is comfortable researching and writing about your topic from scratch.
• 3. Round-the-clock customer service. A high quality writing service will have customer service agents available 24/7 by phone and email. If you are concerned about the originality of your draft or have questions about plagiarism, contact the writing service’s customer service department.
• 4. Higher quality drafts. Investing in professional services, as opposed to free online writing assistance, is completely worth it when it comes to your education. Top-rated writing services, like Ultius, hire and train only select, world-class writers who pass a rigorous hiring process. This means when you buy term papers from a top service, you will be connected with a writer that understands the severity of plagiarism and is also well-trained and efficient when it comes to creating high-level, original content matching your instructions.

2) Cite your sources correctly

As the saying goes, give credit where credit is due. One of the most important keys to avoiding plagiarism is to make sure sources are correctly cited. When you buy essay papers from a professional service, they will be correctly formatted and cited according to the citation style you selected in your order. Each citation style will require sources to be cited differently. Here is what you must know about citing, no matter what style you are using:

• Paraphrased writing, ideas that are not yours, but are taken from another source and re-worded, must be cited using either an in-text citation, footnote or endnote, depending on the citation style.
• Writing that is someone else’s, words that match other content verbatim, must be indicated with quotation marks and cited according to a particular style which may require in-text citations, footnotes, or endnotes.

If you have questions about how to properly cite a source, a high-quality writing service can assist with that as well.

3) Communicate with your writer

When you buy essay papers online, be sure the service you use allows you to communicate directly with your writer through a messaging platform. As we mentioned, this can be a tremendous help to students wanting to make sure their writer understands all instructions. Also, messaging with your writer allows you to get a feel for the writer’s knowledge and comfort level with the topic.

Also, when you work with a writer you trust, you are likely to receive a paper that meets or exceeds your expectations. Plus, when there is excellent communication between the writer and you as a client, the writer is likely to be even more invested in the work they are doing and provide a high level of service because they understand your specific needs and concerns. If you are wondering how to find and make sure the writer you work with is a true professional, check out this post about finding and working with professional essay writers .

4) Avoid free services

It can be very tempting to request free papers from online writing sites, especially when you are on a tight budget and a million options seem to populate a simple Google search. But unfortunately, many free writing services actually reuse and recycle content which is considered plagiarism. On the contrary, if you buy essay papers from a professional service, the investment you make goes toward compensating a skilled writer for their time and expertise in researching, citing, writing, and formatting original content.

5) Ask questions

If in doubt, ask questions. If your questions are not answered by reading reviews, or by the service’s website, call customer service. If there is no customer service number, consider choosing a different site that provides assistance via phone. Here are some important questions to clarify and find answers to before you buy essay papers through any writing service:

• 1. How does the writing service select and qualify writers?
• 2. Does the essay service check drafts for plagiarism? How?
• 3. How does the writing service proofread and edit each order?
• 4. Will you be able to communicate with your writer?

Whether you are a graduate student needing custom writing assistance for a very specific topic or an undergraduate student wanting help creating a polished, perfect essay, it is important to find a plagiarism-free essay writing service that fits your specific needs.

6) Check your paper

If you are working with a top-rated writing service and are still concerned about plagiarism, you can always run your draft through plagiarism-detection software. For example, Copyscape is a plagiarism-detection software you can access online that makes checking your content easy by simply copy-pasting. If content comes up as similar, check to make sure you correctly cited it using quotations and a page number.

What you need to know to stay safe buying essays

Even when taking all these plagiarism-precautions when you buy essays online, some students wonder if it is safe to buy essays online.

Simply stated, yes. Using essay writing services to assist you in the learning and writing process is safe.

Here is why, plus what you need to know if you buy essay writing services:

1) Respecting your privacy

Confidentiality is incredibly important to your academic career which is why top-tier writing services, including Ultius, take it so seriously. A breach in confidentiality would not only be costly to the student, but also to the writing services. This is why high quality writing services use industry-leading practices to ensure your information as a client is kept completely private.

In fact, sites such as Ultius actually hide clients’ identities from company employees and writers. The only time clients are required to disclose identifying information is during the payment process (for security purposes). And since a third party vendor is used to process payments, clients’ identifying information is still kept private from the writing team.

2) Using a purchased essay safely

Here are some safe ways to use purchased essay papers:

• Buy essay papers to use as examples. Purchased essays can help tremendously in getting past writer’s block . This is especially helpful when an assignment’s instructions are complex or you can not decide what to write about. Seeing a well-organized example can help you understand assignment concepts and write your own words much more easily.
• Purchase essays to help with citing and formatting. Citation styles can be tricky and sometimes hard to explain. Seeing an example paper cited in the exact style your paper needs to be written in can make it much easier to understand how to cite sources correctly.
• Use purchased essay papers as research guides. Professional essay services can help demystify the research process, especially if you are looking for specific, recent, scholarly sources on an obscure topic.
• Buy essays to assist in organizing and outlining. Sorting out ideas for an essay can be a daunting task if it is on a new topic, is a long paper, or if you are pressed for time. Essay services can help you create and work from an outline.

3) Finding a service you trust

Ultimately, trust is the most important component of any working relationship.

When you trust the writing service and writer you work with, the process is much more helpful, easy, and enjoyable. Building trust starts by being able to communicate clearly over the phone with customer service and by being able to message your writer directly. Once you find a fit, it can be a huge time-saver, and a tremendous asset to your academic career.

If you are looking to buy essays, no plagiarism is acceptable so be sure to buy essay papers from a top-tier writing service.

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Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism

Failure to document source material in a research paper, or doing so improperly, is plagiarism: a wrongful use of someone else's work. All educational and research institutions have strict rules against it and all publish clear guidelines regarding the policies by which you will be expected to live. This guide is intended to clear up any questions you may have regarding Plagiarism.

Overview: What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the unauthorized or unacknowledged use of another person's academic or scholarly work. Done on purpose, it is cheating. Done accidentally, it is no less serious. Regardless of how it occurs, plagiarism is a theft of intellectual property and a violation of an ironclad rule demanding "credit be given where credit is due".

Quite often, carelessness, procrastination and inexperience are contributing factors behind a charge of plagiarism. Developing good research habits and learning how to properly cite and document your sources will keep you above suspicion and protect you from such charges.

If you intend on pursuing an academic career, your scholarship will undergo constant examination by your peers and colleagues. Your reputation will be earned when you earn their respect; how you will be judged will be based, in part, on how you treat the intellectual property of others.

Acknowledging those from whom you have learned assigns credibility to your work and creates a record that other researchers can refer to and build upon. More importantly, your own skill and talent as a scholar will begin to take shape.

As respect for your scholarship grows, so too will your inclusion in the ongoing conversation among experts, past and present, within your specific field of study. Your own body of intellectual property will not be far behind.

What is Research?

In every field of study, there are those who have blazed a trail of inquiry and, in so doing, advanced the general knowledge of the world in which we live. Research is an active process of learning from these trailblazers. Look upon your own project as an exploration of what they thought, discovered, created or, in any way added to the body of knowledge prior to your entry into the same field of study.

Look at your research project as a quest for answers to a central question, or set of related questions, that will further your own understanding of the world. Look at it also as an opportunity to contribute something of value to the already existing body of knowledge or the ongoing conversation among other individuals investigating the same topic.

It should be fun. Pick a topic in which you are particularly interested or curious and the journey will be that much more interesting. As you read, study, and absorb ideas and facts from others, write them down. Keep detailed notes on your sources. Who said what? In which journal was it published? Why, when, where, who, etc.

As a researcher and a writer you must credit these sources. Whenever you incorporate a general concept, idea, quotation, statistic, fact, illustration, graph or data that is not your own, it must be acknowledged. Failure to do so is plagiarism.

Common Forms of Plagiarism

The most common forms of plagiarism are committed by students; the most offensive are deliberate attempts to "pull one over" on the instructor. The reasons for doing this vary but laziness and procrastination are high on the list.

Once discovered—and they are seldom not—deliberate incidences of plagiarism are handed over to a governing body for review and prosecution. Here is a list of the most common:

• Purchasing an essay or paper from a Web site (or anywhere else) and calling it your own.
• Borrowing another student's paper from a previous semester and calling it your own.
• Having someone else do your work, for free or for hire. Agreeing to do someone else's work is equally wrong.
• Claiming originality regarding material copied directly from outside sources. In other words, deliberately failing to cite sources.
• Improperly documenting quoted, paraphrased or summarized source material.
• Extending the length of a bibliography to meet project requirements by including sources not used in your research or making them up all together.
• Killing two birds with one stone. Recycling an essay or paper written for one class by using it in another class studying the same or similar material.
• Receiving help from other students on an essay or paper and turning it in under your own name as individual work.
• Collectively researching and writing a paper with other students and each turning copies into different class sections claiming it as individual work.

As you can see, most of these involve lying, cheating and stealing. The last two forms of plagiarism, however, are a bit more complicated. They involve collaboration and sometimes the line between it and plagiarizing can be a little blurry. After all, working, studying and sharing information is encouraged in most educational institutions.

Collaboration

Collaborative learning is an important educational process in which a group of students work together to achieve a common learning goal. As new ideas and information are discussed and shared, individual critical thinking skills are strengthened.

In the sciences, research projects and lab work are regularly intermingled. Problem solving is often worked on in a group setting. In the liberal arts, although individual work is more often the norm, writing instruction is often provided in classes with a "workshop" format.

At Colorado State University, for instance, COCC150, the composition course required of all undergraduates for graduation, is workshop oriented. Instructors plan for and expect collaboration in the classroom.

If you are a CSU student, your writing assignments will be read and commented upon by your peers. Expect to participate with your fellow classmates in an active exchange of ideas and suggestions. The Writing Center is also available, free of charge, for individualized tutoring assistance and you will be encouraged to take advantage of the help provided.

Any class requiring peer review, draft sharing, brainstorming, information swapping, outside tutoring, etc., is an approved collaborative learning program and your participation is not plagiarism. Keep in mind, however, that individual effort is no less important than collaborative teamwork.

The issues that arise around collaboration involve authorized and unauthorized boundaries. What is acceptable and what is not? If the parameters on collaboration are unclear and not addressed in your class syllabus, ask your instructor.

If you are receiving help from a tutor or a friend outside of class, discuss the situation with your instructor to avoid any misunderstanding. Everything will be fine if you stay within the guidelines he or she provides.

Avoiding Plagiarism

First, do your own work - Begin your research project as early as possible. Keep up in class, do your library work and start your drafts in a timely fashion. Writing your paper will be so much easier if not put it off to the last minute. Procrastination is not a credible excuse; it's simply a bad choice. Performing under deadline pressures often pushes a student into cheating.

Second, establish your own voice - Easier said than done, but this is a key ingredient to your success and a primary difficulty all experienced writers have had to face and overcome. Learn as much as you can about your topic: it will help you develop a point-of-view from which to speak. The more you know, the easier it will be to avoid plagiarism.

Third, do your research carefully. Read the material closely. Knowing your topic well includes knowing what others have said. Strive for a mastery of your topic by introducing yourself intellectually to those who have already made a contribution, or are presently adding to the ongoing conversation. Keep an annotated bibliography of the source material you intend to use in your paper.

Fourth, keep copies of all your drafts - In review, you will notice your own point-of-view developing, changing and growing; a voice of authority all your own, emerging. It will stand in contrast to those of your sources. The difference between yours and their voices will go a long way toward helping you avoid plagiarism.

Finally, make sure that your document is properly constructed and your sources correctly cited. Remember, if the general concept, idea, quotation, statistic, fact, illustration, graph or data you intend to include is not common knowledge in the field of your investigation, a source must be cited. Not doing so will damage your credibility.

Share copies of "work-in-progress" with your instructor. As you move toward completion invite—and be receptive—to constructive suggestions. It can only make your paper better. This is where errors, especially citation errors, get pointed out and corrected. After a paper is handed in, such mistakes can be grounds for plagiarism charges.

Here is a checklist of questions to ask yourself before handing in your work:

• Are all quotations surrounded by quotation marks?
• Are single and double quotation marks properly used in quotations within quotations?
• Are ellipses and brackets included in quotations where words have been deleted or comments added?
• Are any quotations, paraphrases or summaries attributed to the wrong author? Are any missing an attribution completely?
• Are your paraphrases worded significantly different than the original?
• Are your summaries written in your own voice?
• Are all your source citations included in your bibliography or sources cited page?
• Are the titles, page numbers and dates in your documentation correct?

Warning: On Copying Unique Phrasing or Terminology

When paraphrasing or summarizing, avoid copying the unique phrasing or terminology found in your source material. Many students have been charged with plagiarism for using words that are clearly too sophisticated or well-crafted to be their own.

For instance, you would not want to refer to "the textual resistant narrative that counteracts the narrative supremacy of the dominant social text" (1) when writing an essay about the novel Wide Sargasso Sea unless your instructor is aware that you are at an advanced stage of thinking in the field of literary criticism and is familiar with and used to seeing that kind of writing style from you.

Such language includes terminology bound to raise the proverbial "red flag" when your instructor reads your work. He or she is more likely than not to be familiar with your source and, if not, will discover in short order the critical work of Fiona Barnes.

When struck by particularly impressive or compelling phrasing, it is better to quote and document it rather than represent it as your own in a paraphrase or summary.

(1) Fiona R. Barnes, "Dismantling the Master's Houses: Jean Rhys and West Indian Identity," in International Women's Writing, ed. Anne E. Brown and Manjarme E. Gooze (Westport Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1995), 150-61.

Penalties for Plagiarism and Your Legal Rights

Plagiarism constitutes academic dishonesty and is both prosecuted and punished at every credible institution in the world. At Colorado State University, failure to do your own work in COCC150, or any other course for that matter—or to plagiarize in any way—is a failure to meet course requirements and is a violation of long established CSU policy regarding Academic Integrity.

The penalties for plagiarism depend upon the degree of gravity. Should you be found guilty, the least is an "F" on a paper. Failing an entire course is also possible and, in cases where the charges are graver, expulsion from the university.

It's important for you to know that fair and impartial treatment is your right and that due process is guaranteed. Regardless of the outcome, your case will be held in strict confidence in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974.

Citation Information

Peter Connor and Luann Barnes. (1994-2024). Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism. The WAC Clearinghouse. Colorado State University. Available at https://wac.colostate.edu/repository/writing/guides/.

Copyright Information

Copyright © 1994-2024 Colorado State University and/or this site's authors, developers, and contributors . Some material displayed on this site is used with permission.

SafeAssign is a tool used to prevent plagiarism and to create opportunities to help students identify how to properly attribute sources rather than paraphrase. SafeAssign is effective as both a deterrent and an educational tool.

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Student Rights and Responsibilities Office of Student Life and Dean of Students

Avoiding academic dishonesty, what every student should know.

Every student will be held responsible for reading and understanding the following statement. To submit to your instructor a paper or comparable assignment that is not truly the product of your own mind and skill is to commit plagiarism. To put it bluntly, plagiarism is the act of stealing the ideas and/or expression of another and representing them as your own. It is a form of cheating and a kind of academic dishonesty that can incur severe consequences. It is important, therefore, that you understand what constitutes plagiarism, so that you will not unwittingly jeopardize your college career.

The Most Obvious Form

Plagiarism can take several forms. The most obvious form of plagiarism is the purchase of prepared papers from commercial term paper companies or another individual and the submission of such papers as one's own work.

Proper Footnoting

Essential A second obvious form of plagiarism is a word-for-word copying of someone else's work, in whole or in part, without appropriate acknowledgement, whether that work be a journal or magazine article, a portion of a book, a newspaper piece, another student's paper, or any other composition not your own. Any such verbatim use of another's work must be acknowledged by (1) appropriate indention or enclosing all such copied portions in quotation marks and by (2) giving the original source in a footnote. As a general rule, you should make very little use of directly quoted matter in your research paper. If you do not know how to footnote properly, ask your instructor for guidance.

Paraphrasing vs. Original Work

A third form of plagiarism is the paraphrasing for the structure and language of another person's work. Changing a few words of another's composition, omitting a few sentences, or changing their order does not constitute original composition and therefore can be given no credit. If such borrowing or paraphrasing is ever necessary, the source must be scrupulously indicated by footnotes. How then, you may ask, can I be original? Am I to learn nothing from others? There are several answers to such questions. Of course you have come to the University to learn, and this means acquiring ideas and exchanging opinions with others. But no idea is ever genuinely learned by copying it down in the phrasing of somebody else. Only when you have the thought through an idea in terms of your own experience can you be said to have learned; and when you have done that, you can develop it on paper as the product of your own mind.

Using the Instructor as a Resource

If an assignment baffles you, discuss it with your instructor. And if you are directed to use printed sources, consult your instructor about how to proceed. There is an art to taking notes for research; careless note taking can lead to plagiarism.

In class or out-of-class academic exercises are representations of a student’s individual ability and scholarly achievement. Each student is expected to exercise independent scholarly thought, expression and aptitude. While there is much to be gained through a well-functioning study group, participating in an act of collusion will prove detrimental. Absent specific authorization from the course instructor, each academic exercise is presumed to be prepared and submitted by one student acting individually and not in concert with others. Acts of collusion can be purposeful or unintentional. Common examples are:

• Two students in the same class submitting a substantially similar essay, homework or computer program assignment.
• One student providing another with a copy of a completed assignment, only to have the assignment duplicated and submitted for credit with a new name.
• Study or lab partners submitting duplicate solution reports.

Attempting to or succeeding in gaining an unfair advantage in the academic arena is an act of academic dishonesty. Whether it is copying from another student’s exam paper, knowingly using or buying homework solutions or submitting a substantial portion of the same academic work more than once without prior written authorization from the instructor, cheating is a violation of University rules. The motivation to cheat is varied among college students. Sometimes the motivation originates with the desire to secure admission into a graduate or professional school, to enhance employment opportunities or to continue eligibility for financial assistance. While they may be significant motivating factors to some, to the student with personal honor and integrity, they are not sufficient to jeopardize a higher education investment.

False References

Proper citation of references is generally addressed by the assigned or adopted writing-style manual. Occasionally, however, papers are submitted that contain false references. The following represent the most common occurrences of false references:

• References cited within the text body are omitted in an ending bibliography or end notes page.
• Entries contained in the end notes listing are not cited within the body of the text. Information contained within the reference is fabricated.
• The entire reference is fabricated.

Minimize the opportunity for an allegation of academic dishonesty for using false references by incorporating the following into your preparation:

• Allow sufficient time to thoroughly research and gather all information necessary for proper citation and reference format.
• Learn what the prescribed writing style requires for references and use it.
• Double check the completed document with your research notes for accuracy.

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How to avoid plagiarism?

Proper citation style.

Avoid plagiarism by always listing the source and formatting it correctly when you are note-taking. Take care of the proper formatting and citation style when using content from outside sources.

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Online Plagiarism Checker For Students

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Accurate Check for Plagiarism with Percentage

Many students wishing to produce original content aren’t quite sure how to get an exact percentage of plagiarised text in their work. This percentage is important since many universities have a certain limit of non-unique words you can have in your essay for it to be considered okay. If your plagiarism search doesn’t give you the exact percentage, you can’t be sure if your assignment will go through or not.

When using a free plagiarism tool, it’s essential to have this data provided to you. Only when you have it can you decide which parts to change and which ones to chuck out to achieve your desired results. Plagiarized content is a big issue in modern educational institutions, so getting reliable and trustworthy results is vital. This is the most essential requirement when you check plagiarism.

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• When the system finishes the work you will be transmitted to the reporting page – it contains the comprehensive report on your work, a percentage of its uniqueness, and a list of sources on which similarities were detected. Often, such tools also highlight the overlaps that were found.

As you can see, it is simple. However, for the best and reliable result you have to be careful. There are tons of programs and online tools that can be used but keep in mind that many of them work differently and not all are good for you. To be confident in the truthfulness of the received result, you need to select the best plagiarism checker because only a professional and high-quality software can detect all similarities and give you a reasoned assessment.

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Understanding Plagiarism and its Dangers in Academics

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Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism

Failure to document source material in a research paper, or doing so improperly, is plagiarism: a wrongful use of someone else's work. All educational and research institutions have strict rules against it and all publish clear guidelines regarding the policies by which you will be expected to live. This guide is intended to clear up any questions you may have regarding Plagiarism.

Overview: What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the unauthorized or unacknowledged use of another person's academic or scholarly work. Done on purpose, it is cheating. Done accidentally, it is no less serious. Regardless of how it occurs, plagiarism is a theft of intellectual property and a violation of an ironclad rule demanding "credit be given where credit is due".

Quite often, carelessness, procrastination and inexperience are contributing factors behind a charge of plagiarism. Developing good research habits and learning how to properly cite and document your sources will keep you above suspicion and protect you from such charges.

If you intend on pursuing an academic career, your scholarship will undergo constant examination by your peers and colleagues. Your reputation will be earned when you earn their respect; how you will be judged will be based, in part, on how you treat the intellectual property of others.

Acknowledging those from whom you have learned assigns credibility to your work and creates a record that other researchers can refer to and build upon. More importantly, your own skill and talent as a scholar will begin to take shape.

As respect for your scholarship grows, so too will your inclusion in the ongoing conversation among experts, past and present, within your specific field of study. Your own body of intellectual property will not be far behind.

Today, when you turn an assignment in online through your University’s EdTech company (BlackBoard, Canvas, etc.) it is checked for plagiarism via an AI scanner (like Turnitin). So if you plagiarize for school, you will be caught and punished. In order to avoid being kicked out of your University or punished legally, it’s crucial for you to understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid doing it.

What is Research?

In every field of study, there are those who have blazed a trail of inquiry and, in so doing, advanced the general knowledge of the world in which we live. Research is an active process of learning from these trailblazers. Look upon your own project as an exploration of what they thought, discovered, created or, in any way added to the body of knowledge prior to your entry into the same field of study.

Look at your research project as a quest for answers to a central question, or set of related questions, that will further your own understanding of the world. Look at it also as an opportunity to contribute something of value to the already existing body of knowledge or the ongoing conversation among other individuals investigating the same topic.

It should be fun. Pick a topic in which you are particularly interested or curious and the journey will be that much more interesting. As you read, study, and absorb ideas and facts from others, write them down. Keep detailed notes on your sources. Who said what? In which journal was it published? Why, when, where, who, etc.(See our guides on ‘ Developing a Research Question ’ and ‘ Choosing and Refining Topics ’ for more information.)

As a researcher and a writer you must credit these sources. Whenever you incorporate a general concept, idea, quotation, statistic, fact, illustration, graph or data that is not your own, it must be acknowledged. Failure to do so is plagiarism.

Common Forms of Plagiarism

The most common forms of plagiarism are committed by students; the most offensive are deliberate attempts to "pull one over" on the instructor. The reasons for doing this vary but laziness and procrastination are high on the list.

Once discovered—and they are seldom not—deliberate incidences of plagiarism are handed over to a governing body for review and prosecution. Here is a list of the most common:

• Purchasing an essay or paper from a Web site (or anywhere else) and calling it your own.
• Borrowing another student's paper from a previous semester and calling it your own.
• Having someone else do your work, for free or for hire. Agreeing to do someone else's work is equally wrong.
• Claiming originality regarding material copied directly from outside sources. In other words, deliberately failing to cite sources.
• Improperly documenting quoted, paraphrased or summarized source material.
• Extending the length of a bibliography to meet project requirements by including sources not used in your research or making them up all together.
• Killing two birds with one stone. Recycling an essay or paper written for one class by using it in another class studying the same or similar material.
• Receiving help from other students on an essay or paper and turning it in under your own name as individual work.
• Collectively researching and writing a paper with other students and each turning copies into different class sections claiming it as individual work.

As you can see, most of these involve lying, cheating and stealing. The last two forms of plagiarism, however, are a bit more complicated. They involve collaboration and sometimes the line between it and plagiarizing can be a little blurry. After all, working, studying and sharing information is encouraged in most educational institutions.

Collaboration

Collaborative learning is an important educational process in which a group of students work together to achieve a common learning goal. As new ideas and information are discussed and shared, individual critical thinking skills are strengthened.

In the sciences, research projects and lab work are regularly intermingled. Problem solving is often worked on in a group setting. In the liberal arts, although individual work is more often the norm, writing instruction is often provided in classes with a "workshop" format.

At Colorado State University, for instance, COCC150, the composition course required of all undergraduates for graduation, is workshop oriented. Instructors plan for and expect collaboration in the classroom.

If you are a CSU student, your writing assignments will be read and commented upon by your peers. Expect to participate with your fellow classmates in an active exchange of ideas and suggestions. The Writing Center is also available, free of charge, for individualized tutoring assistance and you will be encouraged to take advantage of the help provided.

Any class requiring peer review, draft sharing, brainstorming, information swapping, outside tutoring, etc., is an approved collaborative learning program and your participation is not plagiarism. Keep in mind, however, that individual effort is no less important than collaborative teamwork.

The issues that arise around collaboration involve authorized and unauthorized boundaries. What is acceptable and what is not? If the parameters for collaboration are unclear and not addressed in your class syllabus, ask your instructor.

If you are receiving help from a tutor or a friend outside of class, discuss the situation with your instructor to avoid any misunderstanding. Everything will be fine if you stay within the guidelines he or she provides.

Avoiding Plagiarism

First, do your own work - Begin your research project as early as possible. Keep up in class, do your library work and start your drafts in a timely fashion. Writing your paper will be so much easier if you don't put it off to the last minute. Procrastination is not a credible excuse; it's simply a bad choice. Performing under deadline pressures often pushes a student into cheating.

Second, establish your own voice - Easier said than done, but this is a key ingredient to your success and a primary difficulty all experienced writers have had to face and overcome. Learn as much as you can about your topic: it will help you develop a point-of-view from which to speak. The more you know, the easier it will be to avoid plagiarism.

Third, do your research carefully. Read the material closely. Knowing your topic well includes knowing what others have said. Strive for a mastery of your topic by introducing yourself intellectually to those who have already made a contribution, or are presently adding to the ongoing conversation. Keep an annotated bibliography of the source material you intend to use in your paper.

Fourth, keep copies of all your drafts - In review, you will notice your own point-of-view developing, changing and growing; a voice of authority all your own, emerging. It will stand in contrast to those of your sources. The difference between yours and their voices will go a long way toward helping you avoid plagiarism.

Finally, make sure that your document is properly constructed and your sources correctly cited. Remember, if the general concept, idea, quotation, statistic, fact, illustration, graph or data you intend to include is not common knowledge in the field of your investigation, a source must be cited. Not doing so will damage your credibility.

Share copies of "work-in-progress" with your instructor. As you move toward completion, invite—and be receptive—to constructive suggestions. It can only make your paper better. This is where errors, especially citation errors, get pointed out and corrected. After a paper is handed in, such mistakes can be grounds for plagiarism charges.

Here is a checklist of questions to ask yourself before handing in your work:

• Are all quotations surrounded by quotation marks?
• Are single and double quotation marks properly used in quotations within quotations?
• Are ellipses and brackets included in quotations where words have been deleted or comments added?
• Are any quotations, paraphrases or summaries attributed to the wrong author? Are any missing an attribution completely?
• Are your paraphrases worded significantly different than the original?
• Are your summaries written in your own voice?
• Are all your source citations included in your bibliography or sources cited page?
• Are the titles, page numbers and dates in your documentation correct?

Warning: On Copying Unique Phrasing or Terminology

When paraphrasing or summarizing, avoid copying the unique phrasing or terminology found in your source material. Many students have been charged with plagiarism for using words that are clearly too sophisticated or well-crafted to be their own.

For instance, you would not want to refer to "the textual resistant narrative that counteracts the narrative supremacy of the dominant social text" (1) when writing an essay about the novel Wide Sargasso Sea unless your instructor is aware that you are at an advanced stage of thinking in the field of literary criticism and is familiar with and used to seeing that kind of writing style from you.

Such language includes terminology bound to raise the proverbial "red flag" when your instructor reads your work. He or she is more likely than not to be familiar with your source and, if not, will discover in short order the critical work of Fiona Barnes.

When struck by particularly impressive or compelling phrasing, it is better to quote and document it rather than represent it as your own in a paraphrase or summary.

(1) Fiona R. Barnes, "Dismantling the Master's Houses: Jean Rhys and West Indian Identity," in International Women's Writing, ed. Anne E. Brown and Manjarme E. Gooze (Westport Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1995), 150-61.

Penalties for Plagiarism and Your Legal Rights

Plagiarism constitutes academic dishonesty and is both prosecuted and punished at every credible institution in the world. At Colorado State University, failure to do your own work in COCC150, or any other course for that matter—or to plagiarize in any way—is a failure to meet course requirements and is a violation of long established CSU policy regarding Academic Integrity.

The penalties for plagiarism depend upon the degree of gravity. Should you be found guilty, the least is an "F" on a paper. Failing an entire course is also possible and, in cases where the charges are graver, expulsion from the university.

It's important for you to know that fair and impartial treatment is your right and that due process is guaranteed. Regardless of the outcome, your case will be held in strict confidence in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974.

Additional Resources

NYU Libraries - ‘ Plagiarism and How to Avoid it ’

Purdue OWL - ‘ Avoiding Plagiarism ’

Purdue OWL - ‘ Plagiarism Overview ’

UAGC Writing Center - ‘ Plagiarism Guide ’

University of Michigan Libraries - ‘ Introduction to Academic Integrity ’

Connor, Peter, Luann Barnes, & Andrea Bennett. (2022). Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University.  https://writing.colostate.edu/guides/guide.cfm?guideid=17

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