BEWARE THEESSAYMILLS

WRITES CONOR O'DRISCOLL | SKILLS CENTRE

These websites claim to write outstanding-quality essays in minutes. The reason they can do this is because they scan the internet for relevant information, regardless of the underlying quality of the source, and attempt to create a coherent response to your query These services are not programmed to account for academic integrity and are subsequently rife with plagiarism

However, some of these services appear more sophisticated, such as ChatGPT Here, you prompt ChatGPT with a question (or essay title) and watch a relatively detailed answer be formed in a matter of seconds Like before, there is no indication of where the information came from, so there are still significant risks that the information is biased and highly plagiarised This lack of traceability in the source information should be a signal to not copy and paste anything these bots produce, for obvious reasons

Using the internet to complete academic assignments is clearly risky But I want to end by showing you how some of these sources, and the internet more generally, can be used sensibly to improve your understanding of academic content and elevate your learning

As we approach the business-end of the academic year, The Skills Centre would like to help you get through this busy period by reducing stress, maximizing productivity, and providing the building blocks to help you succeed

Our earlier columns have provided insights on how to excel in assignments/projects, namely those requiring group work and independent research More information on how we can help you in these endeavours can be found on The Skills Centre website (just google “UCC Skills Centre”), or you can drop-in for a chat We are based in Q1 in the Boole Library; just follow the yellow footsteps

As deadlines approach, it may be tempting to use automated services which claim to improve the quality of your assignments These services, which cover spelling- and grammar-checking, referencing, and essay writing, are generally bad news if you do not know how to navigate them properly

At the most basic level, websites which check spelling and grammar can be harmless But why sign-up when Microsoft Word will do just as good a job? Despite the appeal of their ads, websites like Grammarly are overrated in my opinion. A much better practice to improve your language skills is to read regularly

Using the internet to address more complicated issues, like referencing, can be trickier Googling something along the lines of “Harvard referencing style guide” will generally point you toward official documentation on referencing using the Harvard style, which is good because you can trust the quality of this information However, you can also be pointed toward unregulated websites like CiteThisForMe

CiteThisForMe is a popular website which formats reference lists and in-text citations for students Although sometimes this service works and produces “correct” output, it is not always correct This is where problems lie because, based on my experience, many students do always assume this output is correct This error in judgement creates bibliographies and in-text citations scattered with errors, errors which are often quite basic Although these issues are rather small in the grand marking scheme, they nonetheless bring down grades

The most problematic facilities are websites which offer essay-writing services These services typically pose as an older student, or some equivalent of a senior tutor, but are virtually always some type of Artificial Intelligence If you use social media regularly, you will see these “bots” crop-up all the time

New material can often be difficult to grasp This can create problems if students are only exposed to academic literature on this topic; as academic literature is typically written in a language which is impenetrable to mere mortals In these contexts, the internet can be an extremely useful resource Some of the services mentioned above, alongside other facilities (like Wikipedia) can serve to tangibly introduce students to fundamental concepts using accessible language

These sources are best used to inform your basic understanding of concepts, thereby facilitating your investigations of more nuanced academic literature They should never directly resurface in assignments, because of the risks highlighted above If you are struggling with essay-writing or referencing, the Skills Centre provide services which can help