Academic Honesty

If you were dying of an illness that required operation to survive, would you want a doctor who cheated his or her way through medical school, or a unqualified auto technician working on your car? This is what happens when we have dishonest academic students. Academic honesty is an important part of any level of education, but especially college. Plagiarism is a dishonest academic act. If you plagiarize you are stealing someone else’s work and using it for yourself. Plagiarism as defined by Dictionary.com is “the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.” Most student who do resort to plagiarism do not realize they are plagiarizing, which they are also breaking the law. Plagiarism in most universities and college’s has consequences such as suspension, but usually expulsion. This means all scholarships are lost, and you are kicked out of the college, costing you a lot of money. Most students priorities are not right, usually leading to more partying and less studying. This is a main reason students plagiarize. They do not leave themselves enough time the paper or project and they research ends up directly in their papers. They do not give the credit where credit is due, therefore they are plagiarizing. Most students can avoid plagiarizing, and maintain academic honesty by giving themselves enough time to cite everything, and write their own work. Time management is a big key to this solution.