HomeOpen letter
A message from Barclay Littlewood, CEO of Academic Answers Ltd.
Dear All,
Thank you for visiting our site. I ask that, for just five minutes, you cast aside any preconceptions, prejudices or judgments and read my letter with an entirely open mind.
I’d like to begin by assuring you of my goals. These have changed since I started my business in 2003. As an out-of-work Barrister, my first goal in setting up Academic Answers was to make money. Yet, what I have seen and learnt since then, has led me to a very different calling.
My focus now is to help further real education in this country to the highest level in the world. When I say real education, I mean education on two levels. The first is the development of the individual, in terms of their minds and emotions, in order that they can become as effective as possible in their daily lives. The second is the teaching of practical skills that they can use to better themselves, whether in employment, self employment or some other service to others.
Should you share these aspirations, then I assure you, we are on the same side.
So why then you may ask, do we write essays for people? We believe that students have a right to choose how to learn, and a freedom to use the services and materials of their choice. I do not believe that you, I or anyone else has the right to make these choices for people.
Naturally, questions of integrity and cheating certainly do concern you, but your concern extends only to the proper use of materials, rather than the choice of materials.
Like you, I am also concerned that our service may be misused. That’s why, as well as retaining the copyright to all essays we produce, we’ve developed an extensive education program for the customer. This starts on our website where we employ a fair use policy, and goes right through to our after sales service.
Our customers are constantly educated and reminded of how to use the work properly and more importantly, why to use the work properly. Does it work? Yes. I know that the majority of our customers use our service as a legitimate study aid, and benefit as a result. How do I know? Many of them also use our marking and editing services to check their own piece of writing afterwards!
Not all essay companies care for their customers’ academic integrity and it is unfortunate that we sometimes get tarred with the same brush as dishonest, money grabbing websites who will tell you to change the work they provided around a bit, and hand it in.
But not all essay companies are the same. Our company will never, ever endorse cheating – and I take our measures to combat cheating so seriously, that I have even lobbied Parliament for legislation, without success. Remember, nobody makes us do this – we could just tell students to hand the work in but we don’t, because this isn’t what our company stands for.
Proper use of a copyrighted piece of work, including a custom essay is never and can never be plagiarism. Not one academic has ever disproved this point. All they have done is revert to the ‘external sources’ argument, but every source – journals, books, past papers, study notes – is an ‘external source’. How far shall we go in blocking how people learn? Shall we stop students talking to their classmates? Using the internet? Would it be wrong if they attended a lecture at another university? What about if they read one of their fellow student’s papers – is this any different from reading a model answer that we’ve produced?
I do not agree with the argument that buying a custom essay and using it properly harms the student in anyway, including their information gathering and seeking skills, any more than Google does.
Both save time. Both prioritise information. Both give the user what they want. This is to be applauded. After all, a book is simply a concise package of knowledge distilled from the author’s wisdom. To argue that reading a book somehow damages the recipient is obviously spurious. What matters in this context is the speed of which students can assess knowledge. The more accurate and targeted knowledge they can assimilate quickly, the better.
It’s somewhat ironic that our business thrives from the essay system - in my opinion, the essay system is as poor a way to grade intellect and fitness for employment as it is to hone intellect to create fitness for employment. But the current reality is that essays are used to grade intellect and so, we assist those that would otherwise struggle to get the grade that really reflects their ability, and in turn, hopefully obtain them a better degree and a job interview where they can shine.
We serve a huge number of international students who are not great writers but have great academic minds – those students would otherwise be denied the same opportunities as their contemporaries.
These are plenty of reasons why we can be proud of what we do. I understand there are concerns about ethical use, and I hope you will be well aware that I am open to collaboration to come to a solution where we maximise honest use of our service, and all but eliminate dishonest use. We must be clear that I will not do this without official sanctioning of our product.
As I have said, you have no right to stop fair use, and by doing so you unfairly restrict one of the most useful study aids of our time from thousands of students that are put off by unfounded and rather hypocritical warnings. Warnings which, for example, which would suggest model answer books, and indeed the handing out of past answers in your very own lectures also should be banned.
Not only that, but warnings which harm the ability of students to learn.
The bottom line is that universities must accept that students are going to use us, no matter what warnings they issue. Students clearly need extra support (or we’d be out of a job!) and universities are not providing it. If universities want to properly supervise this use, they need to work with us – and this implies a little give and take.
We already give a lot, by turning away students who we think will cheat, and by educating students on proper use. At the moment, we see nothing back for that.
I thank you for reading, and greatly look forward to your comments and the ensuing debate, for which I hope both sides can take away something of benefit for those people that matter, the students.
Yours sincerely,
Barclay Littlewood
CEO
Academic Answers Ltd.
News
The BBC reported in 2008 how we were now that good that - "parents are helping their children buy custom essays from us!"
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