Ig Nobel Prize winner Dan Ariely (who demonstrated that expensive fake medicine is more effective than cheap fake medicine) and colleagues have conducted an experiment with essay mills:
We ordered a typical college term paper from four different essay mills, and as the topic of the paper we chose… (surprise!) Cheating. Here is the description of the task that we gave the four essay mills:
“When and why do people cheat? Consider the social circumstances involved in dishonesty, and provide a thoughtful response to the topic of cheating. Address various forms of cheating (personal, at work, etc.) and how each of these can be rationalized by a social culture of cheating.”
We requested a term paper for a university level social psychology class, 12 pages long, using 15 sources (cited and referenced in a bibliography), APA style, to be completed in the next 2 weeks. A pretty basic and conventional request. The essay mills charged us in advance between $150 to $216 per paper.
Two weeks later, what we got would best be described as gibberish.
BONUS: Ariely will be coming to the 2010 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, along with several other past winners.