Fake academic materials are produced for a wide variety of subjects ranging from introductory literature analysis to high-level technical disciplines. The commercial production of false work is an international industry with operations ranging in scale from local ads to multimillion-dollar production houses.
So when a student decides to cheat on a paper, they have a plethora of options to choose from. But why cheat in the first place?
Justin Colwell [not his real name], a student who used to freelance poetry assignments at the University of New Brunswick, believes fear of failure is a common motivator.
“I got most of my business during exam periods or midterm season, where somebody would just have too many things going on, usually the people were overloading, so six classes a semester, and they would just not have time so sit down for that two hours and really understand what a poem was about.”
Colwell admitted that some students sought his services out of pure laziness. These student are far less likely to succeed overall however.
“Most of the people I’ve done it for dropped out after first year,” Colwell said.
Professors are well aware of students cheating on assignments.
Matthew Sears, associated professor of Classics at UNB said the pressure many students feel to attain a Bachelor’s degree, despite personal desire, interest, or ability, plays a major role in creating academic dishonesty.
“It’s part and parcel of the industrialization of education in general now,” he said.
Sears said that many students consider a Bachelor’s degree mandatory for finding work and that it drives them to questionable behaviour. He said many students come to believe a paper needs to be completed by any means necessary.
Desperation for a degree is also met with uncertainty in one’s own ability. Another anonymous writer who wrote university application said that their clients were often unsure of their abilities to eloquently present themselves on paper.
The source found the ethics of their actions troubling, but the financial benefits were initially overwhelming. “One hundred dollars for two short essays, why not?” they said.
The source also said they were relieved the buyers didn’t always prosper.
“I was kind of sad [the client] didn’t get in, but at the same time happy as I know he wouldn’t have gotten in on his own merits.”
Admissions essays are projects particularly susceptible to forgery and substitution due to the highly anonymous nature of university applications.
Jennifer Andrews, chair of the English department at UNB, said that today’s culture of anonymity is a major reason for the success of essay mills. Andrew believes that academic dishonesty is perhaps a more serious problem at larger universities where triple-digit class sizes prevent instructors from becoming familiar with each student’s unique style of writing. At such institutions a student might have very little contact with their professor, and view them more as a merciless grading machine than a human being.
