2019-06-17 Writing: cheating punishment, video games

In a school setting, what is cheating?
plagiarism = a type of cheating where you use someone else’s work as your own
How should schools punish cheaters?
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This week we’ll talk about supporting personal opinions.
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p. 165-166 - Read the blog post about punishing cheaters.
Is the punishment (removing him from the class after one time cheating on homework) too harsh?
With your partner, think of three possible reasons for “yes” and three for “no”.
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Yes, it is too harsh, because…
- it only happened once
- it will prevent him from going to a good university
- it was just homework, nothing serious like a term paper or final exam
- the school and the teacher had different rules
- cheating is very common among students
No, it is an appropriate punishment, because…
- cheating is wrong and there must be consequences
- it’s not fair to the other students who did their work honestly
- severe punishment sets an example for other students who haven’t been caught (yet)
- he and his parents were already aware of (and agreed to) this teacher’s policy
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Read about “video games and violence” and answer the questions on p. 169
1 Violent video games are harmful to young people.
  The author says, “In my opinion,” in the topic sentence, and, “I feel,” in the conclusion.
2 three
3 First of all,
  A second reason...is that
  A third reason is that
4 Why the first one? - The writer gives facts based on scientific research.
	(but he doesn’t give methods or data from the research, and there’s no emotional impact)
  Why the last one? - The writer gives an extreme example with a strong emotional impact.
	(but it’s not clear whether the example is really connected to video games)
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The Columbine shooters had gone bowling just before killing their classmates.
- Is this good evidence that bowling has harmful effects on teenagers?

“They murdered their classmates.” “They played video games.”
- These are both facts that happened, but the writer doesn’t actually explain how they’re connected.
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Homework: p. 170 (all) - noun and adjective forms of words