Academic Honesty Assignment Example

I have been contemplating this assignment, as well as the causes of it. Without any doubt, I am convinced that this is a fruitful opportunity for me to reflect again on what happened, and resolve never to be honest academically or in general. My answer to the question/topic shall be the genesis of this assignment.

Academic honesty, in the simplest words, means not cheating and being honest with all academic tasks. Being a student, it is not only my responsibility to follow the rules, but also to make sure they shape the very foundation of my conduct. Integrity is the righteous way. Only through collective integrity can fairness be achieved. I violated a rule which reflects that I was taking things rather casually. What happened woke me up from my deep slumber and poured into me tremendous seriousness plus sense. Honestly, academic honesty means everything to me now. It is nothing but a virtuous choice. Above all, it matters!

Throughout my academic life, I have strived for integrity. But this one experience put me in a moral dilemma. During my SC-MATH 1090 midterm, a friend asked me to share my solutions. Not helping him would have impacted our friendship. On the other hand, I was also aware of the aftermath of choosing otherwise. My heart wanted me to protect my friendship, while my mind, being fairly logical, wanted me to play by the rules. This made me angry because either of the choices was going to affect me. Out of agitation, perplexity, and guilt, I shared my solutions. The only win-win situation could have been the scenario wherein he did not ask me for help. But life seldom unfolds as expected. I chose friendship over academic honesty, but after facing the consequences and pondering enough, I perceived that honesty is the best policy. Academic honesty is synonymous with making the right decision. Maintaining friendships is necessary, but there are limits to it. I firmly believe it is okay to be selfish when it comes to doing the right thing. Moreover, integrity is not an option, but an ethical approach towards academia. Therefore, academic honesty should be my foremost priority with the absence of a second thought.

I believe integrity is somehow connected with the ability to distinguish between good and right. Just like in my case, the good can often be desirable, so desirable that one might end up deceiving oneself by going against the obligation of choosing what is right! Regardless of one’s thoughts, beliefs, and feelings, right is right, and wrong is wrong. Moreover, the good may not always be right. Therefore, to determine the righteous choice, integrity means to me the necessity of a thorough moral analysis when facing such situations, keeping in mind the expected standards and unbendable rules. Valuing the right choice is even more important. In short, I should not let my emotions guide me every time and always mind the fact that every choice has a consequence for which I am responsible.

The most valuable lesson I learned from this experience is that I should be consistent in being honest academically. My morals were not sound, so it made me make the wrong choice. But it has helped me discern the fact that integrity is binary; one can either be completely honest or dishonest, and there exists no in-between. Knowing this, I will never dare to bend my principles. Consistency and academic honesty ought to go hand in hand. The latter means to me the genuine practice of integrity, with the absence of irregularity and irresponsibility. My experience helped me extinguish my ignorance and adopt the rules with seriousness, an open mind, and improved steadiness.

Earlier, I mentioned the significance of collective integrity in establishing fairness. Regarding that, there is something I grasped which I think is worth including here. If I ever face a situation wherein someone asks me for help unlawfully, I should not refuse because doing so will only motivate them to seek help from someone else or other sources. An important role I can play, and I will, is to share my experience so that I can persuade them in the direction of integrity. Furthermore, instead of sharing my work, I should guide them without violating academic honesty, as allowed by the professor. I shall follow this way whenever I can. Concerning this perspective, academic honesty means to me the willingness to adopt and encourage integrity.

In my eyes, academic honesty is a learning process that should come to an end (an end is necessary because the opposite suggests that one does not aim for true integrity). I was ignorant and indecisive. But now that I have reflected and faced the consequences, it has filled me with significant awareness and clarity over the matter.

In conclusion, there is only one thing I would like to say: Once and never again.