Firstly, could we please make the discussion generic as I've had my wrists slapped by TSR and I don't want my post deleted on this.
It's good that you've raised the concerns. Just to put things in perspective; this isn't an essay: I've worked for three years in this field, written over a hundred thousand words - chopped, changed and pruned down to my word limit. I've carried out my own work, i've given it to my supervisor to look at. I am so close to the subject, and it's my own pet, that sometimes you can read the same sentence over and over again and not spot the spelling mistake. As i've written something so big, it's important to have it checked for things that I haven't picked up.
My supervisor recommended having it checked, I am required as per the University regulations to acknowledge those who've helped me and I've done that AND I've checked with the graduate board for my university if they are happy with those who have helped. The thesis becomes public once submitted to the British Library - so plagiarism on that level isn't an issue here and secondly the depth of work makes it impossible for people to even suggest that it's plagiarism. As for others copying chunks from my work, I did not hand over the work just to anyone, I've double checked - I can't go into more details incase I get my wrists slapped again.
As for help; every PhD supervisor in the country helps their students and looks through their written work - mine has already checked and he wanted me to have it double checked - I've told him exactly what I was going to do and please note these are not substantial changes, it's just that I like things to be as perfect as possible. Similarly academics have their own work proofread before academic journal publications. The peer-review process follows the same procedure - you send off your work, it more often then not comes back with recommended changes - it's not declared as help and it's not an issue. It's the process of getting your work out to the academic community.
Once the viva is over there are changes recommended by the examiners, again they check for mistakes and recommend changes, so clearly help is recieved at that point as well.
However, there are certain points at which I agree with you; if the changes are substantial and you start receiving help which goes beyond the basics, i.e. re-writing large chunks, recommending additional work, or adding swathes of text, then I do see that as a problem. On that point I would have to say you are right.
Perhaps I am looking at it from a different perspective - I'm seeing this as academic work, considering that i've already published a fair amount and my main focus is on the quality of the practical work itself. I'm not seeing this as a test of my grammar, although there will be subjects where they are marked for this.
However, I appreciate your comments and it's good to see it from a different light.
QUOTE=Klix88;55132333]I seriously wouldn't recommend doing this.
Firstly, sending unpublished work to an outside organisation - especially one which offers "professional services" for academic work and is probably an essay mill - lays you open to having your work plagiarised. What if they reuse chunks of your work for someone else and it's submitted before your diss is marked? You'll be accused of copying *them*! There's no point taking confidentiality clauses at face value. They're providing services which they know constitute academic fraud, so they don't have much regard for ethics in the first place.
Not to mention the fact that the work you submit is supposed to be 100% your own unless otherwise stated in your references. Having an outside organisation even suggest changes which you then make, is, to put it bluntly, cheating. If you're found out, your uni can refuse to award you your qualification. It's not worth the risk. If you can't write the diss unaided, then you shouldn't be doing it.