information on cookies see our Cookie Policy. (BUTTON) X Essays for sale: a new wave of plagiarism Students who use online essay-writing services face sanction if caught. As -- -- Essay-writing services might be attractive to under-pressure students, but using them constitutes plagiarism. Photograph: Steve Debenport/iStock -- -- Essay-writing services might be attractive to under-pressure students, but using them constitutes plagiarism. Photograph: Steve Debenport/iStock -- -- Rigorous testing Would this essay be red-flagged for plagiarism? Colleges nowadays have access to a range of computer programmes, such as Turnitin and Safeassign, that test whether articles have been copied from other -- -- However, these programmes only work if they detect parts of the essay that exist elsewhere; they might not flag plagiarised content if they are custom-written pieces. -- -- To test the essay, we put it through Safeassign and it came back clean. But it’s not just the plagiarism-detection programmes: it has to get past the beady eye of a lecturer. We presented the essay to a number of lecturers in communications and media without telling them about its -- -- It’s difficult to say how commonly these services are being used, but colleges are increasingly aware of plagiarism on campus. There have been about 1,000 cases of students in Ireland being -- -- There have been about 1,000 cases of students in Ireland being disciplined for plagiarism since 2010, and the numbers are on the rise (see panel). -- -- In the UK, some academics have warned that essay-writing services are behind an “epidemic” of plagiarism. Dr Mark Glynn of DCU’s teaching enhancement unit said most detected -- -- Dr Mark Glynn of DCU’s teaching enhancement unit said most detected plagiarism tends to involve students simply cutting and pasting in a section and putting inverted commas around it. -- -- section and putting inverted commas around it. “Students don’t realise that this is plagiarism, but these [essay-writing] services are blatant plagiarism,” he says. Trinity College Dublin’s education officer, Molly Kenny, said these -- -- reference it as they would any other online source,” she says. In the terms and conditions of the website they state they do not condone plagiarism. Foley says the site and demands for their services continue to grow. -- -- Glynn says this could be an option in Ireland: “I would endorse it if it came in here – enforcing it is the challenge – anything to discourage student plagiarism.” Students should be aware that using these services can be risky, -- -- the paper it’s written on. PLAGIARISM: A GROWING PROBLEM Since the 2010-2011 academic year, there have been almost 1,000 cases -- Since the 2010-2011 academic year, there have been almost 1,000 cases of students disciplined for plagiarism across the Irish higher-education sector. -- -- Of the colleges that supplied figures, the Institute of Technology Tallaght topped the list of detected cases of plagiarism (206), followed by the University of Limerick (162) and DIT (143). -- -- Institute of Technology Tallaght has one of the most extensive approaches to dealing with plagiarism, involving a sliding case of penalties, ranging from written warnings to potential disqualification from the institution.