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.
In this argument, the author asserts that all colleges and universities should adopt honor codes in order to reduce cheating among students. To support this conclusion, the author points out that the number of students who have cheated in the past five years has been reduced after the monitor system was changed to honor codes to reinforce this claim. The author also cites the poll to demonstrate that more students are less likely to cheat under the honor code than under the monitor system. However, this argument is weak for several reasons.
First, the argument is based on the presumption that students, like faculty, are capable of detecting cheating among their peers, and are also inclined to inform their teachers when they do. However, without evidence to substantiate these assumptions, one cannot reasonably conclude that the incidence of cheating has decreased as a result of the honor code.
The argument also assumes that during five years, the data may become more homogeneous, meaning that all other factors that affect the occurrence of cheating remain unchanged. Numerous confounding factors, including the number of enrolled students, and the quality of students, may have entirely possible influenced the student's motivation to cheat, lowering the prevalence of cheating.That is, the decrease in cheating is not only affected by the honor code but also prompted by other changing factors. Thus, without excluding other explanations for the decreasing incidence of cheating, this argument does not persuade us that the honor code, indeed, has an effect on the decreasing trend of cheating.
In addition, the author fails to ensure that the survey sample is representative of all college students, and the survey response relies on the student’s integrity and honesty response, which could make the results of the survey unreliable in both of these aspects. In this instance, the author would need to suggest more convincing evidence from the survey and reevaluate the recommendation regarding the honor code.
All told, the author should provide specifics on the student’s reasons for cheating. Moreover, the author should also consider other factors that might affect cheating behavior. That would strengthen this argument.
Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 320, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'students'' or 'student's'?
Suggestion: students'; student's
...y have entirely possible influenced the students motivation to cheat, lowering the preva...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 386, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: That
...at, lowering the prevalence of cheating.That is, the decrease in cheating is not onl...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, may, moreover, regarding, so, then, thus, in addition, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 19.6327345309 51% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 26.0 28.8173652695 90% => OK
Preposition: 50.0 55.5748502994 90% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1903.0 2260.96107784 84% => OK
No of words: 352.0 441.139720559 80% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.40625 5.12650576532 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.33147354134 4.56307096286 95% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.68794892224 2.78398813304 97% => OK
Unique words: 187.0 204.123752495 92% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.53125 0.468620217663 113% => OK
syllable_count: 576.9 705.55239521 82% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 2.70958083832 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 14.0 19.7664670659 71% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 25.0 22.8473053892 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 76.9180918714 57.8364921388 133% => OK
Chars per sentence: 135.928571429 119.503703932 114% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.1428571429 23.324526521 108% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.92857142857 5.70786347227 121% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 0.0 4.67664670659 0% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.29173626989 0.218282227539 134% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.10381452268 0.0743258471296 140% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0685624082379 0.0701772020484 98% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.160692724856 0.128457276422 125% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0653256686158 0.0628817314937 104% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.6 14.3799401198 115% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 46.1 48.3550499002 95% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.39 12.5979740519 114% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.45 8.32208582834 114% => OK
difficult_words: 102.0 98.500998004 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 12.3882235529 73% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.1389221557 108% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 320, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'students'' or 'student's'?
Suggestion: students'; student's
...y have entirely possible influenced the students motivation to cheat, lowering the preva...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 386, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: That
...at, lowering the prevalence of cheating.That is, the decrease in cheating is not onl...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, may, moreover, regarding, so, then, thus, in addition, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 19.6327345309 51% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 26.0 28.8173652695 90% => OK
Preposition: 50.0 55.5748502994 90% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1903.0 2260.96107784 84% => OK
No of words: 352.0 441.139720559 80% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.40625 5.12650576532 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.33147354134 4.56307096286 95% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.68794892224 2.78398813304 97% => OK
Unique words: 187.0 204.123752495 92% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.53125 0.468620217663 113% => OK
syllable_count: 576.9 705.55239521 82% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 2.70958083832 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 14.0 19.7664670659 71% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 25.0 22.8473053892 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 76.9180918714 57.8364921388 133% => OK
Chars per sentence: 135.928571429 119.503703932 114% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.1428571429 23.324526521 108% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.92857142857 5.70786347227 121% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 0.0 4.67664670659 0% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.29173626989 0.218282227539 134% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.10381452268 0.0743258471296 140% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0685624082379 0.0701772020484 98% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.160692724856 0.128457276422 125% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0653256686158 0.0628817314937 104% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.6 14.3799401198 115% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 46.1 48.3550499002 95% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.39 12.5979740519 114% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.45 8.32208582834 114% => OK
difficult_words: 102.0 98.500998004 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 12.3882235529 73% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.1389221557 108% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.