Alas, this question applies to every aspect of human interactions. With respect to online writing services, I would recommend a small transaction at first to confirm delivery and quality, but otherwise it's a crap shoot. Good luck.

It was a dark and stormy night ...*

*"It was a dark and stormy night" is an infamous phrase written by Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton at the beginning of his 1830 novel Paul Clifford.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_was_a_dark_and_stormy_night

I saw an advertisement from a custom writing service a few years back (I did not apply) that paid its writers by PayPal after every order. I like that system.

Ain't that the truth. The people who are motivated to post in here are likely the ones who have experienced problems with writing services (for whatever reason). It would be nice to hear from the thousands of satisfied customers.

That's one of the problems with working for yourself. There's no one to steal from and you can't call in sick.

These are prerequisites.

I understood everything completely. I just wanted to see how many words you would write in response. Wow!

It sounded too good to be true -- thanks all.

If this is the case, we are all criminals.


Students have the same tendencies as all "experts" to prefer one topic area over another, especially if they have personal experience with it through their work or through previous research. This makes them experts, at least in the strict legal sense: "One who is knowledgeable in specialized field that knowledge being obtained from either education or personal experience" (Black's Law Dictionary, 1991, St. Paul, MN: West Pub. Co., p. 572). This is what makes people "expert" in something, after all, so it is logical that many students would focus on one area of specialized interest, especially one that is relevant to their career field (i.e., smartphone apps and marketing). Anyway, you're right, I should have been clearer, but I think you're creating a double standard for us (professional writers) and them (students and clients) that is, in my view, at least, sanctimonious.

Many experts in a field will write about the same topics over and over as additional research is conducted and most will cite their previously published work as part of their literature review. I'm not talking about a student taking an old paper and "doctoring it up" and turning it in as a new paper. I'm talking about writing about the same ideas using new sources and fresh critical analysis (e.g., "completely new words"). This is not self-plagiarism in my view.

As to rarely receiving assignments for a number of similar themes, I once wrote 32 different papers for the same class on group interactions in "The Flight of the Phoenix" (word got around) -- I still can't watch that movie today.

Based on the description I read, it seems that some applications are able to learn over time, improving their output. I figured as much, though. Anything produced automatically will require careful reading and interpolation. Thanks for the feedback.

Let's be realistic. Everyone uses the same ideas over and over and I don't agree that using the same ideas and expressing them in different words is self-plagiarism. After all, we all have some fundamental beliefs that we express in our writings time and again (i.e., women should have equal rights, America is the world's Salvation Army, increased commerce will improve everyone's standard of living, etc. etc.). These are shallow examples, but you see what I mean. Like good lawyers, though, we are always prepared to take a different perspective on things according to our clients' needs, but by and large, our opinions come through loud and clear -- at least mine do -- and I don't regard this as self-plagiarism. Maybe I'm missing the point.

I don't see how.

It's a competitive business and you have to be quick if you want to get the good -- or even mediocre assignments. The middle of the night is usually a better time to find new work.

Exactly. I wonder if teachers are just too lazy to create unique assignments that make stock answers difficult, or if TurnItIn is just a time-saver (but expensive), or if teachers are getting a kickback from the company. If so, where do I sign up? I'm not saying what TurnitIn does is illegal per se, I am saying that they are being unjustly enriched at the expense of countless students and academic writers every time they add a paper to their database for future comparisons. Oh well, I doubt that anything can stop this juggernaut now.

That is not silly -- to the contrary, that is just pragmatic and very good advice. I still rely on books from time to time (I went to the library today as a matter of fact), but most of this material requires typing which is counterproductive of course. I've tried Dragon but it still takes longer than just typing it (I have my wife read stuff to me). Depending on the project, sometimes I like this type of exclusivity where material can't be readily found online. At any rate, you have your priorities right and your work likely reflects it. Good luck in the future!

That doesn't stop educators from trying.

Every situation is unique. When you write a lot of papers, some will be better than others and the chances of some clients being dissatisfied therefore increases. Conversely, more clients will also be delighted. Consequently, judging the quality of a service in general requires work from more than one writer, but if you are happy (or unhappy) with the work product, that's a mighty fine place to start. Writing good research papers can be tough sometimes, and some clients are complete morons who can't put two words together and blame you for everything that's wrong in their lives. Jeez -- I hate those clients. These types of people will likely claim they were robbed but we all know there are two sides to every story -- and we get paid to write about them.

Like most of the other writers in here, if I can read about it, I can write about it.

I've found that as long as you're consistent in the citation style, most people are happy. It just takes a minute to review the style if you aren't familiar with it, though, and it gets easier every time.


This is the sad situation with APA where virtually every single thought, introductory statement or suggestion must be referenced in some fashion. APA makes for difficult reading (and writing) when it is strictly enforced.

On a per-word basis, all the verbiage in these posts would add up to a lot. Some of the flames might make for a good book.


I used to work for the general curator at the OKC zoo, in the same building as the zoo veterinarian and hospital. When they knocked out our gorillas, tigers and so forth for treatment, they would bring them into the hospital and call me over so I could watch. Silverback gorillas smell bad and the odor clings to everything -- including people. Tiger fur is much rougher and thicker than I imagined, and dolphins are fragile in captivity. I watched a giraffe being born (that's a long drop!), saw a mother cheetah eat one of her young (dead) on close circuit television, and watched a male gorilla bite the head of a newborn gorilla and pop its eye out -- this was a low point in my zoo career. I adopted a parrot named Albert in quarantine for a bad beak, though, and he was a good friend. All in all, an interesting place to work.

When I first started, I kept examples of APA and MLA taped above my monitor to help me. I don't need these now, but they helped at first. The first 10,000 papers are always the hardest.

"fraudulent customer" is redundant

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

"suspicious writers" is redundant

That ain't how it works :)

My dollar amount (five figures) was deleted from my post.

EBSCO is usually available through your local public library but I also subscribe to Questia. I don't recommend Encyclopedia Britannica as a resource -- even though they provide access to EBSCO material, they are overpriced and their articles are frequently wrong.

I've made more than spam selling my papers on AcaDemon.

A more cogent analysis is provided here: perpetualbeta.com/release/2007/03/turnitin-and-copyright-protection-worse-than-the-disease/

You gotta do what you gotta do.

You have to write every day to make a decent living at this. I try to write at least 20-25 pages every day, and there have been cases when I've completed far more than this. Although they are uncommon, I've made $10,000 in some months but (I don't mean to toot my own horn -- but beep beep) I've averaged more than $55,000 a year for 12 years now. Not bad for smoking cigarettes in my underwear.

That quote saved me some time :)

Competition is good for any business.

As a long-time writer for SNR (more than 11 years now), I joined this forum thinking I could share my experiences with other writing services that have not treated me nearly as well (i.e., Junglepage). After reviewing a few of the threads, though, I was alarmed at how quickly these discussions turn nasty with personal attacks being the norm -- even in response to legitimate questions. I think I'll take my interests and membership somewhere else where people are more friendly.

I had the same experience several years ago and never wrote for them again. This site is now closed though.