Buy your college essay online: Four good reasons not to do it!

Buy your college essay online? Really? I'll give you four good reasons why you should not buy a college paper.

True, with the advent of the Internet, the world has become one big global market place where essays and essay writing services are for sale. The market is there in the world-wide student population, hungry buyers with cash in hand who need the relief from the academic pressure.

And there are loads of people willing to churn out papers. Often, they are well-educated, unemployed professionals, teachers, graduate students and professors, only too willing to turn a blind eye to the ethics involved in exchange for some extra coin. Such is the nature of our economy these days. Viola, the free market system in full bloom with loads of sellers, hungry buyers and lots of temptation to relieve you of your academic misery, not to mention your money; if only you'll just punch in your credit card number! Then all your problems will be solved. Or will they?

Let's get back to why to why you should not buy college essays online or hire anyone to write them for you.

When you buy an essay and submit it as your own, you are plagiarizing, even if the service declares that the essay is plagiarism free. Read your college's academic honesty policy if you want to know more (all schools have them). If someone else wrote the work, it's not yours. If you are caught, there are consequences which can range from a "0" in the assignment, an F in the course, suspension, expulsion, and a permanent record on your file that could haunt you in later years.

And by the way, there's a high probability you will get caught. Some services recycle their work, re-purposing research into other assignments. These types of assignments show up on the Internet and are easy to catch with a Google search or plagiarism checker. Some services will not give you work that fits your professor's criteria ( I know, I receive work like this at least once a term), and professors and markers are highly attuned to the possibility of plagiarism. We have access to such services as Turnitin (an online plagiarism checker many colleges subscribe to), and we do read your work closely enough to take notice of something that is unusually clean or well-produced especially if that student has been achieving a lousy mark in the course.

When you buy an essay you are eroding your learning. Your assignment is a form of training that will stand you in good stead later. Not only are you learning course content, but you are sharpening your writing and critical thinking skills that will help you develop a muscle for your other courses and for later in life. But, when you outsource your paper, you forfeit the opportunity to apply yourself, get feedback (even if the work is lousy) and exercise your brain.

Furthermore, since you will be hindering the development of your writing skills, you will also be hindering your chances for advancement later on. At least 20 per cent of most jobs require writing. If you want to advance, you will have to write even more. In fact, I'm told by those in management that at least 40 percent of their jobs involves writing: reports long and short, proposals, and corporate memos and speeches to name just a few things. When you're on the job, there won't always be someone to write your memos, reports or proposals for you on command. But if you continue to buy work that others wrote, you will become less self-reliant, and more dependent on others to prop you up when you have to write. You'll have your day of reckoning once you start working.

Some of my foreign-trained students complain to me that they have not advanced as they would like to at work, mainly because of their language and writing skills. Still, they are also often the ones who cut and paste on their assignments or pay others to write the paper for them. And, they are also the ones who cry the most when I catch them with work that was produced by others (store-bought or not). No, I'm not nasty. I just prefer not do students a disservice and give them the illusion that they have mastered the skills or the material when they haven't.

When you buy your college essay online or elsewhere, as I mentioned, you are depriving yourself from learning the course content. Thus, you will have a gap in your knowledge. Come time for the final exam, your paid essay writer will be long gone, and not available to take the exam for you. You're on your own. Furthermore, if the subject is a prerequisite for another course, that gap in your knowledge will haunt you in the next course, and assuming you don't buy papers in that course, you'll have to work harder to make up for the gap in your knowledge.

Ok. So let's say you don't get caught for handing in a store-bought or out-sourced paper. You figure that the gods are smiling on you, that you are invincible. Like the criminal who didn't caught caught for a petty theft, you might try it again. If do you try it again, you may well get caught. And the more you try it, the greater the odds are that you will get caught. And then what?

On the other hand, let's say you were lucky. Perhaps you managed to get through your post secondary education, and you figure there is no harm in using other people's work at your place of employment. After all, it was OK in college. By now, you've already crossed a line, so since the "what ever it takes" attitude got you through college, you figure it will work in your career. Stop right there. Using other people's work as yours can have serious, even legal consequences if you're caught. It's not OK.

In Toronto recently, the director of the Toronto District School Board, someone who had been regularly writing a newspaper column, and someone who had the public trust was busted on plagiarism for his newspaper articles. He was copying his prose from other newspapers. When the story broke, he had to resign. Apparently, he had been doing this for years. Imagine that! Someone highly placed in education who thought nothing of copying the words of others as if he were invincible. The moral of the story, of course is not to do it. So, don't get into the habit of doing it in college. It will cost you later.

What should you do if you are faced with dilemma of writing a paper and are paralyzed from the pressure, whatever the reason:

1. Talk to your instructor or tutor. Tell them you need help. I have coached students to get unstuck on their papers quickly and to develop strategies to complete their work with just a short conversation

2. Start your work early and budget more time than you think you'll need to finish the paper. Avoid starting your assignment at the last possible minute.

3. Look for peer tutoring on your campus. These places are staffed by smart capable students who can help, and they're free.

4. If you can, hire a tutor to coach you through the writing process. Check Craigslist or local tutoring links (your city has local people who will be more than happy to help). You'll find education and graduate students you can assist you for an inexpensive fee. (Please do not ask them to write the paper for you). Many of them will not anyhow.

5. Sweat it out. Keep typing.Understand that writing is a process, is work, and requires a few hours in the chair.

6. Hand in your partially completed work for marks or hand it in late. It's better that than risking getting busted for plagiarism and getting "0". You may get some marks for the assignment even if it's an F. Or you may suffer a late penalty. Promise yourself you'll do better next time.

7. Accept responsibility that you didn't put the effort you should have in the assignment. Stuff happens. Sometimes life gets out of control, and you can only do your best. Learn from that experience. If it means that you will fail, then that will be a better teacher than the store bought paper.

I recently registered as an expert on Liveperson.com. Millions of people view the site everyday and thousands of experts are available to answer your questions for an inexpensive fee, including me. I did sign up for academic writing and editing, and boldly proclaim that I don't do students' homework, but will help them with essay development. I get emails daily from students asking me to write their essays for them ( I won't). They don't care. They just want it done and the credit for their work. I don't need the money that badly. But they don't seem to understand. Trust me, if you miss that "Module" in your education by paying someone else to do it, it will continue to cost you in more ways than one for the rest of your life.

So, don't buy your college essay online or anywhere else. Do not hire someone to do it for you either. What ever relief you gain, whatever time you think you are buying, whatever ruse you think you are pulling to get your piece of paper or credential in high standing and then get out will ultimately backfire on you one way or the other. Do you want to take that chance?