Why i started my own essay writing service after getting scammed by one...

[Butler]

Gather 'round because this is a WILD ride. Last year I was broke (as usual) and desperate (as usual) and fell for one of those too-good-to-be-true essay writing service ads on Instagram. You know the ones. "A+ guaranteed!" "PhD writers!" "50% off first order!" All the red flags.

I paid $180 for a 10-page paper. What I got was 7 pages of complete nonsense written by someone who clearly spoke English as a fourth language and had definitely never taken a psychology class in their life. Sentences didn't make sense. Sources didn't exist. I'm pretty sure one paragraph was just... recipe instructions? For pasta? I wish I was joking.

I was furious. And broke. And still had a paper due.

But here's the plot twist. I'm an English major with editing experience. I've been helping friends with papers for years. So I thought... what if I started my OWN essay writing service but like... a good one? One that actually helps students? One that's honest about what it does?

So I did. With a friend who's a comp sci major (for the website). We don't write papers for people. That feels wrong. Instead we offer editing, proofreading, outlining, and tutoring. We help students make THEIR writing better instead of replacing it. We're upfront about everything. We charge actual reasonable prices. And we've helped like 40 students this semester alone.

The irony of getting scammed by a service and then starting my own is not lost on me. If you're looking for actual help without the sketchiness, there ARE good options out there. They're just usually not the ones with the flashy Instagram ads.

 

[MaryaL]

The essay mill industry is predatory and unethical, and it thrives on student desperation. But what you're describing—editing, proofreading, outlining, tutoring—is genuinely valuable and completely legitimate. I send students to our writing center all the time. If you're offering similar help with more flexibility, that's not a problem. That's a solution.

The pasta paragraph is genuinely alarming but also darkly hilarious. Like, someone was paid actual money to produce that. The student paid $180. The writer probably got $20. Everyone lost except the platform. That's the model.

Your approach is different. You're not replacing student work. You're enhancing it. You're teaching skills. That's not cheating—that's education. The students who work with you will write better papers on their own next time because of what they learned.

I have questions: how do you ensure you're not crossing the line into doing too much? Where's your ethical boundary? Do you have a policy about how much editing is too much? I'm curious how you navigate that as someone who clearly cares about doing this right.

Also, please share your info. I'd rather send students to someone like you than have them gamble on Instagram scams.