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TOPIC: ARGUMENT242 - The following appeared as an editorial in the student newspaper of Groveton College.
"To combat the recently reported dramatic rise in cheating among college and university students, these institutions 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 students were closely monitored by teachers and an average of thirty cases of cheating per year were reported. 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."
WORDS: 524
TIME: 01:40:26
DATE: 2009-6-7 9:50:33
In this argument, the speaker asserts that in order to combat the recently reported dramatic rise in cheating among college and university students, these institutions should adopt honor codes similar to Groveton's, which calls for students not to cheat in academic endeavors and to notify a faculty member if they suspect others are cheated. To support his claim, the speaker cites the statistics of numbers of cases of cheating, that is, in this new honor code, the cases of cheating fall to 14 in five yeas while the number is 30 in old one five years before. At first glance, the recommend seems to perfect, however, in a further closely thinking on this argument, we will find how groundless it is. This argument suffers from at least 3 logical fallacies.
Firstly, the other colleges and universities are totally different from the Groveton Colleges. The comparison between them adopted by author is unfair and unwarranted. Perhaps the students in Groveton College are much more sticked to their agreements once agree not to cheat in their academic endeavors. If so, the rates of cheating will automatically fewer than before. The situation in other schools will fail to forecast due to the difference in students. Moreover, the number of the faculty maybe is larger than that of other schools; therefore they will have leisure time and be more responsible for their students' affairs of case of cheating.
Secondly, the number of cases of cheating fall from 30 to 14 in five years is unwarranted for this honor code. Because the fallen number is just 16 in five years albeit the rates have decreased to half of the statistics fives years before. In other words, the decreased number of case of cheating is only about 3 cases in average in every year. The number is so small that many other casual factors can lead to this. For example, it is possible that the students are more shame to commit cheating than those five years before. Perhaps these courses in latest five years are not such different than 5 years before ant then there will be fewer student to cheat in examinations. In short, the honor code cannot reason groundly the fallen numbers of cases in Groveton College especially 3 only in average per year.
Even assuming the situations between these schools are similar and the honor code can result to decrease in the number of cases of cheating, the survey conducted by Groveton College can not justify the idea that honor code will prevent students from cheating. The survey showed that a majority of students would be less likely to cheat with an honor code in place than without. The result will be sure and foreknow before carrying out the survey. Because the statistics above said the largest number committing cheating is 30 and this number will certainly be a very modicum number when compared to the whole number of students. So, the survey will prove nothing since the sample has indicated the result.
In conclusion, the argument is unconvincing as it stands. The comparison is unfair between these different schools and the survey and the statistics quoted are unfortunately valid. The speak need more convincing evidences to support his claim. |
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