Honor Code Synthesis

How Cheating Can Be Stopped One student at a college decided it was a good idea to copy and paste his entire essay in order to attend a frat party. However, he was caught by his professor and was punished according to that schools honor code. An honor code is a series of rules that are put in place in which the students are trusted to follow and to uphold. Honor codes need to be constantly updated in order to be efficient and useful especially at Thomas Jefferson High School The honor code is outdated and has not been adapted for a long time. They are used as way to prevent cheating in the classroom and to explain the expectations the school has for the students. This code can be used as a method to boost a student’s level of productivity

If the codes does not change, students can find new ways around the rules to cheat and not receive punishment if they are caught. Philip Altbach, a scholar at Boston College, said, “’Plagiarism is more common now…It’s just easier to do’” (Source D). Cheating has become simpler with the new and updated computers and phones. In a matter of minutes a student can find the work and answers for their classes using the internet that is on their phones and laptops. At Harvard 125 students all cheated on an exam using their laptops and phones to cheat on an exam. (Source C). Lou Bloomfield, at U.Va, has a huge class and found out, “A few of his students had simply copied from earlier work. Others had lifted at least a third of their papers from someone else” (Source D). Without updating the honor code at the school nothing is stopping these kids from going online and stealing others work. These scholars believe they have found a way around the honor codes because it is not being addressed by the rules. By revising the codes, students will be discouraged to cheat or plagiarize on their work. Revising provides a way to prevent those sneaky students from thinking of ways around their honor codes. In order to keep up with the new times and modern technology, honor codes should be

However, the students are the ones who understand the current problems. By revising an honor code with both teacher and student input, there is a higher chance that new rules would by accepted and followed. Research conducted by Professor Donald L. McCabe at Rutgers University shows that “…students at colleges with honor codes—typically student-enforced—cheat less than their counterparts elsewhere do” (Source C). By having fellow students working on the honor code, other students will less likely go against it. Mostly this is due to the fact that students do not want to get caught by their peers . Colleges have come to realize that, “T he success of the honor code, then, depends on the expectations that students have of their peers’ behavior…” (Source C) . The students are the ones who follow the honor code and they know what they expect from their fellow students . By having the students with those high expectations on that council, the honor code would be more successful. If you have the combined efforts of the teachers and students, the revision of the rules would be respected by the other