EduBirdie is an online essay writing service that has attracted significant controversy due to plagiarism and ethics concerns. While the company provides writing and editing help to students, many view their services as encouraging academic dishonesty. As a result, plagiarism checking services like PlagScan are often used to analyze essays submitted by EduBirdie writers for potential plagiarized content.
EduBirdie was founded in 2014 and markets itself as a way for students to get academic assistance when they are too busy or stuck on an assignment. They employ writers of various educational levels who complete papers on a variety of subjects for paying customers. Critics argue this allows students to purchase already completed work and pass it off as their own, going against academic integrity standards.
While EduBirdie claims their writers only provide guidance and not full papers, many users report receiving essays ready to submit that simply require a quick edit. This ability to outsource heavy lifting on assignments has led to accusations the company enables and profits from plagiarism and non-original work. To examine the truth of these claims, services like PlagScan are often used to analyze EduBirdie submissions.
PlagScan is an online plagiarism scanning tool that allows users to paste or upload text files and get a detailed originality report. It checks content against billions of web pages, academic journals, and published books using fingerprinting technology. Results show what percentage of a document is plagiarized as well as highlight copying and provide sources for matched text. This level of detection has made PlagScan a popular choice for automatically screening student papers and works from writing services.
A 2018 study saw researchers submit sample assignments in various subjects to EduBirdie and then analyze the completed works using PlagScan. Results found high plagiarism rates, with some papers being almost entirely copied. Notably, large passages were often taken verbatim from obscure sources unlikely to be caught through basic checks. This supported accusations the company was promoting significant academic dishonesty.
Subsequent investigations continued finding EduBirdie assignments often scored high plagiarism percentages through PlagScan. High-profile cases emerged where students were caught and punished for passing off copied EduBirdie papers as original works. Prominent academics condemned the practice as undermining the integrity of higher education and hurting learning outcomes. EduBirdie maintained they could not control how customers ultimately use written works.
As controversy grew, several universities explicitly warned students against using essay mill services like EduBirdie. Policies were updated at some schools to directly ban outsourced academic work and cracking down on any plagiarized submissions, no matter the source. This put further pressure on EduBirdie and similar companies by threatening the customer base of many students.
Into 2019 and 2020, PlagScan analyses of randomly sampled EduBirdie orders found the proportion of highly plagiarized assignments had decreased but was still significantly above respectable norms. The company claimed new checks and author rotations were reducing copying. Critics argue the very model of the business encourages dishonest practices that digital plagiarism detection like PlagScan helps expose.
Despite tweaks, EduBirdie remains a controversial operator at the center of ongoing academic integrity debates. As long as services provide pre-written works to students, skepticism will remain about fully original content and learn-focused outcomes. Independent automated scans through tools like PlagScan will likely continue playing an important role flagging questionable submissions associated with these types of companies to help uphold research standards. While EduBirdie defends their model, academic watchdogs aim to curb the harms of large-scale commercialized plagiarism their business allows. Only further studies analyzing EduBirdie works with plagiarism checkers over time will show if concerning practices are truly changing or simply better hidden.
PlagScan and similar plagiarism detection services have become valuable tools for examining the originality of papers produced by controversial essay mills like EduBirdie. Independent analyses consistently finding high copying rates through such scans have supported accusations these companies enable widespread academic dishonesty for profit. Going forward, plagiarism checkers will remain important for maintaining oversight and accountability as essay mill operators tweak their models in response to integrity concerns raised by academics and research watchdogs.