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Contract Cheating

This online Library guide presents the topic of Contract Cheating, its consequences, and how to avoid it.

What is Contract Cheating?

University students often find themselves with much to do in a short amount of time. Sometimes, facing deadlines, you might be tempted to ask someone else to help you finish your assignments. This is called contract cheatingcontracting someone else to do the work you should be doing, often in exchange for money or favors.

stealing paper from the Internet

This can include, but is not limited to:

  • Buying a paper (or a portion of a paper) online
  • Planning with others on a take-home exam or test 
  • Submitting a take-home exam or test that has been written in full or in part by someone else
  • Purchasing or otherwise acquiring a copy of exam questions, tests, assignments, etc. by any unauthorized means (meaning other than example tests/questions provided by your professor for practice).
  • Impersonating another student or having someone impersonate oneself in class, at an exam or test, or in any other situation in which you are being evaluated
  • Allowing someone to use your assignment for academic credit

Contract cheating doesn't always involve an exchange of money; if a friend, classmate, parent, sibling, or former student writes an assignment or test for you, this is also contract cheating.

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Image by Freepik

How is contract cheating different from plagiarism?

thief stealing an ideaPlagiarism is when you have taken credit for ideas or work that you did not create. This can be done accidentally or intentionally, but in the end, you have still taken action: you copied and pasted the words, or wrote the words without the citation, and submitted the assignment.

Contract cheating means you have done NO work at all. You have had someone else do all of it. This is an intentional and planned act of cheating. If there is any money involved, there can be no doubt that this was done on purpose.

Both are serious academic offenses, and carry serious repercussions.

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Image by Freepik

Contact Cheating & Plagiarism

In this video, a student with too many commitments and not enough time to write a paper, chooses to buy a paper online. If the video does not appear, click on the link below to view.