Hello, ================= October 30, 2007 UPDATE: I am maintaining an updated list of sites that have banned term paper mills. You can follow the story and help spread the word by visiting this page: http://www.essayfraud.org/forum/Ban-Term-Paper-Mills-Social-Bookmarking-Sites-t587.html ================= :help: Please spread the word and help me! As a single person with a busy schedule, I can only do so much. I am a high school teacher from Minnesota. Every day for the last year I've dealt with the problem of text-link-ads.com selling term paper ads on legitimate educational sites that my students use. I am happy to announce that after contacting text-link-ads.com, the owner, Patrick Gavin, has promised to ban all future link purchases by term paper mills! I applaud his courageous decision to support academic integrity. I am certain that he is the first of many owners of social linking sites who will make the same decision. In fact, I am also happy to announce that ezinearticles.com, articlealley.com, del.icio.us, and simpy.com have also decided to ban term paper and essay mills after receiving my concerned email. Despite the great news about text-link-ads.com, ezinearticles.com, articlealley.com, del.icio.us, and simpy.com, there is still much work to be done in stopping these SPAMMERS. I've compiled a list of term paper sites that are now SPAMMING all of the popular, social bookmark sites. These are the term paper SPAM sites that you can help me to get banned: bestessays.com custom-essay.net custom-essay.org custom-essay.ws custom-writing.org customessaymeister.com customessays.co.uk customwritings.com disertationexpert.co.uk essay-paper.net essayexpert.co.uk grandessays.com ma-dissertations.com masterpapers.com mastersthesiswriting.com mindrelief.net overnightessay.com proessay.com standoutessay.com writing-services.org yourdissertation.com Please help me to ban the above term paper SPAM sites by joining me in complaining to one or more of the remaining social bookmarking sites: Apbnews.com Backflip.com Barksbookmarks.com Bibsonomy.org Blinkbits.com Blinklist.com Bloglines.com Blogmarks.net Blogmemes.net Bluedot.us Bmaccess.net Buddymarks.com Business-planet.net Citeulike.org Connotea.org Corank.com Digg.com Diigo.com Emodrama.com Facebook.com Feedmarker.com Feedmelinks.com Folkd.com Freedomslut.com Furl.net Gather.com Givealink.org Gravee.com Illestlyrics.com Indianpad.com Kaboodle.com Kick.ie Kinja.com Linkagogo.com Linkarena.com Linkatopia.com Listible.com Ma.gnolia.com Maple.nu Markaboo.com Megite.com/discover/ Meneame.net Metalz.info Mister-wong.com Mister-wong.de Musigg.org Myjeeves.ask.com Mylinkvault.com Netvouz.com Newsvine.com Pixelgroovy.com Plugim.com Propeller.com Putvote.com Searchles.com Segnalo.alice.it Shadows.com Shakk.us Sk-rt.com Smarking.com Soc.ialize.us Socialogs.com Spotback.com Spurl.net Squidoo.com Taggly.com Tagtooga.com Tapemoi.com Technorati.com Twitter.com Wirefan.com Wists.com Please help me to spread the word! If respected educators complain, the social bookmarking sites will listen and ban all of the term paper sites! Thank you very much for your support!
I agree with you. However, sometimes I think these cheater sites can be helpful! They help us weed out those students who clearly don't belong in college in the first place, as any plagiarism detector will be able to detect the plagiarism. And plagiarism is an expellable offense, as well it should be. Honest students do not patronize such things, desperate as they might be at times. And when students whine that "I was desperate, it was my only out, I was overwhelmed, I was just too busy, I couldn't think of anything to say, etc, " that's just further proof. No, I think these websites are disgusting, but I think the students who use them are even more disgusting. Let the wide nets be thrown out, and let those who swim into them be tossed overboard. And no, a student is NEVER sucked into those sites 'accidentally.' Such a claim is absurd. Life is full of choices. Those who, knowing full well what the consequences might be, who still choose poorly, usually get exactly what they deserve. This applies to all of life, by the way. All of the professors I know submit a few lines of almost every submitted paper to Google; it will pick up "coincidences" in phrasing almost as well as "Turnitin" or other purchased software that all colleges now use. I have a very strict view of plagiarism, and of course, nobody here is surprised to hear that. I consider it stealing, and a plagiarist is a thief. The same kind of thief that would take money out of a cash register till. And yes, I was that strict in the middle school, too.
A large part of the solution is TEACHING what plagiarism ACTUALLY IS. I saw examples of plagiarism in my Master's classes, and these were supposed to be educators. Students and teachers alike don't know what plagiarism is. They don't know how to avoid it. My students in my Biology classes think that "cut-and-paste" counts as your own work. And to purchase a paper would probably seem super easy. Make it known what happens when you get caught, and use cheaters as examples.
You have outlined one of the major misconceptions that teachers have about term paper mills. Not a single one of the term paper mills that I have listed above sells prewritten papers. They charge a fee per page to write 100% original papers. Google searches and Turnitin are abslutely useless in detecting these papers that are written from scratch. Google and Turnitin can only detect word-for-word text that already exists in other, previously-indexed documents. So, I hope you now realize that we must all work together and report the sites above for SPAMMING. I'm sure that you've heard the saying, "The tempter is worth than the thief." As teachers, we should do whatever we can to rid the social bookmarking sites of the tempting presence of term paper mills. Despite what you may assume, honest students fall prey to temptation, as well. This is not a black/white issue. You can't presume to know the personal circumstances of every student at any particular time. I doubt you would have the same hands-off attitude if it were sites offering drugs, alcohol, or weapons to our students. As teachers, we have a duty to be very much hands-on in stopping these sites from extending their reach into kids' social circles. Who's with me?
what about care of students? As a teacher you shouls know that the main responsibility of a teacher is to 'teach' students and care of them. Instead of taking your precious time to surfing the inet you'd better give it to your students teaching them to be honest and responsible persons. 'Social bookmarking' ban will not give students the right idea: cheating will not collapse till students want to cheat.
Yeah, there is always going to be cheaters. There is outright theft, which should be punished, and there is accidental plaigarism, which should be educated away. I myself was accused of such a couple years ago. I made some mistakes in my writing and didn't cite some things that should have been cited. My professor alerted me to this and his suspicions. I chose to cooperate with him and sent him an electronic copy and he had it scanned in turnitin and it came back that it was authentic. He let me off then with a warning to use caution in the future and I have. The episode has never repeated itself. What I find more disturbing is the intellectual elitism expressed by some. Yeah, let's root out cheaters but let us not draw more in conclusion from cheating than there is. I mean really, it's just sad.
Excuse you, sir. I do a darn good job both inside and outside of the classroom. Please do not assume that you know anything at all about my personal practices. Unfortunately, I cannot teach students who are not in my classes. What I do outside of the classroom, on my own time, helps to remove sources of temptation from sites that are popular with students. Again, I ask, would you be fine with leaving drug- and weapon-selling sites in place and letting impressionable minors make "responsible" decisions?
being 'responsible' drugs will always attract until they are allowed. It is much healthier to not use drugs because you do not want to and am quite sure they are really harmful...
Much success so far! I am happy to announce that in only one week since I started the campaign, I have gotten 11 major link providers to ban term paper mills! I have no intention of stopping. In fact, I'm just getting started. Please help me by reporting the term paper mills to the remaining link providers. You can find the lists of term paper mills and their link providers at essayfraud.org/forum/Ban-Term-Paper-Mills-Social-Bookmarking-Sites-t587.html Thank you!
Jarenko, you are a student who was caught plagiarizing. This thread is not directed towards you. This thread is geared towards teachers and adults who actually care about academic integrity. If you don't want to help, don't comment.
Teaching4Life, plagiarism is a serious legal matter. So is slander. Please refrain from personal attacks here.
TeacherGroupie, slander is VERBAL untruth with the intent to unduly harm. What you mean to state is "libel," which is written untruth with the intent to unduly harm. I have not engaged in libel, either. Jarenko admitted to plagiarizing in a previous post in this thread. I typed the truth. Please read carefully before making accusations.
