Essay Mills and Why to Avoid Them

Essay Mills and Why to Avoid Them Essay Mills and Why to Avoid Them Struggling with deadlines? College life feeling stressful? You might be tempted to take a shortcut, especially if someone points you toward an essay mill. But what are essay mills exactly? Wrong kind of mill. Sorry. To help out, we’re here to explain what they are and why you should NEVER use them. Essay Mills and Essay Banks Some online businesses offer essays to students at a price. These come in two main types: Essay mills provide custom essays based on a specified topic, word count and deadline Essay banks sell pre-written essays, which are cheaper but less tailored These businesses sometimes say that the essays they sell are just â€Å"templates† that students can use to generate ideas. However, using an essay mill is widely seen as cheating. The Problem Maybe you’ve read the descriptions above. But maybe you still think it sounds like an easy way to get a paper done without all the hard work of researching and writing it. Think again. If you use a paper from an essay mill or essay bank, you will regret it for several reasons: Using someone else’s words without citing them clearly is plagiarism If you are caught submitting a paper from an essay mill, it will count as academic fraud Colleges have software, such as Turnitin, designed to spot plagiarism Papers from essay mills can cost hundreds of dollars and there is no guarantee of quality As a result, using an essay mill could leave you poorer and get you kicked off your course! Essay Mills vs. Proofreading But what if you still need help on a paper? If essay mills are a bad idea, what is your alternative? Well, the good news is that we can help! Having your work proofread has many advantages. We can: Correct your spelling, grammar, and punctuation Make sure your vocabulary is academic and that terminology is consistent Check that all of your sources are referenced correctly Tighten up your writing to make sure it is clear and concise And all of this without making any major changes that could count as plagiarism. You will, of course, have to do the research and writing yourself. But that is how you learn things in the first place! The key is that we’re here to support you.

Take Nothing for Granted

Take Nothing for Granted Take Nothing for Granted Take Nothing for Granted By Mark Nichol Just when you think you know everything, you’re reminded that subtlety and nuance are part of even the most mundane information. It’s been said that facts are inconvenient things, but they’re especially vexing for writers, because there are facts, and then there’s what really happened. I just read today that a fellow named Gustave Whitehead preceded the Wright brothers in heavier-than-air flight by more than two years and stayed aloft longer and at a higher altitude than Orville Wright in his inaugural flight. That’s the conclusion of Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft, the world’s most authoritative resource about aviation, which claims that Whitehead’s flight, and subsequent efforts preceding the 1903 launch of the Wright Flyer, have precedence. However, Whitehead’s claim is still in dispute, and most aviation authorities credit the Wrights, although their achievement is often qualified by references, for example, to â€Å"controlled, powered, and sustained flight in a heavier-than-air aircraft.† (They are also credited with being the first aviators to develop sophisticated flying instruments.) So, what is one to do when one seeks to write, perhaps merely in passing, about the dawn of flight? It is irresponsible, of course, to say that the Wright brothers invented the airplane, and neither did Whitehead. Nor were they, or he, the first to fly: The achievement of the Wright brothers was preceded by glider flights and powered but uncontrolled flights. Lighter-than-air manned (balloon) flight was first accomplished in 1783 dirigible (steerable) flight occurred the next year and historical accounts exist of working hang-glider-like contraptions built and tested (usually with disastrous results) hundreds of years ago. How, precisely, one qualifies such milestones depends on context and on the sophistication of the audience; a history of aviation directed at children will differ in its references from a technical treatise. But it’s the in between that counts for most writers: A newspaper or magazine article, or a trade book, that mentions the advent of manned flight must concisely acknowledge that the Wright brothers were aviation pioneers but do not deserve unqualified credit for priority. You may never have the occasion to mention flight in your writing other than a passing reference to the mode of travel to your recent vacation destination, but this lesson is scalable to any topic: Unequivocal claims of priority are hazardous to one’s credibility. Take care that such discussions are backed up by documentation and accurately expressed. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Has vs. HadWhenever vs. When EverHyphenation in Compound Nouns