Journal # 4- Academic Dishonesty

            In class we discussed cheating. We took an anonymous survey of who has and has not cheated. Twenty-one people said they had cheated, and only five people said they had not cheated. The questions for this entry are: 1- Does cheating mean you are academically dishonest? and 2- Does the USI Creed effectively deter cheating?

            First, I do think that cheating means you are being academically dishonest, however that does not mean you are an academically dishonest person. For instance, I was one of the twenty-one people who had cheated. Personally, cheating was never used for important things. When I did cheat, it would usually be on a small assignment that I had either forgotten to do, or that I could not get a few answers on. Also, I occasionally let people cheat off of me on tests. Although these things are wrong, I would never cross the line into more serious cheating. For example, I would never cheat on a test, plagiarize, or cheat on an exam like the SAT.             All of these forms of cheating are wrong, but some of the forms of cheating are more serious than others. Because all forms of cheating are wrong, they are also all academically dishonest. But occasionally being academically dishonest does not mean someone is an academically dishonest person. An academically dishonest person cheats more often than not. Academically dishonest people are lazy, and would rather let other people do the hard work for them. Although, cheating occasionally when you forget to do an assignment is academically dishonest, it does not mean you are an academically dishonest person.

            As for the USI Creed, it really does nothing to deter cheating. The creed is just a few sentences that say, “I will not cheat, because cheating is bad.” However, just saying that cheating is wrong, doesn’t insure that people won’t cheat. The only things that deter cheating are careful measures taken by the professor, thorough examination of all assignments for cheating, and severe punishment for those who have been found cheating. However, taking the measures to prevent cheating can be time consuming and complicated, and examining every assignment turned in would take copious amounts of time. So in reality, cheating is very complicated to prevent and there is no perfect deterrent for it.

            In conclusion, cheating means you have been academically dishonest but not that you are an academically dishonest person. Also, the USI Creed and other similar anti-cheating measures are not effective means of deterring cheating. Cheating is a complicated problem and cannot be effectively deterred.