MWP2 Outline

Introduction

                -get the audience to care-  Would you feel safe if you found out your doctor had cheated on tests in Medical School? Cheating is one of the more serious issues in education today. Cheating has increased significantly in the past century, and continues to rise.

                -establish ethos

Various reports indicate that between 75% and 90% of students have cheated before, and people are constantly trying to battle cheating. 

                -thesis statement

-working thesis:  Current methods for battling cheating do not work, and new solutions taken from different points of view are required, such as increasing the respectfulness of teachers and changing the classroom environment, increasing the punishments for cheating, having teachers take other precautions, and an increase in the social awareness of cheating.

Definition Paragraph

Cheating:    Cheating is when one student uses the work of another, with or without the other’s permission. Cheating can include taking answers from another student on a test, copying another’s homework answers if the instructor prohibits such activity, and various forms of plagiarism.

Perceived:    appears to be a certain way, is thought to be a certain way

Review of Literature

Regarding Punishment and Community Issues

In the article “Study Of A Cognitive Dissonance Intervention To Address High School Students' Cheating Attitudes And Behaviors” (2009) by Edward J. Vinski and Georgiana S. Tryon, the authors claim that cheating is not punished in schools.

In the article “Situational And Personal Causes Of Student Cheating” (2009) by David A. Rettinger and Yair Kramer, the authors claim that cheating in schools is in part caused by other students’ cheating, and that seeing others cheat can lead to an increase in cheating.

In the article “Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Cheating: The Influence Of Direct Knowledge And Attitudes On Academic Dishonesty” (2010) by David A. Rettinger, et al, the authors claim that an increase in reporting of cheating would deter cheaters because others would see cheaters being caught.

Regarding Things Teachers Can do

In the article “Methods Of Cheating And Deterrents To Classroom Cheating: An International Study” by Michael B. Witek, et al., the authors claims that cheating has increased since 1942 and that some methods can be used to deter cheating.

In Tamera B. Murdock, Anne S. Beauchamp, and Amber M. Hinton’s article “Predictors Of Cheating And Cheating Attributions: Does Classroom Context Influence Cheating And Blame For Cheating?,” the authors claim that acceptance for cheating in school can be attributed to perceptions of the fairness of the classroom and traits of the teacher, such as respectfulness and competence.

               

Argument/Analysis

-what teachers can do

                -respectfulness

                -mastery over performance

                -report more cheating

-what administrators can do

                -increase the punishment to cheaters

                -streamline the reporting process

-what students can do

                -better awareness of cheating, peer pressure, understand cheating is wrong

                -report cheaters

Conclusion

-restatement of thesis:   Overall, the issues of increasing the respectfulness of teachers and changing the classroom environment, increasing the punishments for cheating, and having teachers pay more attention to cheating are issues that need to be examined when attempting to solve cheating.

-call for action

-optimistic “farewell”

MWP2 Introduction Paragraph

Would you feel comfortable if you found out your doctor had cheated on tests? Cheating is a serious issue in education today. Cheating has increased significantly in the past century, and continues to rise. Various reports indicate that between 75% and 90% of students have cheated before, and people are constantly trying to battle cheating.  Current methods for battling cheating do not work, and new solutions taken from different points of view are required, such as increasing the respectfulness of teachers and changing the classroom environment, increasing the punishments for cheating, having teachers take other precautions, and an increase in the social awareness of cheating.

Rough Draft version of Proposal and Argument (MWP2) 700 words

Cheating is a very large problem in schools today.  Cheating is when one student uses the work of another, with or without the other’s permission. Cheating can include taking answers from another student on a test, copying another’s homework answers if the instructor prohibits such activity, and various forms of plagiarism. Current methods for battling cheating do not work, and new solutions taken from different points of view are required, such as increasing the respectfulness of teachers and changing the classroom environment, increasing the punishments for cheating, and having teachers pay more attention to cheating.

As stated above, new solutions are required to remedy cheating. According to Michael Witek, et al., cheating has increased by 4.5 times the rate of cheating in 1942. (376) Whilst this cannot be attributed to any one factor, the number is still staggering. And, to this point, cheating has not been remedied because the rate of cheating is still increasing. Because current methods of battling cheating do not work, new methods need to be examined from entirely new points of view, which are proposed here.

A common misconception of cheating is that cheating is solely the “fault” of the student who cheats; however, research shows that this is not always the case. While a student always does make the final choice whether to cheat or to not cheat, the way a teacher conducts his or herself in the classroom can affect a student’s likelihood to cheat. According to research done by Tamera Murdock, Anne Beauchamp, and Amber Hinton, if a student perceived a classroom to be more performance based, which focuses on “ability, social comparison and absolute correctness,” compared to mastery based, which focuses on “effort, improvement and mastery,” then a student is more likely to cheat. (478) This can be used to claim that if a teacher has his or her classroom based more on mastery and less on performance, there will be less cheating. However, this may be considered idealistic, considering that standardized tests are still weighted heavily in a school’s performance and standardized testing leads to a more performance based classroom. This is a drawback of mastery-style classrooms, but it can be theorized that if a teacher had his or her classroom leaning more towards mastery than performance, there would be less cheating whilst still within the bounds of the performance paradigm of the school system. Also in the research of Murdoch, Beauchamp, and Hinton, is teacher respectfulness. They conclude that when a teacher is perceived as more respectful to his or her students, there is less cheating in the classroom. (486) Ideally, this would imply that to remedy the problem, teachers simply need to be more respectful; however, this is not the case. The findings state that how respectful a teacher is perceived to be to his or her students affects whether or not a student cheats. To solve this, teachers may need more classes or lessons on how to be respectful to students; however, if a teacher is the most respectful she can possibly be, this does not always mean she is perceived to be respectful, which causes a large variable in the solution.

While cheating is just stated as not always being a student’s sole fault, it can be considered that way in many cases. One large issue with cheating is that students feel that they can cheat and not get caught or that when they are caught, there will be no consequences to cheating. According to a study performed by Edward Vinski and Georgiana Tryon, the majority of students in a sample group admit that cheating is considered wrong, but 90% of this sample group had cheated anyway and only 30% of the sample group had ever been caught cheating, and that those who had been caught cheating were not punished. (224) This suggests that teachers do not pay enough attention to cheating or that they simply do not care or do not wish to get involved with the issues of cheating. Also, Vinski and Tryon suggest that because of this hypocrisy from the teachers, students may also follow suit, which would explain the hypocrisy of students admitting that cheating is wrong but cheating anyway. (224) To solve this issue, teachers would need to be educated further in how to watch for cheating, but schools also need to streamline the process to report cheating and increase the penalties for cheating to discourage cheating.

Overall, the issues of increasing the respectfulness of teachers and changing the classroom environment, increasing the punishments for cheating, and having teachers pay more attention to cheating are issues that need to be examined when attempting to solve cheating. If these issues are partially or fully solved, it may lead to a large drop in cheating, or, at least, a significant drop in cheating.

Works Cited

Murdock, Tamera B., Anne S. Beauchamp, and Amber M. Hinton. "Predictors Of Cheating And Cheating Attributions: Does Classroom Context Influence Cheating And Blame For Cheating?." European Journal Of Psychology Of Education - EJPE (Instituto Superior De Psicologia Aplicada) 23.4 (2008): 477-492. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Mar. 2012.

Vinski, Edward J., and Georgiana Shick Tryon. "Study Of A Cognitive Dissonance Intervention To Address High School Students' Cheating Attitudes And Behaviors." Ethics & Behavior 19.3 (2009): 218-226. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Mar. 2012.

Witek, Michael B., et al. "Methods Of Cheating And Deterrents To Classroom Cheating: An International Study." Ethics & Behavior 18.4 (2008): 373-391. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Mar. 2012.

MWP2: Precis 5: “Study Of A Cognitive Dissonance Intervention To Address High School Students' Cheating Attitudes And Behaviors”

In the article “Study Of A Cognitive Dissonance Intervention To Address High School Students' Cheating Attitudes And Behaviors” (2009) by Edward J. Vinski and Georgiana S. Tryon, the authors claim that cheating is not punished in schools. The authors support this claim by providing evidence from surveys that report students are not concerned about getting caught cheating, and have seen other students caught cheating receive no punishment. The purpose of this article is to present information about a survey about why students cheat in order to provide more information about the problem of cheating in schools and how to prevent such cheating. The audience for this article is a group of educated people, because difficult vocabulary is used along with difficult statistical data that causes the article to be difficult to read if the reader is not educated.

Vinski, Edward J., and Georgiana Shick Tryon. "Study Of A Cognitive Dissonance Intervention To Address High School Students' Cheating Attitudes And Behaviors." Ethics & Behavior 19.3 (2009): 218-226. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Mar. 2012.

MWP2: Precis 4: “Situational And Personal Causes Of Student Cheating”

            In the article “Situational And Personal Causes Of Student Cheating” (2009) by David A. Rettinger and Yair Kramer, the authors claim that cheating in schools is in part caused by other students’ cheating, and that seeing others cheat can lead to an increase in cheating. This claim is supported by two expiriments conducted by the authors, both of which lead to the conclusion that the culture around a person can increase or decrease cheating. The purpose of this article is to present findings about peer pressure in cheating in order to prevent more cheating by incorporating methods to reduce the pressure to cheat and to increase the pressure to not cheat. The intended audience for this article is a group of people who are educated and interested in the psychology of cheating, because the article includes intense vocabulary and psychological theories, and contains statistical data tables that are difficult to analyze without the proper educational background.

Rettinger, David A., and Yair Kramer. "Situational And Personal Causes Of Student Cheating." Research In Higher Education 50.3 (2009): 293-313. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Mar. 2012.

MWP2: Precis 3: “Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Cheating: The Influence Of Direct Knowledge And Attitudes On Academic Dishonesty”

                In the article “Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Cheating: The Influence Of Direct Knowledge And Attitudes On Academic Dishonesty” (2010) by David A. Rettinger, et al, the authors claim that an increase in reporting of cheating would deter cheaters because others would see cheaters being caught. The authors support this claim with an experiment involving social variables and aspects, which the findings state that people are more likely to cheat when they see others go unpunished for cheating. The purpose of this article is to inform about research regarding cheating in order to present more information about how to deter cheating. The audience for this article is a group of college-educated people, because it is very long, includes a few statistical charts, and is written like a lab report, which suggests educated people would read it.

Rettinger, David A., et al. "Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Cheating: The Influence Of Direct Knowledge And Attitudes On Academic Dishonesty." Ethics & Behavior 20.1 (2010): 47-64. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Mar. 2012.

MWP2: Rhetorical Precis "Methods of cheating and Deterrents to Classroom Cheating: An International Study"

In the article “Methods Of Cheating And Deterrents To Classroom Cheating: An International Study” by Michael B. Witek, et al., the authors claims that cheating has increased since 1942 and that some methods can be used to deter cheating. The authors support this claim by providing statistical information and graphs which prove that cheating has increased since 1942 and also by reporting data of an experiment where a group of people were asked how certain deterrents of cheating and punishments of cheating would help the issue of cheating. The purpose of this article is to inform people how to attempt to prevent cheating in order to reduce the amount of cheating. The intended audience for this article is a group of college educated people, because difficult terminology is used and statistical data and a long length are utilized by the paper, along with the organization of a lab report.

Michael B. Witek, et al. "Methods Of Cheating And Deterrents To Classroom Cheating: An International Study." Ethics & Behavior 18.4 (2008): 373-391. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Mar. 2012.

MWP2: Working Thesis

                Current methods for battling cheating do not work, and new solutions taken from different points of view are required, such as increasing the respectfulness of teachers and changing the classroom environment, increasing the punishments for cheating, having teachers take other precautions, and an increase in the social awareness of cheating.

"Zoom in on the Problem" Summary

            Cheating is a very large problem in schools today.  Cheating is when one student uses the work of another, with or without the other’s permission. Cheating can include taking answers from another student on a test, copying another’s homework answers if the instructor prohibits such activity, and various forms of plagiarism. The issue which is focused on here is cheating on tests, which avoids the subject of plagiarism altogether and falls more under the category of “academic dishonesty.” Cheating is morally wrong, and is considered a serious problem by people. Cheating, in general, affects the cheaters the most, because the one who does the cheating is missing out on the knowledge obtained when not cheating. Teachers are also affected by cheating, because they have to deal with cheating and its effects, and also attempt to prevent cheating. Also, cheating affects the administration of schools, which have to take punitive action against cheaters, which increases the amount of work they have to do. Finally, cheating also affects those who do not cheat, because it creates an unfair advantage for those who do cheat when the one who cheats is not caught; this, in turn, can lead to the one who was following the rules to attempt cheating, to “level the playing field.” Many people have different theories as to what causes cheating; however, all of the causes are not yet known, but laziness and simply not caring about the respective class are definite causes. People have tried for many years to stop this cheating; however, so far, none have been successful in preventing cheating, and some may argue cheating has actually increased recently. The people who have tried to remedy this problem have not succeeded because the issue is being looked at the wrong way; it needs to be examined from a different point of view, and new solutions need to be presented, which may need to focus on other people rather than simply the students to obtain results. If the problem is not solved, cheating will continue, and eventually people will give up attempting to find a solution, which will lead to a generation of students who either cheat or were negatively affected by cheating. To summarize: People should attempt to find new and different solutions to the problem of cheating because the current methods to remedy the problem do not work to maximum efficiency.

Problem Paper: "Predictors of Cheating and Cheating Attributions..." precis

In Tamera B. Murdock, Anne S. Beauchamp, and Amber M. Hinton’s article “Predictors Of Cheating And Cheating Attributions: Does Classroom Context Influence Cheating And Blame For Cheating?,” the authors claim that acceptance for cheating in school can be attributed to perceptions of the fairness of the classroom and traits of the teacher, such as respectfulness and competence. To support this claim, the authors present their study in which a group of students were given scenarios regarding things such as the classroom fairness and teacher traits, and asked to answer questions about various justifications for cheating, which concluded that students do cheat more when they perceive the classroom and teacher negatively. The purpose of this article is to present the findings of a study in order to try to find more reasons for why students cheat. The intended audience for this article is a group of psychologists, because the study is very organized and uses high level terminology, but also includes statistical data that is more difficult to interpret.

Works Cited

Murdock, Tamera B., Anne S. Beauchamp, and Amber M. Hinton. "Predictors Of Cheating And Cheating Attributions: Does Classroom Context Influence Cheating And Blame For Cheating?." European Journal Of Psychology Of Education - EJPE (Instituto Superior De Psicologia Aplicada) 23.4 (2008): 477-492. Academic Search Premier. Web. 2 Mar. 2012.

Rhetorical Precis on Chapter 13 of Good Reasons

In the thirteenth Chapter, “Proposal Arguments,” of Good Reasons (2012), Lester Faigley and Jack Selzer claim that proposal arguments consist of an argument that someone should do something. The authors back this claim up by giving step-by-step instructions on how to make a proposal argument and provide good reasons and ways to do this, including “Stating a proposed solution” and “Demonstrating that the solution is feasible,” whilst also providing two examples of proposal arguments. (Faigley and Selzer 186) The purpose of this Chapter is to instruct on how to create a proposal argument in order to increase the ability of the reader to create good proposal arguments. The intended audience of this Chapter  is a group of college students, because the vocabulary and topics described are at a college level, and one of the examples consists solely about life at a college, specifically.

Works Cited

Faigley, Lester and Jack Selzer. Good Reasons: Researching and Writing Effective Arguments. Chicago: Pearson, 2012. Print