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maycm
'cheeky banana'
Joined: 29 Apr 2006
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 Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 4:03 pm Post subject: Google bans essay writing adverts |
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Google is to ban adverts for essay writing services - following claims that plagiarism is threatening the integrity of university degrees.
There have been complaints from universities about students being sold customised essays on the internet.
The advert ban from the Google search engine has been "warmly welcomed" by university authorities.
But it has angered essay writing firms which say this will unfairly punish legitimate businesses.
From next month, Google will no longer take adverts from companies which sell essays and dissertations - and the internet company has written to advertisers to tell them about the policy.
The move has been applauded by universities which have struggled with the problem of students dishonestly submitting material copied from the internet.
"Making life harder for these cynical web 'essay mills' is a step in the right direction," says Professor Drummond Bone, president of Universities UK.
"We welcome this move. Essay writing sites claim that students pay hundreds of pounds for model answers - but do not then submit these as their own work. We all know this claim is absurd."
The universities organisation says that in particular there have been difficulties with essays bought by students from companies which sell tailor-made answers, where fees can be up to £5,000 for a single piece of extended work.
There have been reports of up to 12,000 essays being sold to students in a year, says Universities UK.
These essays and assignments can be written by freelance academics or other students - and it is less easy for plagiarism software used by universities to detect such work.
Google, commenting on the change, says its advertising policies are "developed and evaluated based on multiple factors, including legal and cultural considerations plus user and customer experience".
And a spokesperson said that the advert ban was expected to be applied across Google's global network.
But one of the UK companies fearing that it will be prevented from advertising, Essaywriter.co.uk, is angry at the threat to their business - with 80% of their customers coming through Google.
Managing director, Matthew Wilson, says this will punish the legitimate, transparent companies, which sell essays, but which warn students that they must not be used dishonestly.
Mr Wilson says that such a bespoke service, selling tailor-made essays at short notice, with prices around £70 and upwards, can be used as a guide for students wanting extra assistance.
Overseas students are frequently customers, he says - but the firm makes clear that essays should not be passed off as being written by the student.
And he says that such a blanket ban will not stop the search engine from generating links to rogue essay selling companies, which have been accused of scamming customers by providing poor quality material.
Google has its own blacklist of types of products and services for which it will not accept advertising, including certain types of firearms, tobacco, fake documents, "miracle cures" and prostitution.
The above information was plagarised from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6680457.stm |
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faceless
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Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 5:07 pm Post subject: Re: Google bans essay writing adverts |
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I do think it's a good idea to try and stop this kind of thing though. When I was doing an economics course years back the tutor asked me "who wrote this?" after I handed in an essay - the bugger genuinely thought I'd got someone else to do it on the basis that it had points that he hadn't taught me... apparently common sense and reading the newspapers outside of class was not the norm! |
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maycm
'cheeky banana'
Joined: 29 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 5:38 pm Post subject: |
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| With some types of essays its easy to simply regurgitate the tutor's own point of view in your own words without understanding, so that's just as bad. The whole point is it devalues the meaning behind a qualification, and is a sign of laziness, regardless of what the proponents might say. |
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eefanincan
Admin
Joined: 29 Apr 2006
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 11:16 pm Post subject: Re: Google bans essay writing adverts |
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| faceless wrote: |
I do think it's a good idea to try and stop this kind of thing though. When I was doing an economics course years back the tutor asked me "who wrote this?" after I handed in an essay - the bugger genuinely thought I'd got someone else to do it on the basis that it had points that he hadn't taught me... apparently common sense and reading the newspapers outside of class was not the norm! |
God forbid you actually thought for yourself and are informed on issues going on around you. I think maycm's right... a lot of instructors just want you to spit back what they've told you and nothing more. I had a sociology prof like that and she was a total bitch. It didn't help that everytime we had a class with her she would start off by saying that she disliked nursing students and couldn't understand why they had to take her course..... believe me, it was a waste of my time too. The one time I tried to write my opinion in a project she marked me much lower than I deserved. |
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luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
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| Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 1:44 am Post subject: Re: Google bans essay writing adverts |
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| eefanincan wrote: | | God forbid you actually thought for yourself and are informed on issues going on around you. I think maycm's right... a lot of instructors just want you to spit back what they've told you and nothing more. |
thats funny you say that, i was just earlier reading something saying the same kinda thing;
| Quote: | | the idea that people could be free is extremely frightening to anybody with power. thats whys the 1960's have such a bad reputation. i mean theres a big literature about the sixties, and its mostly written by intellectuals, because they're the people who write books, so naturally it has a very bad name [ libertarianism ] - because they hated it. you could see it in the faculty clubs at the time: people were traumatized by the idea that students were suddenly asking questions and not just copying things down. in fact when people like allan bloom [ author of closing of the american mind ] write as if the foundations of civilization were collapsing in the sixties, from their point of view thats exactly right: they were. because the foundations of civilization are "i'm a big professor, and i tell you what to say, and what to think, and you write it down in your notebooks, and you repeat it." |
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eefanincan
Admin
Joined: 29 Apr 2006
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 2:33 pm Post subject: Re: Google bans essay writing adverts |
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| luke wrote: | | eefanincan wrote: | | God forbid you actually thought for yourself and are informed on issues going on around you. I think maycm's right... a lot of instructors just want you to spit back what they've told you and nothing more. |
thats funny you say that, i was just earlier reading something saying the same kinda thing;
| Quote: | | the idea that people could be free is extremely frightening to anybody with power. thats whys the 1960's have such a bad reputation. i mean theres a big literature about the sixties, and its mostly written by intellectuals, because they're the people who write books, so naturally it has a very bad name [ libertarianism ] - because they hated it. you could see it in the faculty clubs at the time: people were traumatized by the idea that students were suddenly asking questions and not just copying things down. in fact when people like allan bloom [ author of closing of the american mind ] write as if the foundations of civilization were collapsing in the sixties, from their point of view thats exactly right: they were. because the foundations of civilization are "i'm a big professor, and i tell you what to say, and what to think, and you write it down in your notebooks, and you repeat it." |
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Interesting. I could never understand that attitude.... I paid more than enough money for my education and I'm damn well going to ask questions when I've got them. |
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Skylace
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Joined: 29 Apr 2006
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
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| Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 2:35 pm Post subject: |
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| When I was at college I actually had a side job writing papers for other students. Made a good amount of money too. I charged with a sliding scale. Depending on the grade they wanted. I also made the promise that if it didn't make the desired grade paid for, I would refund that part of the money and I wouldn't charge extra if it made higher. Never had to make a refund. Ah college. |
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nekokate
Joined: 13 Dec 2006
Location: West Yorkshire, UK
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| Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 2:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Skylace wrote: | | When I was at college I actually had a side job writing papers for other students. Made a good amount of money too. I charged with a sliding scale. Depending on the grade they wanted. I also made the promise that if it didn't make the desired grade paid for, I would refund that part of the money and I wouldn't charge extra if it made higher. Never had to make a refund. Ah college. |
Whoa! You must be pretty damn smart if you could write a paper specifically to get a certain grade! If I was wearing a hat I'd take it off to you  |
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faceless
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Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 2:56 pm Post subject: |
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she didn't say what the courses were though - I heard it was "Pop Divas from the late 90s" and "Cheese Sauce - A History" that she was best at!
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Skylace
Admin
Joined: 29 Apr 2006
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
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| Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 3:03 pm Post subject: |
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| faceless wrote: | she didn't say what the courses were though - I heard it was "Pop Divas from the late 90s" and "Cheese Sauce - A History" that she was best at!
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Let's see, I wrote papers on everything from the history of economic development in the United States to Anti-Social Personality Disorder. I wrote papers for Psych students, English students, Biology students, the lot. I'm good at research. It tends to happen when you're raised by a shrink and started to help him when you were six with his research. And you enjoy reading as your hobby. |
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Lostinthestates
Joined: 28 Feb 2007
Location: Bethlehem, USA
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| Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 3:11 pm Post subject: |
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Wow - I wrote papers for people from other courses at college too. I was just happy though when they passed  I couldn't have told them in advance what grade they would get  |
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Skylace
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Joined: 29 Apr 2006
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
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| Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 3:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Lostinthestates wrote: | | Wow - I wrote papers for people from other courses at college too. I was just happy though when they passed I couldn't have told them in advance what grade they would get |
That came from knowing the professors and what they wanted. For me doing the papers was also research into people. I had to make sure I wrote like the person I was doing the paper for and I geared it toward what the professors personal desires for a paper were. I had fun doing it as it was a challenge into understanding what makes all sorts of people tick and how the relate to each other.
I was good in high school as well about getting any of my teachers to go off on a tangent to avoid a class assignment. |
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Lostinthestates
Joined: 28 Feb 2007
Location: Bethlehem, USA
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| Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 3:23 pm Post subject: |
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| I am impressed .. I think I am getting into line for the people taking their hat off to you |
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Skylace
Admin
Joined: 29 Apr 2006
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
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| Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 3:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Lostinthestates wrote: | | I am impressed .. I think I am getting into line for the people taking their hat off to you |
Don't. I found it quite easy and just did it for my own entertainment and for a bit of extra pocket money. Had another friend who did some similar stuff.
I didn't do it during my masters work anymore because I didn't have the time, the energy or the desire to continue with it. |
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faceless
admin
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 3:41 pm Post subject: |
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| I used to rewrite people's essays - as in editing grammar etc - but I would never have felt comfortable writing an entire essay for someone. |
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