Essay on Cheating

Source B shows us graphs of scenarios teachers and students see about cheating, such as taking out a phone, skipping class, or searching things up. The bar graph show that teachers greatly see more cheating than students. This might be because students really see cheating as helping and not something they aren’t supposed to do. It doesn’t help them realize that cheating is bad and they just don’t feel bad about it.

Honor codes have been a strong subject of dispute over the last few years. Whether to hold students accountable for their own actions, and allow them to control the cheating in a school is, in all regards, a major decision that could potentially be detrimental to a school’s society and reputation. However, the rewards for a successful honor code are exponentially higher than the cost. Schools should always have some form of honor code in place, whether it be something like a signed contract at the beginning of each semester paired with an honor court to hold violators accountable, or something as simple as a statement of trust on a worksheet.

As a student develops the question of a honor system within themselves is based on his or he own integrity. The problem regarding that is it honor codes can range from elementary schools to college. Several may argue honor codes unsuccessful in decreasing cheating or lying in schools. While others may argue that honor codes should be enforced because they promote an honest academic environment within any school. In my opinion, I do agree the honor system should be enforced at my school because it’s only fair to students who do their own work and is also punishing those who cheat while also cheating themselves.

The conflict of whether or not honor codes should be established has been brought up again due to an increase in cheating and collaborating on tests and school work. Recently, a surplus of students have been caught cheating in unexpected places, like Harvard and the University of Virginia. Those colleges are considering using honor codes to counteract the surge of cheating that has arisen. Although there is currently a cheating problem that needs to be dealt with, incorporating honor codes into high schools and colleges is not the most effective way to solve the cheating problem, and will not solve the cheating problem indefinitely. It is very difficult to change a person’s personality and their morals, no matter what paper they sign, but there are ways to make people’s convictions stronger. One of which is student interaction. Like many people, students have a “follow the herd” nature and want to fit in with the crowd. If many students discourage cheating, the “crowd” may choose to not cheat in fear of being shunned. Student interaction is much more effective than honor codes, and is a much less drastic change.

If a college campus harbors an environent where cheating is seen as acceptable and an activity many people participate in, even students with correct morals and no desire to cheat themselves are less likely to report fellow students for unsavory behavior. This can also go a step further and that same student who failed to confront a peer for cheating, may give in to the school’s atmosphere and start cheating themselves. This makes them all the less likely to report other students for fear of appearing hypocritical and/or being reported themselves. A study on honor code effectiveness was completed by Sally Sledge and Pam Pringle at a small public university (Source E). Their results showed that only 8% of students would report a fellow student for cheating. Even more surprisingly, 40% of students anonymously stated that they had “violated the honor code and not been caught”. This points to a very cheater-friendly attitude at this particular school and shows that the honor system is not very effective in this

The motivation to follow the honor codes ties with the development of a positive peer culture. As source F States, a positive peer culture is, “A culture that makes most forms of serious cheating socially unacceptable among the majority of students. Many students would simply feel embarrassed to have other students find out they were cheating” This desired positive peer culture will only be achieved through the honest student body. The cheating student body can be encouraged to be honest with the harsh punishments.

In recent years, many schools and institutions have introduced an “honor code”. The idea behind an honor code is that, if a student is caught cheating or in violation of the honor code, then there are serious consequences. Also, in some institutions, if a student catches another student violating the honor code, then the students must turn in the violator. While in theory this sounds like a good plan, many cases have shown that this code does not work in a practical application. Even with the introduction of the honor code, many schools have found that students continue to cheat, and students refuse to turn in their peers.

An opinionated piece from McGabe, Donald, and Gary Pavela argue that, while any rule can be made, it is the punishment that comes after it is broken that causes everyone to follow it. However, since high schools cannot enforce a serious punishment that can truly teach students a lesson, the only way to enforce an honor code is to have the students do it instead. Since students will act based on what other students think of them, having the students enforcing the honor code will be the most effective way of incorporating the honor codes (Source F). In order to get the students to enforce the honor codes, the teachers must create a community within the classroom that includes a ratio that has a greater number of honest to dishonest students. Since students are heavily influenced by their peers, having the dishonest students be in a group with the honest student will discourage them to cheat, since they know that their peers will judge them.

According to student, Alyssa Vangelli, when her school adopted honor codes, "students did not fully understand the role of an honor code," (Source B). The question of honor codes may result in the lack of trust between students and educators. A lack of trust makes the willingness of students to obey become far less likely. Furthermore, this reflects upon the question, how much would truly change with an honor code? As stated by Jennifer Dirmeyer in her opinion piece, it is "skeptical that signing a piece of paper will suddenly cause a cheater to change his ways" (Source C). This unlikelihood of change paired with the student's unwillingness of change makes the impact of honor codes much less appealing. Even within schools implementing honor codes, such as my own school, significant change has not been made. According to a study conducted my Sally Sledge and Pan Pringle, out of the 275 students surveyed, 40% of students have violated the honor code and not been caught (Source E). There instances of confusion, unacceptance, and violation call to question and doubt the effectiveness of an honor code. As for my school’s honor code, the revision must draw attention to why this is an issue, it must make students and teachers feel equal, and it must promote

The honor code is a system that many schools use to establish trust with teachers and students by having students report each other for cheating, plagiarizing, stealing, and getting consequences for violating those codes. I argue that it could be improved. I believe that giving students that much power to control each other isn’t a great idea. It may work in some schools but it could easily be corrupted. If you think about it, many students are broke, a student could easily pay the other student to allow them to cheat or copy. It’s an easy bribe and I'm sure it’s been done. I know people would attempt to counter my argument with “that’s why the honor code is there for,” but not everyone goes by their word, there’s always someone to

Over the years, cheating does not carry the same stigma it used to represent. Because of competition and expectations, students are doing whatever it takes to achieve an A average. There are students who are fighting for scholarships or for the position to be on the top. Also, parents and teachers are the root cause of this matter because they have advocated the idea that high GPAs will lead to more successful futures. As a result, grades have become the main focus for most students,

However, what they do not realize is that these honors codes help maintain some core moral values and integrity of the students. When a student is taking an exam, they should be able to focus on their paper without having the worry of whether or not the person next to them is going to be copying their paper. The last thing a student wants while taking an exam is the assumption that they are next to a cheater and might end up getting caught. Creating a safe environment can go a long way. When there is a "cheating free" zone and most of the students follow that practice, the kids who normally feel an impulse to cheat might find it harder to cheat. If most of the students cannot tolerate cheating, then those students most likely will not hesitate in turning in a cheater. However, if most of the kids in a college do cheat, then nobody would be likely to turn in another cheater (Source C). Creating an environment where cheating is a disgrace and socially unacceptable would make a person embarrassed to be labeled as a cheater (Source

When asking a student do they think cheating is bad most will say yes and will even admit to cheating.Cheating doesn’t affect many students on a regular day basis until they have been caught red-handed.When it comes to cheating blame automatically goes to the student but what about the adult as well.Some teachers have admitted to seeing student cheat but haven't said anything because it was on homework.Some teachers have even gone to the depth of helping a student cheat on a test.There was a survey that was taken through all of the high schools asking students if they had ever cheated on a test, the results were that there were 64 percent who cheated,58 who plagiarised, and above all 95 percent of them admitted to cheating of some sort.(Academic Integrity Under Statistics paragraph 3 )Students cheat to make it through a semester and to make their parents proud.Students cheat simply because of lack of knowledge, pressure from the adult looking for them to do their best, and last lack of time.

When referring to the concept of cheating, there are many definitions that a person may think of. According to Dictionary.com, there are three ways of viewing the term and thus three corresponding definitions. Nevertheless, the unified theme in the idea of cheating is the use of fraud, deception, and dishonesty (Random House Dictionary). Unfortunately, this is a notion that is continually acknowledged as acceptable. One scenario that is commonly concentrated on is the act of cheating in education.

Academic learning in today’s changing world brings demands to future professionals. Whether in a traditional classroom, or through distance learning, one thing is similar and which cannot bring forth a successful educational future. One thing that can damage anyone’s academic future is plagiarism. Whether being the future of a straight “A” student, or a student who is just getting by. The fact remains that anyone can fall victim to plagiarism. Plagiarism is the use of other writer’s words without acknowledging the source and taking those words and passing them off as one’s own ideas (Jones, 2001). Some people may think plagiarism is just copying someone else’s work but in reality plagiarism is much serious and hold very serious