Academic Integrity “No one will question your integrity if your integrity is not questionable” . I have always completed my own work and done what was right in my own eyes. Being at HBU and seeing the pride at this university really makes me think about what academic integrity can do for my morals in life. Although not everyone stands for being genuine, some seek out cheating and plagiarism. Now we all know what bad academic integrity is but let me explain it a little bit further and tell you what my take is on negative academic integrity is. To me negative academic integrity is plagiarism, cheating, and complete dishonesty.
Most people who plagiarize don’t have enough belief in their own hearts and mind that they can complete whatever the task maybe. Have you heard of a politician named Vaughn Ward, well he was a Politian who was hopeful to be a part of congress until he plagiarized off of the president of the United States Barack Obama. Ward looked like a well put together person from what his resume could tell a Iraq war veteran, endorsed by Sarah Palin when she was at the top of her game, and had the financial ability to take is career wherever he wanted but he copied Barack Obama.
Why you might ask because his confidence was lowered after a debate with opponent from Puerto Rico who gave him a verbal spanking well deserved. After that he took a well-known speech from our president from 2004 and stated it as his own not giving any credit to our president. Also coping off of fellow republicans and placing them on his own website once again not giving credit where credit is due. Coming back to the real world and with my own personal experience I find it very irritating when someone copies me so I ould only imagine how our president might feel but to be honest coping is also the utmost forms of flattery because you have to being doing something right for someone to take what is yours. Like for instance my sister use to cheat when we were kids because she felt like her word and mind didn’t know anything worth speaking. She would always come home with bad grades even though she cheated she never got victory for it. Which made me look at me and my own studies, helping me to understand and know that it is better to trust my own work than someone else’s.
Positive academic integrity also goes along with history and music. For example did you know that Robin Thicke blurred lines is also the beat of Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give it Up”. Now Robin Thicke sued the family of Marvin Gaye because he stated that it was different cords and keys but it still sounds exactly the same. In the beginning of the song Pharrell says everybody get up same thing as got to give it up. Now my opinion of originality is LL Cool J he was a rapper in 1985 that basically help start Def Jam Records.
At 17 years old he was a rapper and was starting to be well known for how different he was with his lyrics and beats. Other Rappers even made front of him because when it came time to change his ways he didn’t and he still wore his big gold chains, hats, and other things that made him well LL Cool J. When he came out with Mama Said Know You Out it was for all the other artist and people who doubt who he was and made front of him because they felt he wasn’t about hardcore rap.
So someone who didn’t stop who they were musically because of his integrity for that I respect him. A time where I didn’t succumb to peer pressure or being like others academically was when I was in middle school and everyone knew that I was pretty smart because I was getting A’s and B’s, on the honor roll, and I was in sports everyone basically knew who I was, there was this girl who said she wanted to be my friend and I should come over her house or vice versa, So I invited her over to my house one ay and we had a huge assignment that night well she did her work and I did mine but in the morning I couldn’t find my homework it wasn’t in my bag or anywhere I normally would leave it.
So I went to school to face the music because I wouldn’t have been able to complete the assignment before class since it was my first class of the day. Well come to find out she took my paper and turned it in as her own erasing my name and but her name in place of mine. Thankfully the teacher could tell our hand writing apart and knew that the paper she turned in wasn’t hers.
So when the next day came the girl trying to be my friend told me that the teacher called her mom and she got in trouble because of me and wouldn’t talk to me. I was confused and truly didn’t care about her not talking to me. So when I got to school the teacher told her and me to stay after class when it was over. At the end of class the teacher asked me if that was my paper I told her yes but I didn’t understand how she got it. That is when she told me what had happen and made the girl apologize to me.
And that was my first encounter with plagiarism but I stay true to myself and my work so everything turned out fine. In my opinion that is how you obtain success by being true to your work and yourself is staying genuine and original about your work LL Cool J taught me that as well. When it comes to HBU and the campus feelings about academic integrity it is all about morals and showing the students how to act after college. The university wants us to think and pick our morals on our own but they also want to help by setting a true example of what integrity really means.
Also keeping in mind that this is a Christian university so anytime something goes wrong on campus it is seen as a hundred times worse than any other university. I respect personally respect and commend the university for wanting more from us and actually being the example for us to follow. People always do a hundred percent of what you do and listen to zero percent of what you say sol applaud HBU for being the example and not just stating things that sound good. In conclusion academic integrity comes down to confidence.
If you are not confident in who you are and what you stand for you will never feel efficient in what you do or say. Yes it is wrong to plagiarize we all know that as I said before but do we know that confidence is the back bone of not plagiarizing. There are so many people who don’t do the things they dreamed of doing because doubt in themselves and there are so many people who do things wrong because doubt in themselves. But we should remember that If you believe in yourself you can do anything if you doubt yourself you can do nothing.