Evidence suggests that academic honor codes, which call for students to agree not to cheat in their academic endeavors and to notify a faculty member if they suspect that others have cheated, are far more successful than are other methods at deterring cheating among students at colleges and universities. Several years ago, Groveton College adopted such a code and discontinued its old-fashioned system in which teachers closely monitored students. Under the old 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-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.
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument.
The author has explained about academic honor code and how it was effective in reducing number of cheat cases during academic exams. However, it seems inappropriate to give full credit to honor code policy without scrutinizing over other possible reasons such as innovative methods cheating, changes in exam type etc.
The author has given the example of Groveton college to support his argument. According to him, the college had implemented the honor code policy and were successful in reducing number of cheat cases. However, another reasons other than honor code policy may have helped to reduce the cheat cases such as different type of exams, number of cheat cases found etc. It is plausible that exam type may have changed, which discouraged students to cheat during exams. Paper based exams may have replaced with online exams, which reduces the possibility of cheating.
The data provided by the author does not signify the importance of honor code. There is not much significant decrement in the number of cheat cases in five years. It also can not be denied that students have not notified their teachers about suspected students and students who were doing cheating were not caught. It has helped to reduce number of cheat cases. It is also possible that students may have given up traditional way of cheating and implemented innovative way of cheating. It may have caused that number of cheat cases found may have reduced.
The credibility of survey is questionable. While conducting survey, students may have lied and praised the honor code. Honor code may have been helping students to do cheating without getting caught. Therefore, it is possible that in reality honor code is weak policy, but students admired it, so that honor code will continue.
In conclusion, the implementation of the honor code and reduction in number of cheat cases may not be correlated. Other reasons such as changes in exam type, innovative methods of cheating may have reduced the number of cheat cases.
honor code is weak policy
honor code is a weak policy
argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- OK
flaws:
More content wanted.
For issue essays, around 450 words, for argument essays, around 400 words.
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 1 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 330 350
No. of Characters: 1635 1500
No. of Different Words: 136 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.262 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.955 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.471 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 112 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 83 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 57 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 28 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18.333 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.293 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.611 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.407 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.583 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.12 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5