There is no way to call these creeps. The only contact that a writer, regardless of ranking, can contact them is through the chatroom. Don't bother using the Skype number or the number on the website. Nobody will pick up. They prefer to chat because that allows them to hide behind the fact that they can barely string together an understandable English sentence through their thick Ukrainian accents. Sending them the inquiry form does not bring back a reply either. They have "chat hours" these days and often times, nobody is manning the chat window. Even when you do get someone in chat, you end up having to wait for long periods between responses. I have no idea why they take so long to respond to the inquiries in chat. They always ask you to "please wait." without explaining what you are supposed to be waiting for. When they do reply, it's as useful as an umbrella filled with holes on a rainy day. I stopped trying to contact their support group via their chatroom about 3 years into my working relationship with them. I found that they responded faster when I used old client chat boards to leave messages for them. They had to respond, they could not afford to let the client read the message I left for the client assistants.

The first time you sign up with an academic outsourcing company, you will find yourself in search of a good writer. You may need to try out a few writers at first while you try to find the writer that just "fits" or "works well" with you. Finding the best writer for your needs depends upon your personal criteria for the credentials of the writer, or the grade that you aspire for with each paper.

That is why you end up going through a number of writers at the company. You can either do a "Hail Mary" and hope you get the right writer from the list of "bidders" or, you can look at the sample work of the writer, that comes available with his "bid" for your consideration. The latter is normally the best way to choose your preferred writer. In some instances, you get lucky and you get the best writer for your needs your first time out. When that happens, jot down the writers profile number or name and always reference it when you place your orders. There is no sure way of finding a good writer. Sometimes it is a matter of trial and error. In other instances, it is a matter of luck. Either way, the only way you can choose a good writer depends upon what your criteria is. If you find the writer that fulfills your needs, then keep him on retainer if the company asks you to do so.

Due to privacy concerns and writer reputation considerations, I sincerely doubt that you will find someone willing to sell his writer's account.

There are just too many considerations that could place the original account owner at risk.

The first of which is that you will have direct access to his private information contained in the server of the company.

Since you are only purchasing the account, you will find it difficult to change the information of the writer because the company requires his ID card before authorizing any major changes to certain writer account information.

Don't be stupid. The companies know that some writers sell their writer accounts. Which is why they started asking for ID when the writer tries to make significant changes to his account.

Imagine what will happen if the writer tells the company he wants to change his registered name, address, contact number, etc. The company will know what is up and simply cancel the writers account. Then you will be proud holder of a useless writer's account.

No sane writer will sell his account for any reason. There are just too many risks involved. If you can't get your own writing account then maybe, working in this business isn't for you.

Before the advent of Windows 10, I often used grammarly for my proofreading needs as well.

While the early versions of Word and OpenOffice used to be sufficient for the task, the writing needs of the students and the level of writing intellect that needed to be provided in the papers began to be hindered by these programs that only did checks on basic forms.

These days though, Windows 10 can do more than just make spelling suggestions, it could even go as far as help you construct full sentences and paragraphs on a higher academic level.

I will agree that nothing beats the human eye when it comes to proofreading.

However, nobody said that a second pair of eyes when reviewing the paper won't be of help.

When a fellow human isn't around to do that, then the software bundled into the Word program is the next best thing. It offers a second opinion on word formation, spelling, and thesaurus suggestions as well.

This cuts the review time for the paper into half because the suggestions are done in real time.

The editing is completed as you write. As far as I'm concerned, this is a benefit of the advanced software development that created Windows 10 and Word 2016.

It isn't only possible to request for an ENL writer upfront but you can also request to not have the work assigned to that mediocre writer that you had that negative experience with.

I know for a fact that even if the paper was accidentally assigned to the writer who botched the job for you, the company can have it reassigned to a different writer when you request for the reassignment. Since the company is out to give you "complete satisfaction", that includes making sure that the paper is assigned to a writer whom you will be comfortable collaborating with. After all, if you had a negative experience with the writer before, there is absolutely no way you would want to work with that writer again. Even though you may wish to hire the company services again. You just have to make sure that you know either the writer number of online writer identity of the previous writer. Indicate that you do not have any desire to work with that particular writer for this and your future papers and the company will take it from there.

In my experience, the number of students requesting for original writing requests outnumber the proofreading requests because a larger portion of the students seeking services are mostly ESL students enrolled in colloge. I have worked with a number of students who do avail of the free proofreading and tutorial services at their university but they still require additional help in the writing section due to their lack of confidence in their writing skills. The lack of confidence comes from their home educational system being far different from that of the US or UK. So, while they do academically qualify as a student, their learning skill, in this case research or essay writing, is almost non-existent.

That is why some ESL students prefer to simply hire the services of an academic writer for their paper right from the start. It lessens their stress when it comes to trying to accomplish the required tasks, allows them to focus more on academic aspects they are good at, and still maintain their required GPA in most instances. In the end, the academic writing companies recognize this need within their client base and do their best to cater to the original paper writing needs first, with editing and proof reading jobs coming in second. That is also the same ranking for the income that the mentioned services provide for the company.

If you have the time and patience to market yourself as a writer, then you should be able to find a niche for yourself in the independent writing business. Finding your spot, securing it, and growing it will take an immense amount of time, effort, and investment in yourself though. Due to the nature of the business these days, the competition is so cut throat that some independent writers often do one of two things. (1) partner up with writing companies for a regular flow of work or (2) diversify into a different, but related field of work such as online editing or ghost writing. Personally, I believe that if you find it difficult to grow your client base, then maybe, moving into option 2 would be best. At least you would still be earning 100 percent for yourself. If you partner up with a company, you will be extremely luck to earn a full 30 percent of the actual cost of the paper. That is because the company-writer relationship, often keeps more of the income for the company and, if you are unlucky enough to get together with a scam writing company, you will lose all 30 percent to fines and penalties every payment period.

Developing a client base is a bit more difficult these days with the advent of social media, which most writers, both legitimate and questionable, use to promote their services. The name of the game these days has changed from "give me quality work and I'll pay for it." to "Give me quality work at the lowest price." So while the clients may exist, the writers may not be receptive to the amount that they wish to pay directly. There is no such thing as "low cost quality work" which is what the clients seem to want these days. That is why hooking up with a writing company sometimes sounds more enticing than trying to make a go of an independent writing career.

As of the time this post was created, the school year was just about to go into full swing. Once that got underway, I am sure that the writing gigs also took off. The summer months are normally the off season for writers. The students in summer school don't really have a heavy workload so the orders coming in tend to be few and far between. That is always the case when regular school is not in session. However, since the definition of a regular school year has changed since this post was first made, it would seem like the dry season for writers have also changed in terms of the schedule. The summer months may be slow for the most part but when the summer term is about to come to an end, there tends to be an influx of writing work. That is, for the students in summer school. However, the trimester students tend to go to school year round and their writing requirements are more regular because of it. So yeah, the summer slow season still stands but it is now augmented by the rise in trimester students and the writing requirements for summer students towards the end of the summer class schedule.

Your anonymity is only guaranteed provided you take precautions when you use the service. Even though the company guarantees your privacy in their Terms of Service, you can only hold them to that agreement for as long as it is convenient for them to do so. The minute the company wants to make an extra buck off of you, they won't hesitate to use any information that they have against you.

They may blackmail you if you give them too much information. That is why it is important that you verify the credentials and rating of the writing company or independent writer before you sign up for the service. Once you get your information out there, it is out there. There have been nightmare stories posted here about writers blackmailing students long after the student has graduated. Don't be part of the statistics. Make sure you only provide necessary information to complete the task. Use a masked payment service such as Paypal to transfer funds, and do not provide your full name , contact details and university information to the company or writer for any reason. You need to know how to protect yourself because the scam companies and writers will take advantage of any loophole that they can find in your private information to use against you.

I do not believe that a non-native English speaker who is an ESL learner with only a basic knowledge of the English language can successfully edit or proofread an English paper. There are just too many English language discrepancies for an ESL to be able to accomplish such a task. The first problem, is that the ESL writers tend to transliterate their words from the vernacular to English. That means the sentence might make sense in their native tongue, but would sound like gibberish when they cobble together the few English words that they think will fit the translation. As such, there is no way they can successfully proofread an English essay. They won't know how to make heads or tails of what they are reading. The result will just be a mangled mess. Now, if we are talking about an ESL writer with native English speaking skills then that person could quite possibly proofread an English paper. English is practically his lingua franca in this case so he will not struggle with proofreading the material provided.

The way I see it, the client is already getting a tremendous amount of help from the writer since the writer has to do the reading, assessing, outlining of information, drafting of and finalization of the essay, so the least the client can do is provide the complete research material to the writer. It is difficult enough to write the paper for the client based upon the preset instructions. It becomes even more difficult for the writer to do his job if he has to source the material himself. Since the student already has access to the necessary textbooks, pdf files, lecture notes, power point presentations and other source material for his class, then he should provide the materials to the writer. Doing so also lessens the possibility of the writer using the wrong edition of the source material or the wrong publication source, or whatever. I had clients come to be when I was still an active writer asking me if I could find such and such materials for the paper and I if I could not source it, let him know so that he can send me the material because it is a required reference for the course. I always found myself thinking, "Then why didn't you send it to me in the first place?" By that time, the paper I was working on was halfway done and needed to be revised in order to accommodate the required reading material. So yes, the client should provide all the necessary reading material beforehand.

Having work with them for 7 years, I would have to say that they are a good company to work. That is if you don't mind your salary being constantly docked for made up fines and penalties just so they can lower the cost of money owed to you. The orders were constantly flowing into their company for a long period of time. These days though, my friends are telling me that the orders are few and far between for the regular writers and the competition among the newbies at the site is tremendously fierce. Their new policies, such as increasing the word count per page to 275 from the old rate of 250 is becoming taxing on the writers who have to not only deal with the new count and reduced CPP because of it (although they claim the rate increased, my friends say otherwise), but also the constant QAD revision requests. All revisions being done not at the request of the client, but the whim of the QAD. So, do I suggest you work for their company? Only if you are a sucker for punishment, which, apparently, I was for 7 whole years.

I would work extremely hard for the money (and some occasional bonuses / tips) and receive the same as payment during the "hot" season. Then, as soon as the "slow" or "dry" season starts, the penalties start rolling in. One time, I added up all of the penalties and fines that they had been tacking on to my account every month and it appeared to me that they were just finding ways and means of getting their money back for the salaries that they paid me during the hot season. The way that the equivalent of the fines added up to the money paid really amazed me. Then again, they are scammers (I realized too late) so this was their typical modus. I can't blame you for quitting even though the pay is sometimes very good. Had I any other options before, I would have quit working with them sooner. It took some time for me to find alternative employment but once I did, Academia never saw me again.

Normally, professors consider any information coming from a .edu address as academically acceptable.

They used to accept .org sites as well but when those url extensions started to become questionable they struck that address from the list as well.

Unless, the .org or .edu address is one that is already widely known and accepted as a reputable source.

Most of the usual suspects when it comes to research are already online so finding legitimate sources are not that difficult to accomplish anymore.

However, one needs to be careful when dealing with formerly reputable sources such as time.com, cnn, and other related news media outlets due to the proliferation of fake news.

What was reputable before is questionable these days.

So the traditional research avenues online are now suspect as sources of information.

Professors these days are no longer stingy about giving their students a list of acceptable resources at the start of the term It would be best to ask the professor directly regarding his "verified" list of research websites, just to avoid confusion and questions when the time comes.

@editor75 AR doesn't have a US call center location.

They used to have a permanent Skype number that they used to contact their writers.

However, the number was one way in the sense that they could only call out but nobody could call in.

Nobody would pick up the phone on the other end. Instead, you had to leave a voice message with your instructions for them and then, if they felt clarifications were required, they would then call you back.

This was their preferred method of communicating with their writers and clients for a long period of time. Lately though, they have been using rotating phone numbers.

My friends who still work with them say that they get numbers coming into their cellphones that seem to be pinging from all over the world.

They get calls from number in the U.S. or Singapore. So my guess is that they purchased a software that masks their real phone numbers.

I don't know what game they are playing but if their writers and their clients can't call them, I don't see how these projects ever get done these days.

Sometimes the students themselves cause the question as to whether or not they wrote their paper because of the quality of their earlier work. If they are so bad when it comes to the written assignment at the start of the semester, then they show a sudden improvement mid-stream, almost as if they gained writing talents over night, then their work will definitely be questioned and so will they. The professors tend to take such sudden changes are red flags. This leads to the eventual questioning of the student since the previous work of the student does not show any signs that such writing talents exist for him. This is precisely why I used to always advice my students to come to me at the start of the semester or soon enough into the new semester. Basically, I tell them, they can attend the classes and participate in discussions. However, when it comes to their written homework, they best let me handle it for them immediately. That way the chances of their being questioned regarding their writing ability becomes limited from the very start.

Some professors who are actually trying to make their students learn something practice due diligence and check the content of the paper for plagiarism before he actually evaluates the paper for a grade. That is what these plagiarism checker software is for.

Most universities even have their own database of essays these days where professors can automatically submit the papers for counter checking against previously written papers. While these will only offer similarity rates, the rate of similarity will trigger a question of plagiarism or a paper sold to a new student. That is why it is always best to hire a company that turns over the rights to the paper to student upon submission.

From my experience though, the companies do wait about a year before they resell the paper to another student. That is, after having the paper undergo a severe revision process within the company. If you are worried about the possibility of your paper being put up for sale or if you have purchased an old paper, then it would be better for you to consider writing the paper yourself. That way, if the paper has any problems, you won't have anyone to blame but yourself and you won't feel scammed in the end.

There is no limit to the degree of scams that a company can implement in order to improve their income. Be it a company or an independent writer, the scams abound because the students remain clueless about how the business really works and how to spot the difference between a scam and a company or person that is working on the level. The difficulty in spotting the scam rests in how most of the scam companies run on the same template and are seemingly more popular on the web than the reputable services and writers. The trust is earned in a number of ways. Anywhere from using fake photos, to make refund promises that are hard to implement or sometimes, believe. These days, the scams have been elevated to the level of blackmailing and holding model papers hostage until the client complies with the demands of the scammers.

Incapability is something totally different. The word connotes a sense of not being able to deliver. Sometimes, a writer will read the project, bid on it, get the project and then midway, discover that he got in over his head. So he freaks out and either doesn't deliver the paper or gets it reassigned, which causes problems for the student. That isn't a scam. That is just overconfidence gone wrong.

Since I have a Bachelors degree in English and separate masters degrees in English Literature and English History, I often wrote about topics and themes related to these fields. Having a second degree in Creative Writing, I also preferred to write papers for my clients that allow my imagination to soar or, allowed me to build up the student's image in college application essays.

That said, I also enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone every so often. If a topic piques my interest at that point in time, then I would definitely write about that theme for the student. You might say that because of my educational background, I had a mostly general interest in writing.

Before I totally left the academic writing field, I was well into helping students develop their short story papers for their own creative writing classes. Most of my students at that level were in high school and just beginning to learn the ropes.

I liked helping them learn how to write creatively, regardless of the topic because eventually, my work for them would evolve into editing jobs of their own writing.

When a client of mine reached that point, I knew I had done my job properly and inspired another student to get out of his comfort zone so that he could at least try to write in his own voice.

Come to think of it, I would have to say that I enjoy writing about any topic under the sun.

Chances are, your competitor just has more money to burn than you do, which is why that site looks more professional. I would not worry so much about losing clients to that person. Poaching clients is part of the game. Just ask the academic outsourcing companies. That is exactly why they tend to develop various company names under one umbrella organization. I suggest you look into creating multiple profiles for yourself, that is, if you can't start your own academic outsourcing company, and play the game. The writing business is a cutthroat competition and you need to be ready to throw someone under the bus if it means that you can get a step or two ahead of your closest competitor. That is just how the independent writing business and academic outsourcing company business goes. It all boils down to the quality of the work provided though. From the sounds of it, you don't seem highly confident in the final version of the model papers that you have been producing, which is why you are worried about the competition. It is best to just remember this, when your competition ups the game, you don't just match it, you outshine that competitor in the field.

I would not be upset about that.

I fully expect them to do that since the company transfers the overall rights to the paper to the client upon completion and submission.

I know that they will be submitting the paper in their name and since they paid me for that privilege, I definitely don't have any problems with them doing that.

I would however, be quite upset if they revised the paper I created for them, submitted it, messed it up, got a lousy grade, then the student would come back to me complaining that I wrote a lousy paper.

I prefer that they don't revise the paper themselves since they have no idea how the paper is supposed to flow. If I get mad at the fact that they submitted the paper I created in their name, then that would defeat the purpose of academic outsourcing.

While we are conscious of the fact that what is created for the student is only a "model" paper, our eyes are also open to the fact that the student submits the essay to the teacher in its entirety anyway. Some of them won't even read the essay before submission.

So, provided the student doesn't complain and ask for revisions for mistakes in editing that I did not make, I have no problem with them submitting the paper in their own name.

The application process is relatively easy. Just take a grammar test, pass that, then take a research test, pass that, wait for a phone call that serves as your interview, create your writer profile and that's it. From the sounds of it, you should not have any difficulty in passing any of the tests and whichever company hires you will be lucky to have you. Word of advice though, keep track of the scam sites as reported in various threads in this forum and steer clear of them. Those are the companies that are run by scam artists from the Ukraine, Pakistan, India, the Philippines, Africa, etc. They will give you a nightmare work experience will most likely have you rethinking your desire to continue as a company connected academic writer. You could try applying at the companies listed in EssayDirectory though. They are mostly on the level and have solid credentials in terms of their work quality and their treatment of their writers.

Depending upon the company that one is working for, the trend could very well be that of having more writers than the demand for their services. Academic writing companies these days have slowed down in their hiring process because there just aren't enough orders to go around. In fact, they do their best to discourage their number of writers from growing or remaining constant by developing reasons to make the writers quit. This is how the company also weeds out the bad writers in order to present their best writers to the potential clients. The greater writer ratio has been growing over the past years based upon my observation of various writing companies and the number of writers that indicate that it is almost impossible for them to get orders these days. It has become a cut throat competition where only the most patient or the best writers continue to survive. Certain aspects of the business has changed over the years and this has caused the change in essay writing demand as well. Some writers still get steady orders but others, don't have that opportunity.

No, it is not morally right for the students to pay others to do their work which they then pass off as their own. Then again, neither is it right for parents to work overnight to complete their children's class projects, research papers, book reports, and what have you's. All the more it isn't right to hire a tutor to do the homework for the student in the guise of "reviewing" the student using the day's lessons. Yet the parents and the students do so anyway. That's why I don't believe that there is a valid moral discussion when it comes to the business of "model" paper writing. The only difference between what I used to do and what these parents and tutors do is that the academic world knows this is going on and the educators are not raising a fuss about it in the manner that they do when the student buys a model paper. When you think about it, there is no difference when you compare the facts. There is no difference between having an academic writer complete the work and having the tutor "assist" in the completion of the paper or having the parents complete the work for the child. Nope. Student integrity is something that does not exist when dealing with slacker students because they are told that it is alright to not do the work themselves. They let their money work for them instead.

When I first started out as an academic writer, I was mostly reliant on Google and Google scholar for most of the information I used in the essays. After about a year of writing, I started to notice that the students were requesting that Questia be used more and more often in their research papers. So I signed up for Questia and in the process, found myself open to more orders from the company because of my independent access to an online library. A number of years later, a Jstor subscription became necessary in order to have access to more reliable print journals online. Eventually, I found myself signing up for electronic subscriptions to Newsweek, Time Magazine, National Geographic, and a slew of other formerly only print documentary magazines. I found myself expanding my research library electronically based upon the needs of my clients. I did not find it necessary to go to the local library to access the books and magazines because I always hated having to learn that the material I needed was checked out. I managed to avoid that by using electronic versions of the print materials. Needless to say, for my research, the internet has and will always be my go to place.

Aside from the language barrier and problems that arise from non-English speaking students arriving in the US and UK for college education, there is another consideration for the reasons as to why they often resort to essay writing services. Not all countries teach their students on an essay based curriculum as the US and UK are more prone to. The other half of the world actually teaches their students based upon more memory work, quizzes, and illustrations. The teachers actually give lectures and the students have to take notes. These countries do not encourage students to do too much research or reports because the inadequacy of their educational system will become more prominent as the students are more inclined to use internet based sources for their research information. They need to dumb down their students in order to protect the image of their teachers. Sadly, that results in a a student who graduates from the country's educational system but is incapable of functioning at the higher level, or actually, regular level of the foreign schools that the student dreams of attending. I still can't figure out how these students manage to pass the TOEFL and IELTS tests that they take. If I were their examiner, I would not pass at least half of the test taking batch. They are simply not ready and not qualified for international academic standards. That is why they would rather pay someone else to write for them. It helps them hide the fact that they are inadequate as students and do not deserve the slot that they are taking up in the university.

I am even later in terms of participating in this discussion but I would still like to add my thoughts on the matter. Yes, Turnitin keeps a permanent file with regards to the essay you previously submitted. So it will still show up in the system even decades after you have submitted it. Turnitin doesn't purge its system for a reason. I don't see anything wrong with you using the same paper now with some updates and changes to references because it has been long enough for new information regarding your research to have new and more updated data that can be included in your paper. So it will not turn out to be self plagiarism in as much as it would be an updated research paper.

Personally, I don't believe in self-plagiarism because plagiarism means you are citing the work of someone else as your own. You can't do that if you are the original content creator. Even if Turnitin says parts of your paper are plagiarized from your old work, that would not stand up in any court. All that means is that you wrote such a good paper in the past that it still has academic merit years after you wrote it. Don't worry about Turnitin, it can't prove plagiarism if it returns bits and pieces of your original paper in its scan. You can easily prove that you were the original author of the work. As long as you use updated references, since only the citations might come back as plagiarized, you will be well protected against such accusations.

Not even if they paid me to go back to school.

There was once a time when I did go after some masters degree certifications but I am way past that educational goal now.

After more than 30 years working in this field (first as a writer then currently, as a consultant) I would be doing the marathon around the so-called professors and teaching assistants.

I have written about more topics under the sun than I care to think about and I have no intention of helping a professor teach his students because I will certainly be able to put him in a corner when it comes to the class discussion.

I once attended a party where a priest was in attendance and got involved in a religious discussion because he learned that I was an atheist.

Needless to say, I successfully argued against the existence of God and left the priest dumbfounded.

Imagine, if I could do that to a priest, what would I end up doing to a professor who probably got his position just because the university lacked teachers.

Nope. I won't waste my time going back to school. I have learned all I need to learn, and more by simply doing research work for others in every field imaginable (and then some) over the past decades.

Simply reading the comments regarding various companies here should help point you in the right direction. There are only two options for someone looking for a recommendation here anyway. Either you go with a particular writing company because their company representative, who posts in the threads, convinced you that it is the right thing for you to do or, you go with an independent writer because you like his writing style, and mindset. Either of which should work well enough for you provided you know what you are looking for in a writing service. It is true that recommendations cannot be openly made in the forum.

However, if you are capable of analyzing the discussions per thread, you should be able to come to your own conclusions as to which writing companies or writer (if you prefer) will be worth the money you will be investing in the paper. We don't make recommendations but we can help you find your way towards what you need in a manner that is more helpful than an outright recommendation. After all, the final decision is yours to make based upon your writing needs and analysis of the discussions that exist here.

The students themselves do not understand the difference between an editing job and an actual research paper. When I was still participating in academic writing through a company, I found that the students oftentimes would ask for an editing job but not upload any essay that they had written at all. The only opt to list the job as an editing job because the company charged less per page for the job. They would get around the editing requirement of an actual paper by uploading a series of running header pages accompanied by a title page and then say "please edit the work for me." Now, complaining that this was not actually an editing job would not get me anywhere so I eventually started to decline those orders. I would rather write a paper from scratch than touch an "editing" job because more often than not, it isn't just a simple editing job. Sometimes, a client actually uploads a complete document for editing, then I am asked to revise the whole paper because his professor said his research was not in accordance with the instructions. In which case, that is not an editing job but a new model paper. The students are very creative when it comes to getting around the description of an "editing job" so I found it best to simply shy away from such orders.

There are some students who just can't write an essay, term paper, or research paper if their lives depended upon it. These are usually ESL students who are not familiar with the Western or European way of academic learning. These are the students that normally seek out academic writing help. Unfortunately, they are also the students who cannot understand and remember the meaning of a "model" academic paper. Their tendency is to pass of this work as their own. Sadly, the other students who are native to the country in question, seem to like hiring people to do their work for them as well. Not because they do not know how to write a paper, but rather, because they would rather be doing something else. These are the 2 major groups of students who give the job of academic writers a bad reputation and don't even try to write their own essays.

Now, there are some students who do use the model essays precisely for the purpose it was created. In fact, I admire the students who used to come to me with their papers half done, asking for help in perfecting the content. So there are students out there who actually try to write the essays by themselves but whose writing talents can only take them so far. These are the students that I prefer to help. They are also the students who are few and far between.

These are the reasons why I don't think that the students to avail of academic writing services should be lumped into one basket as students who don't even try to write the essays themselves. There are varying degrees of reasons as to why students would decide to hire a writing service. Not all of them simply don't want to try writing an essay themselves.

Based upon my experience, there is a tremendous difference between a company that pays fast and a company that pays fast and fairly.

The last part of the statement is the more important part.

There are a number of companies that actually pay their writers fast, on schedule, and sometimes, even ahead of schedule. The problem is that the speed with which they pay the writers isn't worth it because they tend to attach so many penalties, fines, and chargeback complaints onto a writer's earnings. Now, I speak only of the Ukrainian, Indian, Pakistan, and Asian academic writing companies in this instance.

Under no circumstance am I saying that the UK and USA based companies practice the same salary treatment when it comes to their writers. The last company that I was attached to actually paid ahead of schedule, which should have made me happy, if they were not deducting 20 - 25 percent of my salary for unfounded, baseless, and illogical reasons.

So don't look for companies that pay fast. I would not mind waiting a few days for delayed salary provided the salary was paid in a proper and non-scamming manner.

The companies that I was previously attached to had different payment schedules.

I always went for the twice a month (bimonthly) payment because I needed the regular inflow of money in order to cover my expenses.

Twice a month or bimonthly payments worked best for me because I was able to properly budget the incoming cash and also schedule the appropriate payments for my bills and other expenses.

While I did pay more in terms of Paypal transfer fees and the companies had me shoulder the Paypal fees for the transaction, I found that this was the best method for salary payment due to my needs at the time. These days though, I opt for once a month (monthly) payments due to the increasing Paypal fees involved in the bank transfer fees. It now makes better sense for me to consolidate all of my earnings into one schedule for Paypal remittance.

That way, I lessen the fees involved, the companies I work for shoulder the Paypal fees, and I still manage to work out an acceptable payment schedule for all of my bills. So I guess my short answer to the question is, either way works for me.

When I was still actively participating in model paper writing, I found that I did not really take any down time during the off season. I kept myself available to the office just in case a regular client or important order came in that required my attention. If I were to think of what other things I did too augment my income at the time, I would have to say it was working as a ghost writer for some regular clients and publishing my novels. I manage to work for a regular blogging service for a period of time. It was just launching its services and required regular writers to work for them. So the down time afforded me an opportunity to expand my work horizons in a way. I did use the time for some R&R like getting regular massages and hanging out with friends, which I could not normally do during the regular season as I was one of the top writers of the company and could not really afford to take more than half a day off at any given moment of the active school year.

When I was still involved in the academic writing business, I was required to sign into the Writer Profile section in order to submit "required" information.

This information involved my real name, postal address, phone and mobile number, and my sample work. Identity theft at that time was not as rampant nor invasive as it is today so I did not have any problems with the submission of those information.

It was required, according to them, for the validation of my account and Paypal related information.

I did have a problem with them later on when, I believe it was about 2 years ago, they started asking for a copy of my valid government ID such as a driver's license, professional license, passport, etc. I declined to submit any of the ID's and they eventually backed off from requiring it of their writers. It was only a few days ago that I found out the actual reason that they were asking for those ID's.

They were most likely planning on using the identity of their writers for their scam document business. I dodged a bullet that time. My friends, who still work for these companies and chose to submit their ID's, may not have been so lucky.

Only time will tell I guess. There's always hope for better times.

Academic Scammers Are Evolving in Trade

The Algerians are trying to get into a new academic market niche. That of selling real and supposedly registered IELTS,TOEFL,Certificates,Passports,Drivers License,ID Cards,Visas. I believe that they think the academic writing industry is either a well that is drying up, an over saturated market, or, their scam companies and dismal writers are no longer pulling in students that they can successfully scam.

If the latter is so, then the hard work of the independent writers here at EssayScam is starting to pay off and we are actually pushing them out of the industry.

They are branching out into a very dangerous line of business that could put the unsuspecting student (are they really unsuspecting in this case? They know very well what they are getting into. Eyes wide shut so to speak.) at great risk of imprisonment.

With the Algerians starting this trade, it will only be a matter of time before the South Africans, Ukrainians, Indians, Pakistanis, and other con-men from various countries get in on the act.

With any luck, these scammers will soon be caught as well and brought to justice. This time, Interpol can and should get involved.

This is an accusation that can stick and can be proven because the scammers will be breaking international laws and the students caught using these fake documents can and should bear witness against them.

I was lucky enough to attend college during the time when the writing styles were being strictly implemented. Therefore, I had a head-start on the other academic writers who had to learn the writing styles from scratch. By the time that I had to regularly use the MLA and APA writing styles, those were already second nature to me due to the number of research papers I had to write for myself while in college.

So I preferred to write more along those lines when I first started out. I did not branch out into Chicago and Turabian writing styles until a year after I had started my company attached writing career.

I found that using the Owl at Purdue and other writing websites helped me make a less painful transition to the other academic writing styles. I only needed to practice writing in Chicago and Turabian around 3 times before I became comfortable with it. The same goes for the Harvard and Oxford styles. Since I was writing at least a thousand papers per month in various formats and styles, I developed my writing style in all areas at a fast pace. I am proud to say that I learned the other styles on the job and my clients, at the time, were very happy with the results.

I agree with the opinion that only the writer matters when it comes to working on the assignment.

If the company assigns the paper to a less than stellar, non-ENL writer, then the student just may end up with a "written in hell" model paper for his assignment.

These academic companies have such a regular turnaround for their writers that it seems like the company has a never ending revolving door of ESL educated writers.

It is one thing to have a writer who understands what the topic of the paper is.

It is another thing for the writer to actually have the skills with which he can professionally and academically complete the paper.

Basically, where the company is located does not matter as much as the actual English thinking and writing level of the writers they hire to work for them.

In my opinion, it is the ability of the writer that matters because if he is not capable of completing the work in the expected manner, then the student would have been scammed twice over.

Trying to get this discussion back on track, I do not really know if any writers or essay writing companies here have reported students to their university. However, I do know that there seems to be a growing trend with regards to scam independent writers blackmailing students by threatening to report them to their university. Whether or not these blackmailers actually follow through on their threats is another story. There have been no instances of students coming here to report that the blackmailer actually contacted the university and reported the student for submitting model papers as their original work. Frankly, I doubt that the blackmailer would actually follow through on such a threat as they would have a huge problem explaining themselves in spoken or written English since they are mostly scam artists from Kenya, Ukraine, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines and other ESL countries that are always on the lookout for ways and means to make a quick buck. The same will be true for any scam writing company. There is also the issue of trying to find the money to cover the long distance calls they would have to repeatedly make until their complaints find an ear willing to listen to them at the university. So no, I doubt that will ever happen.

When I was still attached to AR, I also came across such a problem. The system displayed one amount that they owed me and and yet, when the final pay came in, it was short by $50. When I asked for an explanation, they said I was fully paid and the $50 missing was actually a clerical error. I asked them how a clerical error could happen when the system was automated and I was told to just trust them and accept that the $50 was a mistake in computation that they corrected upon final review of the salary to be paid out. I told them the system was not wrong. There were $50 worth of orders that remained unpaid. They performed a review of my completed work that showed that no such orders were assigned to me based upon their records. Somehow, when I asked them how their records and my records could be different things since both were located on their system / server the person on the other end stopped responding to me.

At that time, I was well into my 10th year of doing business as a company attached academic writer and I decided to let it go because they did pay on time every time as opposed to the other companies I was working for alongside AR at the time. So I just chalked it up to experience. I am glad that I finally evolved out of that career and am now still working in the academic writing field sans the stress that actually writing model papers used to provide.