Hi Chris. Thanks for this, & for the longer explanation you sent by DM. I appreciate your candour, & am pleased to hear that you intend to speak to your ad supplier about the frequency with which ads from essay mills crop up on your site. But I'm afraid I can't leave it there.
While I understand that local journalism faces really tough times, there must be a line drawn somewhere about the ads you're happy to display. I'm not convinced that you (and others) understand the damaging effects essay mills have on several parts of the community you serve.
So I'm writing this thread to explain what those effects are. The main aim is not to embarrass you, but to convince you to try harder to get adstyle to drop the essay mill ads - or, switch supplier. I hope other ppl will also take note & understand the dangers essay mills pose.
So: who's harmed by essay mills?
1. The students who use them. As highlighted by this article theguardian.com/education/2017…, the 'goods' delivered by these scams are often of poor quality - or they take payment & fail to deliver at all. Students can, & do, lose £100s with no redress.
1. The students who use them. As highlighted by this article theguardian.com/education/2017…, the 'goods' delivered by these scams are often of poor quality - or they take payment & fail to deliver at all. Students can, & do, lose £100s with no redress.
2. The students who don't use them. Think that the 'customers' deserve what they get? Well, what about their poorer or more honest peers who *don't* take these shortcuts and (if the 'product' IS good) get worse marks & degree results than their wealthier, more dishonest peers?
Think about the effect this might have on the morale of a cohort. Think about the indignation you'd feel, as a student putting everything into their degree, to know that some of your peers were just able to order their essays off the rack and do better than you. Is that ok?
3. The staff who run universities and teach courses. Speaking as a lecturer, I can tell you that we spend a huge amount of time -time that could be devoted to, you know, teaching - trying to detect and discourage plagiarism. It's time that we don't have. theguardian.com/education/2005…
In fact, there have even been suggestions recently that unis should replace essays with exams, just to stop the essay mills. That would be a terrible move - exams test only a very specific few skills & disadvantage many students. But it may happen. So, we're back to #1 and #2.
4. Employers. Students who have bought their essays, and fraudulently gained good degrees as a result, might be hired by employers who will not then find that they have the skills and abilities suggested by their degrees. They will then lose confidence in...
5. The unis attended by these cheating graduates. You're advertising these services on a York-specific site. The students who use them will attend Uni of York, York St John, York College, etc. The ads help to damage the reputations of yr local institutions - & the local economy.
6. The public at large. Would you want to see a doctor who had paid somebody else to write the work that they then submit to get their qualification? Use a lawyer or accountant who did so? Have your kids taught by a teacher who did so?
You say that these mills are 'not illegal' and unfortunately you're right. They should be, and many of us are working to bring that about. theguardian.com/education/2018… But until then, we need to explain their harmful effects to the public, in exactly the way I'm doing now.
The losers: students who use them, students who don't, uni staff, unis as institutions, employers, the wider public.
The winners: the essay mills themselves. Unscrupulous scammers, undermining trust and intellectual rigour on a wide scale so they can make a quick buck.
The winners: the essay mills themselves. Unscrupulous scammers, undermining trust and intellectual rigour on a wide scale so they can make a quick buck.
So, please do speak to your ad supplier. Please speak to them robustly. Please change supplier, if they continue to pump out this bile. And please let me know what action you've taken, so I can continue to read & support your site.
