0910AW 同主题写作第三期 ARGUMENT242 by mandy61217

mandy61217UID：2549053

谢谢！

242The following appeared as an editorial in thestudent newspaper of Groveton College.

"To combat the recently reported dramaticrise in cheating among college and university students, these institutionsshould adopt honor codes similar to Groveton's, which calls for students to agree not to cheat in their academicendeavors and to notify a faculty member if they suspect that others havecheated. Groveton's honor code replaced an old-fashioned system in whichstudents were closely monitored by teachers and an average of thirty cases ofcheating 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 ofcheating; five years later, this figure had dropped to fourteen. Moreover, in arecent survey conducted by the Groveton honor council, a majority of studentssaid that they would be less likely to cheat with an honor code in place thanwithout."

The suggestion of adopting thehonor codes similar to Groveton College(GC)'s at first glance to be an obvious conclusion based upon the evidence of decliningnumber of cases of cheating, the survey conducted by Groveton honor council,and the deduction that the great success of GC. Close scrutiny of each of these facts, however, reveals thatnone of them lean credible support to the suggestion.

First of all, the major suspicion stems from the doubtwhether the GC’s reducing of cases of cheating should owe to the honor code.Less cases of cheating may not only result from the adoption of honor code butalso some other factor which would lead to the same consequence. For example,with the development of grade evaluation, less and less examinations might betaken while more and more group discussions and seminars required for GC’sstudents. So, there would be less chance for students to cheat and consequentlyless case would have been reported. Even if no significant change of the gradeevaluation, some other more crucial reasons which related to the internal causeof students rather than external cause of regulation may contribute to theamelioration. Like, in the sharp competition of job market, students in GC wouldget realizing the power of knowledge and the harmfulness of cheating in theiracademic endeavors. Being fully aware of these, the GC's students might cheatless and thus the number of cheating cases dropped. In short, in order toconvincing us, the author should account for all the other possible factors,such as the two mentioned above, that may cause the dropped figure.


In addition, even though we accept that the honor code isthe only cause of declining number of cases of cheating, it does not necessaryimply that the honor code is far more successful than the old-fashioned system.First, because of the “benefit” from the honor code system – to notify afaculty member by students rather than be monitored closely by teachers, studentsmight have more chance to cheat by keeping the cheating secret with eachothers, which would lead to the reducing of reported cases; and with more andmore students know about this “hoop” and would not notify the faculty membersfor each other, even they cheat more frequently, the number of reported caseswould still go down. In such a case, the survey conducted by the Groveton honorcouncil can reveal nothing but on the contrary, the students like the honorcode because they get more chance to cheat. Furthermore, even if the studentsdo not take the advantage of that “hoop”, the honor code system is still notperfect, since accusation based on suspicion is not credible. Common sensetells us that a student may report someone in order to revenge rather thanfollow the rule. Then, finally, the honor code, as a way for student to reportothers’ faults (with some of them might not be true), it may result in badrelationship betweens students and even between students and faculty members. So,all these side effects mentioned above need to be considered before make the judgmentthat the honor code system is successful and can be followed by othercolleges.

What’s more, even if the author can substantiate allof the foregoing assumptions and the honor code really succeeded in GC, itmight be failed to adopt by other colleges and universities, since differentcollege or university has its unique feature, which ranges from the consciousnessof the students to the conscientiousness of the teachers. Therefore, before widespread of the honor code, more information regarding to the difference and thesimilarity between GC and other colleges or universities need to be gleaned.

As itstands, the argument is not well reasoned. To make it more logicallyacceptable, the author would have to provide evidence to rule out otherpossible causes of declining number of cheating case and make sure to considerateall results of the honor code system including its possible side effects.Additionally, the suitability of the honor code for others colleges oruniversities need to be carefully concerned before widely adopted.

Virtual_ProUID：2560768

按照同主题的要求，改了你的Agru。
水平很好，写得不错。

mandy61217UID：2549053

谢谢楼上，thanks so much! I did learn a lot from your comment!
cheers!