"To combat the recently reported dramatic rise in cheating among college students, colleges and universities should adopt honor codes similar to Groveton's, 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 an old-fashioned system in which teachers closely monitored students. Under that system, teachers reported an average of thirty cases of cheating per year. The honor code has proven far more successful: in the first year it was in place, students reported twenty-one cases of cheating; five years later, this figure had dropped to fourteen. Moreover, in a recent survey conducted by the Groveton honor council, a majority of students said that they would be less likely to cheat with an honor code in place than without.
The author of the argument indicates that all colleges and universities should adopt honor codes similar to groveton's in order to decrease cheating among students. To buttress his/her argument, the author cites the following evidences: first, under honor code, monitor is not only the responsibility of students; second, cheating reported has declined from twenty-one to fourteen after five years; third, many groveton students said that they would be less likely to cheat in a recent survey. Tough the issue has its merit, due to lack of relevant evidences and unaddressed assumptions, the conclusion is unsubstantiated and flawed.
To begin with, the author argues that under honor code system, the reported cheating has decreased from 21 to 14 over the recent five years, thus substantiating the strength of honor code. The argument may seem valid at first glance, after further examination, it is fallacious. The cheating reported is not necessarily the correct indication of the exact cheating numbers. what if some cases of cheating are not reported when students collude? what if students forget to report the cheating? For students who stress unity and do not want to betray peers, they are not plausible to report the cheating even if they notice one. Since the amount of real cheating is not measured, we are unable to make any comparison.
Furthermore, the author fails to consider the change over the five years. The students in groveton can be in general more honest due to their previous education or learning from their parents. if this happens, then the declined number of cheating is not related to honor code. In addition, the author simply argues that cheating is rising, without showing the origin and source of reports. we can doubt whether it is true in all universities and colleges. The author fails to consider the case when honor code is not applied. The condition in recent years may be even better without honor code, but we just do not know. without well-designed experiment of cheating under students with same quality, the conclusion made by the author is not convincing.
Moreover, a recent survey might not be a persuasive evidence to support the goodness of honor code. we are not given detailed information of the survey, including questionnaires, students who accepted the survey, sample space and so on. For example, the survey might be only based on 10 students, with 8 students advocating the usage of honor code. even though huge percentage of students have less tendency to cheat, these ten individuals are not representative of all students in groveton. Instead of asking the graduating seniors, the answer from incoming freshmen would be more effective. The survey could be 10 page long with only one question related to honor code. students then can be careless or even not telling the truth when answering the question in front of overwhelming problems. Because the author does not offer the comprehensive survey of all groups of students, the argument is invalid. it is possible that under instructor supervisions, the results of survey would indicate even less likelihood to cheat.
Last but not least, the author unfairly applies honor code to the all the colleges and universities. The characteristics of different colleges and universities can vary a lot. even if honor code is proven to be useful in groveton, no evidence shows that it will be equally feasible in other colleges. For example, if a university already has its standard judgement and penalty for cheating, then honor code could be useless or even counterproductive.
To sum up, as it stands, the assumptions are based on several questionable evidences that curtail the credibility of the argument. To further strengthen the reliability, the author is suggested to provide the evidences as follows: first, comparison before and after the application of honor code is warranted; second, the survey regarding with honor code is well designed by experts and is a strong indicator of opinions of all groups of students; finally, honor code can be widely used even under different circumstances.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- not OK. We'd better accept it is a true fact. but there is a loophole behind.
argument 2 -- not exactly. we may say: maybe other reasons caused the decline.
argument 3 -- not OK. the sample of the survey doesn't include incoming students for example.
argument 4 -- OK.
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 2.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 669 350
No. of Characters: 3353 1500
No. of Different Words: 287 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.086 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.012 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.775 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 246 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 186 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 146 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 66 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 29.087 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.49 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.739 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.336 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.558 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.123 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 375, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: What
...dication of the exact cheating numbers. what if some cases of cheating are not repor...
^^^^
Line 5, column 446, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: What
...are not reported when students collude? what if students forget to report the cheati...
^^^^
Line 7, column 194, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: If
...ucation or learning from their parents. if this happens, then the declined number ...
^^
Line 7, column 391, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: We
...owing the origin and source of reports. we can doubt whether it is true in all uni...
^^
Line 7, column 621, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Without
...ut honor code, but we just do not know. without well-designed experiment of cheating un...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 101, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: We
... to support the goodness of honor code. we are not given detailed information of t...
^^
Line 9, column 350, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Even
...nts advocating the usage of honor code. even though huge percentage of students have...
^^^^
Line 9, column 617, Rule ID: CD_NN[1]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun 'page' seems to be countable, so consider using: 'pages'.
Suggestion: pages
... more effective. The survey could be 10 page long with only one question related to ...
^^^^
Line 9, column 673, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Students
...nly one question related to honor code. students then can be careless or even not tellin...
^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 907, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: It
...s of students, the argument is invalid. it is possible that under instructor super...
^^
Line 12, column 177, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Even
...lleges and universities can vary a lot. even if honor code is proven to be useful in...
^^^^
Line 12, column 452, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...d be useless or even counterproductive. To sum up, as it stands, the assumptions...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, first, furthermore, if, may, moreover, regarding, second, so, then, third, thus, well, for example, in addition, in general, it is true, to begin with, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 35.0 19.6327345309 178% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 16.0 12.9520958084 124% => OK
Conjunction : 17.0 11.1786427146 152% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 27.0 28.8173652695 94% => OK
Preposition: 94.0 55.5748502994 169% => OK
Nominalization: 18.0 16.3942115768 110% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3458.0 2260.96107784 153% => OK
No of words: 668.0 441.139720559 151% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.17664670659 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.08386624201 4.56307096286 111% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.8770538983 2.78398813304 103% => OK
Unique words: 309.0 204.123752495 151% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.462574850299 0.468620217663 99% => OK
syllable_count: 1076.4 705.55239521 153% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 24.0 8.76447105788 274% => Less articles wanted as sentence beginning.
Subordination: 8.0 2.70958083832 295% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 12.0 4.22255489022 284% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 33.0 19.7664670659 167% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 67.6398798912 57.8364921388 117% => OK
Chars per sentence: 104.787878788 119.503703932 88% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.2424242424 23.324526521 87% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.30303030303 5.70786347227 93% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 12.0 5.25449101796 228% => Less language errors wanted.
Sentences with positive sentiment : 13.0 8.20758483034 158% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 18.0 6.88822355289 261% => Less negative sentences wanted.
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: 0.30346875354 0.218282227539 139% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0886211053924 0.0743258471296 119% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0750924484095 0.0701772020484 107% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.182679529106 0.128457276422 142% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0705165524831 0.0628817314937 112% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.1 14.3799401198 91% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.76 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.27 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 154.0 98.500998004 156% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 62.5 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.75 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.