Custom made research papers: Any teachers out there?

Question

Hello I'm an English teacher and this is my first year teaching at a junior college. I assigned my students a 10 page research paper on a conspiracy theory for their final project. I had my students tell me what their thesis was so I can approve it before they start writing it.

I guess what I'm trying to ask is does anybody know how to catch custom made research papers? I know there are many sites that offer this service, I just want to know if they really will make a non plagiarized research paper for a student who's willing to pay $20 per page.

For students who have done this in the past: have any of you got caught?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I was a former Dean of Studies, and "suspicious" papers used to come my way quite a bit. We'd usually look for sentence structures or phrases which were incongruous with the style of the writer. I used to stress to my teachers that the important way of pre-empting any such activity was to keep records of consultations and make short notes of student progress as the paper develops. This isn't as difficult as it sounds, but invaluable when trying to get a 'feel' of the final submitted paper.



Upon suspicion of 'external help', we'd usually call in the student for an oral defence of the paper. Also, we'd check the sources, and ask for it to be presented physically as evidence of work done. When all this is done, and the student still makes it, we'd give her an A for her effort! Hahaha...



Unforuntately, there is no hard and fast method of detecting such work beyond making an effort to monitor the development. Just keep close tabs on them, and they'll know better than to take your trust and support for granted.

Answer 2

I am an English TA at a university, and I think I caught an instance of the kind of plagiarism you're mentioning. My professor and I tried googling several lines from the paper, but to no avail. We think the student got someone else to write the paper for her. What I am going to do is to call the student in my office and quiz her about several things she cites in her essay (it wasn't supposed to be a research paper but she quotes from literary texts even I haven't read). I might ask her to explain some of the complicated words and literary terms that she uses in her paper. I think the best way to catch plagiarism is to know what the students' writing style is. You could assess this by giving an in-class essay or maybe from an exam.

Answer 3

I'm not a teacher but as a former college student I can tell you what a few of my profs did -

After the paper was turned in, usually within a couple of days, we were given a sheet of paper that asked these types of questions:



What did you learn from the research about your paper?



What did you find to be the most challenging aspect of finding sources, documentation,etc?



What did you like about the research?



If someone else had to do this research paper, what sources would you recommend to them?



In your own words please give me three main points from your research.

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Believe me, if anyone in the class did not do their own research they had a lot harder time answering these simple questions than those of us that actually did the research. Without the papers right there to read from the answers were from memory.



The teachers used the answers to the questions along side of the research paper and combined the grade. If a sheet was turned in that looked like the student didn't know anything about their paper or didn't know anything beyond what was on the paper, the teacher would return the paper with a note "please see me in my office to discuss"

during which time I'm sure the student had a chance to defend their work.



I don't know if this helps you at all, but I do know that it worked for the classes I was in. After word gets out that the teacher will spring a quiz on you about your research and so forth, alot of students will kick it in and do their own papers.

Answer 4

Yes, I would think that if they are willing to pay $20 per page they will find many people willing to write for them. You could look for suspicious signs, such as use of language or writing style that is out of line with what the student usually produces. You could google for some unusual phrases in the paper. Lastly, if there is a case that seems suspicious to you, perhaps you could question them orally about the content.

Answer 5

Instructors at the college where I teach run our papers through a plagiarism program. It matches papers against all those that have been in any way posted on the Internet or otherwise published and in their data base. It is pretty extensive and detailed and prints out a report of both possible areas of plagiarism as well as exact matches. Buying a paper that someone else wrote is plagiarism, and if you get caught, one or more of the following will occur based on how strict your college is: you will receive an "F" on the paper, you will receive an "F" in the class, you will be kicked out of the nursing program, you will be expelled from the college. Write you own paper.