Controversy Regarding Papers Purchased from the Web.

Printing a paper from the internet and turning it in does not help develop critical thinking skills and the ability to express thoughts and ideas. Tom Rocklin, director of the Center for Teaching at the University of Iowa, says that businesspeople are looking for new hires with skills developed by a traditional arts education. He also says that discussion, reading, and extended writing are a crucial part of the traditional arts education and students do not develop these skills by printing a paper from the internet. Along with not getting a strong education or getting kicked out of school you could also face criminal charges if you participate with the buying or selling of term papers. In some cases the seller could be charged with wire fraud, mail fraud, racketeering, and in some states such as Massachusetts, breaking a law that bans the sale of a term paper.

Some argue that using term paper websites are not plagiarism and can be used for things like showing the writing skills of other college students so you can compare your work. Students can also turn to these websites to look for where information can be found on certain subjects. If the papers on the web are parenthetically cited MLA style it will show you where the writer got the information and you can look it up yourself and put it in your own words. If you wanted you could give credit to the author of the term paper and use it as a source of information. Reading the information reported by other students may lead to a better understanding of how to set up papers, see what level of writing other students are doing, finding information that you left out of the subject, or looking at the subject from a different standpoint that students didn't realize was there.

The controversy over weather term papers should be illegal, or banned from schools, can be put to an end by simply parenthetically citing term papers. If someone obtains information by using another persons term paper there is nothing illegal about that as long as the student documents where they got the information. If you think that someone else's words can explain feelings toward something better than your words can, why should it be illegal to use them? Obtaining information from term paper websites should not be prohibited. A term paper is the same thing as looking at a website. It is a report devoted to a certain subject.