Definition of Cheating Essay

Merrium-Websters’ on-line dictionary defines the word “cheat” simply as ‘using trickery to escape observation. ’ The word cheat dates back to as early as 1590 and is a transitive verb (a verb that requires both a direct subject and one or more objects). Other definitions of the word cheat include: to deceive or mislead somebody, especially for personal advantage, to break the rules in a game, examination, or contest, in an attempt to gain an unfair advantage, and to have a sexual relationship with somebody other than a spouse or regular sexual partner.

What does this mean in terms of our personal lives or needs? What does this mean to me, the writer, personally? To be honest I am not sure. My upbringing and moral codes tells me that cheating in its standard form and definition is wrong. However, my sense of reality tells me that I do it, and have done it, knowingly many times and many ways through out my life. Cheating is an ugly fact of life, we all know it, but how do we harness it and when do we use it appropriately? Cheating can be good and it can be evil, what mechanisms do we use in our rationality to tell when the timing is right to cheat or lie?

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In our everyday lives we are all guilty of cheating in one way or another. If we were to define cheating solely by the definition provided above then we are all guilty of cheating for every little white lie we have told, guilty of cheating every time we play “hookie” from work and so on. For me to personally define cheating it would not be for those little white lies we tell to save face or stave off embarrassment, or for those one or two days a year we call out of work just to take a small break from the grind of the office.

Cheating is defined personally by me as any actions an individual takes to impede upon someone else for their own personal gain. For example, a cheater is that shady “friend” that always cheats at your card games or the individual you know who is nice to your face but gossips about you behind your back. I feel someone is cheating me when they fail to recognize my positive attributes. I had a Supervisor at work who would not ever give me credit when it was due to me. There had been times when I had made suggestions or performed my uties in an astounding way only to be cut down or cut off by her. Sometime later I found out she was presenting my suggestions as her own and taking credit for work I had done. When I presented this situation to her Supervisor she accused me of lying and trying to take her job. I felt cheated then. I felt cheated because I always thought that someone in a Supervisory role was someone I could look up to and trust. I thought a Supervisor was someone who was professional, someone who would value my ideas, offer honest criticism, hold me accountable, and acknowledge the work I did.

I felt cheated because I didn’t expect that a Supervisor could be the opposite of my professional expectations, she was instead someone who was intimidated by me. So do I feel guilty when I tell an overweight friend that those jeans look fine on her when they in fact don’t? Yes, I feel a little guilty. But I know deep down that in that moment the truth would hurt her and a discussion about her weight would be better suited at home over coffee rather than in the public dressing room of a retail store.

I think that may just be the mechanism that keeps our desire to cheat at bay. The ability to have timing and tact, the ability to know right from wrong, the sense of not wanting to cause harm to others and those around you. I believe cheating in a small sense may be natural and come easily to people. I also believe people are for the most part good on the inside and can differentiate the when, where, and how when it comes to cheating.

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