Academic Dishonesty

Students in today’s generation are having trouble understanding plagiarism and the consequences that come along with academic dishonesty. A reoccurring disturbance is students plagiarizing admissions essays for universities. Penn State had to reject sixty-three applicants due to unethical essays this past year (Lavelle, 2013, para. 1). Other schools are battling the same issue. Plagiarism is estimated to grow even more within the nation in the years to come. However, what schools are looking for are students who can think for themselves. The director of graduate recruitment and admissions at Northeaster State claims, “We’re interested in students who have ethics coming into the program who are going to go out and make a difference in the world (Lavelle, 2013, para. 11).” Plagiarism is an issue that has been around in the academic world for many years. However, over the past decade cheating has become much more relevant and accessible due to the internet. Digital technology enables students to copy and paste from the internet. Essentially, this leads students to misunderstand the importance of inventiveness and authorship (Gabriel, 2010, para. 7). Students do not care so much about creating their own ideas anymore. Anthropologist Susan D. Blum quoted, “Our notion of authorship and originality was born, it flourished, and it may be waning (Gabriel, 2010, para. 19).” It is now all about making an A, and achieving that A with little effort by using another person’s work. Ethical courage is not something that you only have, it defines who you are. Unfortunately, many students today have thrown their ethical courage out the window by committing plagiarism and other acts of cheating. Not many students seem to care about having ethical courage, or any set of morals for that matter. I do not think plagiarizing is always

purposeful or accidental, but I believe it is a mixture of both. I would define ethical courage as upholding what you believe is right under any circumstances. I word it this way because so many people may claim to be ethical, but when stress ensues their beliefs are long forgotten. Ethical courage is doing the right thing even when others choose not to. It is following your own path and not straying away when being tempted. Plagiarism is like a disease—it will never go away no matter what we do; however, it is not uncontrollable. More and more students are caught in the act of cheating every year. As of now there are 125 Harvard students being investigated for cheating on a final at the end of last semester (Lauerman, 2012, para. 1). In fact, there are students who are not getting accepted into some schools because of plagiarism in their admissions essays (Lavelle, 2013, para. 2). Luckily, catching some of these students before they are accepted into universities is alleviating some of academic honesty. This process allows the students who have ethical courage to be filtered out from those who do not. Students who hold and retain ethical courage, will not only be accepted but will surely thrive inside and outside of the academic world.

References
Gabriel, Trip. (2010, August 1). Lines on Plagiarism Blur for Students in the Digital Age - NYTimes.com. Retrieved June 6, 2013, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/education/02cheat.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Laureman John. (2012, August 31). Harvard Cheating Probe Under Way for About 125 - Bloomberg. Retrieved June 6, 2013, from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-30/harvard-plagiarism-probe-under-way-for-about-125-students.html
Lavelle, Louis. (2013, February 7). Dozens of MBA Applicants Tossed Over Plagiarism - Businessweek. Retrieved June 6, 2013, from http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-02-07/dozens-of-mba-applicants-tossed-over-plagiarism