[AWER小组]第十一次作业

JasonDoveUID: 2322013

"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."



Merely based on the unfound assumption and dubious evidence the statement draws the conclusion that colleges and universities should use honor codes similar to Groveton's to fight against dramatic rise in cheating. To substantiate this conclution, the author points out that the honor code appears to be more effective, because after the honor code was adopted five years, the students' reports of cheating decreased from twenty-one cases each year to fourteen cases each year. In addition, the author cites the result of a recent survey that most of the students consider an honor code in place would make them less likely to cheat. At first glance, this argument appears to be somewhat convincing. But further reflection reveals that it omits some crucial concerns which should be addressed in the statement. From my own perspective, this argument suffers from three main logical flaws, as discussed below.

The threshold problem with this argument is that the author's recommendation depends on the assumption that no factors other than the honor code caused the decrease of the number of cheating. Common sense informs me that this assumption is a poor one. A myriad of other factors, including people's changes of attitudes of study and some other methods in administrating students might as likely be the cause of the decrease of the number of people who cheats. For instance, it is entirely possible that Groveton enhanced the education of credit by way of giving more lectures and lessons about one's credit. Thus, unless the author rules out possibilities like that the author cannot conclude that only by carrying out the honor codes could the number of students who cheats decreases.

Another flow that weakens the logic of this statement is that the author's recommendation relies on the assumption that the result of the survey is statistically reliable. However, no solid information is offered to prove this point to be true. Perhaps the surveyor only sampled a small amount of students in the survey and only in a small spectrum rather than the whole college. If so, the result of the survey would unquestionably suggest that only the students who participated in the survey concerned that the honor code to be efficient.  Therefore the author cannot persuade me that to carry an honor code as Groveton did would alleviate the situation that a large amount of students cheat in the exams.

Before I come to my conclusion, it is necessary to point another flaw involved in this passage that the author's recommendation depends what might be a poor analogy between other colleges and Groveton. This analogy falsely depends on the assumption that education ideas and recent situations in both Groveton and other colleges are similar. However, it is entirely possible that these factors are all different between Groveton and other colleges. To be specific, it is possible that students in Groveton are all care much about their own credit, nonewithstanding, students in other colleges and universities do not.
If so, an honor code would not be so effective to them. In short, without ruling out such possible differences between Groveton and other colleges and universities, the author cannot persuade me that other colleges and universities can reap the similar benefits from carrying out an honor code.

To sum up, the author fails to substantiate this conclusion that an honor code would be effective for other colleges and universities to fight against rising number of students who cheats in the exams, because the evidence in the statement does not lend strong support to what the author maintains. To make this argument more convincing, the author should provide more information with regard to the educating methods and objectives of the Groveton and other colleges and universities. Additionally he should also demonstrate that the result of the survey is statistially reliable. Only included the factors discussed above could the argument become more than just an emotional appeal.