I looked up cheat on dictionary.com to see what the word means in literary terms. It say that it can be used with a noun, with out a noun (basically as an verb) or as a noun. Basically everyone know that the word cheat, cheating or cheated is a bad thing and with this word you are looked down upon with disgust. I don't completely get it because cheating is all around us all the time no matter where we look, who we are or what we do.
Every year in America a man or woman is cheating on their taxes by calling their dog a dependent of theirs or turning a trip to Fiji something business related (but there is one exception to the rule but that's not what I am discussing). Of course there are the men or women that cheat on their partners but their are also the people the find a way out of a ticket the deserve. And as odd as it may sound but, everyone cheats in school (even the honest people) through a loophole in term papers called citing you works used. It sound ridiculous but you need yo open your eyes and ears. People say things in print or write things and never really want their works reproduced yet, every time you quote an author you are cheating by stealing their material and using it to make your stuff look like gold. The only reason you are allowed to cheat this way is because you must give them credit because that moment you don't cite some one's book, paper or speech you get in trouble for plagiarism.
Look a important people on history and there are cheaters among a lot of them. Martin Luther King Jr. took from an example of Abraham Lincoln in his famous I Have a Dream Speech. Instead of saying one hundred years ago at the beginning of his speech when he discusses Lincoln he says "Five score years ago". Then there was the American Revolution which was basically started because the people of the colonies where trying to cheat their taxes from Britain. Let's not forget the first ever cheat on American soil which was the Europeans and the Native Americans, who were promised a nice Utopia with the new people on the land but were slowly wiped away by the same hands they shook in peace.
Now If you lost my original message let me make it clear, cheating shouldn't be looked so down upon in the culture we leave because everyone is actually doing it with the cycle continuing with every new person on the planet.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
cheating shouldn't be looked so down upon in the culture we leave because everyone is actually doing it with the cycle continuing with every new person on the planet.
Well, loads of people deliberately hurt others through words, or steal things, or rape. I guess those should be okay, too? Since so many people do it, right?
cheat /tʃit/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[cheet] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–verb (used with object)
1. to defraud; swindle: He cheated her out of her inheritance.
2. to deceive; influence by fraud: He cheated us into believing him a hero.
3. to elude; deprive of something expected: He cheated the law by suicide.
–verb (used without object)
4. to practice fraud or deceit: She cheats without regrets.
5. to violate rules or regulations: He cheats at cards.
6. to take an examination or test in a dishonest way, as by improper access to answers.
7. Informal. to be sexually unfaithful (often fol. by on): Her husband knew she had been cheating all along. He cheated on his wife.
–noun
8. a person who acts dishonestly, deceives, or defrauds: He is a cheat and a liar.
9. a fraud; swindle; deception: The game was a cheat.
10. Law. the fraudulent obtaining of another's property by a pretense or trick.
11. an impostor: The man who passed as an earl was a cheat.
By definition, citing sources on a term paper is not cheating. Unless it is a pure research paper, you aren't even exclusively using their ideas, only using them to back up your own. So I don't think you can really classify that as cheating. What Martin Luther King, Jr. did was not cheating. What the Europeans did was. We don't excuse them from that anymore.
~C
Visit my blog: www.progressiveu.org/blog/mvenus929
Read the news: www.progressiveu.org/news
Cheaters have no honor. Lazy and deceitful. They also do not understand the concept of Justice. No wonder our country is in the shape it's in. If that is what your parents are teaching you, they should be locked up. In jail or perferably in a Mental Institution. It is the very definition of insanity to think it's OK to hurt other people by deceitful means. It is also one of the top symptoms of a psychopath. Very dangerous people and not to be trusted. When there is no trust left in society it by it's very nature crumbles. It cause chaos and anarchy. Do you want to see vigilantism as the norm? That's the perfect example of De-volving. I thought we were supposed to be Evolving. And it most CERTAINLY isn't Christian. In fact, it is a sin. Like it or not. Deal with it. You certainly are a controversial writer. Sort of a Devil's advocate? Or do you really believe in such hockum? Have a great day. Zena
I don't think your parents should be in jail like Zena mentioned it. Maybe yes, we all cheat, or maybe not. Cheating is bad any way you do it. But if you no longer see it harmful then we are in trouble. This seems to be happening to you right now. I think you are cheating way to much now and don't see what kind of harm you are, perhaps, causing to others or yourself. Just to give you an advice, maybe cheating sometimes isn't too bad as long as it doesn't become a habit and gets to the point where you don't see the harm it is causing to you and others. Watch out...=)
Mariela Castillo
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/mariela-castillo