Writing Essays About Honesty

The objectives of any educational system are not only to provide young people with knowledge and skills in a specific field but also shape the moral image of new generations. Writing academic papers on socially important topics is often included in the school or college curriculum as it helps to attract students’ attention to important issues and form a positive worldview. For example, essays about honesty is a quite popular assignment nowadays. If you received such a task, this article would help you to cope with it perfectly.

Basic definitions for an “importance of honesty” essay

One may explain in a “what is honesty?” essay that this concept is connected with truthfulness and sincerity. It means some exemplary order of being and human relations, which must be strictly followed to create harmony between people. From this perspective, the notion of the word ‘honesty’ coincides with the concept of ‘justice.’

You can also tell in your honesty definition essay that honesty means the openness between people: they are sincere with each other, do not lie, betray, or resort to hypocrisy. In interpersonal communication and relations between groups, it is manifested in trust, attention, and responsiveness and involves mutual assistance, support, as well as the desire and ability to understand the other person. Honesty and integrity exclude any exploitation or selfish and prudent use of the other person as a tool for achieving individual goals.

It is believed that honesty is the basis of every virtue. Indeed, only an honest and truthful attitude towards other people is moral because it involves the recognition of their dignity. No one wants to be deceived and should not act in this way with others.

However, there is another aspect of the notion of honesty, which may be considered in an essay about honesty and lying. Do we always have to tell the truth? This is a moral issue that can be formulated as follows: in what cases should we tell the truth and when it is better to remain silent or tell a white lie?

For example, philosophers of the East believed that the unpleasant facts always should be told in a polite form. Emphasize in a “should we always tell the truth?” essay that otherwise the honesty turns into a dangerous tool.

Of course, honesty is quite a broad concept, so you may find various examples for your essay. For instance, it’s also worth mentioning about the consistent and persistent fulfillment of promises in an honesty and integrity essay. Growing children should honor their elderly parents. Parents should always keep the promises they made. The person who runs a business should be honest with his or her partners. In this sense, honesty may be understood as conscientiousness or reliability.

Finally, it is not difficult to find an example of a definition essay on honesty where this word is used as a synonym for ‘justice.’ The phrase ‘They honestly shared what they earned together’ means ‘shared fairly.’ In the framework of honest behavior, everyone who participates in a joint undertaking will get the reward or punishment that they deserve.

Material for “what prevents honesty?” essay: examples of stumbling blocks

All the above definitions of honesty show that a person of honor has dignity and self-respect. Such people will never resort to immoral, vile, or treacherous behavior. At the same time, people often lie to themselves and others, concealing the truth and distorting real facts. You can consider this situation as a central problem of an essay about the meaning of honesty and explain it by several factors.

Ego

In many respects, internal qualities (such as arrogance, self-conceit, and easily vulnerable ambition) are the first and most crucial stumbling blocks that prevent a person from looking at themselves honestly. The problem is that these traits do not allow people to admit their own incompetence, ignorance, and imperfection. Therefore, they do not have an opportunity to improve their lives.

Secondary benefits

It’s also worth including in an outline for an essay on honesty and integrity so-called secondary benefits and obstacles that impede them. The term “secondary benefits” has been introduced by psychiatrist Sigmund Freud and is widely used in psychology. It means the existence and manifestation of deliberately suppressed interests and significant needs that are achieved in the process of satisfying other intentions. For example, when buying a car, the person’s positive benefits are the speed of movement, convenience, and reliability. At the same time, the need to emphasize one’s social status can be a secondary benefit.

When the secondary benefit contradicts positive intentions consistent with the values and moral norms of a person, it may be forced out of one’s consciousness. Owing to unconscious secondary benefits, a person may misunderstand the essence of events and the motives of his or her behavior. Stress in a persuasive essay on why lying is bad that this is a severe stumbling block for change. 

For example, the secondary benefits of illness (long absence of recovery) often include care and attention of relatives or material rewards (insurance). Unwillingness to give up secondary benefits can significantly hamper and slow down the recovery process.

Denial of responsibility

Self-deception can also occur due to the unwillingness of a person to take responsibility for their actions and decisions (or their absence). The author of the book Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life Marshall Rosenberg considered the rejection of responsibility as one of the types of life-alienating communication.

The author described a Nurnberg trial with war criminals. The subordinates of Nazi Germany leadership denied responsibility for their actions using a specific official language (bureaucratic speech). For example, when officers were asked why they committed certain crimes, they answered: ‘I had to do it.’ If the question ‘Why?’ followed, the answer sounded like ‘order from the authorities,’ ‘such is the policy of the organization’ or ‘such is the law.’

Advantages of honesty

There are many reasons to choose the path of honesty. List the most important of them in a “why is it important to be honest?” essay:

• There is always a necessity to speak out. It’s great to share feelings and emotions with someone else. Moreover, it is quite harmful to hold your emotions and feelings back. In the end, it turns out that you remain alone, no matter how many people are around. In such a case, it’s hard to be really happy.
• Many people are familiar with the consequences of isolation: negativity, alienation, and affliction. We all need someone to rely on to avoid those feelings. But how could your friend know what’s happening in your heart if you do not answer his or her questions honestly?
• Also, it’s worth emphasizing in an honesty research paper that you can restore order in your own soul and mind. Owing to honesty, you will find out what you really think about other individuals, the world around, and life as a whole. Being honest would help you to eliminate many useless contacts and allow you to get closer to like-minded people. Be honest with yourself, and it will be easier to find them. Mention this argument in your “honesty is the best policy” essay.
• Honesty allows us to conquer fear, to recognize our weaknesses, limitations, and constraints precisely as they are. Moreover, by speaking out, it’s possible to go through them and free yourself.

What else to talk about in a being honest essay? Let’s consider some more interesting ideas:

• It is also important to stress in an essay about truthfulness that being an honest person is a choice. Sometimes it takes a long time to get used to a new model of behavior. Of course, some people eventually prefer completely another life path.
• It may be quite problematic to reveal something that was hidden for a long time. However, emphasize in a “the value of honesty” essay that honesty is a path to freedom from shyness, and fear. The faster you pass it, the quicker you can enjoy all the colors of life.

Information for a “why is honesty important in a friendship?” essay

Sometimes we have to tell the truth to our friends and relatives. Of course, this information sometimes may be unpleasant to hear. In your paper, you can describe how to present the truth in the mildest form because honesty is anyway better than lies.

“People should not be afraid of telling the truth” is the perfect example of a thesis statement for an essay on honesty. Explain to the readers that, on the contrary, such behavior can improve relationships with loved ones. After all, not everyone likes to be deceived. However, a bitter truth can also hurt. That is why sometimes people begin to lie in order not to offend each other, and such an attitude to distortion of reality becomes a habit.

The tips for people who want to build sincere relationships with the environment are listed below. You can use them as a call to action in an “honesty in friendship” essay.

If you cannot keep a lie inside, it's better to tell the truth

No matter how bitter the truth is, telling it is still better than carrying a burden of lies in own soul throughout life. Tell your friends what you wanted to say for a long time. Do not be afraid of the truth. Speak sincerely. People who love you will be able to forgive.

It’s reasonable to advise your readers in an essay about honesty not to be afraid that all friends will leave them. If a person really figures out and corrects his or her mistakes, new friends will come to their life.

If you deceive people, they will deceive you too

This is an important lesson that may be described in essays on honesty. Remember, there is nothing accidental, and nothing is done without the reason. If you have lied to someone, then in the future, you will be deceived too, since you give what you want to receive. If you mislead, insult, and humiliate people, be ready that in the future, you will be accountable for your actions because what goes around always comes back around. These patterns need to be understood to live more consciously and not to make mistakes hoping that everything will turn out fine.

Arguments for an academic honesty essay

It’s not difficult to find a good sample essay on honesty because this topic is quite popular. You may even download one from some websites, but in this case, you won’t have an opportunity for your own independent and conscientious study. You may wonder why it is so important to do all the assignments on your own. Let’s consider some arguments.

First of all, each of us can have our own understanding and perception of success. Whether it is money, fame, power, or universal recognition, each person has one general goal – to be successful in life. Only on our road to success, we can understand why good and diligent education, strong background, broad outlook, and comprehensive knowledge are so important. Mention this argument in your essay on academic honesty.

Secondly, our life is a journey with a huge number of options for movement, as well as a great variety of obstacles, problems, and disappointments that a person can encounter. And at the same time, it grants great joy and happiness. None of us knows what waits around the corner and how quickly our way will lead to the finish. In order to be confident in what direction you are moving, you need to have specific skills and knowledge. One more fact for your honesty essay for students: everything you learn will come in handy in time.

Finally, each time you feel down and sick of all the assignments and essays, ask yourself why should you deprive yourself of a flashlight, map, and compass on your way to success? So you may state in “my academic honesty in college” essay that knowledge will always illuminate your life path.

Useful tips for essay writing about honesty

Having collected enough information on the chosen topic, you also need to figure out how to process it as well as how to format the text correctly. The essay genre has some standard rules that should be followed.

First of all, essay structure always remains unchanged, whether you’re going to write a short essay on honesty or long research consisting of several pages:

1. In the introduction, you should make a thesis statement, ask a question, or describe the problem. The first sentences should attract the attention of the reader, so pay enough attention to this section.
2. The main part is based on theses that support the main idea and arguments. You can use any number of theses, but experts recommend stopping at three statements.
3. In the conclusion of an honesty essay, you must summarize your thoughts, once again mention the problem described in the introduction, and provide its solution in a short and clear form.

It is also important to remember that the most crucial feature of any essay is the author’s unique style. Even if your academic paper has many quotes from literary sources or statistics, it does not mean that you can leave the reader alone with this data. Tell them what you think about the issue under consideration.

Moreover, it is not enough to provide definitions from dictionaries in a “what does integrity mean to you?” essay. Write about your own understanding of this concept and how you implement it every day. Believe us, the paper with life examples will be much more fascinating and even useful to read.

Do not lose heart if you can’t write a masterpiece at once. It is a good idea to work on drafts to develop your writing skills. First, formulate the main thesis, then compile the structure of the body (which include writing theses and arguments), write a conclusion, and then an introduction. This sequence may seem unusual to you, but it is better to write the introduction at the end when you have a clear vision of the issue. According to the same principle, you can select a good title for an essay about honesty.

Having done all this work, do not forget to check the text carefully. Eliminate grammar, lexical, punctuation, and other errors. Even though the essay is a free genre, illiteracy, poorly-constructed sentences, and negligence are unacceptable.

As you can see, this kind of work is not that complicated. Moreover, it’s a great opportunity to be creative.

Besides, writing various essays is a perfect way to become a more confident person because you will learn to substantiate your point of view using convincing arguments. So, perceive essay writing as an instrument for developing a personality.

We hope that this information was useful, and now you will write a really high-quality essay on honesty. Good luck