Essays are a large part of college. College admissions staff rely heavily on the personal essays of applicants to determine who they will admit, and while in college students are expected to derive a large part of their learning from writing research papers and other essays. When taking this into consideration, it would seem that society should be worried about the rapidly increasing number of essay vendors.

    Thanks to the worldwide web, it is now possible for students to download a plethora of papers almost instantaneously for any occasion, all for a small fee. Admittedly, the plagiarism of essays has been around for much longer than the Internet, but never has the potential for widespread abuse been a threat as much as now.

    Colleges already are forced to reduce applicants to a sheet of numbers, scores, and activities. The personal essay is perhaps one of the only parts of the application remaining that lets applicants show some personality.

    Yet more and more students are starting to worry more about producing the proper formulaic essay than about expressing themselves. And since the market is there, Internet-based companies are willing to sell essays to anyone who will pay. Essays are available to answer almost any question that is asked on a college application. Prospective applicants will have no trouble laying down a bit of cash to receive a pre-fabricated answer to questions about their personality.

    And this purchasing power does not stop at the college gates. Research papers are also available over the Internet. Compositions on almost any subject are available to anyone who wants to look for them. For the right price, some services will even hand-tailor a paper to your specific question. So, instead of actually being forced to undergo the learning process, students may buy their way through college.

    People in charge of these companies defend their businesses as valid. In a free-market economy, it is logical that if a demand for papers is out there, eventually a provider will see a profit in it. As for the plagiarism aspect, some companies stipulate that the essays are only examples of what a paper should look like, and that the students must only use the essays as guidelines for writing an original one.

    However, it is simply impossible for such companies to know what happens to the essay after each sale, and they cannot be held responsible for a student choosing to turn in one of these essays as their own work. Perhaps these companies are correct, and even the ones that do not have an anti-plagiarism disclaimer are perfectly legal. Yet in a strictly moral sense, there is something inherently wrong with having the nation's youth purchasing all of their essays from the Internet. If we as a society decide that this is an acceptable practice, it seems to be rather obvious what direction we are heading in.