The first day of class the professor hands out a syllabus, unfailingly discussing academic dishonesty.  “Gosh,” the student thinks, “I’ve barely warmed the seat and the professor’s already talking about the consequences of cheating.”  Although it seems that much emphasis is placed on plagiarism and producing dishonourable classwork, how often is a university’s cheating policy taken seriously? 

Despite penalties like being expelled or suspension, many students still continue to cheat, especially since new technologies have made it easier to do so without getting caught.  Camera or video phones allow students to send images of test problems to their classmates.  Blackberry phones or similar devices that have internet capabilities make emailing answers even easier.  However, cheating during testing situations is not the only way to commit academic dishonesty. 

Plagiarism has become a more frequent topic of discussion in the past few years simply because the internet, in addition to other resources, has allowed students greater access to taking a lesser known author’s work to turn in as their own.  Sometimes the plagiarism is as little as copying a sentence out of a book instead of rewording the author’s phrasing, but students have been known to copy entire papers. 

Unable or unwilling to write their own research papers, many college students turn to the internet where a search for “essays and term papers” brings up thousands of websites with free prewritten essays or paid services promising a term paper worthy of an A. 

One of the first websites that comes up on a simple internet search, CheatHouse.com, promises “over 70,000 categorized essays” on a variety of topics.  Although the term “cheat” is part of their company name, they invite students to learn their secret, that “when you cite, it isn’t cheating.”  A small fee allows anyone to access their database of prewritten term papers complete with ratings from students who have turned them in as their own.   

Another similar website, AcademicResearchPapers.com, provides term papers for $7.00 per page, even offering custom written papers if needed.  Although the website includes a disclaimer suggesting the papers “are sold for research and reference purposes only and may not be submitted either in whole or in part for academic credit” businesses like these merely offer an easier way for students to pay for a paper not existing in the public internet domain that might not have been already read by their professor.   

In addition to plagiarism, the term “cheating” has been widened to include working together on homework or classwork with a fellow student.  Many professors heavily discourage group work, suggesting that collaborating with a classmate on homework constitutes a dishonest representation of each student’s individual work.   

One student who did not want to be identified disagreed with classifying cheating as working with a classmate.  “Copying off someone in a test is obviously cheating, but my friends and I work on labs and do homework together all the time.  I don’t consider that cheating, just working together, but according to our school’s policy it is.” 

Another student agreed.  “I don’t think working together is cheating.  My school has that policy and it’s stupid.  Everyone always works together anyway.” 

However, some students are very much against any form of cheating, no matter how small.  A student found that her school’s cheating policy motivates her to work harder instead of taking an easier way out.  “It’s not fair to someone who worked really hard on their paper or test that I should copy off of it.  It’s not worth getting a failing grade or being kicked out of the class.  My school takes a really serious stand on it.”