‘ Paper mills’ aid cheating students

Turnitin. com has virtually eliminated the days of buying a pre- written research paper and tailoring it to a specific assignment, but a new form of sophisticated online ghostwriting has filled the void for dishonest students.

Simon Fraser University writing professor and plagiarism expert Sean Zwagerman says studies, including one conducted on 11 post- secondary institutions in Canada, show one per cent of people who admit to cheating use online “paper mills.”

“Of students who’ve cheated, the number who have bought a paper outright? It’s almost non- existent,” he said. “Students can just buy papers online. They can, but they don’t.”

However, a glance at the writing services section of Craigslist in any major North American city proves purchasing a custom- written academic paper is cheap and easy.

One of these digital guns for hire is Roger, a reporter in rural British Columbia who advertises quality custom essays on almost any topic. Roger asked that The Sun change his name.

Unable to make ends meet, last February he began advertising his ghostwriting services on the Vancouver Craigslist page.

Trained to write to deadline, he can produce a double- spaced page in as little as 20 minutes, but usually does about two an hour. He says his flat rate can go as high as $ 30 per page during the manic last weeks of a semester and as low as $ 15 per page during the academic dog days of summer. This August, Roger said, he had more than 15 jobs.

“The tricky thing is to price it where you’re beating other writers’ quotes, as these students are consulting many people.”

Almost 20 per cent of his clients are ESL students and three- quarters of his essays are sourced from his Craigslist ads; the rest comes from work he does for other essay- writing companies.

Del Paulhus, a psychology professor at the University of B. C. who has studied students who plagiarize, said this evolution of plagiarism makes it very hard on professors.

“Now it just takes a couple clicks and you have the exact paper you want,” he said.

Still, instructors can almost eliminate plagiarism by tailoring assignments to include specific personal details that a student’s ghostwriter will find hard to produce, Paulhus said.