We can’t let the cheats beat the education system

Justin Thomas writes about the practice among the region's students of buying essays

Each time an honest student sees others prospering from the submission of bought essays, the temptation to "join in" increases. Illustration by Matt Cardy / Getty Images

When you truly write an essay, it writes you. This was one of my tweets that was meant to encourage uninspired students – those stuck in the procrastination phase of essay writing.

Unlike most of my tweets that elude attention, this was retweeted within a few seconds. I was excited by the response and suspected that it came from an enthusiastic student, keen to share my wisdom. But much to my disappointment, the re-tweeter was actually a shady essay-writing service. It was probably using a programme called Twitterbot that automatically generates tweets whenever it finds some key words – in this case it was “essay”.

A quick search on Google Trends reveals that these dubious essay-writing services are rising rapidly. Google Trends is a service that allows you to see the relative frequency with which particular terms and phrases are being searched for, globally. The search frequency for the words “essay writing service” has quadrupled since 2009. If you take a closer look at the data, you will see that the search frequency peaks and troughs in line with the academic year. There are clear highs in late spring and autumn (April/ November) and lows during the summer and winter holidays. The pattern confirms that it is students who are using these services.

But what type of students buy essays? Is it the corrupt few or the conforming many? I suspect that the answer lies somewhere in the middle. But each time an honest student sees others prospering from the submission of bought essays, I’m sure the temptation to “join in” increases. Ultimately though, if everyone joins in, the main beneficiary of our education system will be these unscrupulous companies that sell essay-writing services.

Such companies try hard to project the image of being respectable businesses. At one such outlet, for example, you can chat online with a friendly expert who will take your specifications and answer any questions you may have. Placing an order takes just three minutes. All essays are guaranteed “100 per cent plagiarism free” with prices starting from $10 (Dh37) per page. Some websites explicitly allow you to choose your writing level: high school, college or graduate. Some of these sites even have testimonials from supposedly satisfied customers.

A graduating student once openly told me that she made it through college without writing any one of the essays she submitted. The student in question was fairly bright and could write essays; she chose to buy them because it was easier for her. This type of attitude will persist and proliferate so long as education is viewed as a consumer product. Education is a process not a product, and it is much more than a means to a job.

If buying essays is not bad enough, some students don’t even read what they buy. A colleague recently told me of a case where a student obviously hadn’t read her bespoke essay. The third party that wrote the essay had maliciously peppered it with bigoted comments directed against Arabs.

The unwitting student, herself an Arab, had paid good money for an essay that insulted her culture. The instructor who graded the work was horrified and immediately summoned the student to discuss the essay.

The poor student had two options: profess a bigoted hatred of Arabs, or confess to buying the essay. She chose the latter. In this case the cheat was cheated. The student was cheated out of some cash, but more importantly, she cheated herself out of an opportunity to improve, develop and learn.

As long as these online services are allowed to prosper, essay writing skills in our students will slowly atrophy. Globally, I know many educators who have lost all faith in the take-home essay. For many, the essay as a form of assessment is already dead. This is a shame, because when you truly write an essay, it writes you.

Dr Justin Thomas is an associate professor of psychology at Zayed University and author of Psychological Well-Being in the Gulf States

On Twitter: @DrJustinThomas