In fairness to KenyanWriter, despite his apparent trolling, when I was teaching if one of my ESL students handed in an essay that read like it was written by a native English speaker, I'd be really suspicious. Not sure what it's like in the US, but the UK has a huge foreign student population, so if an ESL or EFL graduate/PhD has the knowledge, I would think them a better match for those students who are too bone idle or dim to write their own papers.

thats $50 per page of grad level work seems more than reasonable to me.

I was taken on as a writer with them, but it was impossible to get any work at all. I don't know if it was because my bids were too high (I have a basic pricing system I use on the other site) or what. I noticed that one of my gigs I got from the other site also turned up on GW. I guess the quality is good as they were rigorous in checking my credentials and asked for some of my MSc and PhD writing samples, but I got fed up of constantly bidding and not getting selected.

@pinktoes. Set up a blog. It's what most parents of disabled kids do when they want to get their story out. And yes, a lot of people will be interested if you keep it real and keep it relevant.

The essaylab web page is full of errors. I wouldn't pay them to write my shopping list, let alone an essay.

Essay Directory is just a list of companies offering essays. Some are probably ok in terms of product, others may be less so.

Eh, must be a Brit thing then. In my mind when I read it, it is always with an anglo-indian accent :)

The point about buying essays from sites which have shoddy grammar still stands. The cafe menu analogy is a poor one as you are buying food, not spelling.

Having spent time on this site I've looked at all the companies that have been reviewed as rubbish and those which have had favourable reports. Every site which had poor copy on the website has attracted complaints about the quality of work done. This is a far from rigorous or scientific analysis, but (and I'm not normally one for gambling) I'll bet no one gets a good essay from a website with crap spelling that would satisfy a native English speaker.

OK, they might not be scam sites as in acting fraudulently, but otherwise I stand by what I said in terms of them being rubbish.

If a company is unable to recognise poor copy that is riddled with errors, then their ability to produce decent essays is dubious. Outsourcing is fine, but it is the website owner's responsibility to check the copy and ask for corrections. You wouldn't buy a burger from a shop which has got people puking outside it with food poisoning, would you? So why buy an essay from a company that can't be arsed to even check for basic grammar mistakes in their shop window?

I was being a bit tongue in cheek about the use of 'top notch'. However, the use of the term 'top notch' as used by essay sites screams to me that their copy has been written my an ESL speaker. Nowt wrong with ESL speakers of course, but if it's on a site which is pretending to be UK based it is misleading. I can't actually remember the last time I heard anyone use the term top notch (apart from a comedy show based around an Indian family, where it was a bit of a gag).

You farmed out work to TWO scam sites? Bad luck. Here's a hint to spot some of them.

Copy and paste their web text into a word document and then run spell and grammar check through it. If it comes up with a ton of errors, then don't give them your money.

Avoid companies claiming to offer 'top notch' work.

If you paid by paypal or on a credit card, cancel the payment.

I had a fair amount of communication beforehand about if they fine writers (they don't), what their cut is (25%) and how they preserve my anonymity (you have your own username and everything is through the website). I was reassured by the responses and I had some other email correspondence about a writing gig I took on and they were helpful, replied quickly and so on. You also get your own profile so customers get an idea of your background. There are a variety of papers offered for bid but I'm guessing most of the writers are social sciences/humanities as they attract the most bids. Anyone with a hard science or statistics background would be busy, I should think (wish I had worked harder on SPSS!).

I've not written for any other companies, though I've been accepted by graduate writers and custom papers. Custom papers has a horrible format, you have to look on the page, no email notifications nothing. I'm assuming that if a bid is accepted then you do get a notification. Grad writers is mostly masters and above from the ones I've seen and a lot of it is outside my field of study. I don't mind for undergrad papers, but at higher levels I don't feel confident enough to produce a good paper in say English lit.

Editor75, is that addressed to me?

If so, I'm getting a fair bit of work, but I possibly pitch my bids too high for some. I think there are some writers who just bid on everything irrespective of area of expertise. Two of my jobs were fixing previous jobs which were piss poor.

I have made the decision to have a fairly high price per page rate (which after deductions etc is still only about £12ph) and only pick stuff I have actually studied, so I'm getting good feedback and repeat business.

I think people there are jaded, but it is at least honest.

You missed my point. The text on the website should have alerted you to the fact that they are rubbish...
"All our writers have at least two years of continuous writing practice, and each of them is a high-level professional in his particular field. All their knowledge and writing skills are validated by certificates, diplomas and years of experience. Our online essay writing service provides you only with a truly expert assistance. Every single writer we hire passes a number of tests and examinations first, which proves his professional skills and personal attributes."

... it's a shame they don't put their copywriter through the same rigours.

I could go through and do a line by line textual analysis of the errors and odd syntax which screams out that it wasn't written by a native English speaker, but I ain't that bored.

I think unemployed professors just want a paypal address. I suppose if you give people your ID and complain it is a bit easier for them to find out where you are studying and threaten to expose you.

If a website looks like it has been written by someone who is not a native English speaker, then why would you give them £500 to write an essay?

That is pretty shocking behaviour from the essay company.

However, how do they know which university you are studying at? Also, if the essay is that crap and you aren't going to submit it, then it doesn't matter if they post it all over the net anyway.

Finally, why would you worry about not being able to use this company again? They are not only unethical, but produce rubbish and have poor customer service to boot. Why give them more dosh?

The issue is that the W9 they sent me was for US citizens only. However, since my post they seem to have resolved it.

That's really crap, Ashish. However as you noted, their website is barely understandable, so you should have been forewarned.

But look on the bright side, at least you passed :)

mycaseyface: "Yes, that's exactly my point."
I get why you need other people to write your papers. Comprehension is not your strong point.

@Meo: True about identity on the web. But mostly the concern is about creating an authentic voice for the client. That said I have just done my second paying gig writing a high school essay for a self confessed pothead. I tried to channel Jessie off BB. It is also why I think a lot of the sniping about ESL writers is stupid. I think most lecturers can get a feel for a student's 'voice'. If I had a student whose first language was not English handing in essays obviously written by a native speaker, I'd be really suspicious. Given the huge numbers of foreign students in English speaking universities, if one wanted a ghost-written essay, I'd have thought it makes sense to get one from another non-native speaker. As long as the content is good and the english is grammatically correct etc, the student won't be penalised for having a foreign 'voice'.

@firewriter: My specific academic field is really small so everybody knows everybody, nationally and internationally. If I got caught ghost writing essays, any chance of an academic career would be finished. There have been enough exposes in the press to want to minimise the risk as much as possible and hiding my identity helps with that. I haven't even told my family because they know some of my academic colleagues and it might slip out.

As a side note, sorry about not quoting... seems my browser won't play ball.

@editor75, Meo seems to be correct about clients and writers' identities being hidden. I asked every single company I applied to if my real identity would be hidden and they all said yes. It would be fair to assume it's standard practice, no?

@ peter.

I have no idea as I'm just exploring the possibility of doing the writing side of things, but there are two recommended companies on here. They seem to be 'real' in that the emails I've had from them are well-written and personalised. I'm confident enough to submit work in order for them to consider me as a potential freelance.

This site is a bit confusing because it doesn't allow recommendations, so I guess it's a process of elimination.

"Professional Custom Wrighting" - it could be a feature, not a mistake. Maybe it's a short form from "writing right."

Writing Right = Wrighting :

Regarding the girl.. judging by her facial expression, she has already noticed the mistake :

If you google them you get reviews on site jabber. I had a quick scan of writeversity and if I wanted to buy an essay, that is the last place I'd go.

@ editor75, yeah, I did check out the two recommended companies. I've heard back from graduatewriter from my initial enquiry and sent in a couple of essays from my masters and awaiting to hear back. Not heard back from custom dissertation yet. I've also been accepted on unemployed profs, but no gigs yet.

I was really after some decent UK based companies, though. I'm sure UK students use US sites, but I figured there'd be more UK work on a UK site.

@Lucy, thanks for the recommendation about odesk. I'd not heard of them before. I'll give 'em a go.

Oh dear.

I had gathered that this was a bit of a shark tank, but seriously, should one not use suitable language depending on context?

I was not here touting for business, simply asking for information on a forum. For these reasons I used an informal tone. Whilst it is tempting to pull your post apart for clarity issues in petty retaliation, I'll not bother. I did however notice that you buy your own essays which kinda (sorry, I mean kind of) says it all.

Just sayin'.