EDUCATION: More than job-training

The Term Paper Business

Illustration from Slate
Illustration from SLATE article on essay mills

Now that I’m in the process of developing my sites (americanenglishdoctor.com/ and maevemaddox.com), I did a Google search for my name to see how well I’m already known because of my work at Daily Writing Tips.

Inexplicably, several of the search results that show my name and essay as keywords lead to commercial landing pages for companies that sell research papers to dishonest college students.

Although “Maeve Maddox” appears in the search summary, the name does not appear on the landing page of any of the sites. I can only conjecture that my byline is being used as a keyword because of its association with writing and usage.

Apparently the dishonest business of selling term papers to college students is big business. The query “buy term papers” brings up more than six million results.

Here are typical pitches from the sellers:

Students who delegated their assignments to us managed to:

Have more time to spend with friends and family, significantly improving their relationships with the people around them.

Take part in extracurricular activities such as IT seminars, fashion shows, meetings with influencers and more.

Significantly improve their grades and become top performers in their classes.

Never hand in papers later than the assigned deadline.

START SOLVING YOUR ACADEMIC PROBLEMS TODAY!

Don’t let some academic burden ruin the best years of your life.

Enjoy concerts, hanging out with friends, exploring the world. And let [us] assist you with all your academic writing.

Try us today and see what a difference we can make for you!

And here are typical comments from satisfied customers:

I never imagined the writer chosen for my term paper would be so responsible! I’ll continue to order from him, and thank you…for uniting a team of true professionals. Your service is a valuable asset in the essay writing market.

Thank you for creating such a brilliant piece so quickly! I can’t stop reading my essay. its [sic] interesting, bright and just perfect!

The final product is sooo great! My instructor said it’s a solid piece and deserves an A! I will certainly order from [you] again!

After getting the highest grade on my assignment, I decided I won’t work on my own anymore. Thanks for helping me with my studies!

I highly appreciate the work you have done! Your writers are real pros, and they have created a masterpiece on a topic I would never understand!

Not everyone who goes to college belongs there and, judging by the popularity of essay mills, not every college graduate is educated.

It’s time that employers stopped specifying “college degree” as a blanket requisite for any job they’re trying to fill. A better idea might be to test prospective employees’ ability to do the work involved.

And it better not be a take-home test.

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