Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity Andre Gide once said: “Be faithful to that which exists within yourself.” That is, even if cheating does not hurt others, it hurts the one who cheats. This is the meaning of integrity. It means acting in a way of which one can be proud. This concept can easily be applied to academics. Specifically, it is important to generate your own ideas and information rather than using the internet to do all of the thinking for you. This is the problem with modern students: rather than actually going to the library to do some traditional research using books (the publication of which requires heavy scrutiny), the average student prefers to “Google” the information (the publication of which requires nothing more than internet access). Thus, students often find themselves in a position where their academic integrity is called into question; it is far too easy to copy and paste information when one feels a great deal of stress to complete an assignment. When it comes to academics, modern students should strive to have more integrity. More often than not, the average student seeks an immediate answer by going into Google and asking it a question. This passes for “research” today. The trouble with this method is that, once an obstacle is encountered, the average student declares, “I could not find any research on my subject.” Beyond the fact that the research skills are poor, the next issue is the fact that, once the student finds research, he or she does not know what to do with the information. That is, there appears to be no attempt at explaining the significance of the research, or asking substantial questions in response to it. Rather, students will copy the information into their own assignments as if to say, “There! I’ve written a research paper because I did research and I inserted it into my paper.” This is where academic integrity comes in. Having academic integrity means that one does research properly. It means that one actively seeks out