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Term paper company irks profs, students
St. Paul Pioneer Press ^ | 3/27/11 | Debra O'Connor

Posted on 03/28/2011 5:53:28 AM PDT by rhema

The college senior in Colorado felt cheated when for $23 per page she ordered a custom-written term paper from a Twin Cities company and it wasn't delivered on time.

Never mind that she was cheating by passing off a paper written by a stranger as her own. She complained to the Better Business Bureau about Essaywritingcompany.com, owned by Jordan Kavoosi of Farmington.

"I ordered it, and they were supposed to have it back to me within four days," she told the Watchdog. "I constantly emailed. Nobody replied to me. Then (Kavoosi) calls me and says under no circumstances am I going to get a refund."

It wasn't the first complaint filed against the company, which has resolved most of those registered with the Minnesota BBB.

But President and CEO Dana Badgerow calls Kavoosi an "entrepreneur who is skating on the thin edge of legality, and for sure he's plunged into what we think is unethical behavior."

The Watchdog, whose favorite part of academic life was writing term papers, asked Kavoosi if he had any problem with making a living by enabling students to commit academic misconduct that, if caught, can result in failing grades or worse.

"It doesn't bother me at all. I just see it as a business. It's as if I was selling shoes," Kavoosi said. "I just chose something that would make money ... and was kind of catchy and would help people out.

"People are too busy, and that's why we exist."

His Colorado client, who said she has disputed the credit card bill for her term paper, would agree with that.

She has used Essaywriting company.com and other such companies because, she said, "I work full time and I go to school full time and I'm a single parent. Lack of time, basically."

Dubious claims — specifically the one guaranteeing an "A" grade — prompted the BBB to go "secret-shopping." For $40, the BBB purchased a two-page paper titled "The Ethics of Advertising to Children," then took it to Dan Wackman, a professor in the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication who teaches the topic.

He gave it a "C."

Wackman knew that it was purchased from a company, but that didn't affect his grading, he said. He had concrete reasons to mark it down: It cited unidentified sources, it was unfocused and it failed to refer to recent dramatic changes affecting the topic.

Every class syllabus at the U is required to have a section on academic misconduct, including plagiarism and cheating, Wackman said. Each instructor denotes a consequence such as getting an "F" on the assignment or flunking the entire course.

But that's not the only bad consequence of buying a term paper, he said.

"When students skip the steps of actually doing the work, which is when the learning occurs, they're cheating themselves," he said. "That woman is cheating herself. It's her own loss."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Minnesota
KEYWORDS: college; education; plagiarism; whining
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1 posted on 03/28/2011 5:53:33 AM PDT by rhema
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To: rhema
She has used Essaywriting company.com and other such companies because, she said, "I work full time and I go to school full time and I'm a single parent. Lack of time, basically."

So not being able to devote the time needed to studying makes cheating OK? This person should be flunked out of school.

2 posted on 03/28/2011 5:56:29 AM PDT by pnh102 (Regarding liberalism, always attribute to malice what you think can be explained by stupidity. - Me)
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To: rhema
She has used Essaywriting company.com and other such companies because, she said, "I work full time and I go to school full time and I'm a single parent. Lack of time, basically."

Well boo-frickin-hoo. The world is supposed to bow and bend to you because life is tough? If you're not prepared to do the work necessary in order to get a degree, then stay home until you can. Degrees are supposed to reward hard work, not desire.

Jeez, grow the frick up, America!

3 posted on 03/28/2011 6:00:12 AM PDT by Badabing Badablonde (New to the internet? CLICK HERE)
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To: rhema

Its laziness. Graduate school is hard work. If you can’t discipline yourself to do original research and writing, you don’t belong there. Using a form paper deprives you of critical thinking skills. The student who does a term paper, shows that something new has been learned.

Professors know when you take someone else’s arguments and pass them off as your own, you aren’t learning. And its also shows that you have deficient ethics. Its not acceptable to crib, period.


4 posted on 03/28/2011 6:00:19 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: pnh102

There are plenty of tools out there now that profs use to scan papers for plagiarism, but having another person or company write it can make identification tricky.

As a student of English, I can read a person’s voice and tone through their writing, and any college professor worth their salt should be able to do the same thing. Everyone’s voice is different, and it comes through in writing. When you read someone’s work over and over again and then read something that’s being passed off as their work but isn’t, it should be plainly obvious.

This girl should flunk the class for simply talking about it. We get the academic dishonesty and plagiarism speech every semester without fail, so she cannot say that she wasn’t warned.


5 posted on 03/28/2011 6:02:24 AM PDT by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: pnh102

Plagiarism and this kind of thing are two things that will get you booted out of almost any college.


6 posted on 03/28/2011 6:03:45 AM PDT by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Happiness)
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To: pnh102

It’s been a very long time since I wrote a research paper for school. More recently I have written a number of documents for my client company as they sought business process improvement or automation requirements. Just in the last few weeks I wrote a sermon for my church as the elders fill in while we are between ministers. I just cannot imagine buying somebody else’s work. I just can’t


7 posted on 03/28/2011 6:04:31 AM PDT by jimfree (In 2012 Sarah Palin will continue to have more relevant quality executive experience than B. Obama.)
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To: rarestia

Exactly. Its human nature to take the easy way out but the best things in life to come to us when we work hard for it.

When we don’t do the work, we only cheat ourselves.


8 posted on 03/28/2011 6:04:48 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: rhema
... she said, "I work full time and I go to school full time and I'm a single parent. Lack of time, basically."

I bet she's also going to school free on some welfare single mom give away.

9 posted on 03/28/2011 6:06:46 AM PDT by ladyvet ( I would rather have Incitatus then the asses that are in congress today.)
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To: rhema
Every class syllabus at the U is required to have a section on academic misconduct, including plagiarism and cheating, Wackman said.

Does this part of the curriculum require any essays or term papers?

10 posted on 03/28/2011 6:07:48 AM PDT by coloradan (The US has become a banana republic, except without the bananas - or the republic.)
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To: rhema

“Whoever *did* write this doesn’t know the first thing about Kurt Vonnegut!”


11 posted on 03/28/2011 6:08:51 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: rhema

I don’t see the problem here. After all, any plagiarist can grow up and be Vice President of the United States. Just ask Joe Biden!


12 posted on 03/28/2011 6:09:04 AM PDT by sitetest (If Roe is not overturned, no unborn child will ever be protected in law.)
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To: jimfree

You can’t do because we all have a distinctive way of thinking that no one else can copy, even if we have the same beliefs. No two human beings are like in the way they think any more than two snowflakes are alike.

And after awhile you can tell when that person’s not thinking as you know how they think.

Plagiarism isn’t even sincere flattery; its outright theft of another person’s thoughts and ideas that they have a right to because they came up with them through hard work.


13 posted on 03/28/2011 6:09:49 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: pnh102

On an essay about ethics!?

But the problem is, these days, is that institutions are loathe to give up the $$$ they get from these students and are afraid of lawsuits, so no action gets taken.


14 posted on 03/28/2011 6:11:35 AM PDT by Gondring (Paul Revere would have been flamed as a naysayer troll and told to go back to Boston.)
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To: rarestia
As a student of English, I can read a person’s voice and tone through their writing, and any college professor worth their salt should be able to do the same thing. Everyone’s voice is different, and it comes through in writing. When you read someone’s work over and over again and then read something that’s being passed off as their work but isn’t, it should be plainly obvious.

True... I would figure that more professors would move towards having a larger chunk of the grade come from in-class exams as opposed to term papers as a means of stopping this method of cheating.

15 posted on 03/28/2011 6:13:26 AM PDT by pnh102 (Regarding liberalism, always attribute to malice what you think can be explained by stupidity. - Me)
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To: coloradan

If it does, its always clearly stated at the beginning of the course. And the hardest part isn’t the research; its giving credit to the people who made your original ideas possible in the first place. When you learn how to integrate those ideas with yours, you have made an original scholarly contribution. And whether that stands up can be verified when the reader of your paper checks up on the sources that led to your achievement.


16 posted on 03/28/2011 6:14:38 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: rhema; martin_fierro; Constitution Day
This is what she should have done.
17 posted on 03/28/2011 6:19:39 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: goldstategop
Plagiarism isn’t even sincere flattery; its outright theft of another person’s thoughts and ideas that they have a right to because they came up with them through hard work.

As good a description as I've ever heard.

18 posted on 03/28/2011 6:19:58 AM PDT by jimfree (In 2012 Sarah Palin will continue to have more relevant quality executive experience than B. Obama.)
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To: rhema
The college senior in Colorado felt cheated when for $23 per page she ordered a custom-written term paper from a Twin Cities company and it wasn't delivered on time. Never mind that she was cheating by passing off a paper written by a stranger as her own. She complained to the Better Business Bureau about Essaywritingcompany.com, owned by Jordan Kavoosi of Farmington.

This is roughly akin to a bank robber suing a car manufacturer because his getaway car failed to start.

19 posted on 03/28/2011 6:21:49 AM PDT by 6SJ7 (atlasShruggedInd = TRUE)
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To: rhema

I like the woman who says because she works and has a family, she doesn’t have time to do a paper. I thought I’d heard it all. Using the same logic, why doesn’t she have someone substitute for her to take her tests. She’s too busy to study for tests and show up for the examinations. It’s only fair. (smirk)


20 posted on 03/28/2011 6:24:11 AM PDT by driftless2 (For long-term happiness, learn how to play the accordion.)
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