The Indians call it "maize."

I've been to Sweden -- high taxes and pretty women. I can live with that combination.

We used to enjoy driving aimlessly in the Low Countries and West Germany because all of the roads (even the dirt ones) lead somewhere old and interesting. Your square, though, was already ancient by the time Cleopatra ruled. How's the coffee?

The only things we have in the U.S. that old are some Pueblo cliff dwellings (c. 1300 CE) and Donald Trump (har har).

I LOVE flags (and maps). I like your new flag:

I've lived through TWO changes in our flag, the first in January and the second in August 1959 when Alaska and then Hawaii became states, respectively. Not surprisingly, 49-star flags are highly collectible today. By the way, there's only one state (Oregon) and one country (Paraguay) that have two-sided flags (e.g., the two sides are different).

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p.s. to admin: "excessive" is subjective

A sampling from this site:

excessive quoting = removed

There's more (as always), but you get the idea...

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*Wow!

I performed a word count on some of my most recent papers, and determined the following:

* Some of my papers average less than 300 words per page (my billing rate), but not by much (some contain more);

* Some pages contain lists or figures that limit the word count; and,

* Some papers require terminology that defies using a bunch of small words.

Because I charge by the word, the page count is irrelevant. If someone orders 3,000 words and it takes 12, 15 (or more) pages, so be it. In a few cases, I've ended up writing 20 or more pages for a "10-page" order that required SPSS analyses or other features. When it comes to a word-count per page guarantee, it's a wash. At least that's what I think ...

I thought only escalators had preferences and biases ...

I experience this all the time. This is not "un-doable."

I agree, Major. The only thing an academic writer can legitimately guarantee is client satisfaction.

The article you cite indicates just how confused and clueless UK policymakers are in confronting essay mills. On the one hand, the article concedes that educators are completely "powerless" to detect custom essays but on the other hand, calls for "strong policies and sanctions" to detect custom essays. The article was silent, though, concerning how a policy or a sanction alone can detect anything.

This whole affair smacks of hypocrisy and overreaction bordering on Chicken Little hysteria. The guidance provided by Cliff's Notes is virtually identical to the disclaimers used by reputable essay writing companies (e.g., the work product is intended to be used as a study guide and model for students to develop their own final version), but you don't see UK policymakers hounding them and threatening their clients with criminal charges. If the truth be known, more students have probably plagiarized Cliff's Notes than all other sources combined. I'd also bet that if they were held up to strong light, plenty of the same people barking about the problem would be shown to be guilty of it themselves.

Hi.

I'm an academic writer working on a story about The Guardian, aka The Grauniad, so nicknamed by the satirical magazine, Private Eye, due to the large number of typographical errors made by this newspaper and calls for improved proofreading on the part of the general public.

I come to the story with a specific parodical agenda and plenty of expertise so I don't need to speak to as many people as possible, including academics, essay writers, and students, but what the heck, I welcome your input anyway.

Some tidbits from this site:


There is more of this stilted verbiage but you get the idea.

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*As if there was another purpose for writing dissertations

There are at least 60 people in the United States named "Ken Yan."

This is what happened to Sam Eshaghoff of New York who took the ACT and SAT for high school students sixteen times (for about $1,500 each) before he was caught.

It depends on how old they are ...

No, really, I also offer a 10% discount for repeat clients.

Western Union's "Fixed Text" Message Service

In 1935, telegram recipients started looking at the top of their messages to see if it said "FT" or "SC." If the message was headed by "SC," it meant "sender composed"; an "FT," though, meant it was a "fixed text" message -- and you could send one anywhere in the country for a quarter! There were dozens of these coded messages, ranging in subject from congratulations on a new store opening to get well soon. When people seemed reluctant to send telegrams during the holiday season for fear the recipient would be alarmed because these messages usually meant bad news, Western Union introduced a new blank message card with holly and wreaths the next year and business skyrocketed.

When they introduced a Mother's Day card featuring a white-haired crone, though, mothers aged 26 through 45 wrote thousands of nasty letters to Western Union, insisting that women under 80 could be mothers too. The next year's blank featured an old woman, a middle-aged woman and a young women in a page-boy haircut ("They can decide which one they are," a company spokesman suggested).

Over time, Western Union introduced other message types including the Bunnygram, Dollygrams, Kiddiegrams, Storkgrams, Santagrams and even a Cigargram.

Well, I suppose the key words are the same but my original thread had nothing to do with receiving payments by Western Union and it was posted in "off-topics" for general interest. In their infinite wisdom, the mods get to decide what goes where, but guess where I suggest this should go ...

Western Union realized the value of user-contributed content for their FT messages, and paid between $1 and $10 for ideas. One Pittsburgh resident named Bob Post sent the following message on Valentine's Day: "Roses are red, violets are blue, you are sweet via WU, WU, WU." Although unsolicited, Western Union liked it so much they bought it for $10.

(I wonder where this post will end up ...)

A good friend of mine (now deceased) once told me the best advice I've ever been given: "Deny everything and demand proof." It's your word against theirs and you hold the high ground.

You'll have to wait in line ...

Cover your bases. If you use material from another paper, simply state "as indicated previously" or otherwise ensure that the source is known.

Well, I guess I win this round because I got an email from a deposed Nigerian prince last night who said he wants to make me rich.

Re: Pseudonyms of CustomPapers writers?

I've gone by "Professor Verb" for the last 15 years, but I also like "Doctor of Love" and "Gamemaster."*

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*"I play video games better than anybody." -- Tron

"Beer" is easy to spell. "Coffee" can be tough for people in some countries: simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Bart_vs._Australia/Quotes.
Jeez... why don't you just hack my posts and misplace all of them? Vendetta, Sarah?

Good grief. Where do you find the time?

Although no one is being forced to comply with this ridiculous demand (I agree with Major), it is certainly within the rights of an essay company to include this requirement as part of the application process. Despite my disagreement with this policy, I am willing to share such a picture with anyone as shown below:

I rode "Phantasmagoia" countless times before the new owners tore Bell's Amusement Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma down in 2006* to make room for a desperately needed parking lot.**



It wasn't particularly scary, but it was a great place to make out: The ride also had a couple of roller coaster-like bumps and spooky effects that made it interesting but good God it was hot in there in the summer.

Bob Bell and his sons actually built this ride (and several others -- including many he sold to other amusement parks in the U.S. during the second half of the 20th century) and he and his wife were rumored to live, at least part-time, in an apartment beneath "Zingo" for many years (see below):

I watched them build this roller coaster while I worked in my first job as a 14-year-old busboy at a cafeteria down the street for 75 cents an hour. I was envious of the 16-year-old's who were employed as roller coaster monkeys in the construction (they couldn't do that now, of course -- child labor and all), but they did make a buck-fifty an hour.



Zingo was my favorite roller coaster of all time: I also remember Bob standing at the entrance to his park in 1965 with several of his assistants behind him, refusing admission to a Chinese delegation visiting Tulsa because they were "commies" (stupid, I know, despite his brilliance, huh?)***. All in all, everyone misses this park a lot and the citizens of Tulsa were ******.

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* Infinitives split at no extra cost
** Not -- it was a cabal of greedy bastards.
*** It was the Cold War and people were scared

Besides a few overpriced services in the UK, you're right. Fortunately, our collective expertise in this industry provides us with a competitive edge. You can gamble on an unknown and pay big (or little) bucks or rely on a proven track record of success, honesty and dependability with the U.S.writers in here. This language can be tough to learn for foreigners and even more difficult to master, and the small premium paid for good native-speaking writers is worth it.

Probably. I do remember, however, Rolling Stone magazine containing ads in the early 1970s with stock research papers by topic. In addition, my mentor in this industry, Michael Von Plato, now an octogenarian, provided me with invaluable insights into this industry in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In other words, the industry has been around longer than many people believe.

I not only concede your expertise, I have cited it in this forum several times. My understanding was based on the TOS's sole requirement for posters to be 13 years or older without regard to nationality. Although my search has not been exhaustive, I haven't seen any text concerning EssayScam being strictly about the U.S. essay industry.

In reality, a simple review of this Web site reveals some common errors (even among native speakers):

"Student life in general is more complex, more demanding, and filled with higher expectations than even a decade ago. For this [sic] reason."

"Each order placed . . . is thoroughly analyzed and then assigned only to a writer who has the appropriate degree and experience for the project" and yet in their FAQ page they concede that, "Based upon the topic and the academic level, the project is offered only to those writers who have the appropriate qualifications." Are orders assigned or offered?

Overall, though, I have to say this is a slick site.

Happy New Year!

I've had several clients send me "plagiarism" reports over the years after submitting their work to TurnItIn and its ilk. By and large, these reports are not only useless without careful review, they can do more harm than good.

The similarity index and originality report generated by TurnItIn (and others I suspect) tend to create the impression in the minds of many students that a paper has been, for example, "25% plagiarized" because of a 25% match rate, even though the rate may include common phrases, the titles of books, articles, laws, etc., as well as references and tabular material.*

I would suspect that, depending on the sensitivity level selected, even a 100% original paper without any quotations at all will likely generate a percentage match rate at some level given the billions of papers and other online sources that are included in the comparisons.

Although TurnItIn warns that these match rates are just a source for further investigation if educators feel it is warranted, some students (and even educators) simply assume that match rate equals plagiarism.

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*Ironically, I once received a direct plagiarism match from TurnItIn on a term paper about "plagiarism in college" that contained the legal definition of "plagiarism" provided by Black's Law Dictionary.

If time is not an issue, this strategy might be okay but completing even a six-page paper at this rate might take up to a week or more depending on the responsiveness of the client. Moreover, I suspect that many academic writers (including me) do not usually write their papers from start to finish (unless it's a topic on which we're expert) but rather conduct some preliminary research and then complete the final editing and interpretation. This means that the first 250 words would not benefit from the rest of the research and some clients would likely be disappointed with these results.

You're using a very broad brush there.

All told, there's about 16 million college students enrolled in the U.S. and of these, there's about 400,000 international students, mostly from China, India, South Korea and Saudi Arabia. If the new prez follows through on his immigration reform (especially prohibiting Muslims from entering the U.S.), the flow of new international students into the U.S. will slow, and these students may enroll elsewhere or simply opt to postpone their education until things return to normal. For-profit and community colleges in the U.S. have also experienced an overall (slight) decline in enrollments over the past year. On the other hand, if the economy rallies in response to the new prez's initiatives, there may be more discretionary income available which would likely be good for our industry.

I believe that once fake news has been discussed and analyzed by others, it is longer fake.

It is my understanding that this site is global in scope and not restricted to any particular country: [check out the main page]

Alas, sales from my AcaDemon papers have all but dried up over the past year or so. In view of TurnItIn et al., this is understandable but still disappointing.

I've had a few instances, several years ago, when my average page count was about this (or even slightly more) during the summer months, but as others have commented, competition has increased and so has my age since then so this rate would in fact be a "serious feat" today, at least for me.

There are also some differences in the percentages of students enrolled in college in the US (about 68.4%) compared to the UK (less than 50%). The US is apparently competing academically on quantity versus quality.