“Essay writing services supports your education"
"No plagiarism or AI guaranteed"
Union Advice service tells you the realities of seeking “help” from a third-party writing service.
Union Advice appointments tend to follow the same conversation.... “my friend helped me” “my laptop was broken so I used a friends” “I didn’t keep draft copies of my work”.
How a student writes their assessment is up to them, academic writing is not our area of expertise.
The university however is very interested in how a student completes their work.
ARU expects you to act with integrity as part of the academic community, and the student charter you agreed to when you registered. Students also have the responsibility not to commit an academic offence, as outlined in ARU’s academic regulations (Section 5).
Part of being at university is to develop critical thinking and skills employers look for; you won’t develop these if someone else writes it for you. If you’re not caught out now, you might be found out later! For example, in a job where you may need these skills.
Third-party promises of avoiding plagiarism and AI detection are not true. The tell-tale signs for a third-party writing service are often short edit times, inconsistencies in the meta data and document properties. The university knows!
If the university suspect work is not your own, they may ask you questions about it after submission. Often, the student will be unable to demonstrate an understanding of their work.
You still have time! It’s not too late to start writing the assessment yourself. Don’t resort to cheating because you’re short on time. You risk serious academic consequences if you are caught!
Consequences of submitting work from a third party
The consequences of contract cheating can be severe. This is often considered to be exceptionally serious, which means 10 percentage points are deducted from your final degree.
Six academic misconduct points are added to your student record (if you get 12 points you may be expelled from ARU.)
If this is a reassessment, this could lead to a module fail. This can lead to an early end to your studies (discontinuation) or, paying for a retake or replacement module.
For the full penalties and categories of academic misconduct, check the academic regulations Section 10. Academic Regulations Section 10
Top Tips:
It is important to save your drafts and work in different stages, especially if your final submission is an amalgamation of different chapters/ sections.
Ideally, you should write your assignments on your own computer (Not shared).
Don’t share laptops and don’t use someone else’s. Instead go to the university laptop loans: Here
Don’t write your work on your phone.
If you are having problems talk to us or ARU about options like EC, intermission, extensions, late submission (within late submission point).
If you need help with planning and structure or understanding the assignment speak to your module leader and you can also use study skills.
Develop your study skills with Study Skills Plus
If you need support with your wellbeing at this time please reach out to ARU’s wellbeing services: Health and wellbeing - ARU