Cheating

Cheating

There is an ever broadening problem spreading throughout colleges all across America: cheating. Is it a serious offence or just a harmless crime? Cheating is on the rise, but schools and colleges are not far behind with ways of dealing with it. Mark Clayton deals with this issue in his essay entitled “A Whole Lot of Cheatin’ Going On.”

Clayton’s essay is heavily quoted along with an obvious absence of his ideas. The reader is supposed to believe that his quotes accurately represent his views on the matter at hand. Clayton’s essay is primarily pathos due to the amount of quoted ideas.

The essay starts off quoting a freshman at University of Texas: “’Cheating is an answer. It might not be a good answer, but none the less it is an answer.’” (20) Clayton goes on saying that the student does not believe in cheating but was only trying to prove a point. Clayton later quotes an associate provost at Rutgers University who describes how cheating is on the rise. Clayton says, “He and others blame poor role models and lack of parental guidance for the growing acceptance of cheating in colleges.” (20) Neither Clayton nor the associate provost proves themselves to make a pathos statement such as this one. Clayton never states why the reader should trust what he has to say or what he believes. All of his information comes from quoted material; so what makes his position any more credible than the average Joe with access to the internet or a library?

Ethos is integrated well with Clayton’s personal feelings by stating, “[P]ervasive change in societal values [can make] students easily be snared if they lack a strong moral compass.” (20) However, Clayton goes right back to his quotes after having only one de...

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...y, I’ll go next week. You do the reading this week, I’ll do it next week.” (24) These students and others usually do not find sharing work to be a form of cheating. They simply help each other. However, colleges with honor codes feel that by placing students in an honest environment, they are more likely to be honest themselves.

On the whole, Clayton does a good job at presenting a problem, explaining it, and even describes what is being done about it; however, he does not do a good job at presenting an argument on his own. His entire view on the matter at hand is expressed through quotes with little-to-no emotional views of his own. He uses pathos, logos, and ethos throughout his article even though he heavily stands on the ethos of other people. I would consider this to be more of an informative essay that depicts just how much cheating really is going on.