Is Cheating That Bad?

Murky - I think we're both missing context here, but I agree with you, but I believe the person you quoted is likely referring to something which isn't going to be published and serves mostly to get them into the habits of style more than anything. A missed citation is a very bad thing almost always, but when it's two sentences and not published one should really only remind them of the fact they have to do so.

1000 words looking at the history of the Federal Reserve would likely require only one book in particular I can think of, and missing little tidbits you got from elsewhere need not be so bad if you aren't claiming as your own or publishing it - but if they missed that one book, then that would get quite a major smackdown.

edited 22nd Apr '14 8:51:36 PM by RatherRandomRachel

I know they're not talking about someone planning to publish. My point was that I'm probably harsher because my professors expect publishable quality papers from me, even though little to none of it will ever be published.

I also have the point of view of someone that grades. Multiple times I've had students copy someone else's lab report verbatim. It's disappointing.

edited 24th Apr '14 6:26:38 AM by MurkyMuse

Well, it's very hard to care about what you produce in school. Grades are perhaps one of the worst motivators there is. It doesn't necessarily reflect how they'd act in the real world, although of course someone who's never written anything on their own at all would be lost at sea without a rudder.

Honestly, I'm in perhaps the only profession where citations actually materially matter (law, where the presence or absence legal authority actually affects whether or not what you're arguing is even true), and I don't have any respect for the way it's taught in school. It teaches people to throw in a bunch of citations just because it makes their paper look better, instead of thinking about why they're citing and what the things they're citing actually say.

edited 24th Apr '14 11:03:55 AM by Clarste

I did in fact, cheat in my chemistry class for all of my junior year of high school. I copied all of my friend's homework the day before it was due. Turns out copying the work meant I was never able to actually understand how everything worked. So I was screwed on every test we took. Had to take the class again the next year.

Sorry for my english , i had big gaps ( even if i never did in english class. )

In france, cheating is considered as a minor disregard in test. The punishement : the stern teachers grade a 0 ( F équivalent , I think)but a lot of teachers prefer divise grade by two. ( by example , your teacher caught you cheating but grade before to remove some for cheating . Without cheating, your grade is A+ . The teacher know that you cheated at one question, therefore, you didn't deserve A+, but like you maybe answered without cheating at other questions, you didn't deserve F neither .compromise: your grade will B- .) no dentention, no suspension " because in france, detention or suspension should gave only for a bad behavior and not for a lack of study)

For exams, it's most strict. but the five years without have to right to take a exam is only if you send your twin in your place, by example . If you look in neighbour copy or if you use a smartphone , you risk only to be held back a year (and for high school , if your high school has overmanned class, you should change you high school).

I already cheated in technology in middle school ,in 3éme ( équivalent to 9th grade) my technology teacher gave same test in all the class) but i'm rather the student that give answer at my cheater friends . (ah , writing 50 lines " I didn't gave answers at my friends during a test. the worst : I had the same punishement three times in same year ! ( in my last year in primary school , in CM 2 - ( equivalent : 5th grade)

i think that the cheaters are rarely insurgent . It's most often student with a lack of self-evidence, conviced to fail test if they didn't cheat or with a demanding parent ( it's type : A- is bottom grade!) and that he didn't deceive his parents . ( sometimes , but is rarely , luckily, the cheaters are even abused childs or teen , each time he come home with a bad note)

I did that backwards: I aced every test in Chemistry but didn't do any homework so my grades suffered.

Incidentally, my favorite citation in school was always "*Teacher's name*, lecture, march 15 20XX"

edited 24th Apr '14 2:38:53 PM by Clarste

When I had to retake my maths GCSE last year, I cheated and manged to scrape a C. I'm never going to do any formal mathematics ever again now that I've got a pass so, as far as I'm concerned, no harm done. I'm never going to build a faulty bridge and end up killing motorists. I wasn't going to miss out on university placements and job opportunities because of fucking maths.

But Christ, was the maths GCSE difficult. It's meant for 15 year olds but holy shit.

My own opinion is that by cheating, you are ultimately cheating yourself. Either you sour what should be your own achievement, or you create problems for yourself down the line: a useful example is Argentina at the FIFA World Cup compared to their rivals:

Argentina's 1978 win^note Which was facilitated by bribing Peru. will never be as good as England's 1966 win or Brazil's 5 titles. And they know it. Or we can look at the example of 1990, when Argentina resorted to drugging Brazil to get through the last 16...which came back to bite them when West Germany gave them a 1-0 lesson in sportsmanship in the final.

If you get far in a competition or in academia, be proud of your own clean achievements, because they will always be better than cheating, and they will always be better than something you cheated for.

edited 27th Apr '14 6:34:15 AM by Achaemenid