Internet essays prove poor buys

By the BBC's Hugh Levinson

Factual errors were found in some essays

University essays ordered online are often poor quality, a joint investigation by the BBC and a university professor suggests.

A growing number of companies are offering students the chance to buy essays from their websites.

Some of the essays are pre-written and some are written to order.

For the investigation, a Loughborough University professor marked a sample of custom-written essays bought online and found them to be of poor quality.

Charles Oppenheim, professor of information management at the university, set a genuine task: a 1500-word essay on copyright law.

Three of his undergraduate students then ordered the work from web-based companies, giving them two weeks to complete the project. The prices varied from £135 to £205, with company assurances of high-quality work - usually of at least a 2.1 standard.

Somebody's making money out of this," he says "and yet it is not a good quality service Professor Charles Oppenheim, Loughborough University

One of the companies boasts: "We guarantee that the paper delivered will 100% match your requirements, be fully referenced, be plagiarism free, written by a writer holding at least a Masters Degree and delivered to you on or before the deadline indicated."

Professor Oppenheim then marked the essays and said that the standard was very poor. He gave the best of the three only a 58% mark, which amounts to an average 2.2. He said the essay managed to address the question as set, but contained errors of fact.

A second essay was poorer, winning only a mark in the mid-50s, the equivalent of a low 2.2.

Poor English

"Far too much was just sheer background rather than answering the question," says Professor Oppenheim.

The third essay - which was the most expensive of the three - was also the worst. Professor Oppenheim says "I rated it as awful," and gave it 42%, a bare 3rd.

He was particularly critical of the poor standard of English and even questioned whether it had been written by a native speaker. He also discovered numerous errors of fact in it and said the references were out of date.

Professor Oppenheim said that although he has done considerable research into the problem of plagiarism, he probably wouldn't have detected that the essays were not written by his students.

Many universities are now using anti-plagiarism software to detect when students cut corners. The providers of the custom-written essays guarantee that the work will not be detected by the software.

However, at least one of the essays did contain material that was plagiarised from an academic journal article.

Professor Oppenheim concluded that if students are buying these essays - whether as research aids or with the intention to cheat - they are wasting their money.

"Somebody's making money out of this," he says "and yet it is not a good quality service."

Brains for Sale will be broadcast at 1100 on Friday 15 April on BBC Radio 4.