Academic Honesty Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Academic Honesty Paper - Essay Example As such, academic honesty is required, because truth begets honesty. Without honesty, an academic paper, even how superbly it is written, would be a trash unworthy of space in any academic journal. There are various ways in achieving academic honesty in a paper: (1) the use of truthful information, (2) acknowledgement of sources, and (3) the author of the academic paper. Of the three, the first two gets the utmost attention, perhaps because these are easier to evaluate, especially with the current technology that enables easy detection of plagiarism. The last one rarely becomes an issue, not unless the author of the academic paper cannot in his/her own capacity explain the paper (Walvoord & Anderson, 2010, p. 138). An academic paper should be founded on truthful information. This implies three academic actions. One, the author should verify the correctness of any data before these are used in the paper, because an assertion that is based on incorrect data is indefensible. It can be e asily disputed. It’s just like building a house on a shallow ground that a simple natural calamity could bring it down. In this case, the paper is a failure from the start. Two, manipulation or suiting data to the author’s predetermined assertion constitutes dishonesty, whether or not data used are correct. Why this is so lies on the fact that it violates the truthful process of academic investigation – Data are gathered, verified, sorted out, interpreted and analyzed. Three, data should not be concocted, because even a fiction paper needs truthful data to be convincing. How much more for an academic paper that is supposed to investigate reality in search of truth? Instead of truth, what can be found from concocted data are myths and imaginations, which are what academic papers meant to debunk. Therefore, academic honesty means honest investigation. It is only in going through this compelling process of honest investigation that one can be able to produce a genu ine academic paper. Perhaps one would ask; what has the process of investigation anything to do in making an academic paper truly academic? This question essentially hits the essence of academic honesty which is learning. Why in the first place are academic papers required? Precisely so, it is one of the ways of learning where one is compelled to integrate theory and practice; where one is trained of the discipline of scholarly study; where one is taught how to discover new knowledge or to better understand knowledge; and where one is developed of values scholars should possess, such as inquisitiveness, perseverance, integrity, fearlessness and accuracy. Thus an academic paper is not simply a paper. It essentially reflects one’s level of knowledge and also one’s character. In other words, anyone committing academic dishonesty could only be perceived as dishonest, irresponsible, and weak – characters which are unfitting for scholars. This is what justifies univer sities in sanctioning students found guilty of academic dishonesty, because the act violates the very essence of academic study. To make an analogy: a student committing dishonesty is just like a law enforcer violating the law he/she is supposed to enforce. One may argue that if the essence of going through the process of investigation is learning, then learning could be done in short cut, especially if one has gone through the same process for many times. Why not? One may take that risk. But doing so might also result to missed new insights, because as everyone knows, there are no exactly similar things. In other words, one may have experienced undergoing a thorough investigation, but every single experience, whether or not the