• Morals are rules by which we live to ensure the smooth running of our interactions with others. These are principles we learn from our parents, pastors or through the personal experience of injury as the result of someone else's wrongdoing. The Duquesne University website gives the example of a person who has received a poor grade on a test after you have studied, while someone else who cheated makes an "A."
  
  

Undermines the Value of Rewards

• One of the moral arguments against cheating is that it undermines the reward that someone who has worked hard deservingly receives. An example would be the public reaction against sports figures such as cyclist Lance Armstrong and baseball player Pete Rose, when certain individuals began alleging that Armstrong was able to do so well in the Tour de France due to performance-enhancing drugs, or that Rose made money by betting on his own team. According to this argument, if these individuals came by these rewards, whether monetary or in the form of a pennant ring or trophy, dishonestly, it reduces the value of the hard work that it requires to earn them.
  
  It is this argument the Kennesaw State University website uses when it points out that cheating undermines the value of a degree from that university. It depreciates the value of a degree from that university in the eyes of a prospective employer.
  
  

Breaks Trust

• The principle of trust is a basis for saying that cheating is wrong. For example, you break trust when you engage in insider trading. The argument here is if society cannot trust you to conduct the purchase and sale of your stock in an ethical manner, how can it trust you handling money for other people as the head of a corporation? Stated another way, if a magazine editor were to hire you in spite of your past expulsion from college due to plagiarism, he has no way of knowing whether you would properly cite your sources, especially in the face of an impending story deadline.
  
  

Hinders Learning

• This argument says that cheating is unethical because it gives you the advantage of passing the test, or obtaining a high mark on a paper that you did not take the time to prepare for, learning the material. While you may indeed pass that anatomy test by studying the Cliff Notes booklet the night before the test, the fact remains that you passed without learning the material. The Kennesaw State University website gives the example of a brain surgeon who cheated his way through medical school, and proved incompetent on the operating table.