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