Cause and Effect: Cheating
Jasmin Perez
San Joaquin Valley College

Author Note
This paper was prepared for English 121, taught by Mrs. Dumont

School systems today are so soft in their rules, guidelines and consequences; causing cheating or forgery to be often used. Many students take advantage of copying someone else’s work when they are given the chance. Other times, students will simply have someone else do their work and turn it in as their own; not realizing the effects this behavior can create. This creates a lack of creativity; no sense of responsibility and the students will never acquire new knowledge. These practices of cheating, copying and forgery are unethical and should be brought to the student’s attention as soon as possible. Students that copy other student’s work are hurting themselves in the long run. Their creativity level drops every time they copy or have someone else do their work. After a while of copying and forging, the student’s ability to think creatively and successfully becomes next to nothing. The educational system is where students learn these tricks and try to carry them on into their professional careers. In order for people to keep their minds as functional as possible, they need to do their own work. It is too easy for a student to get his friends paper that had the same class the year before, students are no longer able to write a fictional story by themselves because someone else or the computer can do it for them. Students also begin to lose sense of responsibility when they have other people do their work. They don’t feel like they have to do anything anymore in order to pass the class, as long as they turn in the paper, whether it’s their thoughts or not, they will receive credit for the assignment along with a passing grade. This creates the feeling that life will always be handed to them on a silver