The debate around whether using services like EduBirdie constitutes cheating is a complex one with reasonable arguments on both sides. On the one hand, using professional writers to complete academic assignments violates principles of academic integrity and can be considered a form of contract cheating. Others argue students use such services for legitimate purposes like editing help or getting feedback, not outright cheating. Let’s examine this issue more critically.
Those who view EduBirdie and similar services as cheating point to several reasons. First, having a third party complete an assignment means the submitted work is not fully the student’s own work and ideas. This undermines the core purpose of assessments, which is to evaluate each student’s individual knowledge and skills. It also gives an unfair advantage over students who complete their own work independently.
Second, while plagiarism checkers now help prevent verbatim copying, contract cheating still involves representing someone else’s work as your own. Even if rephrased or revised by the student, the underlying structure, analysis and conclusions were developed by a paid writer, not the student. This violates principles of attribution and intellectual property.
Third, using such services could help students pass courses or attain grades and qualifications they have not truly earned. This risks devaluing the credential over time if cheating becomes widespread. It also poses risks if students rely on others’ work to meet field-specific competency standards in careers like healthcare, engineering or law that demand independent problem-solving ability.
On the other hand, EduBirdie and its defenders note there are legitimate uses of their services that should not be considered cheating. For example, students use the platform for minor formatting help, obtaining feedback on works-in-progress, brainstorming ideas, or researching and discovering new sources. These supportive functions do not inherently undermine academic integrity.
Defenders also argue students have their personal reasons for using essay writing services without intending outright deception. For overburdened students juggling heavy course loads, jobs and family responsibilities, the services provide a way to complete all assigned work under time pressure without compromising health or well-being. While not ideal, this argument holds such use should not automatically be labeled “cheating.”
A further consideration is that plagiarism detection has advanced to reliably identify contract cheating. So students now gain little long-term benefit from deception, as submitted work can easily be cross-checked for indications of contract cheating like atypical writing styles or references. This lessens the actual competitive advantage and risk of credential devaluation over time.
On balance, using professional writers to fully complete academic assignments for submission does appear to violate principles of academic integrity that are core to higher education. There are grey areas like the use of services primarily for support, feedback or idea-generation that do not necessarily constitute cheating. Ultimately, reasonable people can disagree on where to draw the line. Overall it is a nuanced debate with arguments on both sides of this complex issue.
While paying someone else to fully complete academic work threatens principles of authentic assessment and attribution of ideas, some uses of essay writing services exist in a grey area and should not automatically be considered cheating. But outright deception and misrepresenting others’ work as one’s own clearly crosses ethical lines. Overall, the issue involves weighing principles of academic integrity against practical considerations of student well-being and workloads. Reasonable people can disagree on resolving this complex debate.