There are hundreds of writing services on the internet, and all of them promise to deliver the best papers at the best prices. You can pay for your paper and get a good grade, effortlessly, exactly when you need it.
Such an opportunity sounds great, but custom writing services still remain a controversial topic in the academic world. The reason is that presenting someone else’s work as your own can be considered cheating, so the problem with writing services is of an ethical nature.
All universities have their own codes of conduct, and quite often, these codes prohibit purchasing papers online. This is called contract cheating and considered dishonesty. Nevertheless, the essay writing industry thrives, and millions of students from all over the world keep purchasing papers online. Is what they do wrong? In this article, we will think of whether or not custom essay writing is ethical.
Is It Ethical To Use Essay Writing Services?
The ethical side of custom writing is a subject of controversy. First of all, if you get caught on submitting a plagiarized paper, it won’t be a criminal offense. It might, however, lead to many negative consequences. For example, you can be suspended or, in some cases, even expelled. The good news is that if you buy a 100% original paper, you won’t be accused of plagiarism, and it will be impossible to prove that you didn’t write it yourself.
Submitting someone else’s work as your own is widely considered unethical and wrong. However, what is the difference between hiring a writer to help you write your essay and hiring a tutor? Many students work with tutors, and the academic community doesn’t see anything wrong in it. Moreover, ghostwriting is a very common thing in business. Many celebrities, successful businessmen, and politicians hire ghostwriters for their books, these books get published, and nobody accuses authors of dishonesty.
Such double standards are the reason why the ethical aspect of essay writing is a very hot topic in the academic world. Students have used essay writing services for many years, and 16% of students from all over the world admit that they’ve purchased their papers online. Obviously, there are even more students who don’t admit that they’ve used writing services.
To understand whether or not purchasing custom papers is ethical, it’s important to consider the circumstances that made students pay for their papers. Besides, it’s important to know how exactly a student used a writing service in each particular case. Most reliable writing services have clear ethical policies and indicate how exactly students should and should not use their papers.
When Using Writing Services Is Ethical?
Many people think that only lazy students order their papers online, which is a big misconception. Students hire writers for completely different reasons. Many students don’t have enough time because of a tremendous workload. Some students also need to take care of their families. In addition, not all students are great writers and not all of them will even need writing in their professions.
Still, universities seem to ignore all of these factors and call custom writing a form of cheating. Obviously, such a position on this issue is unfair. Students can have many legitimate reasons to pay for paper writing, and many of them use essays as samples, without presenting these essays as their own. Of course, writing services don’t want to encourage students to cheat, and writers cannot be sure how their customers will use their essays. As a result, reputable writing services condemn cheating.
The vast majority of reliable writing services emphasize that they only sell sample papers, and students should use them for research purposes only. Many custom writing companies clearly indicate that students shouldn’t put their names on custom papers or submit them. Custom writing companies want to avoid any legal problems so they have clear terms of service and a strong ethical position.
However, at the end of the day, only customers can decide how they will use their papers, and students may or may not use custom papers in an ethical way. Although students order specific types of papers written on specific topics, they often use these papers as the basis for their research, and in this case, buying papers certainly is ethical.
Why Are Some Countries Still Against Writing Services?
In many countries, governments impose sanctions and implement other policies to stop companies from selling custom papers to students. Only in Australia, however, the government took the war on custom writing to the next level and banned essay services completely. The U.K. also slowly moves in this direction, but there is no law that would make custom writing illegal. As for the U.S., it seems like the government isn’t going to ban cheating anytime soon.
On the one hand, the academic world condemns cheating. On the other hand, banning custom writing completely would have negative consequences both for the academic world and for the economy. Therefore, the custom writing issue remains unresolved. All students are aware of the consequences of plagiarism but they often have no choice: they may either submit a poorly written paper after the deadline or hire professionals to get good papers on time.
What Are the Disadvantages of Using Essay Writing Services?
Many students need writing help, and buying papers online is their only solution. Of course, they may get caught on submitting plagiarized papers, but this can only happen when dealing with unreliable writing services. Professional essay writers know their job, and reputable writing services always check their papers for plagiarism before sending them to customers. However, writing services may also have not-so-obvious setbacks. If students rely on writing services too much, they won’t learn to write their papers. Some students may never need writing in their professional lives, but for others, it might be a problem.
Generally, when students don’t write their papers but still receive good grades, they undermine the educational system that’s intended to produce skilled employees who can join the workforce. However, if educators actually listened to students, they would realize that they leave students no other option but to pay for help. The enormous workload in colleges and universities, along with strict deadlines, are the main reasons why students need academic help, in the first place.
Final Thoughts
Are essay writing services ethical? There is no single right answer to this question. Only students can decide what they need these companies for and how they’re going to use their custom papers. When talking about writing services, it’s important to take into account all the legitimate reasons why students need these services. The very concept of ethics can be interpreted in different ways. While educators say that custom writing is cheating, they do nothing to create a fair educational experience for everyone. Besides, many students simply use custom papers for research purposes and as examples of proper writing. Such students use writing services in a completely ethical way, even from the educational perspective.