Dissecting the Issue of Price for Sample Academic Papers

One of the pointers constantly used by students (as well as other players in the industry) to sieve the legit sites from the fraudsters and incompetents is pricing. The general opinion is that legit sites charge more for the same number of words/pages.

There is some validity in this notion. For a long time, it was a bit easy to tell (to some degree) which sites were hiring competent ENL writers. Since competition has always been stiff, new, experimenting sites needed to lower their prices to lure customers and test the market. They also lacked nearly all of the other reasonable legitimacy checkbox items, so they really needed to work that discounting angle. Several factors allowed them to do this and still remain operational. The dozens of sites that exploded into the industry between 2002-2012 were/are based in Ukraine, Philippines, Pakistan etc. The regulatory laws in those countries are a bit lax (major euphemism) compared to those in more developed countries.

This was even worse for a then (in those countries) unrecognizable field like online academic writing. New sites cropping up could operate flagrantly with zero adherence to any of the rules and standards that are the basic norm in the US/UK. Add on to this that they don't pay taxes, and what you have is a renegade setup that could undercut bona fide companies by up to 50% and still be profitable. Writers in the countries where they recruit from come unbelievably cheap. There are reported cases of writers being paid under a dollar per page, believe it or not.

Now, the legitimate US/UK companies have never enjoyed some of these luxuries, for reasons we don't need to get deep into here. Let us just focus on the most relevant one today, which is that competent ENL writers don't come cheap. Two main factors play to this. First, competence comes with the achievement of higher academic qualifications. Anybody with a Master's or PhD has career options and can easily secure a job in their field of study. It is therefore unlikely that they would work for meager wages completing academic papers in an industry lacking (among other things) conventional securities. Second, an ENL writer (at least somewhat) is most likely living in a developed country with a stable economy and enjoying certain employment guarantees. They don't have to settle an essay writing company offering low pay. A competent ENL writer can only work for a company paying rates high enough to persuade them into academic writing as a way of earning a living.

These dynamics have had the effect of maintaining the prices of legit companies above the others, making it easier to tell the two classes apart.

Over time, however, this has changed. The ESL sites have managed to leverage the slight traction they got through low prices into a somewhat steady client flow. They have also devised numerous marketing tactics (not all legit) that blind potential clients to cost. Now they can raise their prices to match the legitimate sites without losing as much business and while still maintaining the same lower expense bill. This renders the price telltale no longer reliable.

There are almost always some exceptions to rules (or observations) that prove to be true, more generally. Generally, talented, versatile, experienced, NES writers with advanced degrees charge more than less-talented, and/or less-versatile, and/or less-experienced NES writer without advanced degrees. In turn, less experienced but talented NES writers usually charge roughly the same as some of the best and talented ESL writers. Those categories of writers often correspond to specific customer pools. For a few examples, lower-level ESL students are probably better off with an average ESL writer, whereas higher-level ESL students might specifically want a very experienced and educated ESL writer or a less-experienced but well-educated NES writer. Meanwhile good NES students who just have trouble writing well usually seek out very experienced talented NES writers, because they can also learn from us, and because we can produce written projects of the same A quality as those students typically achieve on their in-class exams. The best NES students who ordinarily do all of their own A-quality writing but sometimes hire a writer because of their other commitments that don't allow the extra time to write their own 25-pg theses during the holidays would seem to have no other acceptable choice but to find (and pay appropriately for) the most talented, educated, and experienced NES writer available, just to maintain the same level of scholarship as their other work. Whatever your specific needs are as a customer, there should be a writer matched to best help you achieve your goals on your projects.

This is not entirely accurate. If you look carefully, most of the Ukrainian sites are turning to a new model - where the prices are set by writers themselves, and the company acts as a mediator. This is largely fueled by the reasons you noted above, and partially by the fact that the customers are becoming ever more careful about their money. Now, most students still pay before they think/look/ask, but a large number of them does their due diligence before paying a dime. This is good for us, the legit writers, and companies - as I've always asserted, both groups should strive to increase our combined visibility to help students make informed choices - but the process is very, very, very slow.

What I do know is that there is a growing number of quasi legit operations from Pakistan, India, and elsewhere which charge as much as legit writers/companies, but deliver close to nothing in terms of quality. The Chinese are also growing, but they are largely localized to SE Asia, and not a threat in the West, at least not yet. These new quasi-companies are, however mostly one-and-done operations that move constantly and create new sites almost daily.

What is the solution? I have no idea to be completely honest, but I'd say just do the best we can and win our clients trust over and over again. In the long run, that's the only sustainable way to do business.

I don't consider delivering "close to nothing" legit. I've seen their work: aside from the atrocious ESL writing, it's usually nothing but paragraphs of sentences that all say practically the exact same thing as the preceding sentence and a concluding sentence that repeats the introductory sentence except with a "Therefore," or "Thusly," in front of it. They write paragraph after paragraph in which half of the sentences aren't even complete coherent sentences and the most substantial "point" in them is typically something along the lines of "National economic policies are extremely important to understand because such concepts are important to each country and to all of the citizens of the country. Therefore, it is extremely important to realize all of the details about national economic policies in every nation."

They read exactly like a cartoon that's been on my wall ever since a college professor handed it out to my class. It shows a student writing on a page titled Impact of the Industrial Revolution: "The Industrial Revolution was very industrial. It was also extremely revolutionary. Because the Industrial revolution was so industrial and revolutionary, it had a very great impact on everyone who was caught up in it, including men, women, children, teachers, students, as well as their pets..." [Content Paraphrased]The difference is the cartoon on my wall is just a cartoon and not something for which some student with a deadline paid hard-earned money.

Here's the cartoon:

In this context, quasi legitimate referred to their apparent willingness to actually provide content, unlike outright scams where the student is bereft of money and likely to become a target for extortion. It was not implied, in any way, that such services provide a good service, or even compete legitimately - if that were the case, I'd have omitted the "quasi" as a descriptor. Mayhaps it is not differentiated enough from legitimate services, so I'll try to find a better qualifier when referring to them in the future.

P.S - great cartoon

No offense intended, Wordsies. Nothing wrong with your chosen terminology. I just don't think the difference matters very much in terms of its value to customers. They may even be better off getting nothing because that makes it easier to pursue a payment dispute without requiring PayPal or a credit card company to make any kind of determination about the quality of the writing.

That's 100% correct, and I don't consider them competitors or service providers in any real sense. Students who have the misfortune to order from them regret it the second they receive their "paper" and never return again. But they do provide something, even if its a shoddy paper, and that puts them one step above the outright scams who do not. The value to customers is nil in both cases, but in the former they are not a target of extortion, even though they lose regardless.

I am sure there are other indies here who, like myself, have received inquiries from these clients wanting help to correct the mess they received. Sadly, by then, they are nearly broke and can only afford the bare minimum to improve the crap they received.

The flip side, if you can afford to give them a little extra to show what you can do, you have likely gained a long-term repeat client. It's really sad, though, that there are so many companies that do charge higher rates for the crap their writers generate. I know I don't like spending my money on something that's not of equal value, and I don't expect my clients to want anything less, either. ;)

This is true even in my situation. There's one platform, in particular, that I work wherein the site specifically told me that I should give in to the small favors from the client because it'll make them enticed to work with me again. They were right. After giving half a page extra to one client, he came to me again for a ten-page paper. These things definitely give back to you - however, of course, the situation is not applicable in a blanket manner. Not all clients will turn into long-term repeat ones. But the thought counts. And if you're short on money and want consistent work, the extra mile counts.

There is a fine line between overcharging and price scamming a student. Writers who do their jobs well normally charge reasonable rates that reflect their skills. Cheaper writers charge less because they are just after getting money from the client. A student in the market for a writer must remember that quality work is expensive. Consider the situation as if you were buying designer duds. You would not pay designer rates for a Class A product. The lower the price, the more a student should be wary of the company or writer.