Mail-Order Term Papers for Sale

TUCSON, Ariz.-Intrigued by national advertisements offering academic research papers for sale, a reporter for the student newspaper at the University of Arizona bought a paper about Bertold Brecht to learn more about the term paper "mills."

He submitted the paper in his drama class, earned an A-, and then explained to the professor what he had done. He already had prepared his own paper for the class, but it received only a B.

A 336-page catalog listing thousands of research papers, complete with footnotes and bibliography and needing only retyping, is advertised in many college newspapers and in national magazines read by young people.

The pre-written papers cost $3.50 per page, and the companies will also write original papers for $8 per page. For $12 per page the company will write a master's thesis and for $30 per page, a doctoral thesis.

Although the companies keep records and don't send the same papers to the same campuses, some colleges have taken measures against the hoax. Some departments at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, have term paper catalogs on hand and when professors receive suspicious papers they check if there is a listing in the catalog for a similar paper with the same number of footnotes and bibliographical entries.

The term paper services are legal in most states because it is very difficult to prove that company officers know the papers will be turned in for credit and not just used for research.

"Most of our service is sold to businesses," said Michael Spencer of Research Assistance, a paper "mill" based in Los Angeles. "We don't even know how many students use the service. We're just selling information; the morality lies within the student," he added.