ContentCoup.com
October 29, 2018

Essay writing factories are unethical. Not because of the service provided. But many of these companies pressure and harass students into buying. It’s also disingenuous not to point out the fact that many essay writing factories use writers from countries where English is not the first language. Content farms use writers outside the USA for lower rates. I’m all for finally putting to rest that old riddle:

Q: What do you call someone that only speaks one language?
A: An American

But the fact is that college professors easily spot essays written by non-native English speakers. Content farms, essay writing factories, or whatever you want to call them, are essentially the Walmart of content marketing. They are ubiquitous and cheap, but you ultimately get what you pay for and entrust.

Professional, independent writers and researchers, on the other hand, have a skill that is useful to students: a natural passion for the written word. A five-page, APA-style essay on stock market trends for a Business 201 class could take a 19-year-old preoccupied student 2-3 days to write, just to earn a low ‘B’ or ‘C.’ A professional writer can do this same job in 6-8 hours or less, and get you an ‘A’. Why not hire them?

Ethical Issues For Students

Some consider it unethical for students to hire professional ghostwriters for their essays and other classwork. But its certainly not illegal. In fact I’d argue that professional writers are a valuable tool at the disposal of students with access.

College is very expensive. The average cost for four years of in-state tuition, fees, room & board was about $80,000 through 2018, according to CollegeData.com. Private colleges were over $180,000 for four years. A college education is the second-most costly investment after buying a home in many people’s lives. The diploma and transcripts get you that first job. Both are mostly useless after that, as subsequent employers use previous employment as the barometer to gauge your fitness for their open positions.

Paying a trustworthy, credible, intelligent writer to ghostwrite your college papers is protecting your investment. The content of said papers is original and passes plagiarism checkers. A good number of autobiographies and memoirs of very famous, important people are ghostwritten. These individuals get the writing credit, and the ghostwriter gets paid. Those are the basics of a very traditional process.

Bottom line is that the ethics considerations are debatable regarding ghostwriters and college students. There could of course be academic consequences if a professor can prove the paper was ghostwritten, which is a difficult task that is rarely pursued. Choosing a writer who understands all the foregoing and subsequent dynamics minimizes any potential risk to the student.

Ethical Issues For Writers

The United States of America is a capitalistic country. The International Monetary Fund defines capitalism as follows:

“…an economic system in which private actors own and control property in accord with their interests, and demand and supply freely set prices in markets in a way that can serve the best interests of society.”

Granted the IMF couldn’t care less about the best interest of society. But the organization is an essential element in the capitalistic world. Professional writers are just like all other professionals who set a price for their services and allow the market to justify that price. Its not unethical for a writer to practice their very respectable craft that pays their bills and provides their well-being.

Attorneys are considered highly-respectable, both as a profession and career in the United States. Many are paid six-figures or more, and live very well. It isn’t necessarily ethical for criminal defense attorneys to represent murderers and rapists. But that is the job they are trained to do. An acquittal in a murder case with an obviously-guilty defendant may not win the defense attorney many popularity contests. But it will set their career for life, as all criminal defendants will want their services and law schools will want them to speak.

Writers who are good at what they do have the right to earn a good living in the same way.

RELATED: Are essay writing services ethical?

Writers write. Most people in the USA can write, just as almost everyone can drive. But not everyone can be a NASCAR driver, just as not everyone who can write is a professional. Writers simply use their gift of the written word to provide a valuable service and do what comes naturally to them.

Precautions for Students

The writer you choose should be affable and personable from the very beginning. They should answers emails and even provide you a phone number for text messages, to prove they are in the USA, and are a real person. They should ask you several basic questions immediately:

1. What is the due date?
2. What is the subject matter?
3. Do you have the rubric?
4. Can you provide any potential readings necessary to complete the assignment?

The writer should say something very insightful about the subject matter and show a genuine interest in writing the article. Of course they are doing it for compensation, but its easy to detect enthusiasm and natural desire to write. Academic writing is fun for professional writers because it piques already curious and wandering minds. If all the aforementioned characteristics and questions are not present, don’t use that writer.

Some students are concerned about login locations (IP address) if/when the ghostwriter must log into their online student profiles. Virtual private networks (VPNs) are common tools in 2018-19. They mask and change IP addresses on computers and smartphones. If your professor happens to say anything about login locations (which is highly unlikely),  just tell them you use a VPN. But its best to directly provide any/all reading materials, including the rubric, in a separate form so the ghostwriter does not have to log into your student profile. Just eliminate that risk altogether.

Metadata on Microsoft Word that potentially reveals someone else wrote the article is another common concern. Professional writers should provide the paper in three formats: .DOC, .PDF, and plain text. The .DOC version is in APA or MLA format and ready to turn in. The writer should strip the document of code and re-paste it into another Word doc to delete the metadata before sending it to the student. But this process is not 100% effective all the time.

The PDF version is best for turning in, if your schools allows it. PDF does not have all that metadata that Word sometimes carries over. Plain text is just that: a version without HTML or any other code. Students who are extra cautious can paste this version into a blank Word doc, open the completed Word doc provided by the ghostwriter, and just manually add all the bolds, italics, tabs, etc. that are in said doc. It will take you less than a half hour and completely eliminate the already razor-thin chance of discovery.

Essay writing is fun for professional writers and a necessity for students. We live in a capitalistic society and ghostwriting is a long-time, respectable tradition in the world of publishing. Look at it that way and the ethical issues matter not.

Ready to hire a personable, professional, and passionate ghostwriter for your college essays, term papers, and other assignments. Contact me today and I’ll get back to you in 24 hours or less.