According to a recent report, cheating among college and university students is on the rise. However, Groveton College has successfully reduced student cheating cases by adopting 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. In the first year the honor code was in place, students reported twenty cases of cheating; five years later, this figure has dropped to fourteen. Moreover, in a recent survey, a majority of Groveton students said that they would be less likely to cheat with the honor code in place than without. Thus all educational institutes must adopt honor code to decrease cases of cheating.
The above argument has presented a positive change in the behavior of the Groveton college students as far as their cheating habits are concerned. Groveton College introduced an honor code that gradually conditioned the psychology of the students to shun the cheating practice as well as timely report to the authorities regarding any malpractices used by fellow-students. After adoption of this honor-code the college witnessed a fall in the number of cheating cases and so a survey concluded that such procedures be adopted by other educational institutes too to ensure the quality of knowledge attainment and reduce the cases of wrong-doers. On the surface level, the claim offered above seems valid and enticing as it is for the betterment of our society, but a deeper scrutiny presents various loopholes that tend to make the conclusion spurious and flimsy.
First of all, the complete argument is based on the reasoning that whatever role is played in reducing the cheating is solely dependent upon the 'honor-code' and no heed has been paid to other subsidiary factors like an eagle eye check of invigilators that discouraged the students morale to cheat, the complex structure of question-paper like shuffling of questions that made tough for the students to poke into the anyone else's work-sheet and many-more. Paying undue emphasis on the honor-code and avoiding all these related components won't provide a sturdy grounding to the above discussion. There might be possibility that students don't pay respect to the oath and avoid cheating due to stringent rules adopted by the college during examination period. Had a clear picture been presented about the concerned issues, the result could have been accurate and reliable.
Moreover, figure has been presented that during the commencing year, twenty cases of cheating were reported and after the passage of five years this number reduced to fourteen. Since this reporting has been done by the students, how can one assess the credibility of the information provided? Students might be avoiding to tell the authorities about the cheating cases of their fellow being and thus a low number of cases has been recorded that have been mistaken to be reduction in number of cheating cases. Had the college authorities used CCTV cameras or any other indirect sedulous measures to check the validity of the information given, the conclusion could be more apt and valid.
Last but not the least, this argument lacks to follow statistical logic, it has been mentioned that number of cases that were earlier to be twenty now reduced to fourteen but this number is from how much of total students has not been mentioned. Say, if there are one thousand students and 20 of them are cheating; after five years, out of two hundred students fourteen have been reported to cheat, then in spite of oath the percent of cheating cases have been up-surged instead of seeing a diminishing trend. If proper data has been provided about the total number of students the results could have presented more reliable information.
To conclude, Groveton College though experienced a decline in number of cheating cases but that is not only due to the honor-code as it might be based on other related factors too. The conclusion can't be adopted by all the other educational institutes in the absence of strong facts and figures.
argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- not OK
argument 3 -- not OK
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Let's analyze the structure of the statement and argue accordingly:
condition 1:
In the first year the honor code was in place, students reported twenty cases of cheating; five years later, this figure has dropped to fourteen. //your argument 1
condition 2:
Moreover, in a recent survey, a majority of Groveton students said that they would be less likely to cheat with the honor code in place than without. //this survey is only for honor code, however, if the survey is about the system in which teachers closely monitored students, more students would be less likely to cheat.
conclusion:
Thus all educational institutes must adopt honor code to decrease cases of cheating. //it works for A, doesn't mean it works for B
Attribute Value Ideal
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Category: Poor Excellent
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No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
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