According to a recent report, cheating among college and university students is on the rise. However, Groveton College has successfully reduced student cheating by adopting an honor code, 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.

According to a recent report, cheating among college and university students is on the rise. However, Groveton College has successfully reduced student cheating by adopting an honor code, 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 a system in which teachers closely monitored students; under that system, teachers reported an average of thirty cases of cheating per year. In the first year the honor code was in place, students reported twenty-one cases of cheating; five years later, this figure had dropped to fourteen. Moreover, in a recent survey, a majority of Groveton students said that they would be less likely to cheat with an honor code in place than without. Thus, all colleges and universities should adopt honor codes similar to Groveton’s in order to decrease cheating among students.

The argument says that all colleges and universities should adopt honor codes in order to decrease the rate of cheating on exams. However, the author has to provide evidence about details in the honor code.

The author claims that Groveton College has successfully reduced student cheating for the cases have decreased from 30 to 21 by honor code. However, what if the numbers don’t provide enough reference value? The author provides actual numbers but doesn’t give the base number in Groveton College. Maybe Groveton has one hundred thousand students, and the rate of cheating only decreases by 0.009%. But if Groveton is located in a county, the whole college has only 100 students. Under this data, the rate of cheating decreases by 9%. The effect of the honor code will totally different. Thus, the author should give us the actual student numbers, so readers can understand the honor code’s effect more.

The author mentions that the honor code’s usage is to call for students to agree not to cheat in their academy endeavor and to notify a faculty member if they suspect that someone has cheated. Compare to the old system, which relies on teachers closely monitoring students, the new system’s decision mostly depends on students’ honesty. If students cover each other when they cheat in test, the school can’t receive the actual data. The worst thing is that cheating still continue and the honor code may make student dishonest. Also, a student who suspects someone has cheated may have no evidence but dislike the person. This situation can make data incorrect and increase time costs, which faculty members have to investigate the whole thing. Therefore, Groveton has the responsibility to provide the correct rate in the honor code and if they create the “honor team”, which is contributed to monitor students and constitute by students with high moral, to fix the potential problem in the honor code.

To strengthen the argument, the author must provide sufficient evidence as above mentioned.