Cheating Is For Losers!

Yes, I know.  I am not supposed to be so blunt.

Still, I believe the statement is true.  If you cheat, you are cheating yourself out of a good education.  You are cheating yourself from becoming the better person that you can be.

Basically, you are playing a losing game, and the biggest loser is you! Honestly, I don’t mean to be mean – just to bring attention to the reality.

The truth is that you should have confidence that you can do the work and succeed without resorting to such tactics.

Now, everyone knows some of the major cheats - looking at your neighbour’s paper or writing the answers on your hand or some other method to cheat on tests. 

Cheating, however, goes well beyond these obvious tactics. 

Oh! No, this is not going to be an instructional blog about how to cheat. If that is what you are looking for, then you have definitely come to the wrong place.  

Sometimes, cheating can be more subtle, and you might even convince yourself that it is not “really” cheating.

For example, if you are writing an essay, speech, or book report, and you are copying and pasting all your information – that is cheating.

You have not used the material as research.  You have used the material as yours.  Often, you do need to do research on your topic, but then you need to do something with the gathered bits of information or data.  In order for you to learn, you have to engage your thought processes to determine which pieces of information best lend themselves to your main theme or thesis.

How can these disparate pieces of information be combined and explained by you? 

How can you develop them, adding your interpretation to them?

In other words, where are YOU in the essay, speech, or report?

The final product should not simply be a collection of copied and pasted paragraphs.  Simply “selecting” bits of data and then jamming them together is not good enough.

During the research and writing process, you will learn so much more as you put yourself and your thoughts into it.  Many times, students find their original beliefs challenged when they truly research their topic.

Copying another student’s paper – even if you move the paragraphs around is cheating.

Again, you have not done the leg-work or engaged your own thinking mechanisms to arrive at a final product.

Of course, you can use other people’s words and information.  IF you use their words verbatim, you need quotations and citations.  If you are giving a summary of their core ideas, you need to cite where you got this information – give them credit.

Having done this, then you should get yourself into the conversation, so to speak.  Connect your research with your amazing ideas or with your argument.

I am not going to discuss plagiarism and potential penalties at length here. (English students – note the alliteration here for fun!)

The main point of this blog is to get you thinking about the loss incurred from cheating.

Cheaters generally get what they pay for – a poor education, lack of knowledge, and paucity of useful skills.

In fact, some cheaters actually do pay to have their essays written for them.  I have been asked on many occasions to do this for University students in particular.  I do not write essays for others, if you had not gathered that from my tone already.

I will help students with their essays.  I will inform, lead, cajole, and direct them to improve upon their own efforts, but I will not do the job for them. Parents, listen up, you should not be doing so either!  Too often, I have seen the “A” or “B” that mom or dad should have got for a finished product. Please note, “helping” is not “doing.” Be a coach, not an enabler.

Even if you are faced with a time crunch, do your own work.

Be proud that your final paper, test, or quiz result is truly yours. 

Even better, all the knowledge you gained during the process belongs to you.  Nobody can take that away from you (not even with a weak grade).

If your grade is not as good as you would like, begin the discovery of how to improve.  This is true learning that will get you the education you need and deserve.

Remember it is YOUR education.  Grab it, work it, and enjoy it!

Above all, do not cheat yourself. Believe it or not, you are worth the extra effort and work.

Cheating Is For Losers!