@customwriting what the heck are you trying to say? Please do not use the American flag to indicate your location in your profile when your grammar totally gives away the fact that you are NOT located in the United States, nor do you work for a legitimate American essay writing company. You are not fooling anybody here. If anything, you are giving the readers undue grief and stress due to your nonsensical post. Do yourself a favor, get out of the academic writing game. You won't be hired by a decent student, even if that student is looking to hire a writer / ESL writer on the cheap side.

Your post doesn't have anything to do with the oirignal post or the latest response posted. The minute I read your work and saw your location, I told myself, "Great, another worthless wannabe writer who thinks using America as a location can actually fool people." Please, don't waste our time by trying to interact with us. Don't waste the student's time either by trying to fool them into hiring you. It isn't going to work. Your post doesn't make any sense and based on that, I am sure that none of the papers you write will even be worth the effort you put into the cut and paste work you plan to use to complete the student's work.

Try to avoid checking your paper for plagiarism because there is a distinct possibility that your paper will turn up plagiarized when your professor checks for it. That is because the databases mostly hold on to your paper for future comparison purposes and the professors won't know any better once they run the check. The only reason you have to worry about plagiarism is if you used too much in-text citations in your paper. Avoid using in-text citations and you avoid getting flagged for plagiarism regardless of what checker your professor uses.

That is the only way to get around the plagiarism software, whether of the free or paid kind. If you do not cite, you do not plagiarize. Use your own understanding when writing the document and you will find that even turnitin will be hard pressed to find a plagiarized section of your document.

The actual threshold for plagiarism these days is at 20%. The professors are trying to educate the students to use more paraphrasing rather than in-text citations in their research papers. I believe that they changed the plagiarism threshold because they want to actually find out if the student really understood what he was reading instead of just using the citation as a word filler in order to meet the word count. This is a positive development in my opinion because the writers who rely mostly on cut and paste methods of writing the papers for various students now need to make sure that they actually earn the money they are being paid.

By needing to prove that they understand the text through paraphrasing rather than in-text citations, not only does the plagiarism possibility sink, but the writers who are not ENL tend to lose their jobs. Mostly because they use cut and paste methods to meet the client requirements, which makes the paper a turnitin problem. If the writers and students use more paraphrasing rather than in-text citations, turnitin can eventually be rendered useless in terms of proving plagiarism.

During all my time active in the academic writing business, I never found a need to go online to promote my work nor to seek out clients. The reason is that I always found the online dealing system to be highly problematic between the writer and the client. As evidenced by the clear misunderstanding between writer and client in various discussion threads here, I am of the opinion that I made the right decision for myself.

Rather than going online and advertising myself, I always made sure to create a continuous downline of student agents at various nearby universities. The downline gives the students a commission for every successful referral plus a small bonus at the end of every academic year if their referral turns into a regular client. This method has been working very well for me for more than 2 decades now. The business is regular and I even get referrals from other universities and countries all based upon my "student agents". Sure I have to take a hiatus when they go on vacation but I welcome the rest period since I am able to work hard during most of the year in preparation for the slow seasons.

So I think that the best way to find clients is not to go online on Craig's List or wherever. At least for myself, I found that not being online advertising myself worked better for me, businesswise.

I'm not sure what the situation was behind the events that led to this sad action on the part of the OP. I don't think that his actions did himself or the students any favors either. I mean, as a freelance writer, he should be looking to preserve his image as a trustworthy writer. Someone who acts discreetly and does not take brash action in situations that require care and delicate considerations. What he did, and announcing it here at the forum isn't going to paint him in a good light even though this event happened years ago.

I do not see any student reading this post and then saying "Hey, I should hire this guy for my next paper". Instead, the reaction will be, "I should spread the word so nobody hires this guy." Whatever his reasons were, there is no reason that can justify posting the essays he worked on for students in the free essay section. I believe he did himself and his profession more harm than good.

I am sure that there are legitimate custom writing sites on the web. The problem, is that they are usually small companies that do not have the ability to advertise nor corner the market in the same way that the illegitimate sites can. That is where the problem lies. That is why it is difficult to find the good companies as well. Shifting their marketing to social media sites has rendered the safety that Google offers the searchers useless. Directly communicating with these companies through social media means that the student is vulnerable to negative possibilities stemming from the deal.

It would be better, in my opinion for a student to not look for a legitimate site and instead, look for a legitimate writer instead. These days, it seems much easier to vet the writer for professionalism and writing abilities than it is to vet an actual company. At least working sans the middle man puts the student in the driver's seat. Which also makes it easier for the writer to deal with the student.

I do not think that there are any guaranteed ergonomic set ups in the market today that actually work. Rather than wasting money on those high priced ergonomic stuff, I just have a proper computer table and chair to work on. I stand up and stretch every chance I get, normally after every hour of sitting at the computer. I also lie down as often as I can and close my eyes to help with dryness and eye strain. While the computer table, chair, stretching exercises and workouts can only go so far in helping to keep me in a good shape to do the job, I also employ a regular masseuse who comes around twice a week to give me a full body massage. That works far better than any ergonomic set up I have ever used both at the office and at home.

As far as I know, almost all of the online plagiarism checkers keep some sort of file, either complete or incomplete, of the work that has been uploaded to their server for "plagiarism checking". That is, unless it is otherwise specified. Remember that these companies need to set up an up to date database of student information / paper writing so that they can stay abreast of possible "plagiarism" among the students coming to use their free service. This is where the problem with these checkers lie. None of them every take note of the fact that the student was the original uploader in the first place so when the student comes back to do a plagiarism check a second time, his work will most likely get flagged.

If he did hire an essay writing company that offers plagiarism checking as part of their client freebie offerings, there is a great chance that the QA officer of the company will have submitted the paper to a plagiarism checking website that keeps a record of the work submitted. So, if the student happens to use the same site, the paper will definitely come up as plagiarized even though the student has never used the paper.

That is why it is better to hire an independent writer who can be trusted to write an original paper without the need to double check the work. The more a student checks the originality percentage of the paper he bought, the higher the chances that he will end up seeing his paid for paper as being plagiarized through no fault of the writer (from a legitimate non-ESL writing company) nor the company, or the student.

Business models tend to change over time. The academic writing business is not an exception. Students requirements change over time and, because of the problems they have been having in hiring writers both independently and company based, I can understand why they would ask to see a writing sample from the writer.

On the part of the student, it allows them a semblance of scrutinizing the writer they are considering hiring. On the part of the writer, the sample paper, even if it is only half a paper, will suggest to the student that this is my writing skill level and I can produce a paper at this level for you. That means, the writer will be conscious of the fact that he should not try to get a job beyond his expertise. By delivering a sampler of his work, he showcases the quality of his products and allows the student to make an educated decision about whether to hire him or not.

One can liken the writer sample work situation to walking in the supermarket aisle and coming across those "free taste" tables in the aisles. I get to sample the product and then decide if I want to buy it or not. The free taste calls my attention to a product that I may not have noticed before. The "free taste" is given without charges and you don't get anything more than a small bite to help you make a decision. The same concept is in play with regards to the writer sample request from students. That is all the students are asking for in this instance. A small sample of work, not a completed paper, in a related field that can help them make a qualified decision as to whether or not to hire a writer.

This is definitely great to hear. I only came across this case now as I saw your posting in my checker list. The background of the problem is fascinating. Just like everyone else who mistakenly deals with companies that function outside of the legal norm, you were almost taken for a ride by these criminals. The fact that you stood your ground and sought proper legal advice is why this company will eventually stop harassing you.

It is important to understand that these blackmail writing companies really do not have a legal leg to stand on. They sell model papers, so the minute the student revises the content of the paper in any way, shape, or form, they no longer have a legal claim to make on the student. This also why the students must take the warning to heart. You are hiring writers to complete "model" papers for you. In order to prevent future blackmail threats, it is important that the paper be used in the manner that it was developed for. Change the paper. Revise it for your own protection. Do not use the paper as submitted to you for a grade. Protect yourself in any manner that you can to avoid blackmail and any possible academic misconduct accusations.

Their weakest links rely on Copyscape for the quality analysis of the document submitted. These TL's only go by the suggestions for "plagiarism" and "advice regarding paragraph improvement" on the software. They do not apply any actual intellect to the QA process because they have no idea what to QA. All these clueless TL's know is that the software is flawless and therefore, they must follow it to the letter. In fact, they are so mindless that all they do is send the writer a copy of the "plagiarism check" with a note for the writer to "revise accordingly". No other communication coming from the TL other than that.

The poor writer then revises the paper, the TL runs it through Copyscape again, then returns it for "further revision". Repeating the process a third time allows the criminal TL to immediately apply a penalty to the writer of up to 100% the cost of the paper all because the writer supposedly "failed QAD Check". However, anybody who isn't an imbecile can easily tell that the TL does not even understand the basic tenets of academic writing and citation rules. The TL may then, rework the order for as little effort as possible and then claim the full amount of the order plus penalties on the writer. Does that sound fair to anybody here?

Knowing how the students have become more scrutinizing of the writers they hire these days, I found that one way that a writer can prove his worth is by posting a number of his writing samples on his website. For students who wish to measure the writing skills of the writer, the postings will help the student assess that. For students who want to be sure of a writer's familiarity with a topic, with any luck, the writer will have posted a related topic that the student can use to consider him for hiring. When it comes to providing sample work, this is something that the writer has to do of his own free will. It should not be a student's test of the writer's ability but rather, proof that the writer is highly confident of delivering the client's needs. In some instances, an altered student name and review can be posted alongside the partial sample posting of the writer.

Yep. I said "partial", no writer in his right mind would post the completed essays on the web. It should even be redacted in most instances to protect the student. The posted work should come from at least 4 academic years back in order to make sure that the students will be clear of the professor and university already. Just in case.

Since professors don't really get to know the writing style of their students until later in the school year, I really do not think it is right to assume that they can tell right off the bat who among their students are using a writing service. Hired early on in the semester, as in, before the first written homework is passed for a grade, then the professor could remain oblivious to the fact that the student is getting academic writing help. I mean, it isn't hard to believe that some students will sound horrible speaking in English while in class while sounding perfect normal on paper. It is easier for the student to claim to "edit" oneself or get "editing help" from the writing center than it is for the professor to prove that the student did not have a hand in writing the paper at all.

I do see an upswing in Kenyan writer activities on various boards these days. I guess they are trying to take advantage of the slow season / summer vacation to build their future / upcoming school year client base. From the looks of it though, it appears that they have not improved their grammar and writing skills. I base that on the simple posts that they produce at different websites where they spend their time appealing for students to hire them on the spot. Oftentimes they just get kicked off the board and their posts deleted anyway.

Try as hard as they might, it is still next to impossible for a majority of them to achieve proper international writing standards. So they really invest blood, sweat, and tears into their work usually to no avail. I wish they would learn that there are just some job markets that they are just not cut out for, high level academic writing included.

Students should be very careful these days and really take the time to read the Terms of Service of the company they are considering hiring. There are actually more and more companies that opt to retain their rights (the writers give up these rights to the work as soon as the paper is submitted) to the paper for future use. I noticed a rise in this copyright retention with the companies when an upsurge in "free essays" within these companies began. Apparently, they keep the rights to "revise, alter and republish" the paper in any manner they deem fit within a given time frame. That means, they can republish the same paper, with slight changes to the content, a semester after it was originally ordered by the student.

Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that a company that declares a transfer of ownership of the paper to the student will actually honor their word. Writing companies have been known to pay their writers to paraphrase the same paper for them. They pay the original writer to change the wording and as such, the writer gives the company a totally new paper, that can be sold to a new student based on the same assignment instruction.

The company will not use the same paper within the same semester. The company will also not use the paper in the same form. The original writer will be ordered to revise the whole document either as a revision request or a small change paraphrasing order. You don't have to worry about the company using your paper immediately after you bought it. They will give you at least one semester to use the paper free and clear of any plagiarism worries.

As for the second question, most writers that I know of automatically turn over the rights to the complete paper to the student. As @Smiley73 said, the paper was originally written for you. The writer doesn't have any interest in retaining your order simply because he will have to write a totally new one for a new client, regardless of how similar the order instructions may be. Due to the length of time that has passed, the writer will at least have to update the sources, in which case he ends up writing a new paper anyway. So no worries when it comes to the copyright of academic papers. It always rests in the student's hands.

I have experienced having helped people from various fields complete their written requirements. My clients, just like ProfessorVerb, varied from the academic to the professional. All of them had one thing in common. They all knew what they wanted to say, they just couldn't put it into writing.

I had students coming to me with their outline and almost unreadable notes, begging me to help them put their ideas into an understandable form. Since they did most of the work already and just needed help to put their work into a more academic presentation, I was always more than happy to help them out. Do I consider that helping them cheat? No. Why? Refer to my previous statement.

I also had students come to me asking to do their work from scratch because they had the material, but no idea how to use it. I helped them. Why should their grades suffer just because they are not capable of using the materials they have on hand? Did they submit it for a grade? I pretty much did not care. My only part in this instance was to make sure that they had something usable, for whatever purpose they intended it for.

As for the priests who asked me to write their homilies, the lawyers who asked me to write their case briefs and summations, and nursing and medical students who asked me to complete their case studies, These were people who simply did not have the time to do the work between their classes, regular jobs, and other chores. Who was I to say I could not help them? Of course I did.

Academic writing and ghostwriting are the same in my opinion. There is no fine line dividing them because both of the practices have the same purpose, to help a person get his thoughts down on paper in a manner that can be presented to other people for reading and consideration.

Come to think of it, I never really bothered to keep track of my hours as a writer. Since I worked broken hours anyway, I never thought of quantifying the amount of time I actually placed into each task. I think that is because I was paid a flat rate for the job anyway, regardless of how many hours or how many pages I was working on.

I don't think there is a reason to count the work hours in this line of work since the work hours vary per paper completed. It would be better to instead, count how much the writer is paid for the task assigned. After all, the money paid should be commensurate to the manpower, rather than work hours, that a writer places into the completion of the work.

If pressed for a ballpark figure though, I would say that I was working at least 100 hours a week because I never took a day off and only stopped for the necessities like meals, personal obligations, and other incidental chores.

Personally, I believe that EssayScam exists for two purposes. That is to (1) expose the scam sites and (2) let students know when there are services that can be relied upon to get them out of an academic pinch. Giving a good review is never bad and should be welcomed because that means that there is a company or a writer out there who can be trusted to deliver the needs of students within reason. After all, we can't always focus on exposing scams. Rather, we should encourage the development of reliable academic outsourcing services as well, regardless of whether it is a company or a person. Nothing is lost by applauding the good in the world, specially in this business where, more often than not, a scam is in the works and the student is often blindsided by it. By allowing the posting of positive reviews, we deliver the message that there are some good guys in the bunch too. Granted that it shouldn't be posted in General Talk though. I think the better place to post those sorts of positive reviews are in the Essay Services section.

If only the reliable companies were outpacing the growth of the illegitimate writing companies, EssayScam could be considered to be successful in the objectives that was pointed out. Unless these European hoodwinking companies are put out of business, the mission and objectives of EssayScam cannot be considered complete. Sure the law is finally starting to catch up with these companies, but I don't think they are catching up fast enough. They are evolving in their methods of undermining the legitimate companies and becoming more creative in terms of falsely advertising their companies. It is time that the legitimate company owners and reliable independent writers step up their game. Most of all, clients who have successfully dealt with companies and freelance writers need to make themselves heard.

It is only by aggressively pushing the names of legitimate companies and writers that the students can help in putting a stop to the proliferation of these problem sites and writers. So keep the positive reviews coming. It will be helpful to all parties involved.

While I will agree that the writers and companies recommended indirectly by this forum do have a higher trust scoring among the clients, I would not go so far as to say that they are not completely scams. Without pointing any fingers here, there could be instances when writers / companies and clients have a miscommunication and this results in a cancellation of the order. The client then comes to this forum to discredit the said writer by shouting "SCAM!!!" to the high heavens. This in turn negatively affects the writer's or the company's reputation. The writers then have to fight for the retention of their untarnished reputation all because a simple issue was blown out of proportion. Sometimes, I believe that what are called scams are just instances when arguments regarding content or payment veer into the shouting stage where no one is listening to the other anymore and it becomes easier to just call the deal a "Scam".

I will disagree at this point based on the fact that not all freelance writers are lucky enough to immediately make money upon starting out on their own. The new freelance writers will definitely have a rough time gaining a client base since they do not have any proof of work to show nor recommendations to rely on to instill confidence in a client.

The new writers who are still learning the ropes in the biz will do well to work for a company first. This will allow them to gain valuable work experience, learn how the business works from the inside, and recognize the pitfalls of certain business dealings. Once they have gained enough writing experience and, they have somehow managed to create a regular client base of their own, then they can slowly disengage from the company and begin carving out their own niche in the business.

These writing companies do not normally release their writers from their pool unless they have a very valid reason to cancel the writer account. After all, there is no employment contract shared between the two parties. This is still a freelance job for you and you are still only an affiliate of the company so there is no need for them to treat you as they would a regular employee. You may however, wish to consider the number of positive ratings your work got as opposed to the negative ratings.

The ratings game is normally what makes the difference in a writer's position at the company. It is also the major basis for the decision to keep or release a writer from the staff. How long did you work for them? It is possible that you forgot that you were still on a trial basis and when that time passed, and you failed to achieve a comfortable number of likes and return clients during that period, then that was the major factor that was used as the basis for dismissing you from their service.

The reason the list was called Do Not Discuss is simply because that is exactly what those companies asked the forum to ask their participants not to do. They did not wish to have their companies discussed because of the large volume of negative publicity their company receives from actual users. It defeats the purpose of their fake blurbs on their official websites. Although, one can also say that the implication of the title is also "Do Not Deal" with the company. It is implied I guess. It doesn't need to be said. "Do Not Discuss" tends to sound more socially acceptable when compared to "Do Not Deal".

Partly because not discussing a company has less impact on the image of the company when compared to "Do Not Deal". The Do Not Discuss list is constantly updated based upon company representative requests, which is based on the amount of student complaints about the company represented in the forum thread. When the company finds it more and more difficult to defend their scam of a company, they opt to request to be included in the DND list instead. Although, it doesn't really stop the students from discussing the bad companies just the same.

Since the name of this forum is EssayScam, it does seem unfair to give these other writing companies an out clause through the DND list. Why should they be exempted from the discussion if there is proof positive that they are not what they claim to represent? No, they should be discussed and mentioned by name if the students are to be helped in avoiding services from companies of questionable reputation and negative work experiences.

They know what their writers do and they know that their company is not really as capable as they portray themselves to be. They exist because they can successfully misrepresent themselves on the web. If EssayScam is to remain true to their cause and objectives, I believe the DND list should be removed and the companies be made liable for their actions, at least by having them come to this very site to deliver a believable and acceptable explanation of what transpired between their company and the client.

Rather than hiding behind the DND clause, these companies should come out into the open and prove that they are not unlawful companies cheating the students of their money or blackmailing the unsuspecting clients on the web.

What these people are looking for are not bloggers. They are looking for Copywriters who can help to promote their business. I used to make the same mistake in identifying the two different writer classifications myself. A blogger writes a blog for a website using various content. These people, from what I can deduce their writing, rely on an SEO search and ranking so they will be using keywords in their articles, which makes it highly different from a regular blog.

Let's just say that anybody can write a blog, but not everyone can be a talented Copywriter. The latter being the more difficult piece of writing to complete. Both however, are less stressful to write than an academic paper and as such, comes across as the career of choice for mostly burned out academic writers or writers who want a more relaxed change of pace in their writing assignments.

I do not agree that academic writers become addicted to writing or become workaholics. I would instead argue, that the reason they look for a constant flow of work is because of this simple work ruling: No Work, No Pay. Therefore, what seems like a work addiction is really nothing more than the writer trying to keep up with his projected income since if he doesn't write or have any projects lined up, he won't get paid. Don't get the two reasons mixed up.

In addition to that, a freelance writer has a set income in mind for every pay schedule depending upon what his financial commitments look like at the time. It is understood that he needs to burn the midnight candle in order to afford all of the expenses he has incurred and must pay for. Therefore, there is no work addiction involved in these instances, only a need and will to survive.

For someone whose profile is ProResearcher, it is highly obvious from his statements that his the very kind of rank amateur that @FreelanceWriter is describing above. This guy is a newbie to the business who is trying to drum up some business for himself. Obviously coming from the third world ranks of writers, he is trying to sell himself as a competent writer by taking down the established writer hiring rules.

This declaration is what gives away his intent and his inability to actually do the job. By insinuating that he will do freebies in a way, I do not doubt that he is one of those illegitimate company writers who is trying to strike out on his own. That is why he believes that those silly company policies is the right way to do business in this field. I am absolutely sure that he is not skilled enough to be hired by the learned students who frequent this forum for established academic writers. Most of whom have over 3 decades of experience in the writing field.

I personally know the people behind CustomPapers and I can attest to the fact that the person called IMaribel is a liar. Her website is nothing but a vanity site that showcases a millennial who wants to believe that she is spoiled in every way. So she sells a lifestyle that not most college students can afford. I am troubled by the fact that she has used her store account for her communication with CustomPapers because a truly serious student would not be mixing an on the side business, with her academic life.

She offered no evidence of a con that was run by CustomPapers. Instead, she decided to slander an upstanding company, run by legitimate businesspeople on this website. Knowing very well that she would be spreading unfounded lies. I am very happy that Kate had the opportunity to call this liar's bluff. I had hoped that someone would come to defend the company before I did so as not to create a conflict of interest based on my personal relationship with the people over at CustomPapers. With Kate's posting, I can definitely offer back up and support to her statements.

Don't believe a word the OP said. She is just out to make trouble for an unknown reason.

Personal referrals based on verbal testimonies to friends and classmates, the type not published on the web is actually the best way to network in this line of business as far as I am concerned.

Networking through referrals also ensures that the writer and client will have a pleasant working experience as a friendly manner of doing business can be achieved.

By having a common circle of friends / clients, the writer tends to gain the attention of more students in one particular class, which makes the work much easier for him as he can just research once and spread out the information through various orders.

I don't believe in encouraging word of mouth advertising, which is what a testimonial is, through a free writing offer though.

To me, this practice could devalue the writer's skills because, if you write one free paper for one client, you will have to do it for all your clients. Which means, the writer can lose income because he has to write successive free papers.

Nope. I don't think that is a good idea at all.

The payments for writers in a company should be based on the actual writing skills of the writer, his ratings score, and his relationship with the writing company. While the Asian companies tend to drive slave wages, legitimate companies do not shortchange their writers. The legitimate companies know how to pay the writers based on the quality of their work and their cooperativeness with the company. It is something that cannot really be priced in a tangible basis for me, unless I know the writer and his work experience on a personal basis.

It is not right to make others think that they are being paid improperly by their companies based upon the declaration of earnings by the writers in this thread. To each his own writing skill, to each his own value as seen by the employer. So I won't hazard a guess as this point. Instead, I would simply advice the writer to work hard in order to increase his earning potential at the company. It is never going to be on a fixed level because of the reasons I previously mentioned.

Consider the work done by a academic writer to be something of an unofficial job. It is not something to be bragged about in public as some people, specifically employers may tend to view this in a negative light. Think of it like a baby sitting job. A baby sitter gets paid a decent amount of money and has some sort of related work experience when it comes to child care, but you won't list baby sitting as one of your job descriptions when you apply for a normal nanny position. Instead, you will gloss over that and only mention it in passing should it come up during the interview. Yes, it is a skill, but it is not considered a notable skill on the part of the employer. So it is best to not mention it at all in a job application. If you feel a need to mention it in passing during the interview then do so. However, I would refrain from that as well since, like I said, it is a gray area that employers tend to be divided about.

I haven't heard of any academic writer who was ever placed in hot water over the work that he chose to do. This reading can help any writer, who seems to be conflicted about his work come to terms with his occupation. The writers are not the enemies here. They are the good guys in this story because they offer an assist to struggling students whom the university educators would most likely brand slow or unteachable.

The writers job is to ensure that the student manages to get through the education mill unscathed or untraumatized by the educational process. The universities frown upon academic assistant services and yet they do nothing to make the learning process easier for the students. It is bad enough that the students feel like their money is wasted in college because they are not learning anything or they are slow on the pick up. These professors don't really care about the student as long as they have tenure and get their regular salary anyway. So they are all just in it for the money indeed.

@Modmuff c'mon man. You can't make claims that this site is a scam without offering up better evidence than the laughable ones you mentioned. This forum is still run by moderators and they do like to keep house once in a while. If that means removing erring posters then so be it. Maybe you are just jealous that other writers here manage to get work doing what they do here, which is self-advertise while you can't?

Maybe you need to get your head examined first. This site has never claimed to be anything but an open forum for the discussion of the various writing websites available and whether or not the company or the freelance writer can be trusted to deliver what their clients need. I don't consider that a scam. Rather, the site offers a place for an interesting and informative exchange of ideas that have a tendency to help the students in the process.

I would not call it a cheating service. Rather, I would consider the services offered to be that of the "assistant" type. Consider the freelance writer or writing company a student's best friend. An academic nanny whose job it is to take care of his academic needs. Make sure that he doesn't have any problems in any classes, and that he manages to keep his grades up in order to help him get ahead in the future. The job of the academic writer is perhaps the most important one in the career of a student. Without his writing and research assistant, he would be overwhelmed by the academic demands of his school/college/university, which would mean the student would have a high risk of failure in his classes. So no, academic writers are not helping students cheat. The academic writer is merely helping to keep his grades up so that he can continue to compete in the academic world.

@Smiley73 I honestly don't think that you are giving the other ESL writing companies a good review here. While it is true that they hire 3rd world writers, it doesn't mean that they do so with an evil intent. Maybe the writers have a tendnecy to take on projects beyond their actual expertise. That is not the company's fault. The writer was hired based on the results of an application that told them the writer has potential when it comes to academic writing.

Who are you to judge whether or not a writer will be successful at a particular writing company or not? Do you know the people who run these companies on a personal basis? What makes you believe that they are all slave drivers? I think you need to reassess your point of view. Consider that these companies offer these struggling 3rd world writers a chance to earn an income so that they can survive and you will see how mistaken you are. If anything, the problem is that the writer's desire to earn an income pushes him to do work that he knows he is not capable of completing in a proper manner and that, is not the company's fault.

I never tried to define my work for anyone. It was important to me that they remain confused about the work that I was doing at the time because it gave me a sense of being "special" in any given setting and the "envy" of the others who had to punch the clock everyday and earn a pittance just the same. I was working in my pajamas, could care less about where I had my meals that day, and pretty much had all my time to myself, provided I met the student deadline anyway. So the pay was good, I was on easy street income wise, and my friends, relatives, and other acquaintances thought I was an enigma. It was just the way that I wanted to live my life at the time and I was glad that whenever I pretended to explain what I did for a living, the conversation ender was always, "where do I sign up?" on the part of the person I was talking to.

Owing to the fact that writing companies now have their QAD run by fellow writers who have been promoted to "non-writing positions" where his only task is to review the writer's work, I can understand how unjust fines can be applied to an order. You see, when the writer reaches the QAD position in a company, his only source of income will be "fines" applied to the writer's work. Therefore, he must uncover mistakes and errors, or trumped up claims of seriously bad quality on the work of the writer so that he can earn an income for himself. When this person does these penalty assessments on the submitted work of his writers pool, he ha sonly one thing in mind, how much money do I need to make this month or this pay schedule. Then he will proceed to deduct the same amount from all his writers. Therefore, I commiserate with this guy. It is bad enough that he is most likely an illegitimate ESL writer, but then to be penalized for it to this extent, means that he was targeted by his team leader for some reason.

I agree that it is a very informative, insightful, and helpful piece of investigative work. Donald should be applauded for his tenacity in getting responses to the questions and turning it into this detailed report. It is so good in fact, that I have created a link to this very report at my company website in order to help spread the word and warn the students about the pitfalls of using something that is supposedly for free but then takes possession of practically your very soul as a person in exchange for the service.

Grammarly is a Ukrainian company by the way. Knowing the origin of the company has also helped me understand that the information may be kept offshore, possibly in Greece, which seems to be the Ukrainian favorite off shore housing location for client information. The service cannot be trusted based solely on its TOS which by the way, may violate the European Union GDPR.

I really miss the old days when people were not considered products and our lives were not part of "big data" for businesses. One can only surmise that things will get worse as technology and the desire for more and more personal data progresses. Big Brother has arrived in the form of social media and search engines. We are not human beings, we are mere commodities who have no right to complain because we want free stuff. When does the right to free stuff in exchange for our life's information cross the line?

With FB on the hook for privacy concerns, but with the continued involvement of technology in our everyday lives, I don't see this coming to an end. Alexa will be delivering photos of our homes to Google for sale to its partners, Siri will be recording our conversations for sale to the highest bidding partner of Apple, and every keystroke we make tells Microsoft something about us. We live in a non-private world already and we will have to learn to live with it.

Sadly, people learn to adjust to the new concept of non-privacy far faster and more efficiently than the educators and academic institution that now exist. The educational system, will eventually need to make adjustments accept that their archaic concept of plagiarism is something that needs to be done away with if the students are to truly learn something from all the classes that they pay to take at these universities.

Some of these writers are from third world countries. As such, they are used to a slave labor system of work. Fining and penalties are not new to them because of the way their workforces are set up. Every move they make in relation to their profession has a penalty for a failure to do something. From the way it was explained to me, they stay on with the companies not because they like being penalized, but because even after the penalties, they still manage to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. They do not have much to earn in terms of working in regular employment in their countries so they agree to the slave labor of these writing companies which, according to them, keeps them ahead of their bills and allows them to grow their savings for a rainy day. These are the only reasons that they have not chosen to quit and continue to accept the abuse being heaped upon them by their illegitimate companies.

The penalties applied by these companies are normally the reason why the writers end up working for free in some instances. That is why it is always best to work for multiple companies at the start. Weigh your options in terms of the penalties being applied and the remaining amount for your salary after. Cancel your account or simply stop working for the companies that take a shark's bite out of your salary through penalties, fines, and other made up reasons. Eventually, you will find that you will end up with only 2 companies in the end. Those that take the least cut out of your salary and pay you on time are usually the ones that stay in the top 2. Once you have come up with that, you can't go any further with regards to your salary improvement as a company retained freelance writer. The only way to stop the penalties will be to go into business for yourself.

Well then, if the illegitimate ESL services have taken over the industry as you surmise, then they must be doing something right in their business model. Along with that, it is possible that not all of the ESL services using 3rd world writers are delivering tremendously bad papers. Maybe some of them can muster enough writers to write acceptable papers for their clients. Which is why they are growing in number. While I will admit that they are not supposed to be encouraged as they are more often than not the source of writing scams, maybe, just maybe, not all of them as are as bad as we think?

After all, the students are after well written papers at an affordable cost. Which is what these illegitimate ESL writing services are banking on. The affordable cost of their service comes from the lucrative dollar exchange rate. So, while we view their writers as being paid a pittance, in their home country, their salary is considered a decent wage that helps them survive. So it is really hard for me to be a judge in this instance.

We are all in this game for the same reason anyway, to make a living without having to turn to a life of crime. it is extremely difficult to find real world regular employment these days with all the competition based on skills and age (yes, even with the Trump program of retraining for workers) so the academic writing industry is the most reachable employment field for all of us involved in it. I would like to believe that these illegitimate ESL writers do their best to help the students get the grades that they hope to receive. Also, that they can at least write in English without using cut and paste for all their papers.

Why does their business continue to flourish even as they continue to hire illegitimate ESL writers? What have they done that is right that we missed out on in our analysis of their history and services? Why do the students still trust them even though they know the service could be problematic?