Several years ago, Groveton College adopted an honor code, which calls for students to agree not to cheat in their academic endeavors and to notify a faculty member if they suspect that others have cheated. Groveton's honor code replaced a system in which teachers closely monitored students. Under that system, teachers reported an average of thirty cases of cheating per year. The honor code has proven far more successful: in the first year it was in place, students reported twenty-one cases of cheating; five years later, this figure had dropped to fourteen. Moreover, in a recent survey, a majority of Groveton students said that they would be less likely to cheat with an honor code in place than without. Such evidence suggests that all colleges and universities should adopt honor codes similar to Groveton's. This change is sure to result in a dramatic decline in cheating among college students.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
The author in this argument concluded from some information that a method , which was applied in Groveton College, in order to decline cheating rate was effective enough and then state that this method should be generalized in all other colleges. However, it seems that the details that author mentioned are not cogent enough and some obscure aspects should be clarified by answering more accurate questions.
First of all it should be answered that, if the cases that students are reported about cheating are reliable? It is possible that a student did not recognize that others are cheating or even if understand did not notify authorities because they felt it would be betraying to their friends.If it will be proved that students’ reports were not authentic enough, thus, it can not be a valid resource to gain such conclusion that author has stated.
The second question that come through is that, are there any alteration in overall features of students that entered college during the mentioned 5 year? For example, the ratio of male and female students has changed or reversed, or students with higher grades have been admitted? If the answer is positive, maybe the rate of cheating is different between 2 gender or more endeavoring students are less likely to cheat . so it can negate the conclusion that honor code cause less cheating cases.
Also, about the proposed opinion that suggest, this method should be applied in all colleges there is a question that do all colleges have the same condition and qualities , are their exam methods or difficulties of the courses and other factors the same ? students in different environments are lead toward cheating because of different factors. For instance, in a college even though students are studying hard, the teachers are so exacting and demanding with hard exams that cause some students to cheat. If so , honor code method can not be a effective way to decrease cheating.
In conclusion, it seems that it is necessary to gain more detailed information by answering above questions to make the argument more cogent.
argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- not OK. here goes the argument: 'Moreover, in a recent survey, a majority of Groveton students said that they would be less likely to cheat with an honor code in place than without. '
suggested:
The loophole of the survey is that, it just has the result of survey for honor code, we suppose 'a majority of Groveton students' is 85% of total students, the survey didn't show how is the result of survey when 'teachers closely monitored students.', maybe 98% students will not cheat.
argument 3 -- OK
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Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 11 15
No. of Words: 345 350
No. of Characters: 1694 1500
No. of Different Words: 167 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.31 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.91 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.521 2.4
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No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 100 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 73 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 32 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 31.364 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 14.015 7.5
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Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.381 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.674 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.057 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5