Thursday, July 13, 2023

Online Essay Writers - Trust and Cheating for School


There are two answers to the question "Can I trust online essay writers?" on Quora. One is mine, and I answer "can the reader trust the contents of an essay I put online" ... the other guy took the question to mean something very different, as in people cheating for school. On the other one, I commented to express my surprise at this kind of cheating even existing. Not that it is surprising per se, but it's still a surprise to one whose last dealings with school assigned essays were before the internet was a big thing.

Q, A1
Can I trust online essay writers?
https://www.quora.com/Can-I-trust-online-essay-writers/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-1


Hans-Georg Lundahl
none/ apprx Masters in Latin (language) & Greek (language), Lund University
13.VII.2023
An essay writer is not asking for your trust, but for your attention to his argument.

I suppose you are referring to the type of essays that make an argument, like C. S. Lewis Fernseeds and Elephants or my own …

Sects, Historical Critical Method, Post-Confessional Christianity
https://filolohika.blogspot.com/2011/02/sects-historical-critical-method-post.html


If you want sth you either can trust or are supposed to be able to trust, go to manuals and official sites.

The problem - one I try to highlight with some of my essays - is this: a lot of things you are supposed to be able to trust are really NOT that worthy of anyone’s trust.

Q, A2
Can I trust online essay writers?
https://www.quora.com/Can-I-trust-online-essay-writers/answer/M-Moore-162


M Moore
International Award-Winning Technical Writer
13.VII.2023
Do your own work.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
13.VII.2023
Wait, you take “essay writers” that are “online” as meaning guys who offer to write someone’s school assignment essays against payment?

Sure, I agree on that one, the pupils should be doing their own work - OR not be in that school where they have to write that assigned essay!

M Moore
13.VII.2023
Uh, yeah, I did! I guess that I have seen too many articles about Craig’s list ads for people who write essays for students, and in particular, for students who want to hire someone to write essays for college applications. I’ve actually seen ads selling essays and term papers, even for specific classes at specific schools. Some even brag about the grade that the essay/paper got. 😕

Hans-Georg Lundahl
14.VII.2023
Ouch.

Gross. People who need that usually would be living their life better at that age outside schools.

M Moore
14.VII.2023
Well, remember that there are people who pay other people to take college entrance exams like the SAT for them. I would slightly amend your statement to say that good schools would be better off with such people not being admitted to them. Unfortunately I suspect that in most cases the cheaters go undetected, the recent scandals involving people like the actress Lori Loughlin being the rare exception. I often wonder, when a student purchases a paper that someone else already wrote for a specific class — one of those advertised like “Received an A in Dr. Smith’s Psych 201 class” — how that gets by undetected. I guess that at huge schools, maybe teaching assistants do the grading, and there are 100s of students, so nobody notices? (I was lucky enough to go to a small school on an academic scholarship, and something like that never would have slipped by there.)

Hans-Georg Lundahl
14.VII.2023
I am not saying such cheaters have no advantages. I am saying it’s not overall advantageous for an honest and productive life.

M Moore
14.VII.2023
Oh, I didn’t think that that was what you meant. I agree with your last statement, but I wonder if cheaters really care about an honest and productive life — or at least the “honest” part — or if they are just willing to use any available (selfish) means to achieve what they want.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
14.VII.2023
You have a point.

M Moore
14.VII.2023
Sad, isn’t it?

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