honest person essay

Essay on Honesty for Students and Children

500+ words essay on honesty.

Honesty implies being truthful. Honesty means to develop a practice of speaking truth throughout life. A person who practices Honesty in his/her life, possess strong moral character. An Honest person shows good behavior, always follows rules and regulations, maintain discipline, speak the truth, and is punctual. An honest person is trustworthy as he always tends to speak the truth.

Honesty is the Best Policy

A major component for developing moral character is Honesty. Honesty helps in developing good attributes like kindness, discipline, truthfulness, moral integrity and more. Lying, cheating, lack of trust, steal, greed and other immoral attributes have no part in Honesty. Honest people are sincere, trustworthy and loyal, throughout their life. Honesty is valuable and it is the habit of utmost importance. There are famous quotes, said by a great personality like “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom”. It holds good due to its ability to build, shape and motivate integral values in one’s life.

Benefits of Honesty

Honesty is always admirable in the family, civil society, friends and across the globe. A person with honesty is respected by all. For one to build the character of Honesty entirely depends on his/her family values and ethics and his/her surrounding environment. Parents showing honest behavior and character in front of their children create an impact on the children and we say “Honesty lies in their genes”. Honesty can also be developed practically which requires proper guidance, encouragement, patience, and dedication.

An honest person is always known for his/her honesty just like a sun is known for its eternal light and unlimited energy. It is a quality which helps a person to succeed in life and get much respect. It gives identification to the moral character of a person. Dishonest people may easily get trust and respect from other people. However, they lose that forever whenever they get caught.

Being dishonest is a sin in all the religions, however, people practice it for their short time benefits and selfishness. They never become morally strong and their life becomes miserable. An honest person moves freely in society and spread his/her fragrance in all directions. Being honest is never mean to bear the bad habits of others or bear ill-treated activities. Everyone has rights to reveal and take action against what is going wrong with him.

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Importance of Honesty in Life

Honesty plays an important role in everyone’s life and it is a character which is visible with open eyes like an open book. Having considered as an Honest person, by society is one of the best compliment one can dream of in his/her entire life. It is the real character a person earns in life by being sincere and dedicated towards it. Lack of honesty in society is doom. It is due to the lack of proper interpersonal relationship between parents-children and students-teachers. Honesty is a practice which is built slowly and patiently, firstly at home and then school. Hence home and school are the best places for a child to develop Honesty since his/her growing times.

Home and school are the places where a child learns moral ethics. Thus, the education system should ensure to include some essential habits and practices to keep a child close to morality. Children must be instructed right from the beginning and their childhood to practice honesty. Youths of any country are the future of that country so they should give better opportunities to develop moral character so that they can lead their country in a better way.

For all human problems, Honesty is the ultimate solution. Corruption and various problems are everywhere in society. It is because of the decreasing number of honest people. In today’s fast and competitive world, we have forgotten about moral and integral ethics. It is very important and necessary for us to rethink and remodel, that we bring the honesty back in society so that everything goes in a natural manner.

Moral ethics of a person is known through Honesty. In a society, if all the people seriously practice getting honest, then society will become an ideal society and free of all the corruptions and evils. There will be huge changes in the day-to-day life of everyone. It can happen very easily if all the parents and teachers understand their responsibilities towards the nation and teach their children and students about moral ethics.

People should realize the value of honesty in order to manage social and economic balance. Honesty is an essential requirement in modern time. It is one of the best habits which encourages an individual and make capable enough to solve and handle any difficult situation in his/her life. Honesty acts as a catalyst in strengthening our will power to face and fight any odds in life.

FAQs on Essay on Honesty

Q.1. What are the basic principles that were followed by Gandhiji?

Ans: The six principles followed by Gandhiji were Truth, Non-Violence, Simplicity, Faith, Selflessness, and Respect for an Individual.

Q.2. Who gave the proverb, “Honesty is the Best Policy”? Ans: Benjamin Franklin one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, gave the proverb, “Honesty is the Best Policy”.

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The Importance of Being Honest

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Published: Sep 1, 2023

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How to Be a Good Person Essay

What does it mean to be a good person? The essay below aims to answer this question. It focuses on the qualities of a good person.

Introduction

What does it mean to be a good person, qualities of good person, works cited.

The term “good” has relative meanings depending on the person who is defining it. Several qualities can be used to define what constitutes a good person. However, there are certain basic qualities that are used to define a good person. They include honesty, trust, generosity, compassion, empathy, humility, and forgiveness (Gelven 24).

These qualities are important because they promote peaceful coexistence among people because they prevent misunderstandings and conflicts. A good person is fair and just to all and does not judge people. He or she is nice to everyone regardless of religion, race, social and economic class, health status, or physical state (Gelven 25).

A good person treats other people with respect, care, and compassion. Respect shows that an individual values and views the other person as a worthy human being who deserves respect. Compassion is a quality that enables people to identify with other people’s suffering (Gelven 27). It motivates people to offer help in order to alleviate the suffering of others. A good person has compassion for others and finds ways to help people who are suffering. Showing compassion for the suffering makes them happy.

It promotes empathy, understanding, and support. In addition, good people are forgiving. They do not hold grudges and let go of anger that might lead them to hurt others. They think positively and focus their thoughts on things that improve their relationships (Needleman 33). They avoid thinking about past mistakes or wrongs done by others. Instead, they think of how they can forgive and move on.

A good person is honest and trustworthy. This implies that they avoid all situations that might hurt the other person, such as telling lies, revealing secrets, and gossiping (Needleman 34). As such, their character or personality cannot be doubted because they do not harbor hidden intentions.

They act in open ways that reveal their true characters and personalities. On the other hand, good people are kind and respectful. They offer help voluntarily and work hard to improve the well-being of other people. In addition, they treat all people equally despite their social, physical, or sexual orientations. Good people do not discriminate, hate, deny people their rights, steal, lie, or engage in corrupt practices (Tuan 53).

Good people behave courageously and view the world as a fair and beautiful place to live in (Needleman 40). They view the world as a beautiful place that offers equal opportunities to everyone. Good people believe that humans have the freedom to either make the world a better or worse place to live in. They act and behave in ways that improve and make the world a better place.

For example, they conserve the environment by keeping it clean for future generations. A popular belief holds that people who conserve the environment are not good but just environmental enthusiasts. However, that notion is incorrect and untrue. People conserve the environment because of their goodness. They think not only about themselves but also about future generations (Tuan 53). They are not self-centered and mean but generous and caring.

Good people are characterized by certain qualities that include trust, honesty, compassion, understanding, forgiveness, respect, courage, and goodwill. They do not steal, lie, discriminate, or deny people their rights. They think about others’ welfare and advocate for actions that make the world a better place. They promote justice and fairness because they view everyone as a deserving and worthy human being.

Gelven, Michael. The Risk of Being: What it Means to be Good and Bad . New York: Penn State Press, 1997. Print.

Needleman, Jacob. Why Can’t We be good? New York: Penguin Group US, 2007. Print.

Tuan, Yi-Fu. Human Goodness . New York: University of Wisconsin Press, 2008. Print.

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12 Reasons Why Honesty Is Important In Life

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woman with one hand on her heart and the other in the air illustrating honesty

Honesty is important. That’s a given, right?

Not everyone seems to think so. Lies, deception, and the concealment of truth are commonplace.

But when you actually start to examine the case for honesty, you realize that it’s a far better option than the alternative.

So, here are 12 good reasons why the value of honesty is beyond measure.

1. It underpins trust in a relationship.

Whether you’re dealing with a partner, a friend, a family member, or a colleague, when you are honest with that person, they have a reason to trust you.

If they know that you are a person of honesty and integrity, they won’t need to question what you have to say or look for the underlying motives behind your actions.

They know that you are a straight up kind of person who says what they mean and does what they say.

Compare that to the opposite approach of untruths and half truths which erode trust away, either little by little or all at once.

2. It is easier to understand.

When you are clear in what you truly think or believe, there is no grey area for confusion to grow in.

The other person doesn’t have to second guess what you really mean.

And with clarity comes a better understanding of your expectations of them, should you have any.

They know what you would actually like them to do rather than trying to infer this from the mixed messages you may give when you aren’t being totally honest.

3. You are more likely to get what you want.

The previous point about clarity means that you are more likely to get the end result you are hoping for.

Oftentimes, we conceal our true desires or preferences behind the curtain of “sure” and “fine” and “okay” rather than speak our truth.

But when we are completely honest with ourselves and others, we encourage the right actions that lead to what we want.

When we speak up, the other person is more likely to listen. You may not get your way every time because compromises must often be made, but at least you’ll get your way sometimes or a middle ground will be reached that suits you both.

And being honest is not in any way manipulating people into doing what you want. It’s the complete opposite – it is being transparent and open so that others can take your views and feelings into consideration.

4. It makes space for others to be vulnerable.

Speaking of being open, the great thing about being honest is that it encourages others to be honest too.

And in terms of relationships with other people, openness gives rise to vulnerability and vulnerability gives rise to genuine connection.

Honesty is attractive in that sense because it allows the other person to drop the mask that they may feel they need to wear in life. They are free to be who they are in the knowledge that honesty is rewarded in your company.

5. It shows respect.

When we are honest with someone, we are respecting the fact that they deserve to know the truth.

Not only that, we are respecting the fact that they can handle the truth and don’t need to be told lies just because the truth may be difficult to hear.

Consider the alternative which is to deceive or conceal things from others. That is the very opposite of respect. It communicates that you think you know best what the other person ought to hear, when that’s not your place to say.

6. It almost always leads to the best outcomes in the long run.

Having just mentioned a person’s ability to handle the truth, it is worth pointing out that honesty is not always an easy thing to hear.

It can be difficult to listen to your partner who is telling you that they don’t want to be in a relationship with you anymore. Or a friend who says they think you need professional help for a drinking problem.

Sometimes we lie to ourselves so that we don’t have to face the harsh reality of our situation, and someone else being honest with us can reveal important things we need to address.

Whilst this can sting at the time, it can put us on a different path to someplace better than where we’re currently headed, whether that be a healthier relationship or getting sober.

7. It is simple.

Telling the truth is simple. There is no need to remember what you lied about and to whom. You can be confident that you have said what was true (at least, from your perspective) in the moment you said it.

Now, don’t confuse simple with easy. Being honest is not always easy. In fact, it can often be difficult and uncomfortable when you are telling someone something they might not want to hear.

But because there is no ambiguity in your message, there is little confusion when receiving it. And that makes things much simpler in the long run.

8. It is better for your mental health / inner peace.

Lying doesn’t come easily for most people. When you deceive others, it can feel like you are going against your values or who you want to be as a person.

Not only that, but as soon as you lie, you will live with the fear of that lie being discovered. That’s a mentally exhausting thing.

Honesty, though not always easy, doesn’t carry such burdens. Of course, you may feel slightly bad if you have to tell someone an uncomfortable truth, but that won’t last long.

Being honest means you can rest easy knowing that you have been true to yourself and done what you thought was best in a given situation. And authenticity is a great way to live.

9. It is good for your self-esteem.

Continuing on the mental health benefits of honesty, it helps to make you feel good about yourself.

Your self-esteem is essentially how much you like yourself as a person, and when you are honest, it is a lot easier to like yourself.

Not only that, but when you realize that people like you for who you are and for the honesty you bring, rather than a mask you put on in front of others, it’s empowering.

You can be you, be honest, and still be liked. Maybe not by everyone, but by enough people who matter.

10. It is a demonstration of your character.

There are many other personality traits other than honesty, but positive traits tend to occur together as part of a good character.

When you are honest, it will communicate that you are most likely kind, compassionate, hard working, and reliable.

Consider a liar, on the other hand. They might be tainted with the brush of someone who would cheat or steal or manipulate. Not traits you want to be associated with.

11. It is hard to challenge.

When you aren’t entirely honest with others in what you want, it allows them to challenge you and try to persuade you to their way of thinking.

But when you are honest with someone, they will find it difficult to find the weakness in what you are saying.

For example, if someone asks if you’d like to do something with them and you don’t want to, it is better to state that with crystal clarity rather than say, “Maybe another time.”

Because if your answer isn’t clear, the other person will probably try to twist your arm into doing the thing that you don’t want to do

12. It keeps toxic people away.

Some people live in the shadows of misdirection, concealment, coercion, and outright lies.

Those sorts of people find it hard to ply their toxic trade with those who are honest with themselves and honest with others.

Deception and honesty do not exist well together in the same space, so if you are honest, toxic people are more likely to look elsewhere to get what they want.

About The Author

Steve Phillips-Waller is the founder and editor of A Conscious Rethink. He has written extensively on the topics of life, relationships, and mental health for more than 8 years.

An honesty box on Dartmoor, England. Photo by Loop/Getty

The virtue of honesty requires more than just telling the truth

by Christian B Miller + BIO

Listen to this Idea.

Honesty has fallen out of fashion, yet it is essential to self-improvement. How can we cultivate this neglected virtue?

There is little controversy that honesty is a virtue. It is an excellence of character. It also promotes trust, fosters healthy relationships, strengthens organisations and societies, and prevents harm.

Sadly, though, honesty has gone missing in recent decades. It is largely absent from academic research. It seems to be rare in society. And it is not commonly found in discussions of how to become a better person.

What is honesty? How is honesty related to integrity, courage and tact? Is it always best to be honest? What are the ways of failing to be honest? These are important questions, but you will be hard pressed to find discussions of them among scholars. In my field of philosophy, for instance, outside of the work of my own team, there have been only two articles on honesty published in the past 50 years .

So what is honesty? It is a character trait that leads us to think, feel and act in honest ways. Let’s focus on the acting for a moment. Naturally, honesty stands in contrast to lying. But it is much broader in scope than that. It also is opposed to cheating, stealing, promise breaking, misleading, bullshitting, hypocrisy, self-deception, and still other forms of wrongdoing. It works against all of them, and so is extremely broad and impactful in scope.

What do all these behaviours have in common? What is at the core of honesty that enables it to cover so much moral ground? The answer, I think, is that honest behaviour is a matter of not intentionally distorting the facts as the honest person sees them.

Consider a student who lies about his grades to his parents. He is misrepresenting his academic performance on purpose to his parents. Or consider an athlete who knowingly uses a banned substance. She is mispresenting her performance as being due to her own efforts, rather than in part to the contribution of the substance.

Honest behaviour is tied to how a person sees the world, to the facts as subjectively understood. If someone genuinely believes the Earth is flat, then, when he reports that belief to a friend, he is being honest, even though the statement is false. Were he to say that the Earth is round, he would be acting dishonestly, even though the statement is true.

If the only reason why the shopkeeper doesn’t cheat his customers is that he is worried about losing business, then he is doing the right thing for the wrong reason

That’s a bit about honest behaviour. How about motivation? In order to be a virtuous person, it is not enough just to act well. One’s heart behind the action matters too. Honesty is no exception. Telling the truth, even if one is reliable in doing so, won’t be an expression of the virtue of honesty if it is done just to make a good impression on others, or to avoid getting punished, or to secure rewards in the afterlife.

Indeed, in my view, any self-interested motive isn’t going to count as a virtuous motive for honesty. The philosopher Immanuel Kant made a similar observation with his example of the shopkeeper who charges fair prices even when he has a chance to overcharge certain customers. Kant claims that if the only reason why the shopkeeper doesn’t cheat his customers is that he is worried about losing business, if he were to be found out, then this would be a case of doing the right thing for the wrong reason. The same point applies for any other self-interested reason.

What would count as a right reason for honest behaviour, then? A variety of other motives, including:

loving motives (eg, ‘because I care about you’)
justice motives (eg, ‘because it would be unfair if I cheated on the test’)
friendship motives (eg, ‘because he’s my friend’)
dutiful motives (eg, ‘because it was the right thing to do’)
honesty motives (eg, ‘because it would be honest’)

If someone tells the truth for any of these reasons, it is hard to fault the person’s character. But they are rather different reasons. I think we should be pluralists here, and allow any or all of these to count as what could motivate an honest person to act.

There is much more to say about the contours of this virtue. But already I have said more than most have in a long while.

Here is another way that the virtue of honesty has gone missing – it seems to be rarely possessed by people today. You might conclude this from the nightly news or from your own lived experience. But I am especially interested in what can be concluded from empirical research in psychology and behavioural economics. In a variety of different types of experiments – using die rolls, coin flips, self-graded exams, and other measures of honest behaviour – participants regularly exhibit a pattern of behaviour that does not fit with our expectations of an honest person.

For instance, in a commonly used experimental set-up for assessing cheating, participants are given a 20-problem maths test, and are told that they will be paid for every answer they get right. In a study by Lisa Shu and colleagues, this was $0.50. In the control condition, there was no opportunity to cheat, and participants scored a 7.97 out of 20. In the experimental condition, participants got to grade the test themselves and shred their materials. Given the freedom to cheat if they wanted to, participants ‘scored’ a 13.22 out of 20. That’s a big difference.

As in many areas of psychology, some cheating studies have failed to be replicated

To take another example, online participants in a study by Christopher Bryan and colleagues had to flip a coin 10 times , knowing they would be paid $1 for each heads. The average ‘performance’ was 6.31 heads , well above chance. Even when another group of participants was warned, ‘Please don’t cheat and report that one or more of your coin flips landed heads when it really landed tails! Even a small amount of cheating would undermine the study,’ the average was still 6.22 in that group.

How do these findings line up with our expectations about honesty? A person who is honest will not cheat in situations where she is a free and willing participant and the relevant rules are fair and appropriate, even if by cheating she is assured of acquiring some benefit for herself. That’s what you might expect of an honest person, but it’s not what we see happening in these results.

Of course, these are only two examples. To draw any conclusions about character from just a few results such as these would be very unwise. Fortunately there are dozens and dozens of additional findings that I have reviewed elsewhere , including many more studies using shredder and coin-flip paradigms. The important point here is not what any one study shows, but rather what the patterns of behaviour look like in general and whether they align with our expectations for honesty.

This is also relevant to recent worries about the replication crisis and about fraudulent data. As in many areas of psychology, some cheating studies have failed to be replicated. For instance, a well-known shredder study initially found that recalling the Ten Commandments was effective in reducing cheating, but this result did not hold up in an attempted replication with many more participants from 19 separate labs. Furthermore, it was well documented that an influential study, which purported to show that insurance customers were more honest in their mileage reports if they signed at the top of a form rather than the bottom, was fraudulent.

Again, this is why it is so important to not rely on just a few studies when trying to think about how honest people tend to be. It is the broader patterns that hopefully tell a reliable story.

Finally, this story is about what the majority of people tend to be like. It is based on average performances. But averages can cover up exceptional behaviour. So we may have a bell curve, with some people who are highly honest and others who are highly dishonest, while the rest of us are somewhere in the middle. Furthermore, the story should be taken to apply, in the first instance, only to inhabitants of North America and Europe, since they tend to be the participants in the existing studies. The story may apply more broadly, but we don’t have nearly enough research yet to say.

Assuming that many of us are not honest people in a variety of circumstances, and assuming that honesty is an important virtue that we should cultivate in ourselves and others, it is important to take practical steps to do so. And here is a third place where the virtue of honesty has gone missing. For very little has been said about strategies for growing in honesty, and about testing those strategies to see if they are really successful.

In my own classes, we all read aloud the honour code before the students sign it and begin their exam

Here are three preliminary suggestions that might be fruitful, but that also need empirical confirmation. One is seeking out and better understanding exemplars of honesty. These can be historical exemplars such as Abraham Lincoln, or contemporaries such as a family member, friend, co-worker or community leader. Admiring role models for their honesty can lead to a desire to emulate those people, to make our own character better reflect the exemplars’ character. Sustained engagement with the exemplars can typically be more effective than one-time interactions, and relatable and attainable exemplars can have a greater impact than their opposites.

Another suggestion is to have regular moral reminders of honesty in our lives. Such reminders can make our moral norms salient, such that they more actively work against a desire to cheat, lie or steal. Honesty reminders can take a wide variety of forms, including diaries, readings, signs and emails. There can also be institutional reminders, which we encounter at work or school. One such moral reminder in many schools is an honour code, which students have to sign before taking a test. And there is some very preliminary experimental evidence that such a reminder can be effective in preventing cheating. Returning to Shu’s research, she and her colleagues also had groups of participants take the maths test after reading or signing an honour code. When there was an opportunity to cheat, the honour code made a difference: participants who did not read the honour code gave themselves an average score of 13.09 out of 20; those who only read the honour code scored 10.05; while those who both read and signed the honour code scored 7.91 (a realistic score for the test, suggesting that they did not cheat at all). In my own classes, we all read aloud the honour code before the students sign it and begin their exam.

A final suggestion is to work against our desire to cheat, a desire that can be especially powerful when we think we can get away with cheating, and benefit in the process. Such a desire seems to be at work in studies such as those by Shu and Bryan, mentioned earlier, and introspectively we can all recognise moments in our lives when it has influenced us as well. One straightforward way to try to reign it in is to increase the policing of cheating and impose harsher penalties on those found guilty. For instance, with the move in education towards take-home exams during the COVID-19 pandemic, computer surveillance of students taking those exams has become a big business, although not without giving rise to a number of moral and psychological concerns.

Increased policing and punishment for cheating might be effective in curbing dishonest behaviour, although that, too, is an empirical claim that needs further study. But, even if it does, that’s not enough to foster the virtue of honesty. As I said earlier, motivation matters too. Here, the motivation for not cheating would be punishment avoidance, and that is a purely self-interested motivation. While I tried to be very ecumenical about what can count as an honest motivation, this is one that’s not going to make it on the list.

Instead, the desire to cheat could be diminished in a more virtuous manner by fostering other virtues alongside honesty, such as friendship and love. If someone is genuinely my friend, I want what’s best for that person, even if it is at the expense of my own self-interest. Similarly, if I love others and care deeply for them, then I am concerned about their own good. The deeper the friendship and love, the less likely it is that we would be dishonest with others for our own gain.

This article draws on Christian B Miller’s book Honesty: The Philosophy and Psychology of a Neglected Virtue (2021), with permission from Oxford University Press.

A woman sits at a cafe at night with a beer and a cigarette

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The distinct neurochemistry of wanting and liking is helping to make sense of addiction – and more everyday behaviours

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How ‘feelings about thinking’ help us navigate our world

The pleasant feeling of knowing, the frustration of forgetting, and other ‘metacognitive feelings’ serve as unsung guides

by Pablo Fernandez Velasco & Slawa Loev

Habits and routines

Is it better to live in ‘clock time’ or ‘event time’?

Do you stick to a set schedule, or have a looser relationship to the clock? It can affect more than how you plan your day

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Sample Essay- "The Real Meaning of Honesty"

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(Sample Definition Essay)

I think it was my mother who taught me the meaning of honesty. Not because she actually was honest, but because she lied all the time. She felt that the easiest way out of any given situation was generally the best way out. And, for her, that generally meant telling a “little white lie.” As a young child I thought it was kind of cool. And, naturally, when I would come to her with a concern or question wondering what I should do, she generally advised me to lie.

“Mom, I told Theresa that I would go over to her house, but now I would rather go to Sue’s house to play.”

“Tell Theresa you’re sick,” she would advise. And generally I did. But I didn’t seem blessed with her lack of conscience. On many painful occasions Theresa would find out that I really went to Sue’s house without her. These occasions taught me that it is more painful to be caught in a lie than it is to tell the truth in the first place. I wondered how it was possible that my mother had never learned that lesson.

I started thinking of all the lies that I’d heard her tell. I remembered the time she told someone that her favorite restaurant had closed, because she didn’t want to see them there anymore. Or the time she told Dad that she loved the lawn-mower he gave her for her birthday. Or when she claimed that our phone lines had been down when she was trying to explain why she hadn’t been in touch with a friend of hers for weeks. And what bothered me even more were all the times she had incorporated me into her lies. Like the time she told my guidance counselor that I had to miss school for exploratory surgery, when she really needed me to babysit. And it even started to bother me when someone would call for her and she would ask me to tell them that she wasn’t there.

So, I started my own personal fight against her dishonesty. When I answered the phone and it was someone my mother didn’t want to talk to, I said, “Louise, mom is here, but she doesn’t want to talk to you.” The first time I did it, I think she grounded me, but I refused to apologize. I told her that I had decided that it was wrong to lie. And the next time it happened I did the same thing. Finally, she approached me and said, “I agree that lying is not the best thing to do, but we need to find a way to be honest without being rude.” She admitted that her methods weren’t right, and I admitted that mine were a bit too extreme.

Over the past few years, the two of us have worked together to be honest- and yet kind. Honesty should mean more than not lying. It should mean speaking the truth in kindness. Though I started by trying to teach my mom the importance of honesty, I ended up gaining a deeper understanding of the meaning of the term.

What is the term that the speaker is trying to define?
Did someone teach her the meaning of the term, or did she really learn from her own experience?
Is the term defined here presented with more complex reasoning than a dictionary definition

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How to write with honesty in the plain style

It’s a middle ground between an ornate high style and a low style that gravitates toward slang. write in it when you want your audience to comprehend..

I know how to tell you the truth in a sentence so dense and complicated and filled with jargon that you will not be able to comprehend. I also know — using my clearest and most engaging prose — how to tell you a vicious lie.

This dual reality — that seemingly virtuous plainness can be used for ill intent — lies at the heart of the ethics and practice of public writing.

The author who revealed this problem most persuasively was a scholar named Hugh Kenner, and he introduced it most cogently in an essay entitled “The Politics of the Plain Style.” Originally published in The New York Times Book Review in 1985, Kenner included it with 63 other essays in a book called “Mazes.”

When I began reading the essay, I thought it would confirm my longstanding bias that in a democracy, the plain style is most worthy, especially when used by public writers in the public interest.

A good case can be made for the civic virtues of the plain style, but Kenner, in a sophisticated argument, has persuaded me that some fleas, big fleas, come with the dog.

A disappointing truth is that an undecorated, straightforward writing style is a favorite of liars, including liars in high places. Make that liars, propagandists and conspiracy theorists. We have had enough of those in the 21st century to make citing examples unnecessary. And the last thing I would want to do is to republish pernicious texts, even for the purpose of condemning them.

When rank and file citizens receive messages written in the high style — full of abstractions, fancy effects, and abstractions — their BS detector tends to kick in. That nice term, often attributed to Ernest Hemingway, describes a form of skepticism that many of us need to sense when we are being fooled or lied to. So alerted, you can then dismiss me as a blowhard or a pointy-headed intellectual who works at the Poynter Institute!

If I tell it to you straight, you will look me in the eye and pat me on the back, a person of the people, one of you.

Literary styles and standards shift with the centuries, including the lines between fiction and nonfiction. Among the so-called liars cited by Kenner are famous authors such as Daniel Defoe and George Orwell. Both, he argues, wrote fiction that posed as nonfiction. The way they persuaded us that Robinson Crusoe actually lived or that Orwell actually shot an elephant or witnessed a hanging was to write it straight. That is, to make it sound truthful.

If public writers are to embrace a plain style in an honest way, they must understand what makes it work. Kenner argues:

That the plain style is a style, even though it reads as plain, undecorated.
That it is rarely mastered and expressed as literature, except by the likes of Jonathan Swift, H.L. Mencken and Orwell.
That it is a contrivance, an artifice, something made up to create a particular effect.
That it exists in ambiguity, being the perfect form of transmission for democratic practices, but also for fictions, fabrications and hoaxes.
That it makes the writer sound truthful, even when he or she is not.

If you aspire to write in an honest plain style, what are its central components? Let’s give Kenner the floor:

Plain style is a populist style. … Homely diction (common language) is its hallmark, also one-two-three syntax (subject, verb, object), the show of candor and the artifice of seeming to be grounded outside language in what is called fact — the domain where a condemned man can be observed as he silently avoids a puddle and your prose will report the observation and no one will doubt it.

Kenner alludes here to Orwell’s essay in which he observes a hanging and watched the oddity of the condemned man not wanting to get his feet wet as he prepares to climb the steps to the gallows. “Such prose simulates the words anyone who was there and awake might later have spoken spontaneously. On a written page, as we’ve seen, the spontaneous can only be a contrivance.”

The plain style feigns a candid observer. Such is its great advantage for persuading. From behind its mask of calm candor, the writer with political intentions can appeal, in seeming disinterest, to people whose pride is their no-nonsense connoisseurship of fact. And such is the trickiness of language that he may find he must deceive them to enlighten them. Whether Orwell ever witnessed a hanging or not, we’re in no doubt what he means us to think of the custom.

Orwell has been a literary hero of mine from the time I read “Animal Farm” as a child. I jumped from his overt fiction, such as “1984,” to his essays on politics and language, paying only occasional attention to his nonfiction books and narrative essays. I always assumed that Orwell shot an elephant and that he witnessed a hanging, because, well, I wanted to believe it, and assumed a social contract between writer and reader, that if a writer of nonfiction writes a scene where two brothers are arguing in a restaurant, then it was not two sisters laughing in a discotheque.

As to whether Orwell wrote from experience in these cases, I can’t be sure, but he always admitted that he wrote from a political motive, through which he might justify what is sometimes called poetic license.

Writing to reach a “higher truth,” of course, is part of a literary and religious tradition that goes back centuries. When Christian authors of an earlier age wrote the life and death stories of the saints — hagiography — they cared less about the literal truth of the story than a kind of allegorical truth: That the martyrdom of St. Agnes of Rome was an echo of the suffering of Jesus on the cross, and, therefore, a pathway to eternal life.

I write this as a lifelong Catholic without disrespect or irony. Such writing was a form of propaganda and is where we get the word: a propagation of the faith.

Orwell’s faith was in democratic institutions, threatened in the 20th century by tyrannies of the right and the left — fascism and communism. Seeing British imperialism as a corruption, he felt a moral obligation to tell stories in which that system looked bad, including one where, as a member of the imperial police in Burma, he found himself having to kill an elephant, an act he came to regret. Using the plain style, Orwell makes his essay so real that I believe it. In my professional life, I have argued against this idea of the “higher truth,” which does not respect fact, knowing how slippery that fact can be. But Orwell knew whether he shot that elephant or not, so there is no equivocating.

By the onset of the digital age, a writer’s fabrications — even those made with good intent — are often easily exposed, leading to a loss of authority and credibility that can injure a worthy cause. With Holocaust deniers abounding, why would you fabricate a story about the Holocaust when there are still so many factual stories to tell?

There is a powerful lesson here for all public writers: That if I can imagine a powerful plot and compelling characters, I do not have to fabricate a story and sell it as nonfiction. I can write it as a novel and sell it as a screenplay! I have yet to hear an argument that “Sophie’s Choice” is unworthy because it was imagined rather than reported.

I am saying that all forms of writing and communication fall potentially under the rubric of public writing. That includes, fiction, poetry, film, even the music lyrics, labeled as such: “Tell it like it is,” says the song, “Don’t be afraid. Let your conscience be your guide.”

In the end, we need reports we can trust, and even in the age of disinformation and fake news, those are best delivered in the plain style — with honesty as its backbone. Writing in the plain style is a strategy; civic clarity and credibility are the effects.

Here are the lessons:

When you are writing reports, when you want your audience to comprehend, write in the plain style — a kind of middle ground between an ornate high style and a low style that gravitates toward slang
The plain style requires exacting work. Plain does not mean simple. Prefer the straightforward over the technical: shorter words, sentences, paragraphs at the points of greatest complexity.
Keep subjects and verbs in the main clause together. Put the main clause first.
More common words work better.
Easy on the literary effects; use only the most transparent metaphors, nothing that stops the reader and calls attention to itself.
Remember 1-2-3 syntax, subject/verb/object: “Public writers prefer the plain style.”

Want to read more about public writing? Check out Roy Peter Clark’s latest book, “ Tell It Like It Is: A Guide to Clear and Honest Writing ,” available April 11 from Little, Brown.

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Honesty is the Best Policy Essay

Essay on Honesty is the Best Policy

Every human being must learn to be honest. Honesty means truth. If a person wants to be honest, he must learn to speak the truth in life. Moreover, by being honest, a person will develop a strong moral character, learn good behavior, maintain discipline, follow the rules and regulations intelligently, and will always be punctual.

Every child must have learned the phrase ‘honesty is the best policy.’ Children learn honesty from their parents, elders, and teachers. Still, people prefer to tell lies for their benefit Since the incidence of deceitful behavior is on a high, the revival of the teachings of honesty is necessary.

Benefits of Honesty

There are several benefits of honesty. Honesty helps in the development of morally strong characters. If you are honest, you will not be afraid of anything. You do not have to think about making false stories and then the fear of repeating the same in exact words. If you are honest, you do not have to remember any false stories. People will trust you more. An honest person will also develop discipline. An honest person will be extremely content, know what to do from time to time, and will not take any pressure or tension about anything. The health will improve, and the mind will be at peace. The person will be very punctual and will complete all tasks on time. Since more people will trust an honest person, he or she will find more friends and will be supported all around. An honest person will not be involved in cheating, lying, lack of trust, greed, stealing, and any other immoral acts.

Honesty promotes authenticity. It is a reflection of the thoughts and feelings of a person. It is a form of self-expression, and if a person is honest, people will know what he or she truly is. It also makes the person confident. To speak the truth, it needs a lot of courage and confidence. Only a coward will tell lies because he or she is afraid of the truth. Speaking the truth is an act of bravery. Telling lies also shows that the person is low on self-confidence.

Honesty brings maturity. An honest person speaks the truth in a mature, non-hurtful manner. Therefore, the person does not hurt others, and therefore, his or her relationship with others remains good. Such a good relationship develops a connection between people. Such good relationships also give you peace of mind. Therefore honesty brings high-quality and trustworthy friendships to a person.

Honesty makes a person feel free. They do not have to keep any secrets. They know what is right, and will speak it naturally. They do not have to take the tension of making a false story and say it, in the same manner, every time. Honesty keeps troubles away from a person.

How to Prevent Oneself from Lying?

People generally lie to avoid getting into trouble and to prevent hurting others. Honest people always have faith in the people whom they are talking to. It is wrong to assume that the listener will reject the truth. To be honest, people must have the courage to say the truth. No one likes to be lied to, and therefore, it is wrong to lie to others. People also have to be diplomatic in their presentation of the truth. They must not be blunt or rude, as it might hurt others. In this way, the true message reaches the listeners, and they take it in without getting emotionally hurt.

Is it okay to be Dishonest at Times

You were undoubtedly trained never to lie by your parents, who preached the importance of telling the truth. Your partner states that the most important thing is, to be honest.

But, according to studies, people do a lot of things wrong when it comes to deceit, truth-telling, and trust, and that, if mastered, lying the right way may actually help develop relationships, trust, and businesses.

You are also more likely to be lied to (and told to lie) than you realize imagine your mother telling you to tell your grandmother how much you enjoyed her food, or you providing incomplete feedback to a coworker.

LYING CAN BE JUSTIFIED IN THE FOLLOWING SCENARIOS

If you are Looking out for Someone's Best Interests:

There are many examples of lying being harmful, and the most harmful lies are those that promote your self-interest at the expense of others.

According to a study, "prosocial" lies—falsehoods intended to benefit others—can help people create trust.

Just keep in mind that lies are most effective when they are not self-serving. It is one thing to tell your friend he or she looks beautiful before a date to boost their self-esteem. However, be warned, saying it solely to push your friend out of the door because you are already late - that might drive you into a selfish zone.

If There is Not Enough Time to Make a Modification:

Let's say your mate inquires about how you think he or she looks shortly before coming on stage for a speaking engagement, or just before reaching the podium, about what you think of the speech. Consider whether the person has the time to react to the information and control the issue, even if you see a stain on his or her dress or think the speech may be improved.

You might accept deception if there is nothing your partner can do to improve or change things right now. As there is nothing he or she can do at the time, lying in this sense is typically comprehended as something which is benefiting the person at the receiving end.

If your significant other can react to the knowledge, however, honesty is the superior option.

If the Person is Not Close to you:

Deception that is mild and well-intentioned can be even more effective in long-distance relationships. Honesty is a lot more perilous in more competitive equations or first interactions, and it can damage relationships and reduce the amount of trust. That is because neither party knows the other's genuine motives, and they may ask aloud, "Is this individual trying to undermine me?"

Still, if you're inclined to provide candid comments to a distant acquaintance or a buddy of a friend, go ahead. Providing the truth while being benevolent—something along the lines of, "I truly want you to succeed, so I am giving you this feedback."

Close friendships, on the other hand, can foster a greater appreciation for candor, and confessing to friends is probably not as horrible as you think. We consistently underestimate how difficult it will be, to tell the truth.

FAQs on Honesty is the Best Policy Essay

1. What is Honesty?

Honesty is speaking the truth and believing in it. Honesty helps people to develop a strong character, uplift their morals, do the right thing, have faith in others, and practice discipline in life. It helps to live a tension-free life and ensures peace of mind and body. Honesty also helps to make good friends who will stick around life-long. To be honest, people must have the courage to say the right thing every time. They must also develop respect and faith for the people who are listening to them. However, honesty also teaches a person to be diplomatic so that he or she does not hurt others while presenting the truth.

2. What are the ways, to be Honest?

There are numerous ways, to be honest. First of all, a person needs to be courageous to face the truth. He must know that truth prevails, and it will come out one day. Falsehood might provide temporary relief, but truth gives long-term satisfaction. The person must have faith in his listeners. He must make them understand that truth is the most important thing.

Most importantly, a person must learn how to present the truth. He must not place the truth rudely or blatantly. He must not hurt anyone by telling the truth. He must learn how to be diplomatic while telling the truth. He must present the truth in a non-hurtful manner.

3. What are the benefits of being Honest?

There are several advantages to being honest. The most important of them all is peace of mind. When a person is honest, he has the courage to face the truth. He does not have to make up stories and remember the false stories for the rest of his life. He will have a morally upright personality, which will be liked and trusted by many. He will have discipline, sanctity, and punctuality in life. He will also have true friends who will value his friendship. An honest person will never have to worry if the truth will come out, and will be calm and composed in every situation.

4. How does essay writing make a person more intelligent?

There is a significant body of literature outlining the advantages of writing an essay to communicate your thoughts and emotions. Experts from a custom essay writing business also give their insights and experiences.

The act of composing an essay helps to organize your thoughts. Thoughts, sensations, and emotions come to us spontaneously and sometimes slowly, but writing allows us to consolidate these feelings and put them in a logical order. Writing an essay increases your ability to use words, syllables, and style in a way that is useful in everyday life.

5. How does reading improve writing?

Reading aids in the development of critical thinking abilities: "Am I reading good writing?" question yourself as you read. "And if that's the case, why?" Determine who the good authors are, and seek amazing novels that will inspire you. More importantly, evaluate why you think your favorite books are outstanding. Is it the growth of the characters? What is the author's approach to theme and subtext? You will also be able to bring a similar consideration to your work if you can critically evaluate a piece of literature and discern what makes good writing good.

Reading gives you exposure to a wide range of writing styles: Reading a variety of book styles can help you concentrate on the mechanical and stylistic decisions that allow different genres of writing to work. Making an approach towards a variety of works of literature with an eye toward the authors' stylistic tendencies will aid you in developing your own. Visit the Vedantu app and website for free study materials.

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Honesty: A Virtue That Cannot Be Overemphasized

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Topic: Honesty , Moral , Values of Life

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Essay on Honesty for Students and Children

Honesty is the Best Policy

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How to Be a Good Person Essay

Introduction

12 Reasons Why Honesty Is Important In Life

1. It underpins trust in a relationship.

2. It is easier to understand.

3. You are more likely to get what you want.

4. It makes space for others to be vulnerable.

5. It shows respect.

6. It almost always leads to the best outcomes in the long run.

7. It is simple.

8. It is better for your mental health / inner peace.

9. It is good for your self-esteem.

10. It is a demonstration of your character.

11. It is hard to challenge.

12. It keeps toxic people away.

About The Author

The virtue of honesty requires more than just telling the truth

Honesty has fallen out of fashion, yet it is essential to self-improvement. How can we cultivate this neglected virtue?

Sample Essay- "The Real Meaning of Honesty"

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Essay on Honesty is the Best Policy

Benefits of Honesty

How to Prevent Oneself from Lying?

Is it okay to be Dishonest at Times

LYING CAN BE JUSTIFIED IN THE FOLLOWING SCENARIOS

FAQs on Honesty is the Best Policy Essay

Honesty: A Virtue That Cannot Be Overemphasized

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