A cheat's paradise

'Paper mills'
A wide range of subjects
Plagiarism more often is a matter of sloppiness than dishonesty

Around the world universities -- and even in some cases, high schools -- are getting increasingly apprehensive about the capacity for cheating from the Internet. Once, in the days when computers took up a mere floor in the science building, cheating students often looked for illicit help from old tests or older students.

Now, however, students can plagiarize from their laptops, pointing and clicking their way into a term paper treasure trove. The Internet can be a potent research tool, but it can also be a paradise for cheaters, where students can point, click and copy their way to finished assignments in minutes.

'Paper mills'

There are dozens of online 'paper mills' offering free essays, book reports and term papers ranging from grade school to college level assignments. Even the most inexpert Web surfer can find them by visiting an Internet portal such as Yahoo!, which lists more than a dozen under a 'research papers' category.

A few of these call themselves 'student portals,' offering free e-mail, chat, message boards or links to financial aid for colleges along with their archives of term papers. Other sites are bolder, posting advice on how to cheat on exams along with thousands of free written assignments for downloading.

They say the thousands of papers posted on these sites are for research purposes even though the Web addresses include the word 'cheat.'

One Web site that provides public message boards for its members was full of panicked please for specific assignments.

“I need a paper on Huck Finn; on how his conscience played a role in the book,” wrote one member named Roxy05, although the note was full of exclamation points, the word 'conscience' was mis-spelled. “Anyone have it? Please, very important.”

A wide range of subjects

These cheater Web sites have work covering a wide range of subjects, but most have standard assignments that most high school and college students face, including analyses of classic literature, history papers and social sciences assignments. Shakespeare's writings and Aristotle's works are popular subjects.

One Web page that gives away writing assignments boasts, “We'll be around for as long as students have homewovk to do,” and another touts the slogan “Download your workload.”

Most of the sites are poorly organised, with many redundant or dead links. Several papers were riddled with spelling errors, shoddy grammar and factual errors. But in spite of the poor quality, frantic students stuck with little time and less initiative might turn to the Internet for a quick fix.

Schools and colleges are appalled. “I think they're a serious problem, because they undermine what universities are all about, and that's learning by doing,” said a plagiarism investigator at Marquette University in Wisconsin. “We work really hard to make assignments so that you have to do it.

“There isn't a paper that's exactly going to fit. They're really cheating themselves out of the chance to learn.”

Usually less than one percent of students are caught in plagiarism incidents. Fewer still are caught in Internet related incidents of cheating.

Plagiarism more often is a matter of sloppiness than dishonesty

Plagiarism more often is a matter of sloppiness than dishonesty, because students don't list their sources correctly. With a Web browser on one side of a computer screen and a word-processor on the other, the lines between the two can become blurred, and mistakes can happen.

Plagiarism – accidental or purposeful – is a touchy subject for lots of students, and trying to get them to talk about it is like pulling teeth, even if they aren't doing it themselves. Even a high school student known personally to me wouldn't talk either on, or off, the record. “There's no way I'm talking about this,” said the student, “What if the school or my parents found out?”

“Yes, I know kids who do it,” she said. “It's mostly with the older teachers who they know won't really check the Internet.”

By: Lindsay Wood

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