The Fine Line Between Getting Help And Cheating printable pdf download

The Fine Line Between Getting Help And Cheating

The fine line between “getting help” and cheating

“Hey! Can you help me with my English paper?”

Have you ever said something like that? Probably.

That’s great! Good writers collaborate with each other, get ideas from each other, give

each other feedback, and check each other’s work for errors or other problems.

If you do that, good for you.

As long as you didn’t get too much help.

The line between getting help and cheating is a fine one.

Let’s say that you want to get a job as a painter, and the owner of the painting company

wants to see how well you paint. So she asks you to paint your brother’s living room,

and she’ll come over and evaluate the job you did.

So, you head on over to your brother’s house and ask your buddy Phil to help you. If

Phil held the paint can for you while you were on the ladder, and pointed out a few

spots you missed, and helped you load your ladder on your truck when you were done,

but he didn’t do anything else, you could say that he helped you and that you painted

the living room. It’s OK that Phil pointed out a few spots you missed, because all

painters (writers) ask people to check their work.

But if Phil “helped” you by climbing the ladder and doing part of one wall, and then

finished the last part because you had to take a phone call, and then had to repaint one

whole wall because you did a sloppy job, then you didn’t paint the living room. You

cheated, because Phil did part of the job.

No problem? You got the job because you “got help”?

Wrong. Big problem. You’re going to get fired on the very first job when the owner sees

you can’t paint well.

(OVER)

The Fine Line Between Getting Help And Cheating