Cheating

Right about now up and down the country many school college and university students will be either sweating to get their essays and dissertations in by deadline or they will be sweating on the results of work they have already handed in which could have an impact on their future. The question many people have asked over the years is how many students have actually sweated and worked hard and how many have used unethical means, plagiarism or have brought essays from the Internet.

The Internet has been a great tool for education and the advancement of information. The Internet has impacted the way we learn on all levels from how information is presented and how it can be accessed. Gone are the days when if you were ill you had to have work sent home now you can go online and do your homework and coursework online with the aid of audio, videos and online tests.

On the contrasting side the internet making information more easily available has meant that young people up and down the country with little or no effort have been able to stumble across essays and extracts and have given in to the temptation of copying the information and passing it off as their own so they can go out with their mates or watch TV. With the level of cheating going on the teachers haven’t been able to cope and many students have been getting marks for work which was not theirs.

This week search engine Google have made a stance against this by banning adverts for essay writing services on their search engine which is a huge step in the battle to combat plagiarism and the using of other peoples work on the internet.

Young people may think that if they get away with it then it doesn’t cause a problem but the far reaching and long term effects is where the real danger lies. Unfortunately in life there are no short cuts and when you leave school when times get hard you have to be ready to graft to keep a roof over your head, to pay the bills and in time support a family. By letting young people get away with cheating we are not giving them the right building blocks that they need for their development.

The big problem with cheating is that if you cheat say on your University Dissertation and you then decide to get a job in the field of your study they will expect you to have the knowledge and the skills equivalent to your grade. With graduate jobs companies expect you to have that high level of knowledge and expertise as the job demands it and you will soon be found out if you don’t possess these. A good University grade may help you get a job but if you haven’t done all the work you needed to do to earn that grade you are not going to keep that job for long and a CV which has you moving jobs every month or so does not look good to future employers.

I understand that there is a lot of pressure put on young people today to succeed with this pressure only getting more intense but if you can show the strength to deal with this and not be swayed in to cheating it will set you up for life. If you are struggling ask for help it takes a great inner strength to admit your own failings and you will only feel stronger because of the experience. Just remember that nothing is impossible or to hard to overcome you just have to put yur mind to it and have the dedication to see it through.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com/