How can a teacher or professor handle cheating through essay and term paper services?

With the development of the internet and the advance usage of it by students, technologically enhanced cheating is becoming more common and even socially acceptable among some student bodies. So, in order to protect education and also help prevent the spread of plagiarism, it is a teacher’s responsibility to do what he or she can to handle this usage of term paper mills. While teachers and professors cannot be responsible for spotting and weeding out all purchased papers, they can do their part to try and stem the tide of this problem. Some of the ways that they can attempt to handle this cheating are to:

• Focus not just on the finished product but also on the writing process. Requiring that the students turn in topic questions, thesis statements, outlines, a works cited page and other pieces of the process will not only teach better writing skills but also keep them from purchasing and turning in only final papers.
• Assign topics. Allowing students to choose any topic they desire does give them the ability to be creative; however, it also allows them to find any pre-prepared essay. Also, it does little to focus in on the objectives of the assignment. So giving them a subject will not only help prevent the use of term paper services, it will also help promote the goals of the course.
• Require the use of things learned in class in their papers. This will teach them to integrate their learning and make finding a paper that applies much more difficult.
• Learn your students’ writing styles. Often, the use of term paper plagiarism is very obvious if you’re looking for it. Some of these papers-for-sale are of a very poor quality, and even if they are well-written, they will not be written in your students’ style. Use some of their other papers or test essays for comparison purposes.
• Use a variety of project types, rather than typical essays and papers all the time. Have them write summaries over what research has been teaching them while still in class. Keep portfolios, and use general case studies that require mastery of the information. This will help them process what you’re teaching and learn much more; plus it will help weed out purchased papers.
• Be upfront with your students about what plagiarism is, why it is not acceptable, how it will be treated, and the fact that you are fully aware of the internet cheat sites (give them some examples). Methods like these will help students become aware of what is not acceptable and will make many of them more afraid to try it.
• Employ online programs and software that check submitted papers and helps uncover plagiarism. An example is www.Plagiarism.org.
• Address suspected plagiarism quickly and appropriately. If you think that a student has been using term paper services, compare the suspected essay with other examples of their writing, and then fairly but firmly confront the student.