We get it.
By the time you’ve reached the final stage of your degree program, the dissertation (or thesis) can seem like a major hurdle. The temptation to hire someone to write your dissertation for you is understandable. The faint light at the end of the tunnel is visible, but you’ve got this seemingly massive hurdle between you and the finish line – your dissertation.
In this post, we’ll cover 6 major reasons why you should NEVER consider using a dissertation or thesis writing service. These reasons range from ethical (which you may or may not care about) to practical (which you’ll definitely care about).
Overview:
The 6 reasons you should never use a dissertation writing service:
- It’s blatant academic misconduct.
- It will likely amount to fraud.
- You probably will be caught.
- The quality won’t be pass worthy.
- There’s a good chance it’s a scam.
- You’ll have to live with it for the rest of your life.
Reason 1: It’s blatant academic misconduct.
Despite what the dissertation writing websites may tell you, if your dissertation or thesis is written by anyone other than yourself (even partially), that constitutes academic misconduct. Yes, you can get guidance and review support from a dissertation coach, and generally you can outsource non-essential tasks such as transcription, editing and proofreading – but the writing must be your own work.
So, what does this mean for me?
Academic misconduct in the form of having someone else write your dissertation will usually result in your entire degree being revoked. Yes, you read that correctly, your entire degree. It doesn’t matter that you completed your assignments or reports on your own. And yes, the university will likely investigate those too if they have suspicions about your dissertation.
So, if you hire a dissertation writing service, you’ll be risking the many years’ worth of work you’ve put into your degree. Plus, some universities will go so far as to blacklist you and share the information with other universities, which will make your life very difficult should you ever try to apply for another degree programme.
One more thing to keep in mind is that your university can initiate an investigation at any point in the future if there’s any reason for them to suspect you’ve cheated the system. This means that your degree can get revoked many years after you receive it. So, just because you get away with it and receive your certificate doesn’t mean you’re set for life.
Think you won’t get caught? You’ll want to read on.
Reason 2: It will likely amount to fraud.
If the thought of getting blacklisted for academic misconduct doesn’t scare you off, the idea of committing fraud should. But how does a little rule-bending in university amount to fraud, you ask?
Well, the primary reason that most people complete a degree is to gain employment or to improve their current employability. Of course, employers don’t make their decisions based purely on your qualifications, but your education is always an important factor in the recruitment process.
Therefore, if your degree was gained in part due to cheating, you would be using illegitimate documentation (your degree) to earn money.
Disagree?
Well, here’s the dictionary definition of fraud:
“Wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.” (Oxford)
Sounds familiar?
Naturally, different countries will take different views on this, but there is a very real risk that if you’re caught out at any point by your employer, they will have a clear case of misrepresentation against you (at best) or fraud (at worst).
That’s not going to be fun (especially if you earned a law degree).
Reason 3: You’ll probably be caught.
The biggest misconception we see amongst students who are considering using a dissertation or thesis writing service is that they genuinely think they won’t get caught.
“But my writer has a PhD.”
“But this company has loads of positive reviews.”
“But my friend knows someone who did it and it worked.”
Here’s the thing.
Universities know all about these types of services and dedicate resources to detecting them – especially for dissertations and theses, as these are the crowning jewel of any degree.
In fact, it’s really quite easy for a university to see when things look fishy and to ultimately catch you out. For a start, a dissertation or thesis is usually a project that involves supervisor interaction. That supervisor works with you and can easily spot any inconsistencies in writing or communication style.
Ultimately, the project is an ongoing dance between you and your supervisor – there’s simply no way to incorporate an outsourced dissertation writer into this party without someone smelling a rat. Moreover, if you have to do an oral defence, you will almost certainly get caught out at that stage as the examiners will dig into the finer details of your research.
If any suspicions arise, your university can easily compare your previous written work to your forged dissertation and identify inconsistencies, both in terms of the language and the overall quality of the work. They can also ask to review your data sources, which you won’t be able to provide, since dissertation writing services typically don’t undertake any real research (i.e. they falsify the data).
Lastly, keep in mind that hacks and attacks happen all the time. Most dissertation writing companies are based in low-cost, third world countries with very little data protection legislation. Moreover, they often make use of third-party freelancers (to keep costs low). Therefore, data protection is not a top priority. While the chances are fairly low, companies do get hacked and client information does spill out onto the web. And you can guess who keeps an eye on these data leaks.
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Reason 4: The quality is unlikely to be pass-worthy.
This one’s pretty simple. As the saying goes, “if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys”. Undertaking quality research and writing up a quality dissertation or thesis requires a significant time investment and a substantial amount of effort. Therefore, you can’t realistically expect quality work from a dissertation writing service that promises a dissertation in a week or two at a rock-bottom price.
We’ve seen it so many times.
Students approach us at Grad Coach after they’ve paid anything from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars (ouch!) to some supposedly highly ranked dissertation writer and have received a piece of work that’s nowhere near pass worthy. In their despair, they reach out to us to try to help put the proverbial lipstick on the pig – an impossible task.
The bottom line is that you get what you pay for (and sometimes not even that). No self-respecting PhD is going to pump out dissertations and theses for minimum wage, and with impossible timelines. Moreover, anyone that’s been through the pain of earning a (real) PhD would have major ethical objections to engaging in this type of work. It fundamentally goes against the ethos of academia – i.e. learning and development.
If you decide to hire a dissertation writer, there’s a very good chance that you’re going to end up with a piece of work that is nowhere near the quality level it needs to be. Which means you’ve achieved nothing and are back at square one.
And that’s a good outcome compared to the next one.
Reason 5: There’s a good chance it’s a total scam.
If you thought getting a low-quality piece of writing was bad, imagine this – not getting anything at all. Very often, these services fall into the “if it looks too good to be true, it isn’t” category.
Over the years, we’ve had numerous students approach us after falling victim to a dissertation writing service scam. Generally, it’s the companies and websites that promise really low rates and/or very quick turnaround times – but it can happen with any “level” of provider. These students then find themselves in a really tough position – they’ve spent all their money on a scam and have made absolutely zero progress towards a submission worthy dissertation or thesis.
“But this company has over a thousand reviews on Facebook!”
Don’t be fooled by the glowing reviews – anything can be faked online. Remember, you’re looking at the reviews of a company whose core business is creating fake documents.
Reason 6: You’ll have to live with it forever.
Okay, so let’s just assume that somehow you do get away with it.
Somehow you manage to find a reliable company that isn’t a scam, produces a semi-decent dissertation without any interaction with your supervisor (that would be a miracle in itself), and doesn’t trigger any alarm bells with your supervisor or examiners.
As we’ve already said, this is highly unlikely, but let’s just assume you somehow manage to do it.
Even if you manage to pull that off, you’ll still have to live with the lie for the rest of your life. There’s no rewinding the clock or making it right at a later stage. Perhaps that doesn’t seem like a major thing now, but your perspective will change as you get older and imposter syndrome will creep in. Trust me, even people who have put in the work and earned their degrees legitimately suffer from imposter syndrome – and they have no reason to.
So, keep that in mind. As you get older, your ethical perspectives will change and you’ll have no option to reverse the decision you made. You’ll always have the weight of deception on your shoulders and you’ll always be wondering if one day you’ll get caught out.
Let’s recap…
If you’ve put in the effort to read this far, I’m hoping that you’ve come to see the light and realised that hiring any sort of dissertation or thesis writing service is possibly the worst decision you could make, regardless of the circ*mstances.
To recap, here are the 6 reasons you should NEVER use a dissertation writing service:
- It’s blatant academic misconduct.
- It will likely amount to fraud
- You’ll probably be caught.
- The quality is unlikely to be pass-worthy.
- There’s a good chance it’s a scam.
- You’ll have to live with it for the rest of your life.
Have a question, suggestion or counterargument? Leave a comment below and we’ll do our best to reply.
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