Topic > Plagiarism: The Downside of Cheating

This is the act of cheating, behaving dishonestly for a specific purpose. Children can cheat at school, while playing, and even at home. It is the act of ignoring the rules in a competitive situation and gaining the advantage. The person who cheated is rewarded using an inappropriate method. The person who does all the above-mentioned actions is said to have cheated. Cheating in schools has been reported to extend from lower levels up to universities. Students are becoming subject matter experts and parents don't know it (Gillette, 1). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayArcy Lyness in the article "children's health" tells about the experience of a certain teacher in the classroom who brought a test to his students and a student named Jeff removes a piece of paper with some writings. While the students were taking the test, Jeff always looked at the paper and also at the teacher to see if she was looking at him. This is actually cheating on an exam. Children at school can cheat in other different ways, for example; Stealing another student's idea by copying their assignment or work, this is also called plagiarism. If students join a school and notice that there is a culture of cheating, then they adopt it and continue to do so. However, according to Dirmeyer, Jennifer Cartwright, Alexander C, in the article . “Honor codes work where honesty has already taken root”, if there is an honor code for students to follow, students will join the school and choose not to cheat even if they used to cheat in their schools precedents. This is because there are risks of being discovered and being punished. Why Students Cheat Students may be able to learn and be able to perform better on tests taken. However, according to research conducted by ABC News, students have been noted to cheat as a way to survive in the real world. Students cited scandals such as financial and presidential scandals. They said that people involved in the scandals were not punished severely, cheating can be done and if guilt is not proven they remain free. Other students believe that going to school isn't about learning facts and keeping them in mind, but about knowing how to sidestep the system in your favor. Hope Gillette in an article “Cheating at school” observed that some students cheat because they have not had enough time to study because they are lazy or because they are busy with other activities such as watching television or swimming. Children will tend to enjoy other activities more than studies. They spend more time in these activities such as ball games, video games and others. Kids don't want to fail tests even if they didn't study, so they end up cheating. Others cheat because they believe they can't pass tests without using material that reminds them of certain points. These students forget that it is not good to cheat, no matter how good the reason for cheating. Students are forced to cheat because their parents require them to have quality grades. Students know very well that if they do not get a good grade they will not be able to proceed to the next level. Students who do not have the ability to get high grades therefore end up cheating because they want to impress their parents and also proceed to the next level (Malcolm, 1). If a student becomes ill a few days before the exam and is unable to study, he or she should tell the teacher so that he or she can get a solution. Students who have trouble balancing their activities with their studies should.