Illogical Reasoning in Greenberg’s Claim
The article “Why colleges should ditch honor codes” on The Washington Post discusses how honor codes encourage rather than stifle cheating. The author, Susan Greenberg, argues that the honor code fails because it relies on students reporting their peers when witnessing a violation of the rules. Students are hesitant to report their peers because they gain nothing from it. Greenberg also states that the honor code is ineffective and have difficult guidelines to follow when today’s society should encourage collaboration, not inhibit it. Due to the punishments school give out for breaking the honor code, students are reluctant to collaborate with others and share problem-solving ideas. Using both personal anecdotes from students and surveys given at colleges as evidence, Greenberg makes her point that colleges should abandon honor codes because they are now obsolete.
Throughout the article, Greenberg shows how important the issue of honor codes is to her. However, although she is very passionate …show more content…
She goes on to state that “rates of overall cheating at honor-code schools rose slightly…while they declined at no-code schools,” and follows up her claim by quoting McCabe, saying “the influence of honor codes ‘has eroded over the past two decades.’” Greenberg’s line of reasoning here is practically nonexistent. The argument feels incomplete because Greenberg never explains how honor codes influence the rates of overall cheating. She makes the assumption that honor codes are the cause of the rates decreasing when it could just be a correlation. The two statements show no evidence of being connected. This argument could end up being classified as a false cause because there is no way to prove that honor codes are the reason cheating is increasing at schools with those