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Cheating Research Paper

Your assignment: Research how and why we cheat, then write a 1500 to 2000 word essay that ultimately proposes a detailed solution to deal with cheating.

While it's nothing new, cheating in 21st century education has become more widespread, more sophisticated, more high-stakes, and (some might argue) even more necessary. But what does it mean for us if we live in a society that implicitly accepts cheating?

 

Readings to incorporate

35% of Teens Admit to Using Cell Phones to Cheat
University adds a grade worse than F
Students and Performance Enhancing Drugs
A Cheating Crisis in American Schools
Google search for "buy an essay"

Compose an essay which does the following:
1) Researches just how common cheating is in school and how people go about doing it.
2) Researches what schools are doing to stop cheating.
3) Researches the psychological perspective of why we cheat (in school and in life).
4) Theorizes & hypothesizes what effect a cheating school culture will have on people in later life (will they have affairs? will they cheat at work?).

You'll want to accomplish the following things:
• Talk through (introduce, summarize, analyze) the indicated readings into your essay
• conduct additional research to explore the background and examples of your chosen topic
• use discourse-specific vocabulary (that is, use the language academics use when they're talking about learning)

Research Questions to Answer in Your Paper

  • “Everyone cheats, so I cheat, too,” say some students. Are there other real-world situations where people apply this same logic, rightly or wrongly?
  • Will a person who cheats in school be more likely to cheat in the workforce, or in a relationship?
  • The easy answer is to say “cheating is bad,” but isn’t that view unrealistic? Isn’t cheating a necessary tool and process that in other situations is completely acceptable?
  • Who does cheating really hurt, if anyone? Does it hurt the teacher? Does it make for a dumber population? Does it put our national security at risk?
  • It’s easy to say that cheating is wrong, but easier to say WHY it’s wrong. So, why is cheating wrong?
  • After having researched all this stuff about cheating, take a step back and answer this: do you think your own attitude toward cheating will change? Are you more or less inclined to cheat now, or has this research not changed your personal view at all?
  • How are cheating and lying similar? How are they different?
  • How does trust factor into the act of cheating?
    How does cheating on homework differ from cheating on an exam?
  • How does having a friend help you edit your essay differ from buying an essay online?
  • Does the ability to cheat well and not get caught constitute a useful learning skill that is as important as the material students learn in class?
  • Research the website turnitin.com. Is this a useful way to identify and prevent plagiarism? If so, should all English teachers be required to use it?