# Term Paper Writing Services; How Illegal? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 18, 2019, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947 "2019-10-18T12:19:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/41 "2019-10-19T02:09:53Z")
Probably so. It is an interesting topic and I am not really ready to admit defeat. I started this little adventure yesterday as I was having a slow weekend. _“It has been a learning experience.”_ I think I have learned there is more to this than it seems. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/42 "2019-10-19T08:22:32Z")
Don’t you care mostly about whether it is legal in Saudi Arabia, then? Something few of us would know? It seems unlikely that you’d be extradited for writing term papers, even if it turns out it is illegal in half the US states. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/43 "2019-10-19T08:31:49Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > But if the course is Chemistry, or Anthropology? If the grade does not _officially_ depend on one’s ability to write English well Who says that in those disciplines it doesn’t? In fact, not only has “learning to write in an academically-correct manner” one of the purposes of term papers for any discipline, but with emphasis on form over function getting ever heavier, it’s even gaining importance. Journal referees do reject papers over misspellings and bad grammar, after all, even in subject in which misspellings do not kill\*. - In Chemistry, they do. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/44 "2019-10-19T08:44:57Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Journal referees do reject papers over misspellings and bad grammar, after all, even in subject in which misspellings do not kill\*. > > - In Chemistry, they do. ene…ane…ine… something like that 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/45 "2019-10-19T09:45:14Z")
And of coused Gaudere hits me with a mallet: that should have been “subjects” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/46 "2019-10-19T11:23:24Z")
This sort of mass paper generation is ultimately the province of A.I. robots: > [@](#): > > Were the Dark Ages Really All That Dark? > > A few years after the fall of Rome in the 4th and 5th centuries, Christianity was at the height of its power. Christianity was not only the faith of the Roman Empire and the Church, it was also the main religious culture and the center of social and military control in the Western world. The Church had been the only faith to survive the fall of the Roman Empire. > > The Roman Empire was not just Rome; it was the center of power in the Western world. > > So when Rome fell, what caused it to fall so quickly? > > We can’t say with total certainty what caused this violent collapse of the empire. It is possible that it was an act of God. However, what is known is that the fall of the empire was not entirely a result of natural or man-made factors. The fall of the Roman Empire was not caused by a meteor or an earthquake. It was not caused by a series of volcanic eruptions. Nor was it caused to some mysterious plague or a plague of locusts. > [@](#): > > Were the Dark Ages Really All That Dark? > > A large majority of the early Church fathers were of the opinion that the Dark Ages were the darkest period in human history. The Church Fathers had more faith in God than they did in man. As it turns out, there was a large part of those early fathers who believed that the Dark Ages were a direct result of man’s fall from the divinely created heavens to the Earth’s surface. > > The first of the great Fathers of the Church was Cyprian of Carthage (428-477 AD). This great man believed that the dark ages were the result of God’s rejection of man and our fall from God’s heavenly paradise into this earthly world. He taught that the Dark Ages were the result of man’s rejection of God’s plan and was part of God’s punishment for man’s rejection of God’s divine promises. > > The following quotations come from the Catechism of the Catholic Church: > > "It must be remarked that God has chosen men to reign on earth, and not to have all things under his dominion. It is possible, therefore… There is still some room for improvement, to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/47 "2019-10-19T13:27:35Z")
[Moderating] Requests for legal advice go in IMHO. Moving. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/48 "2019-10-19T17:19:29Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > …Journal referees do reject papers over misspellings and bad grammar, after all, even in subject in which misspellings do not kill\*. > > - In Chemistry, they do. Wouldn’t it just be sent to the author for revision? ---
**Author:** ![Emiliana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@Emiliana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emiliana)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/49 "2019-10-19T17:29:15Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > I was not trying to be cute. I was trying to be asleep. I am in Saudi Arabia and only now woke up. I have reviewed the comments and see little that needs my input. I am asking about legality, not morality. > > As for the very modest audition project they asked me to do, I have found it harder than I expected. Given a real paper library I could have knocked it out in two or three hours. I am simply unfamiliar with quickly mining Kindle and online documents for cites. > > I have ordered a few books and will give the task a few more hours before my deadline runs out. I admit it has been a bit humbling. > > I suppose one would get very good at such a thing with practice. > > Thank you all for your comments. Professor here. I won’t comment on the ethics, since you obviously don’t care. Your reference to “a real paper library” and your inability to do online research (and whatever mining Kindle refers to) indicate that you are profoundly incapable of writing anything that will pass as an academic paper. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/50 "2019-10-19T17:46:31Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Wouldn’t it just be sent to the author for revision? Nope. A paper that is that bad probably would get rejected by the editor before even being sent to reviewers. You wouldn’t want to waste their time with a paper so sloppily written - sloppy writing implies sloppy thinking. I’ve recommended rejection based on awful grammar, but it is rare, since most authors do better. This is engineering and computer science. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/51 "2019-10-19T17:50:11Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > Probably so. It is an interesting topic and I am not really ready to admit defeat. I started this little adventure yesterday as I was having a slow weekend. > > _“It has been a learning experience.”_ I think I have learned there is more to this than it seems. Out of curiosity, what grades did you get on papers when you were in school? If your customers get Cs, you won’t have much of a business for long. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/52 "2019-10-19T18:02:27Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Wouldn’t it just be sent to the author for revision? Depends on how pervasive the errors are and how much they obscure the content of the manuscript. On an otherwise interesting paper, I might recommend major revisions and an editor for English. For a submission that would be average or below for the journal, I’d probably recommend rejection and suggest that the authors aim for a lower profile journal if they want to resubmit. There are also extreme cases in which the language makes it impossible to follow the scientific content. Functionally, a manuscript like that _can’t_ be subjected to peer review. These submissions really shouldn’t even get to reviewers, but they sometimes do. ETA: this is in earth science and hydrology ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/53 "2019-10-19T19:47:20Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Nope. A paper that is that bad probably would get rejected by the editor before even being sent to reviewers. You wouldn’t want to waste their time with a paper so sloppily written - sloppy writing implies sloppy thinking. > I’ve recommended rejection based on awful grammar, but it is rare, since most authors do better. This is engineering and computer science. “that bad”. Okay, I thought you were talking about a misspelled word or a split infinitive or something. > [@Enginerd](#): > > Depends on how pervasive the errors are and how much they obscure the content of the manuscript. On an otherwise interesting paper, I might recommend major revisions and an editor for English. For a submission that would be average or below for the journal, I’d probably recommend rejection and suggest that the authors aim for a lower profile journal if they want to resubmit. > > There are also extreme cases in which the language makes it impossible to follow the scientific content. Functionally, a manuscript like that _can’t_ be subjected to peer review. These submissions really shouldn’t even get to reviewers, but they sometimes do. > > ETA: this is in earth science and hydrology Sure, if the writing is so bad that it’s hard to read, of course it can’t be reviewed. Perhaps I misunderstood the post I was replying to. ---
**Author:** ![Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disgruntled_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/54 "2019-10-19T22:09:16Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > (the link details the various applicable statues). So it’s set in stone then? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/55 "2019-10-19T23:03:09Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > “that bad”. Okay, I thought you were talking about a misspelled word or a split infinitive or something. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Many of the journals I review for get copy edited anyhow. I’m talking about incompetence with English. Also, you have to allow for the source. Many papers from India mangle American and British English in very similar ways. You can recommend a revision to clean up the grammar. But I’m on the program committee for a conference which takes place in India - those papers get a pass. The very worst papers I’ve seen come from Russia. Badly written, illogical, and 20 years out of date. You’d think that Xerox machines were still banned there. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2019, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/56 "2019-10-19T23:20:15Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > Maybe not the best example here. Agreed. Memorable, because awful. But—memorable. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2019, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/57 "2019-10-20T02:31:46Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Out of curiosity, what grades did you get on papers when you were in school? If your customers get Cs, you won’t have much of a business for long. I would have thought I had matured as a writer since then. In an update, I have given up. Working with non-paper sources was just awkward for me. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2019, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/58 "2019-10-20T02:36:14Z")
> [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](#): > > So it’s set in stone then? Game, set, and match. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2019, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/59 "2019-10-21T15:29:16Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > How would what PiQ be doing be illegal? Would it be because he was an accessory to the crime the student was committing? Being paid to write a research paper is not a crime. It happens all the time for legitimate reasons, such as a company hiring consultants to do research and analysis. I would think that as long as PiQ didn’t explicitly know what was going to happen to the paper, he would be in the clear. A company hiring consultants is not the same situation, professionally, academically, or ethically, as a student hiring someone to write a paper for them for school. And the last sentence there sounds like you’re trying to use a loophole. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2019, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947/60 "2019-10-21T16:02:54Z")
> [@Emiliana](#): > > PYour reference to “a real paper library” and your inability to do online research (and whatever mining Kindle refers to) indicate that you are profoundly incapable of writing anything that will pass as an academic paper. Seconded. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-paper-writing-services-how-illegal/841947.md?page=4)