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.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
The author of the prompt suggests that honor codes should be implemented in all colleges and universities similar to that of Groveton college to decrease cheating among the students on the basis that the implementation of honor code in Groveton college dropped cheating cases per year and majority of student of the college responded to a survey that they are less likely to cheat if honor code is in place. But, in close inspection the argument presented by author is unwarranted and full of unstated assumptions. Before the suggestion can be properly evaluated three questions must be answered.
Firstly, did the cheating case dropped only because of the honor code? Perhaps, the students became aware cheating will get them good grades but will not prepare them for the professional industry. For instance, a student who got a good grade in school might find the professional environment difficult cause he has not prepared himself accordingly. If may also be the case that, cheating case dropped because, it were the student who were reporting the cheating, and they did not bother to report anymore. So, if above mentioned conditions are true, then the argument presented in the original prompt is significantly hampered.
Secondly, what were the questions asked in survey in Groveton college? For instance, they might have asked about comparison of no honor code vs honor where student are likely to say they will not cheat if honor code is in place rather than no code at all. It may be case that, other methodology likes grade reduction of cheating students, suspension, restriction etc can result in lesser number of cheating cases than the honor code. If the student were asked to compare where they were less likely to cheat, given more alternatives, then they might have suggested alternatives other than honor code. If any of the above cases hold water then the argument presented by the author is significantly hindered.
Thirdly, can honor code be effective at all? The process of honor code seems faulty. The cheating cases are to be reported by student themselves. It may be case that student who cheat may form alliance and cheat without reporting. It may be also the case that, student who do not cheat do not bother reporting the cases to the authority. It is also possible that, the cheating student might bully the non cheating students not to report. So, if any of the above cases are true then the argument presented by the author is hampered.
In conclusion, the argument presented by the author in the prompt is considerably flawed because of its reliance on several unwarranted assumptions. If the author of the passage is able to provide more evidences and answer the above three questions systematically then it will be possible to properly evaluate the suggestion of implementing the honor code in all colleges and universities.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
also need to argue:
Thus, all colleges and universities should adopt honor codes similar to Groveton's in order to decrease cheating among students.
------------------------
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 22 15
No. of Words: 477 350
No. of Characters: 2335 1500
No. of Different Words: 181 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.673 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.895 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.68 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 158 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 128 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 96 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 49 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.682 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 13.377 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.864 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.331 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.499 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.099 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 261, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...f honor code in Groveton college dropped cheating cases per year and majority of ...
^^
Line 1, column 517, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “Before” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...anted and full of unstated assumptions. Before the suggestion can be properly evaluate...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 32, Rule ID: DID_PAST[1]
Message: Did you mean 'drop'?
Suggestion: drop
...d. Firstly, did the cheating case dropped only because of the honor code? Perhaps...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 602, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...ted alternatives other than honor code. If any of the above cases hold water then ...
^^
Line 13, column 339, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...r reporting the cases to the authority. It is also possible that, the cheating stu...
^^
Line 13, column 439, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[4]
Message: “So , if” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...he non cheating students not to report. So, if any of the above cases are true then th...
^^^^^^
Line 17, column 391, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... code in all colleges and universities.
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
accordingly, also, but, first, firstly, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, third, thirdly, for instance, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 29.0 19.6327345309 148% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 18.0 12.9520958084 139% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 27.0 28.8173652695 94% => OK
Preposition: 59.0 55.5748502994 106% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 16.3942115768 98% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2402.0 2260.96107784 106% => OK
No of words: 477.0 441.139720559 108% => OK
Chars per words: 5.035639413 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.67336384929 4.56307096286 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.7597349228 2.78398813304 99% => OK
Unique words: 192.0 204.123752495 94% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.40251572327 0.468620217663 86% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 765.0 705.55239521 108% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 22.0 19.7664670659 111% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 77.9607339182 57.8364921388 135% => OK
Chars per sentence: 109.181818182 119.503703932 91% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.6818181818 23.324526521 93% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.45454545455 5.70786347227 96% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 7.0 5.25449101796 133% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 12.0 6.88822355289 174% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.356697664811 0.218282227539 163% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.123315315395 0.0743258471296 166% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.1151437714 0.0701772020484 164% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.22761790108 0.128457276422 177% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0997232202794 0.0628817314937 159% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.1 14.3799401198 91% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.95 12.5979740519 95% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.59 8.32208582834 91% => OK
difficult_words: 88.0 98.500998004 89% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 19.0 12.3882235529 153% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 Out of 6
---------------------
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.