Anyone have any experience with "academic knowledge".com

osiris_2

Hi all

This is my first post, and hopefully I've put it on the right place!

I'm currently a student doing a PhD and am self funded.
I've been looking to do some part time work and applied and have been accepted to do some tutoring work with

http://www.getatutorsopinion.com/

and their parent company

http://www.academicknowledge.com/

Does anyone have any experience in dealing with this company?

Cheers

bitsandpieces

Sure it's too late to help the original poster, but if others are looking at this it's worth pointing out that the rates actually aren't great - they could pay £8,000 to write a 100,000 word PhD, which sounds like a lot, but these normally take 3-4 years work :eek: A PhD student could likely earn more per hour as a seminar or individual tutor, or for marking student work. Also worth pointing out that - if the writing is used in plagiarised work and it's realised that you have provided the work in question - this could be a disciplinary matter with your university...

Voyager2002

The post referred to in #5 has gone, and good riddance too! However, these responses are fascinating documents, illustrating what violence and underdevelopment do to people.

Just for the record, I am so desperate that I too applied to these people. Their response went straight to my SPAM box, perhaps showing me how much or little I should expect from them.

melancholly

is this basically a way of student buying some essays to pass? i sincerely hope not as however you dress that up, it will always be cheating.

Voyager2002

melancholly wrote: »

is this basically a way of student buying some essays to pass? i sincerely hope not as however you dress that up, it will always be cheating.

Their website makes it clear that what the student buys is an example essay, which they may then use as a tool to create their own work. The terms for clients expressly forbid students from passing off purchased essays as their own work. However, quite what such students do in practice can be easily imagined.

Debt_Robot

I think the whole concept of a website that lets people buy example essays is wrong. We have all been so stressed about work and essays but there is nothing wrong asking for help from your teachers.

That's what they are there for, not opportunistic webpages.

WendyR14

This is a fascinating thread - I've never seen the poinjt of view of the providers of 'cheat' essays put forward before. I understand that it is a business model and clearly not illegal.

I am an academic at a UK University and one of my roles is as a panel member considering allegations of unfair means - including plagiarism. We are seeing more and more products of these sort of companies. So much so that many universities find themselves re-introducing vivas (which had declined or died out at levels below PhD) to check that candidates really understand what they have written. There is also increasingly a return to exams as the main form of assessment. This second trend is such a pity as the stress of exams and the lost chance to do more 'realistic' pieces of work count against the very students who most often turn to these providers. It is sadly true that most often our overseas students are the ones mangled up with this - but it may just be that they are less skilled at hiding that they did not write the work. I spend a lot of time designing coursework activities to facilitate really get to grips with a subject - so those who do the actual writing will get the benefit of the education not those who pay the fees to these companies.

It is a sad trend - and must be frustrating for those who believe they are buying an education with their University fees. I have long wished we could give all entrants their degree certificate (a 2:2 I guess) on arrival at University and then the education part of the process could be with those who wish to participate in it.

As I say, interesting to see this other side.

Voyager2002

WendyR14, Google Jennifer Wiss (I think she posted on this thread). She is the driving force behind this company, and has argued that it is providing a useful service. Although many of her arguments boil down to stating that this kind of service could not be abused if the universities were doing their job properly, but in the meantime...

I must say, any tutor worth their salt would ask questions if they received a competently writen essay that did not use sources recommended for the course in question, did not reflect the ideas presented in the course, and used English in a manner different from the student's other work.

cutterschoicenotmine

Its fairly easy. Your helping people to cheat by working for this company. You gain the qualification by earning it yourself, not by someone else doing the work and you handing it in.

Tennishead

It seems pretty obvious to me that the essays this company produce are likely to be used for cheating. The facility to order a "custom model answer" means students can order an essay to answer their coursework questions, which can either be handed straight in or used to make the job easier - still cheating. The company stays the right side of the law by the look of it, but that doesn't mean they aren't facilitating cheating.

And for anyone tempted to buy an essay - do you really think you can trust a company that does this to give you an essay which has not also been given to someone else on your course?