Argumentative Essay On Cheating

Schools across America today are not doing enough when it comes to cheating; a broader term is academic dishonesty. The numbers are on the rise and there is little to no action being taken against cheating. According to The Merriam-Webster online dictionary the act of cheating can be defined as “taking something from (someone) by lying or breaking a rule” (1). Cheating comes in many forms such as plagiarism, fabrication, and, preventing other students from completing their work to their best ability. Plagiarism is the copying or stealing of a piece of work or project that is not done by the person taking the work. Fabrication is using false data, citations or information (“What Is” 3). This is basically lying to a reader. The writer is giving

This form of academic dishonesty is not as frequent as plagiarism and fabrication, but a student can do what is stated in the last sentence to get a better grade then his or her classmates. Cheating is as simple as copying answers from a classmate’s homework to copying and pasting an essay from the internet. Today, teens are exposed to different forms of cheating committed by their favorite celebrities and athletes. Some music artists are sued for stealing another artist 's lyrics or song without permission, and some athletes use performance enhancing drugs to better their performance on the field. Students that see their favorite athlete or celebrity cheating in some way are influenced by them. Celebrities and athletes are always influencing their fans by the way they dress, act, what they do, and what they eat. Their fans want to be like them so in order to do that fans have to dress, look like, and live like their favorite celebrity. A teen’s idol is someone who she looks up to, so if she see’s her idol cheating, she will think that it is alright to cheat

Some reasons that students cheat are because they afraid to fail, have hectic schedules, a lack of interest for the subject and/or assignment, and know other students are cheating. Procrastination can also be a factor in a student’s decision to cheat. If he waits until the night before to write his entire essay, he can feel stressed and anxious. Because he believes that he cannot finish his essay by the next day he just might feel compelled to steal a paper offline. Students may also cheat if they are sitting beside someone in class that is intelligent. During a test they may peak at the student’s paper to try to earn a higher grade on the test. Temptation is the cause of looking at someone else’s paper. The opportunity is presenting itself so why not take it before it’s gone? If a student knows that his or her classmate is cheating, he or she will think that since that student is getting away with it maybe he or she can too. A study on the number of students that cheat says that “several studies indicate that 80 to 95 percent of high school students admit to engaging in some form of cheating” (Pope 3). Eighty percent is a large amount of students, which shows that educators may not be doing enough to stop or prevent the act of cheating. Cheating has become easier for students with the advancement of technology. Now with access to the internet, students can get already written papers or finished