DUBAI Short of words? Running against time to finish a 20-page university assignment you have no clue of?
You could turn to the experts who will do the job for you in a breeze. On Facebook, their campaigns too look the part, promising customers everything from “unique and error free content” to a “0% plagiarism” guarantee well within the deadline and many – hardpressed for time – are even swearing by it.
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“It’s the easy way out, of course, as long as you are not found out,” says Rachel Pinto (name changed on request) who claims to have used a writing help only once during an exhibition in Abu Dhabi where she was working as a part-time promoter.
“The deadline to submit my university dissertation fell around that time and there was no option,” adds Pinto who paid a Dubai writing company $10 (Dh36.70) per page to complete her 35-sheet project. “Sometimes they even charge you up to hundreds of dollars – depending on the nature and complexity of the topic,” says petroleum engineer Girish Sahukar, 39, who once had to submit a ten page detailed annual report on his company’s engineering adaptations for a specific oilfield project.
“I came across this advertisement and I jumped to the idea because I was really facing difficulties in gathering my thoughts on a piece of paper. I wrote a draft to them first and they built on it but I am not sure the end product was that well written and accurate,” adds Sahukar, who felt he could have done a better job had he not outsourced the job.
“It’s generally a good help in times of crises, especially during exams, but I have so far managed to stay away from them to avoid unwanted problems. Plus sometimes they are not as professional as they pretend to be,” says Indian university student Mohammad Zubair, 21, who once saw a friend of his land in hot water after it turned out the writer he had hired approached his own university professor for guidance to complete the project.
When XPRESS called one of the companies advertising on Facebook, the owner refused to divulge details of her company even though their range of services – from academic writing to corporate writing to resume writing – are online for all to see.
“It’s not that we write for anyone else, but what we offer is proofreading and translation services, especially for students of Arab origin who are weak in English and need to submit written work in that language,” said the woman.
