A Whole Lot Of Cheatin Going On - Critique

2 Pages 507 Words

Mark Clayton, the author of “A Whole Lot of Cheatin’ Going On,” states that cheating has become a huge problem throughout schools and that schools are trying to stop it. At least 80% of students have admitted to cheating one or more times in their educational careers, says the Center for Academic Integrity in Nashville. Schools are trying many things to try and prevent cheating. Schools and students definitely disagree on the definition of cheating; so how can anything be done until cheating can be clearly defined?
Clayton uses a lot of sources for his evidence. Each and every student, teacher, and educational reference gives opinions on cheating based on their own, individual knowledge and bias. The main evidence he lacks is the actual definition of cheating. His evidence backs up the fact that cheating is going and that schools are trying to fix the problem, but he never once gives a concise definition of the problem so it makes it hard for the reader to make his own opinion of the issue.
I agree with Clayton’s points about cheating. Being a college student, I know from experience just how common cheating is. The internet makes it so much easier for students to cheat because when you search for a topic, papers are offered to you right away whether you want them or not. I believe that colleges think that enforcing honor codes and educating students on cheating will stop it, but it will only stop a small amount. So many students have cheated their entire life, through everything, without ever getting caught, so being threatened by an honor code will not stop them now. They believe it is the easy way to get through life and no one has taught them any differently yet. In high school, cheating was so easy because the teachers just gave you your work and didn’t care what happened from there so, of course, students took the easy way by cheating. As teachers continue to not care each day in the classroom, students are going to c...