Essay mills definition

Essay mills protect themselves in their terms and conditions, which say their products should only to be used as a ‘reference work’ or equivalent and not submitted as the student’s own work. There are multiple definitions of fraud in the Act. Perhaps the most relevant one is Section 2, which deals with ‘Fraud by False Representation’.

Many strategies have been proposed to address the use of Essay Mills and other ‘contract cheating’ services by students. These services generally offer bespoke custom-written essays or other assignments to students in exchange for a fee. There have been calls for the use of legal approaches to tackle the problem.

Similar to essay mills, an essay bank is a company where students can go to purchase pre-written essays. Due to the nature of essay bank essays, students may find themselves more likely to be caught for committing academic dishonesty. As a result of this, essay bank essays in general may cost less than those from essay mills.

The idea behind term paper mills can be dated back to the mid-nineteenth century in which "paper reservoirs" were located in the basements of fraternity houses. Otherwise known as "fraternity files," these essay banks were practices in which students shared term papers and submitted work that had been done by other students.