Why Cheating is Wrong?

Cheating in this day and age, has become more common and somewhat of a daily occurrence. It's easy for students to get so caught up in the short-term stress of college that they forget about the long-term consequences of their decisions. Cheating might seem like an ideal solution when a student doesn't study, can't completely research a paper or is struggling to avoid failing a class. The consequences of cheating, however, can be crucial and range from temporary academic difficulties to serious legal problems and permanent reputation damage. Cheating is cheating. There is no if, ands, or buts about it. Whether a group of people cheats together, in a pre-planned action or if people single handedly cheat by themselves, there is no difference. Throughout my school life, I’ve always encountered cheaters. I remember myself studying for a test for hours, then came the test days when I’d be sitting there taking my test and I look up and see a handful of individuals looking over at other people’s tests. It would make me mad to have studied for so long just to have someone look over my shoulder and take all my answers. When the grades would come back the cheaters always seemed to get a higher grade then the individuals who actually studied. It’s not fair to the ones who actually took the time to learn the material and study. There are those individuals who cheat their whole way through school then when it comes to college and having huge classes and assignments outside of class. The true colors of the cheaters come out and they have a hard time being on their own. According to the article titled “Harvard cheating scandal sheds light on culture of cheating” states that there are websites out there that give students tips on how to cheat and encourages them to rub chapstick on scantron exams so the machine will skip blank answers’ I find that absolutely ridiculous.

Someone not using their sociological imagination might view this social issue much differently. For example, a student who is poor and cannot afford to go find a tutor or gain extra resources to help him/her understand the subject properly, hence the student is forced to cheat so they can pass. Another example would be that the student is under pressure to pass with good grades, but is not mentally capable of doing well, so the circumstances force him to cheat. And lastly the student is lazy, and looks for an easy way to pass, and comes up with cheating. Taking everything into account, someone not using their sociological imagination will be unsuccessful on seeing the entire perspective of things. Additionally, the definition of the sociological imagination has three elements (societal history and personal biography, another is personal troubles/public issues, and lastly social institution). To start with societal history and personal biography relating to this social issue, its important to understand the difference between the cheating now versus twenty years back. For example, back in the day cheating included looking at a neighbor’s paper or copying a friend’s homework. The most scandalous attempts to cheat most likely involved a student who wrote the answers to a test on the cover of his or her notebook. On the other hand, cheating in today’s world has evolved. Technology makes cheating all too common and too easy you could google anything and a billion things will pop up on whatever it is your looking for. The second definition of personal troubles and public issues is significant with this social issue because for example, in the article the narrator talks about the results of a spring-term final at Harvard University that is now under investigation on suspicion that 125 students cheating on the course’s final take-home exam this just shows that students are willing to take the risk of being suspended or expelled, lose scholarships, and even face copyright infringement troubles. This is no surprise that cheating has become a serious problem that affects students negatively today. The last definition relates sociological issues to individuals and larger social institutions like economy, religion, friendship, education.

Most social institutions hold a lot of dominance in our society today, so they are most likely to influence the social issue of cheating in our world today. For example, looking at the social institution of economy, let’s say a student works full time and barely has time to do his school work and he has an assigned 10-page essay due in one day about the French revolution so he decided to buy an essay online and turn it in and act like it’s his work when it’s not. Similarly, a student needing help with a complex set of scientific or math problems can receive step-by-step assignment help online. In both of these cases, the fees required to access the sites may be substantially less than the amount of money the students can earn in the hours they would need to spend reading, studying, calculating or writing to complete the assignments themselves. In addition, the social institution of religion plays a huge part in this social issue. In the Ten Commandments the bible says, 'You shall not steal”. And cheating is stealing—usually, it's stealing someone else's work. In the New Testament, we're told to 'put off falsehood' (Ephesians 4:25). And Don't lie. And cheating is lying; you're turning in work you're falsely claiming as your own. there's no difference between cheating and lying. Furthermore, the social institution of friendship is a good one because some students give answers to their friends thinking they are helping but in reality, they are hurting them. Some people cheat because they want to seem cooler than their friends or try to impress their friends. And last but not least looking at the social institution of education and why students do not want to put enough effort in their studies or just because they don’t have enough time to prepare for the exam. So, when a student is caught cheating it can cause them to lose all credibility with the professor and most of the time an “F” automatically. It is also the origin of a big problem because they are lying to themselves thinking that they have learned sufficient to demonstrate their ability when they have to work in the field.

In conclusion, cheating in schools is rapidly increasing all over the world. Serious measure should be implemented to help develop responsible and hardworking people. No one should be favored when they break the set of standard.  

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