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sonnee

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  1. 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. Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation. Before assuming that the honor code is a successful endeavor in curbing the cheating among students, it’s imperative to answer some of the questions. First, How is this honor code system applied, are the students asked to sign a document before each exam that states the honor code, are there any implications of breaking this honor code that is made clear to the students? If the honor code is just a verbal agreement between the school authorities and the students, then it might not be a very dependable way of qualifying the cheating cases. Because it is highly possible that students take the oath and still cheat in the exams, and if there is nothing in writing about the honor code and there are no severe implications of breaking it ( like suspension from school or awarding a grade F in that subject if found guilty) then it will be difficult to prove that the students have in fact broken the honor code. Second,this new code takes the burden of keeping an attentive eye on students taking the exam off the teacher’s shoulders. It is highly possible that since this honor code is in effect teachers just don’t pay enough attention on the students writing exams, or may not even be present in the classroom, which automatically will reduce the number of cases reported. Also, just reporting 30 cases per year is not very informative because we don’t know anything about the total number of students taking the exam and what was the teacher to student ratio at that time. Another important thing to notice is that, the author has stated that the number of cases dropped from twenty one cases per year to fourteen cases within five years of this system being in effect. But this drop could be a result of overall decline in the number of students taking the exams or a total decline in the number of students enrolled in that college. We cannot simply assume it to be a result of this honor system. It should be made clear of the exact number of students taking the exam when this honor code started and how many enrolled after five years. It could also be very well possible that students might make a deal among themselves of not reporting the cases to anyone as a mutual way of benefit. There is no way of knowing this unless there is a video surveillance of all the exams. Finally, the survey mentioned does not give any information about the number students who took the survey, also there could be difference in responses depending on the age and the gender of the students, none of which is specified about the survey. Before the above questions are answered, it would be difficult to conclude that the decline in cheating is solely due to the honor code and it should be universally applied to all the colleges and universities.
  2. The luxuries and conveniences of contemporary life prevent people from developing into truly strong and independent individuals. Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position. I am an eighties kid, who has seen the pre-technology boom era and also the times when the main purpose of development was to ease the way of living in every sense possible. So, I have been a part of the era when there was no internet, no cellular phones, no GPS, black and white television, and most of the things were labor oriented. I have also witnessed the burst of internet, cellular phones, laptops, touch sense devices, human assist devices such as Amazon’s Alexa, vacuum cleaners, self driven cars, and so on and so forth. There’s no doubt in the fact that the generation before did not have the luxuries and the conveniences that my generation or the generation after have, but I do not agree with the statement that these conveniences have prevented people from becoming strong and independent. First of all, whether an individual wants to become strong and independent depends a lot on his/her personality and also the upbringing. If someone wants to be successful then they would have to get out of their comfort zone, they will still need their intellect or the talent to achieve their success. Not every person can be Steve Job, or a Satya Nadella. Isn’t it a bit unfair to undermine the successful and deserving people in this contemporary world by saying that they had conveniences at their disposal? There are people who just depend on food home delivery, or would just go out to eat instead of cooking, but there are also people who like to cook their own food, go for grocery shopping. Now one could argue, that what’s the big deal in going for grocery shopping sitting in car. Absolutely! There is no big deal in that, but to sit behind the wheel and drive the car is a great responsibility, and also, the time saved in walking to the store, can be utilized in doing something more meaningful, like studying something, or actually cooking the food. I, and so many others, have left their homes in hopes of making a better life for ourselves. We still had to get good grades in school, we still had to study hard to achieve our goals, although I have grown up in the comfort of air conditioning, cellular phones, cars, I still had to study, I still left the comfort of my home to study abroad, in a different country. I would rather, say that these luxuries saved my effort and time so that I could invest my time in more fruitful things. Also, thanks to the video conferencing, I can talk and see my family every day and still live far apart from them chasing my dreams. In conclusion I would say that, like everything, this also has its pros and cons. It depends on us, whether we allow ourselves to be completely taken in by these luxuries and become completely dependent on them or use them as tools to do what we want to, be it professionally or personally.
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