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Sheesh, I would write a 10-page essay on the history of constipation for that amount.

As a poor, penniless music student, didn't you sign an agreement of academic honesty/integrity at that college?

If discovered, it could jeopardize both of you when you wish to graduate.

IMHO, you have an interest in this female student that goes beyond writing a paper.

Edited to add: "Don't compromise yourself." Janis Joplin

I hear a gun is good for that sort of thing.

As someone who finds life to be an endless source of moral complexity, I find this kind of certainty enviable.

Based on the scant facts at hand, and no information whatever about the personal circumstances of the people involved, I wouldn't have the first clue how to offer even a vague opinion about the ethics of this case.

The ethics are very simple...if it is against the school's rules of conduct to turn in work that is not your own, which I am certain it is, then it is wrong to do so, and wrong to be involved in that enterprise.

If its a do-or-die situation where the student will fail otherwise, then do as Apple suggested, and help the student with another chore so he/she has time, and perhaps help with editing/smoothing out, but it should be the student's body of work you are editing.

If you will starve without the money, go to the local church or shelter and get a meal, and/or offer to do something such as word-processing on the side for students (of their own work).

There is always a way to avoid cheating / lying / stealing.

What some of us are saying is that the lines change when we're talking about survival or 'getting by.'

If we're talking about doing it not for survival or getting by, but more for the heck of it, then I'd say it's how you're saying.

Kind of reminds me of the President who said,

"I did NOT have sexual relations with THAT woman!"

Everyone will always remember it was Bill Clinton!
In my eyes, HE'LL always be poor!

When did school rules become a moral code? I think I must have missed where they were emblazoned on marble tablets with holy fire

For me to conclude that something is unethical, I need a better explanation than 'it's against the rules'. The behaviour described in the OP might be unethical but, if it is, being against the rules is the _result_ of its ethical status, not the _cause_ of it.

The implication that morals and ethical standards are dependent upon proscriptive rules and that, by extension, if a rule is not stated any conduct which breaks the (implied) rule is acceptable is beyond my understanding.

In the context of the original question where the arguments of life and death situations were not implied, it is also hard for me to understand the precept that there are varying degrees of cheating, some of which seem to be acceptable to some while others are not; where do such people draw the line? Do they subscribe to the old saw that "it's only cheating if you get caught"?

Regards,

When I taught high school I sometimes told students that were copying homework "Why not go to the library? There's a new machine there that "copies" homework but in your own handwriting." Several took me seriously.

The reality is that at a typical high school there are hundreds of homework assignments copied at least in part every day.

I'll think about it!

ChopinAddict the GunWoman

I've had some intelligent and very nice students express that opinion. I never understood it. I think the concept of cheating is independent of what one thinks of the ethics involved. No different than trying to say one is innocent of robbing a bank if not caught.

At the school I taught at for 23 years cheating was considered far less of a crime than stealing. Stealing meant automatic expulsion but cheating got several warnings from the administration. Plus the admin would sometimes not support a teacher if the teacher said they saw a student clearly attempting to look at another student's paper during a test. I think they were afraid of lawsuits.

On a geometry test I gave one of the questions required the student to make a diagram illustrating a theorem. The student "cleverly" lettered the diagram so that it contained several obscenities. When I told the student this was inappropriate(thinking that would be the end of the conversation), the student actually repeatedly claimed that his choice of letters was pure chance. He even said the same thing to the dean of students.

The "funniest" example of a student's cheating I experienced as a teacher occured on a geometry test with a statement-reason proofs. The student who knew how to do the problem had two statements using the same reason. For the second statement he wrote "Same as step 3". The student who did the copying could not read the other student's reason for step 3 so he left the reason blank. But he still copied the "Same as step 3" as a reason for the other statement.

It happens all the times. Many high school students hire professional writer to write their essay to get into good schools. It does not mean that they are not good students. The competition to get into big school names are very fierce. Those kids who apply to big name schools are smart, involve in all kind of activities. One thing that can differentiate them is essay. That is why the essay MUST be great.

If I were not in the same class with the person who request for my service, I would have gone ahead do it. Nothing they can do to me, because I act as a professional essay writer for that person. Isn't this the same kind of service that a professional speech writers provide to their clients?

The problem is that if the student has hired a writer, then the essay isn't differentiating the student. It's differentiating the writer. In my mind, it's the same as writing false information on your resume - saying that you have such and such experience and such and such awards, when you have none of it. Yes, a school may be very impressed by a made-up resume -- but it says absolutely nothing about the student if it's all made up.

It is generally unethical to unilaterally break a written contract with someone. When one begins university studies, he/she has to agree to a written contract to follow all of the rules and codes of the university. By cheating, he's breaking that contract.

By the way, when you submit a college application, you have to sign that all of the information you've submitted is correct to your knowledge. When the application asks for an essay written by the applicant, and you submit an essay written by a hired author for the college app, then you're lying when you sign the final page indicating that all of the information is true. (It is not true that you wrote the essay.) That is also unethical, aside from the fact that it's cheating.

It is the school responsibility to confirm the facts. The main purpose of this admission essay is to make you stand out among all great students applying to these big schools.

Organized sports do teach that the consequence of violating rules are to be weighed against a perceived advantage.

It is reality of life.... you'd better aware of this.
If the schools want to ensure that the applicants really write the essay, make them write under supervision like taking CPA test. The schools are not oblivious concerning this matter, therefore, many other variables used to come up with the decision.

It is the student's responsibility to supply reliable facts.

Your last statement is akin to saying: it's ok for people to commit crimes, because it's the police's responsibility to confirm that people aren't breaking the law. Yes, the university has to confirm the facts, but that doesn't give the student the right or the obligation to lie.