Australian academic writing services, ethical considerations, and limitations

New technical advancements have transformed schooling in the contemporary global system. Technology-enabled tools like computers and smartphones have minimized paperwork, made it simple for students to take classes online, and hastened the graduation process. Because of this, more people are graduating from universities around the world than there are jobs for them to fill. As a result, businesses and individuals have started to rely on education as a source of income.
One excellent example of such work is doing projects, papers, essays, and tasks for students in exchange for payment. It has so much trended in most countries that it thus raises the question of legal and ethical concepts being applied by both the students and the writing companies. The paper, therefore, analyses four concepts of the writing services to students. First is if the writing services are ethical. Second is the application of McDonald’s four levels of business ethics to evaluate the unethical nature of the writing services. Next is the perspective of the ethical theories and relativist perspectives. Finally, the paper gives the consequences that might be considered for individuals who engage in such activities.



Is the Practice Ethical?

The practice of student paying someone to write their assignment before submitting for grading is not ethical. According to the ethical standards of education, assignments, projects, reports, and essays are usually part of the overall coursework that every student should partake (Godwyn, 2015). When the students attend classes, they are often given assignments or essays to test their understanding of the concepts that the teacher or lecturer had introduced. Assignments and essays also require the student to do additional reading on the same and after that submit their findings. When the student, therefore, decides to give another person to write their assignment for them at a fee, it violates these two principles in three ways.

First, the grades that the student gets will not be a genuine reflection of his or her performance and understanding of the new concepts. Rather, they will be submitting someone else’s thoughts and knowledge to the teacher or lecturer (Durkheim, 2014). When teachers or professors mark and give grades to submitted assignments, they assume it is the work of the student who submitted it. Therefore, means that the score on the assignment should be an accurate reflection of the student understands of the content of the task. However, when the student hires another student or a company to write their assignment for them, and they submit for marking, this rule is violated. The marks or the grades that the teacher will give will not be an accurate reflection of understanding or performance of the student. Rather, it will reflect on the knowledge and skills of the writer (Durkheim, 2014).

Secondly, the student would not have completed the whole course. Giving someone else to the task of writing their assignment or essays to them is the same as skipping the whole procedure or picking someone else’s work and submitting to get good grades. Classes should be given to the person who does the work and not the person who sends it. (Habibian, Avaz, & Hosseinzadeh, 2015). Thus, if the student submits an assignment that is writing by someone else, then it can be taken that he or she has not presented any work.

Finally, letting someone else’s write your assignment at the college level impairs the learning process. It is critical, particularly in the college or university level. Segal and Lehrer (2013), state that in these two levels, more are trained to more real professionals in the real world. For example, people train to be doctors or engineers. Thus, it is essential that before one graduate and is issued with the final bachelor or master’s degree certificate; they should be able to have a good understanding of their profession and have done all the needed research on the same.

Letting someone else write their assignment reduces their understanding and gives false grades. However, doing assignments and essays. To investigation and brainstorming ensures that when they finally graduate and join the real world. They have a clear understanding of the professions and would at one time create employment opportunities for others and not rely on full employment from other companies in various parts of the world (Ritzer & Stepnisky, 2017).



Is it unethical for Organizations to Offer Writing Services?

It is very unethical for organizations to support or provide writing services to students. It can be based explained using the McDonald’s four levels of business ethics. The first one is personal level. At this level, it is a requirement that individuals should ensure ethical-decision making in all their activities. When an organization allows a person to hire them to write their assignments for them, it infringes on their ability to engage in the ethical decision making of understanding course requirements. Rather the person becomes motivated by the need to get good grades (Habibian et al. 2015).

The second level is organizational level. Companies run the online writing services. At the organizational level, firms should be controlled by corporate moral agencies. However, moral agents are encouraging the unethical practice of allowing assignment writing at a fee for their gain (Rothaermel, 2015). Morality is defined by the state of good conduct and accepted terms of operations to all people. Organizations are run by people who at one point were students. They, therefore, understand what it takes to be a student, the school policies and the syllabus requirements for every student. They know that it is very essential for people to work according to their good moral values and not to deviate for the benefit of good grades on graduation. Thus, at the organizational level, the writing companies have violated the ethical standards both at the personal and public level (Rothaermel, 2015).

Also, at the national level, ethics tend to focus more on the overall expectation of the community. Xu (2014), states that when people take their students to school, they expect them (students) to graduate with both good grades and professional acumen. However, most of them only graduate with good grades and have no understanding of their professional requirements due to online writing services. Also, it is the demands of the government through the ministry of education that every student who graduates from the University or college should have all the needed skills and expertise to be employed or take a public office. The writing companies violate this principle. They help people get good grades, and in the end, they graduate with high-class honor, yet they know nothing about the profession requirement. When now they are employed or assume public office, a lot of mismanagement and misappropriation of funds is recorded. Many firms, especially public owned parastatals have fallen because of the breach of the national level ethical standards (Xu, 2014).

Finally, at the international level, McDonald, states that there are coordinated efforts that cut across nations that are promoted by globalization and societal concerns. (McDonald, 2014). Lopez, reports that the organizations providing writing services offer similar services to students across the world. They do not consider the different societal concerns that differ from one community to the next and from one country to the other. Thus a violation of the ethical standards for both people, the government and to the community in general. (Lopez, 2012).



The Perspective of the Ethical Theories and Relativism Perspectives

Sociology provides approaches that can be used to explain the moral nature of a student hiring a company or an individual to write their assignments for them. Each of the theories gives a view or opinion that explains the moral value through which writing an assignment for a student violates the education principals in the world. According to the theories, the act or hiring someone else or a company to write your assignment may or may not be considered ethical depending on the motif or outcome of the action. There are three main theories consequentialism, deontology and virtue ethics.

According to consequentialism, the right moral response has a direct relationship with the outcome of the act. (Melden, 2013), states that are a student hire an organization or individual to write their assignment for them then he or she gets good grades, then the action (hiring) becomes ethical and vices versa. Consequentialism comes from the word consequence which means that the act defines the outcome and vice versa. For instance, if a student falls sick while in the middle of doing their project or writing their assignment, then hiring someone else to complete the work may be considered ethical. It is because, in this situation, the student gave it a shot. He or she already knows and understands what is required of the course or the teacher. However, since they are incapacitated by something they have no power, then it is ethical to hire someone to complete the work.

Secondly, the deontology theory requires that people especially students should adhere to school regulations. In most cases, most schools do not encourage their students to hire other people to write their assignments for them. Here the plagiarism act applies. In most education centres, no student is allowed to copy someone else’s work or give someone else to write their assignment for them. A plagiarized work should earn no scores. When a student hires someone to write their assignment for them, it should be treated as plagiarized work. Deontology is much applicable in high schools where grades are based on the student scores on the final exam. Hiring someone to write the review is the same as sitting in the exam room and copying your neighbour, which is never ethical. In colleges and universities, students are however required to submit projects, and reports for all their lab practical’s these should all be original work for better grading.

Thus, it would be unethical to do so. Finally, according to virtue ethics, people rely on their virtues and morality to make the right choice. Thus, according to Vinnari, as a student, it is your obligation to write your assignment and ensure it meets all the requirements without hiring anyone to help you. (Vinnari, Vinnari, & Kupsala, 2017). Virtue ethics provides people make decisions based on their social norms and understanding of education requirements rather than the need to get good grades or graduating at the top of their classes by having another person do much of the work for them (Goetghebeur, Wagner, Bond, & Hofmann, 2015).

On the other hand, relativist perspectives state that the truth is never equal for different people (Rai & Holyoak, 2013). Thus, according to one person, it would be ethical to hire a company or an individual to write their assignment. However, for other people, it is unethical. For example, it is ethical for master degree student to hire someone else to conduct a project research, identify the methodology, results, analysis, and conclusion from the discussion. It is because, at master’s level, the student is involved in a lot of thesis writing and research. For diversity and to ensure that they meet the deadline, hiring someone to help in the research would be ethical and appropriate. However, for a hiring school or college student, the workload is never heavy. It means therefore that the assignments, essays or projects that the lecturers give are within the academic calendar (Rai & Holyoak, 2013). Thus, they should be able to finish and submit them on time. Hiring someone else to write the assignment is thus unethical.

The Consequences

The argument here is that hiring someone to write your assignment, essays, reports or projects is unethical. Like any other immoral act, some effects might be considered to people who engage in such practices. First, they should be forced to repeat the same year of study. When a student hires another person to write their project or assignment for them, they would not have met the requirements to allow them to move to the next year of study. It is because they have not submitted their original work that shows that they have understood the course outline for that particular year and are ready to move to the next level. Also, if need be, they should be discontinued or have their certificates revoked. An excellent graduate must ensure that they engage in all academic work by doing their assignments and submitting them within the stipulated time (Rai & Holyoak, 2013). Thus, if one hires academic support and pays for it, it should be treated as an offense to the school licensing board.

Resolution to the Ethical Dilemmas and Conclusion

To avoid the consequences outlined above, particular solutions can be applied. The solutions can be adopted from deontology and virtue ethics. For instance, according to deontology, rules and guidelines are usually selected to control the behaviour or people. In schools and other learning institutes, there are rules against hiring other people to write an assignment for students. It is essential that students should be encouraged to abide by these rules and ensure that they write their assignments and do their research. In this way, they will learn and earn credible grades. Also, from virtue ethics, teachers should learn to instil good moral values in students at a young age. Virtues like hard work and personal commitment are usually fundamental at the advanced age. When they are promoted when the child is still young, it stops them from seeking short cuts to doing work done and ensure they put in all the efforts needed. Thus, ethics starts at childhood and develops as one grows.

References

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Godwyn, M. (2015). Ethics and diversity in business management education: A sociological study with international scope. Springer.

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Habibian, M., Avaz, Z., & Hosseinzadeh, A. (2015). Sociological Study of Influence of Citizen’s Traffic Ethics on Driving Violations: Case Study of Tehran, Iran. In Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting.

Lopez, E. (2012). A Summary of the Terms and Types of Ethical Theories.

McDonald, G. (2014). Business Ethics: A Contemporary Approach. Cambridge University Press.

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Ritzer, G., & Stepnisky, J. (2017). Modern sociological theory. SAGE Publications.

Rothaermel, F. T. (2015). Strategic management. McGraw-Hill Education.

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Xu, Y. (2014). Understanding CSR from the perspective of Chinese diners: the case of McDonald’s. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 26(6), 1002-1020.