"It's just a matter of time and intelligence." - Ethical Dilemma

While seemingly simple, questions of ethics, honesty, and integrity are sometimes challenging. Share an ethical dilemma that challenged you. What did you do?

I think this answers the prompt well, but unfortunately, it is over the character limit of 1300. (Mine is 1537) I can't figure out what to cut out. Could anyone critique this essay and advise me what to do? Thanks!

Shameful Cheating

Don't do it!

As she reached into her sleeves, she covertly peered around the room until her eyes met my disapproving glare. She froze.

Don't do-!

A shadow fell upon me. I slowly turned to see my teacher stare down at me and point to the infamous "Cheater's Corner."

"You. Get up. Sit over there."

"What? But -"

"You have a problem?"

Everyone, except she, stared at me. My eyes darted toward her and her notes. I could see myself vehemently pointing at her, but I timidly squeaked, "No."

Great! I'm not even the culprit, yet I'm being reprimanded...

After the test, a friend caught up with me.

"What happened? You never cheat!"

I explained my dilemma. I was debating whether I should tell the truth or let the situation pass. What she did was abominable, but I didn't want to spark trouble.

"Dude, you should tell. You're gonna fail if you don't."

After pondering, I determined my action.

"Whatever. I'll let her go."

Later in the day, I confronted her. She feebly asked what I was going to do.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Yeah. Nothing. I figured that sooner or later you'll find the right way. It's just a matter of time and intelligence."

She gave me a sympathetic nod and walked away. I wondered if I did the right thing, but since that day, she never degraded herself to the shameful resort of cheating.

Interesting dilemma. I think many of us have faced similar ones. Welcome to the Contributor corner by the way. I've been busy and haven't had much time here.

There are a few things that don't really fit.




Try changing the wording.

So the ethical dilemma is cheating, but there was also the turning her in thing. Also, the righteous anger. You have a nice mix here and yea, I do agree it is tough to cut things out

Thanks for the comments. I tried following your advise while cutting down on characters to get my second draft:

I don't know if you use the word resort correctly in the last sentence:
...she never degraded by shamefully resorting to cheating.

What grade were you in?

I don't understand what happened! How did you get in trouble for her using a cheat sheet?

It was sophomore year actually.

Oh... I should be clearer. The teacher saw me looking at her, so he thought I was cheating. -.- Th irony.

Oh.... well, this sentence you wrote here...it explains it very well.

Also, you should spend more time talking about the dilemma.. I think you only discussed wrestling with the dilemma a little bit.

Does this help explain the dilemma more? I'm wrestling with a character count limit (I think that's worse than a word count limit ><) here while trying to maintain the the substance and effectiveness of this story.

Thanks a lot for your time and effort!

School just started, so I won't be able to contribute as much as I did before, but I will definitely try to help here and there. Would that be fine? Once college applications are done, though, I can come back on track.

Yes, that is worse. With a word count, you can have a lot more flexibility. Well, is this within the limit? I think it is good. Still, I can't help thinking it would be better if you found room to include this sentence:

The teacher saw me looking at her, so he thought I was cheating.
It makes me feel like, "Oh, now I am sure I understand this!"

And yes, it is understandable that school will take up much of your time. Come to EF when you can! Do well in school...

I fixed that problem. I hope I didn't take too much out of the other sections to accommodate this sentence:

Alright! Thanks!

So you told him she was cheating?
"She asked me what I was going to do, and I said nothing"--- I thought you already told the teacher!
So... I am confused by that. Sorry!

I think you did a great job with this dialogue: "You. Get up. Sit over there." ---- I forgot to mention in my last post that this is my favorite part of the essay.

Ok. So the actual story is that I tell the teacher later after the excitement about the incident calmed down a bit; by then, the teacher won't care, but at least my reputation was mended. Before then, I tell her I won't do anything. I wanted to somehow add this so that the reader wouldn't think that I sacrificed my reputation for her sake, but its kind of hard to fit everything in 1300 character ><

Well, I think that the best way to remedy this is by including the dialog with my friend. This way, the reader knows that my friend knows the truth; I'm hoping that the reader will keep going and believe that the friend will spread the word, etc...

Ok. Now, I tried to add a better explanation and include how this experience impacted me. I also tried to clear up the confusion Kevin had earlier :) Please criticize/critique/comment on my nth revision :]

Excellent! My little contribution:
He thought I was cheating, because I had been looking in her direction.

I like the discussion at the end.

Thanks. I agree... that "just" seems unnecessary. :)

wow, harsh. Well, I guess there is wisdom to that...

I like the way the essay ended. And it is easy to understand now. I find myself wanting to keep reading to find out how it ends. So, that means it's good!