According to a recent report, cheating among college and university students is
on the rise. However, Groveton College has successfully reduced student cheating 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-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. Thus, all colleges and universities
should adopt honor codes similar to Groveton's in order to decrease cheating among
students.
The argument suggests that in order to reduce cheating among students, all colleges and universities should adopt honor codes similar to Groveton’s because of its prior success in doing so. The suggestion makes logical sense at first glance; however, there are several questions needed to be answered to justify this argument. Otherwise, its suggestion is fallacious.
To begin with, the arguments averts that the honor code has successfully reduced students cheating based on the reported incidents by teachers and the number is lower than previous system. However, it engenders a question, that is: if the reported number can represent the whole students? If there are only a certain group of students who keep cheating in their academic endeavors and they disregard the honor code system even it is implemented. Moreover, another question needed to be answered is: who actually report student cheating? Maybe only a few teachers care about the reporting mechanism while most of teachers don’t even care if students are cheating or not. Consequently, the number of reported number is definitely decreased. Thus, unless these questions are answered, the argument is unwarranted.
Secondly, the argument states that according to a recent survey, a majority of students of Groveton said they would be less likely to cheat with an honor code in place than without; therefore, the honor code can effectively reduce students cheating. However, the argument fails to elucidate a question: who actually answer the survey. It only mentions a majority of students instead of an actual number of students on campus. If the survey has targeted students who don’t cheat in academic endeavors, their opinions about the honor code are meaningless. Moreover, the argument also fails to elaborate the content of the survey. What if questions regarded to honor code are a three-question section of a ten-page, tediously long questionnaire? People tend to give random answers when the survey becomes dull in order to finish it as soon as possible. Thus, without proving the credibility of the survey and targeted people, the argument is unjustified.
To sum up, the argument is reasonable when it comes to reducing cheats among students with honor code system. However, there are some questions required to be answered in order to justify its suggestion, that is: if the reported number of student cheating can represent the whole population? If only a few teachers are dedicated in using reporting system and if the survey and targeted students are credible? Without answering any question above, the argument is not warranted.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 22 15
No. of Words: 418 350
No. of Characters: 2140 1500
No. of Different Words: 187 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.522 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.12 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.699 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 174 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 137 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 112 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 44 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.372 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.818 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.332 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.48 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.052 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 318, Rule ID: THERE_RE_MANY[3]
Message: Possible agreement error. Did you mean 'groups'?
Suggestion: groups
...e students? If there are only a certain group of students who keep cheating in their ...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 605, Rule ID: MOST_SOME_OF_NNS[1]
Message: After 'most of', you should use 'the' ('most of the teachers') or simply say ''most teachers''.
Suggestion: most of the teachers; most teachers
...are about the reporting mechanism while most of teachers don't even care if students are ch...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, consequently, first, however, if, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, therefore, thus, while, to begin with, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 12.9520958084 39% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 19.0 28.8173652695 66% => OK
Preposition: 54.0 55.5748502994 97% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2222.0 2260.96107784 98% => OK
No of words: 416.0 441.139720559 94% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.34134615385 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.51620172871 4.56307096286 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.84816716732 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 197.0 204.123752495 97% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.473557692308 0.468620217663 101% => OK
syllable_count: 700.2 705.55239521 99% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.76447105788 148% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 22.0 19.7664670659 111% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 22.8473053892 79% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 49.1132104226 57.8364921388 85% => OK
Chars per sentence: 101.0 119.503703932 85% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.9090909091 23.324526521 81% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.13636363636 5.70786347227 108% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 13.0 6.88822355289 189% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.67664670659 21% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.375289733224 0.218282227539 172% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.115975752684 0.0743258471296 156% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.104916163567 0.0701772020484 150% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.246775428253 0.128457276422 192% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0502240356031 0.0628817314937 80% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.2 14.3799401198 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 44.75 48.3550499002 93% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.69 12.5979740519 109% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.67 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 109.0 98.500998004 111% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 12.3882235529 85% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.1389221557 83% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.