Essay Mills: How the contract works

The essay mill is a particularly dispiriting symptom of how education can be commodified. This unfortunate vision is apparent on a typical site from our sample of 100: 123writings.com trumpets “we’ve worked out a reasonable price, it’s time to get shopping”. That is an opportunity they oversee from a ‘customer service center’. Recently, the language for discussing these websites has shifted from the industrial metaphor of the ‘mill’ towards the more process oriented ‘contract cheating’. That phrase has been successfully cultivated by two British computer scientists who have energetically worked to expose the methods of these shadowy ‘services’ (Lancaster & Clarke, 20082016; Clarke & Lancaster, 2013). Their phrase is more useful because ‘cheating’ clearly links these sites to matters of academic integrity. While ‘contract’ stresses that users (e.g., students) enter into a business relationship with ‘customer service representatives’ operating through these websites. Finally, the products on offer go far beyond milling the humble essay (see the next section of this document). Meanwhile, the language that the services use to talk about themselves is more in a spirit of faux scholarship, as in: ‘the academic assistance field’ and work that is managed by a ‘flexible quality control system’ etc.

These sites have attracted a great deal of attention from mass media (e.g., GuardianBBCTabThe I The SunThe Times, and Telegraph) and, perhaps as a consequence, attention from politicians also (Jo Johnson). Web searching will reveal that essay mills themselves have been recognised and discussed for almost 20 years. Indeed some have argued that this kind of cheating represents one of the oldest forms of integrity lapse in the history of university education (Bertram Gallant, 2008). Yet only recently has there been a flurry of challenging publicity. It is unclear what precipitated this interest but perhaps it has been useful if it has aroused the concerns of vice-chancellors and other senior managers in education. Clearly, the use of these services by students is an uncomfortable situation for universities. Then the apparent difficulty experienced by institutions in dealing with it can only amplify the embarrassment (Channel 4). However, progress in challenging these services needs to be grounded on a good understanding of they function.

Finally, it is sobering to note the very poisonous way in which the promotional text on these sites often represents the HE student’s teaching and learning experience (Crook and Nixon, 2020). Although some of those toxic descriptions could usefully invite institutions to reflect on their practices – and how far the claimed shortfalls have any credibility.

Securing a ‘contract’

There are a very large number of sites offering the services described above and search engine optimization may ensure they are readily found. Here is one tentative list of links – it is very long. Because of the dark nature of their business, contact details are rarely go beyond that necessary to open anonymous negotiation. It is therefore uncertain in which country a site is based, nor whether sites with different names are managed by the same ‘master’ site. Interactions are structured to protect this anonymity. Nevertheless, forming a contract with a customer is a straightforward web-based exchange. Typically, negotiation might open with an anonymous text conversation at a beckoning home page chat window (24/7) on the site. We took part in the following example:

The customer specifies several features that they require in the product – particularly, length and deadline but also the anticipated grade it might earn when assessed. Here is a price sheet for our own essay inquiry:

In the case of a returning customer, it may be possible for them to request a particular writer. Otherwise the website’s practice would involve a hidden bidding process by those in-house writers who may be interested in delivering the product specified. Ellis et al (2018) have reported on how these business processes work, insofar as they were able to uncover them. Clarke & Lancaster (2013) present a number of diagrams that also illustrate the typical workflow. Various paraphernalia of mainstream retail practice might be offered. For example, refunds: ‘Our company enjoys a high customer satisfaction rate, while refund requests are rare, which is partly due to our crystal-clear Money Back Guarantee’ (advancedwriters.com). Sites also make widespread use of customer testimonials (although we question the authority of these in a later section).

Academic integrity postures

It is widely understood that these sites market products designed to be submitted for assessment under the customer’s name as author. Otherwise why would it be necessary to promise that “You will be able to choose your favorite writer, so your essays all have the same voice” (123writings.com)? Or to reassure that: “..our writers can go through all the research and then write the piece for you, so in fact, you won’t need to actually do anything” (123writings.com). However, in ‘terms and conditions’ the nature of these services gets described more cautiously: “All products are provided solely as examples for research, reference, and/or for the purposes of learning how to write a paper in a proper manner and in a particular citation style” (premiumtermpapers.org). Evidently this ‘for illustration only’ position provides a buffer against legal challenges; although it is a position that can nevertheless be seriously argued by those involved, as in this video blog by the CEO of UKessays.com.

Questionable appropriation of distinguished logos?

Sites can work a gloss of academic legitimacy in other ways. Most commonly, by stressing the possibility of a commissioning customer being able to work closely with the commissioned writer. This trades on uncertainty within institutional regulations whereby warnings against colluding are mixed with encouragement to develop a collaborative attitude, work in groups, or develop team spirit during learning (Crook & Nixon, 2019). Websites express the wholesome service-as-collaboration ideal in terms such as these: “When you hire somebody to write an example for you, you get a research paper written strictly according to your specifications, in the format you need, based on your ideas if necessary” (advancedwriters.com). There are other devices whereby sites may assert that contract writing merely supports students’ creativity, rather than displacing it. So, sites often include pages that offer extensive free advice on essay writing. Such resources may help to position a site’s other services as within the traditional space of helping develop study skills. Or still more inclusively: “We do this as a service to the college community. It’s a way for great college writers to make some money, and a way for poor college writers to gain help from their peers” (123writings.com)

How customers are recruited

A contract cheating service will cover the detail of service provision on its own website. But customers still have to be drawn there to experience it. Many sites are optimised to appear quickly in google searches (at the time of writing, simply typing “essays” into Google generates two essay mill hits on the first page). Beyond passive search, social media can provide more direct and vivid ways of reaching customers. Many will advertise on YouTube. For instance UKessays have a video that includes filmed endorsements from a range of undergraduates – this video has now had 11,000 views. YouTube ‘influencers’ have also been recruited to recommend essay mills – although a BBC investigation exposed this trend, so much so that YouTube acted against it.

Companies have also operated on the more interpersonal and group communication media such as WhatsApp, Facebook, WeChat and Twitter. Recently WhatsApp groups for new students have been infiltrated by sites seeking assignment commissions. Although a company using this method commented to journalists that it was not regarded as very effective. Nevertheless, they were still able to report that: “in a week, we can get about seven to 10 papers from all the UK WhatsApp groups”. On the anonymous and private text space set up by our project, a number of student participants referred to these online services and their methods.For example:

There are lots of ads from the essay/task/dissertation writing companies in the Wechat groups. They sent their ads almost every day, especially during the Easter holidays, which really bothered me

I have seen many adverts on Facebook and YouTube for services which will write student essays or dissertations for free with ‘no plagiarism’ etc. for a fee. this infuriates me because the mere fact these services can exist means that there’s some students out there using them which is entirely unfair for people who do all of their work by themselve.

When I started my life here, a girl (might be a woman, I’m not sure) told me she’s a new student who would come here later and want to add me in Wechat to get some information here. I added her and told her about the dormitory, the class and student activities I’ve been through here so far. Our talk finished. After that, she sent me some weird message made me really confused. I checked her posts in “moments” in Wechat and finally found she Is staff from essay writing company.

I don’t know anybody who hasn’t seen the ads on social media sites offering essay writing services, yet my university has never addressed the existence of these services. I have always supposed that the reason for this is because they don’t want to advertise them to anybody who may not already know, however this is a mistake – I would be very surprised if there are any students who don’t know about these services.

Many writing agencies contact university students through social media to preach that they could help them write their coursework and promise the final mark will be ideal with their help. Some students may resist the temptation, but some students are happy to find help from these agencies.

A recent research exercise monitoring Twitter (Amigud, 2019) has revealed essay mill sites using intelligent bots to compete in detecting tweets posted by potential customers. After posting a tweet with certain key words, the researchers were approached with writing offers within minutes.

Seduction of users at the website

Once a potential customer is at an essay mill website, very familiar techniques of brand promotion are applied in the text and images. Rowland et al (2018) have summarised these. In our own 100 site sample, we found recurring stress on the following:

  • The quality of the product and the experience of the authors
  • The security of communications and records
  • Heritage assurance from a longstanding brand
  • Diversity of topics covered
  • Fast, always-on and sensitive customer service
  • Transparency of process
  • Relationship building with customer (personalized products, control over writer, loyalty discounts)

In marketing terms, a service of this kind faces particular challenges. As mentioned above security is one, and care is taken in the management of anonymity. However, a second is the uneasy understanding that the provision (and use) of such services is morally controversial. This leads many sites to invest in various empathic communications that serve to reassure the potential customer, or work on implying their status is one of ‘educational victims’. In analysing our 100 sites, we became aware of the following themes designed to make customers feel comfortable (Crook and Nixon, 2020)

1) Just another online purchase.

Sites would stress their uncomplicated professionalism and highlight the rigorous quality management procedures that would imply respectable and high standards, rather than shadowy practices.

2) Work/life balance.

A strong theme in which customers are reminded of the importance to be attached to balancing time to include social and recreational commitments. This might also involve acknowledging the need to hold down part time jobs.
E.g.: “For college students who are overwhelmed by the volume of their assignments, online writing services could provide the ideal solution – allowing students to focus their allotted homework time on one or two assignments, while outsourcing some of their work to experienced professionals for extra homework help” (123writings.com)

3) Join a likeminded and stable community

This is mainly achieved by extensive customer testimonials. These leave an impression of comfortable and recurrent engagement by people like oneself.

4) Urgency

This can sometimes have a hectoring quality, as student customers are reminded how important it is to do well in higher education and even how you owe it to friends and family.
E.g.: “Ambitious students are striving for that extra edge to set them apart from the rest of the pack. It’s not good enough to be simply above average anymore – to stand out, and hopefully enjoy the opportunities held for the most talented of students, one must be truly exceptional.” (custompapers.com)

5) Marginalising writing

A frequent argument developed is that the essay (and sometimes other formats) demands a specialised kind of skill (“writing”) that is not necessarily relevant to the student’s mastery of the underlying discipline.
E.g.: This message is often carried by testimonials – “Not everyone is born with an innate writing prowess, so it is alright if you have to solicit additional guidance in order to make up for this lack of natural skill.”

6) Service as merely a learning ‘scaffold’

Sites will emphasise that universities (and the world beyond) expect an ability to be creative through collaboration. Thus, these products scaffold that learning through interaction.

7) Student as victim

The student’s institutional experience is presented as broken and failing to serve them well. The essay mill, however, provides agency and choice.
E.g.: “Education does not need you. You need education! … We help students evade the assignments they would otherwise simply decline under a non-prescriptive educational system.” (bid4papers.com).

8) Trivialising assignment tasks

While rubbishing the demands of assignments is usually centred on the ‘marginal’ skill of writing – they may also be trivialised more generally in terms of supposed disconnect with the real world. 
E.g.: “What we are trying to say is that you spend an unhealthy amount of time writing papers with little to no real life value. Finding a job after graduation isn’t easy, what with the British labor market being oversaturated, and you don’t improve your chances by writing a dozen of research papers.”

The often-poisonous character of these messages serves to amplify how unwelcome the sites themselves are. They not only trade in social plagiarism they may foster a comfort with this practice through encouraging cynical and negative attitudes towards mainstream education. On later pages we consider how far these ideas are echoed in how students describe their assessment experience.