We’re less than a month away from the end of the semester, and it’s easy to fall behind in classes- especially if you’re a senior. At this point in the semester, the workload has piled up and the course material becomes just a tad bit more difficult to keep up with. When did balancing play time and work time become so tough?
Some students find themselves buried and living in their school work, without allowing themselves time to just relax. Others tend to respond to this kind of stress by trying to trick their teachers, or at least thinking that they can get away with fooling them. At least once in our academic careers, we have all used little excuses and lies to work our way out of an assignment or to get out of trouble.
Dishonesty is not a novel concept. From time to time, most of us have used the tried and true clichés like “I’m sick and will not be able to attend class today,” “my car got a flat tire” or “there was a ton of traffic,” even though we all know that a deliberate lie is unethical.
But, how far is too far? How ethical can a person really feel when they kill off their grandma twice a semester just to get out of going to class?
Excuses have grown so complex, and the lengths to which some people will go to get out of doing an assignment or to get an extension on a project or paper is absurd. Sometimes those little white lies can to turn into elaborate tricks. Ever heard of someone sending their professor a blank Word document instead of an essay? Or even copying and pasting programing code into the document so they can say, “you must have a different version of Word than I do!”
These tricks may buy you an extra hour or so, but keep in mind that professors aren’t idiots; just like anyone else, they value honesty.
As long as you show effort and interest, you can usually get an extension on a paper without lying. After all, it takes more work to lie, and you’ll feel less guilty in the end.
Editorials represent the majority view of The Miami Hurricane editorial board.