ARGUMENT@@A DREAM@@第二次作业BY Cherry

cherry_916UID: 2621641

Argument 242
words: 546
Owing to the dramatic increase in cheating among college and university students, the editorial concludes that the colleges and universities should adopt honor codes similar to Groveton’s for the following reasons:1)this code 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;2)an average of thirty cases of cheating per year were reported in an old-fashioned system, but in the first year the Groveton’s honor code was in place, students reported twenty-one cases of cheating and this figure had dropped to fourteen in the next five years.3)a multitude of students said that they would be less likely to cheat with an honor code in place than without in a recent survey conducted by the Groveton honor council. I find this argument specious on several grounds.
In the first place, even if the author claims that the honor code calls for students to agree not to cheat in their academic endeavors; it doesn’t mean that the students in colleges and universities would not cheat in their examinations. We know the fact that to make a commitment is one thing, to keep it is far more difficult. There is no indication that they might fulfill their promise. As a consequence, if the author who wants to convince us should provide many evidence to support that the college and university students could conform their promise.
In the second place, this assumption is weak, since although there are points of comparison about the cases of cheating when the honor code was in place between the first year and five years later, there are many dissimilarities as well. Although the figure had dropped to fourteen five yeas later, the author provides insufficient evidence that there was a downward trend per year in this period, the cases of cheating might reach to 30 or more in the fourth year.
In the third place, the cases of cheating which was reported by the old-fashioned system is dubious, the institutions might conceal the virtual number of cheating cases .Similarly, the students reported twenty-one cases of cheating in the first year which might just a small part of all cases of cheating. Therefore, if this question was leading, the results would be greatly unconvincing.
In the fourth place, Since the arguer makes a claim that a majority of students said that they would be less likely to cheat with an honor code in place than without, in general, samples for the survey should be statistically reliable .Unfortunately, from the survey we find little sign of such procedures for samplings, thus doubting whether the respondents constitute a sufficiently large sample so as to be representative of the overall population of the Groveton’s college.
On balance, the author should provide sufficient evidence that the college and university students could fulfill their promise. Furthermore, there should be a recommendation by the author that it was a downward trend of cases of cheating per year during this five years to prove which the honor code was far more successful and the cases of cheating which was reported was virtually. In the end, the respondents should constitute a sufficiently large sample so as to be representative of the overall population of the Groveton’s college. Consquencely, the honor code of Groveton College has proven far more successful than the old-fashioned system.