While writing essays can be a tedious and time-consuming task for students, many turn to essay typing services online that claim they can write an entire paper for a fee. These types of automatic essay generation websites raise serious ethical issues and often produce low-quality work plagued with errors. Students considering using such services should be aware of the downsides.
How essay typing websites work: These websites take basic information provided by the student such as the essay topic, length, target audience, and deadline. Students are then asked to answer a few multiple-choice or short answer questions about the topic to help the website understand what they want covered. Some sites require an additional short summary be written manually. This information is fed into the website’s algorithm which searches its database for relevant information on the topic to auto-generate a first draft.
The essay is then reviewed and “finished” by the website’s writers who are often based overseas with limited qualifications and fluency in English. They edit for grammar, smooth out transitions, check citations, and tweak the conclusion. The final paper is delivered to the student, often with a guarantee that it is fully original and non-plagiarized. Payments are made online via credit card. Prices range from $15-$30 per page depending on the deadline, word count, and academic level.
Ethical issues with automatic essay generation: There are numerous problems with relying on these types of websites to produce academic work:
Plagiarism. Even if human writers review the paper, accurately paraphrasing large sections of text from various sources into a coherent essay is nearly impossible without copying verbatim or very closely. Most essays generated will contain significant plagiarized content, violating most school policies.
Originality. While tweaked by writers, the foundation and bulk of the essay is written by an algorithm, not the student. This violates the expectation at academic institutions that students do their own original work. It also circumvents the learning process.
Quality. The essays are often hastily written or edited by writers without credentials or mastery of the topic. Papers regularly contain factual errors, weak analysis, illogical flow, improper citations, and other issues. Relying on automatically generated work can seriously compromise a student’s grade.
Legal and ethical issues. Many schools explicitly prohibit using pre-written papers from online sources. Doing so without permission could be considered academic dishonesty or even fraud under some legal jurisdictions. It also promotes a “pay to pass” mentality rather than valuing the learning experience.
Potential scams. While some websites appear legitimate on the surface, others have been accused of taking payment and delivering scanty or no content, using fake credentials, reselling the same papers to multiple customers, and poor customer service. There is little recourse if problems arise.
Potential consequences of using automatic essay services: Students need to be aware of serious potential consequences if an instructor discovers an automatically generated paper has been passed off as the student’s own work:
Failure of the assignment. Plagiarized or low quality work will obviously not earn a good grade and could result in a failing mark.
Referral for discipline. Most academic dishonesty is handled internally but extreme or repeat cases could face suspension, expulsion, or revocation of credits/degrees for plagiarism or academic fraud.
Legal penalties. In rare cases, students have faced legal penalties such as fines or criminal charges if the academic dishonesty was severe enough to constitute obtaining a credential under false pretenses in the eyes of law enforcement.
Future academic troubles. A mark on their record for cheating could jeopardize scholarships, honors status, or letters of recommendation from that instructor or institution that are needed for graduate programs or future employment. Word may also spread to other professors.
Lack of learning outcomes. While automating may get a passing grade, it will not help students improve critical thinking, research, or writing skills that are the core intended outcomes of an assignment. They will not gain the knowledge meant to be demonstrated. Future courses will be compromised without prerequisite skills developed.
Tips for writing essays effectively the right way: Rather than taking shortcuts, students are better served developing good time management and work habits to complete assignments with integrity:
Start early and break work into scheduled sessions over multiple days/weeks rather than procrastinating. Build in buffer time for unexpected delays.
Use your school’s writing center for assistance with brainstorming topics, outlining, thesis development, citations, and feedback on drafts from trained tutors.
Schedule practice time for researching source material like books and credible websites. Develop notecards to pull relevant quotes easily.
Outline key points for each section before writing to stay organized. Leave space to add supporting details later.
Use a uniform citation style online like MLA or APA to insert in-text citations and References/Work Cited pages flawlessly as you write.
Proofread carefully for spelling/grammar errors, clarity, flow, missing words once a draft is finished before submission.
Contact instructors directly if stuck or needing extensions rather than risking penalties that could negatively impact your future.
Adopting good scholastic integrity and time management skills leads to better understanding of subjects, higher quality writing, and smoother academic experiences than temptation of risky automation services. With practice, writing essays can become less daunting and more productive without compromising ethics or grades.
While essay typing websites aim to appeal to convenient shortcuts for busy students, the risks of plagiarism, low quality work, deception, lost learning outcomes, and potential discipline issues outweigh any perceived benefits. Developing one’s own writing abilities through diligent work and use of school resources result in much better long-term academic outcomes and career preparation compared to relying on automated essay generation services of questionable reliability, originality and expertise. With effort, students can write high-quality papers themselves with full integrity.
Andrew Stroud