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A forum for Blog Community #1 of CSCL 1001 (Introduction to Cultural Studies: Rhetoric, Power, Desire; University of Minnesota, Fall 2011) -- and interested guests.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Cheating





Cheating is one of the common body practices during an exam. Cheating includes: looking at another person’s answer, preparing hidden cheat sheet, and etc. I think most of you have seen people cheating on an exam, or experienced cheating before. It’s such a typical problem associated with examinations. Of course, there are other types of cheating; copying other people’s homework, and copying some sentences from website and pretend as if it’s your own idea (plagiarism), and etc. However, the point of argument is not how people cheat, but why people do that. Even though it is forbidden by school rules in every school and severe punishment is awaiting cheaters as a consequence of cheating, it still exists. I still see someone getting caught during the exam, and I still remember their facial expression at that time. Their heart must be filled with regret, sadness, and despair. But, again, why do they cheat?

According to my own guess, I think the biggest reason to cheat is that people don’t want to admit the fact that they have not done what they are supposed to do. For instance, a boy who has not studied for his calculus exams usually tends to cheat, because he is afraid to lose his point. Losing point will result in a bad grade on an exam. A bad grade on an exam will upset his parents and teachers and himself. Other students might laugh at him for getting a low grade, which will hurt his pride. Furthermore, he might not be able to obtain a good job in his future if he got a really bad score. He does not want to be a poor guy in the future; he wants to accomplish his intelligible body such as being a doctor. Therefore, it can be said that people cheat to maintain their social position of a normal student.

But on the other hand, I personally believe that cheating represents irresponsibility. Why? It is because, if someone is given a task such as homework, he should do it unless the task given is not realistic. One can’t avoid the tasks which are given to him/her because those are not going to harm him/her. It may be hard to do a task, but it is often useful for the person who does the task. Also, if a guy didn’t do his task, let’s say homework in this case, cannot replace it by copying other’s work. If he hasn’t done a task, then that is it. That’s his mistake; he must admit that and swear not to miss that again. Only in this way, people can learn from mistakes. A person must take responsibility for what he/she has done. Therefore, I suggest that it is better to admit your fault and try your best, which would be docile body, for next time rather than to cheat.

4 comments:

  1. Ive often wondered why people cheat. Like you said, the consequences of cheating tend to be very severe and I just don't get how it's worth it. I liked how you said that people cheat because they are unwilling to admit they haven't done enough. All of us want to have the perfect "intelligible body" so of course its hard to admit when we are at fault.

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  2. I think cheating is like many other things today where people try to take the quickest and easiest route even if it isnt the smartest or safest. there really is no reason to go to class everyday participate and not spend atleast a few hours to study because cheating and receiving a zero is the worst thing that could happen. I think that many people do cheat to maintain their social position i really liked that point.

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  3. I agree with you that cheating is a kind of irrespinsibility. If you are a student in college, you have respinsibility to catch up with others and learn something useful. People want to achieve "intelligible body" but they do not want to make great effort to reach that goal. That's the reason why people cheat. Actually, in college, just a few people cheat because all student are told in high school or even earlier that cheating is not permitted in school and punishment will be applied if someone cheat. That makes most students to be "docile body".

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  4. I don't understand your use of "docile body" in this post.
    Cheating is certainly quite the prevalent body practice, in part I believe because of the academic environment students are placed in. Grades are high stake affairs when tens of thousands of dollars and a future are relying on them.
    To me, academic dishonesty is always a matter of allocation and economics. Weighing risk and reward, and taking into account whether the material concerned is worth working through and absorbing plays a large role into the decision.

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