[a习作temp] argument197 4.19assignment临考一周倒计时!!! [复制链接]

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发表于 2007-4-19 12:30:33 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

TOPIC: ARGUMENT197 - The following appeared as part of a recommendation made by a faculty member to the president of a large university.

"Never once in our 150-year history as a university have we clarified our objectives. How, then, can we hope to adapt as an institution to the new challenges facing higher education. As a first step in this evolutionary process, therefore, we should send out questionnaires asking faculty members why they teach, asking students what they want from this university, and asking former students what they gained from their own education here. When the replies come in, we can tabulate them and formulate an official statement of our educational mission. This will surely result in improved programs at our university."
WORDS:471       TIME: 0:30:00       DATE: 2007-4-19

In this argument, a faculty member recommends the president of a university a way to improve programs by sending out questionnaires to students, faculty to formulate an official statement of our educational mission.  Although the argument may seem reasonable at first glance, it is fraught with vague and oversimplified messages.

To begin with, the author unfairly asserts that the 150-year-old university had never clarified the objectives.  Perhaps, in 150-year history, everyone in this school had achieved a clear but just unwritten brief of the objectives.  And more importantly, is sending out questionnaires the only way to clarified the objectives of the university?  Common sense informs us that every education organization share the same objective, that is to develop some certain skills among students, educate students to maintain high moral and ethical standards, and contribute to the prosperity and stableness of the society.  With this general direction, it is entirely possible that the committee of the school just need to open a meeting to discuss about the school's particular objectives, for instance, focusing on the education on Arts.  Then the large scale of questionnaires, which inevitable requires large human resources, money, and time, could be useless.  Without any explanation of why excludes other feasible solutions and why large scale questionnaires is a must to clarified the objectives, the author's recommendation is not reliable.

Moreover, even sending out questionnaires are necessary, the procedures of ' asking faculty member why they teach, and asking students what they want from this university, and asking former students what they gained from their own education here' is open to doubt.  How much could the possible various answers of these complex questions contribute to the clarification of objectives?  Perhaps, a single question: what do you think is the objectives of our school would fit the requirement.  Or the committee could offer some choices of objectives for students and faculty to select, which would both ease the answerers and the statistical personnel to formulate an official statement.

Finally, the author’s conclusion that the university’s programs would surely improves by clarifying the objectives is unwarranted.  The quality of a program depends on many factors, such as  the teacher’s teaching methods and facilities.  It is entirely possible that the poor quality of teachers in this large university results in the poor quality of programs.  So in that case, the primary concern of the president of this school is not to clarify the objective, but to attract high-quality personnel and provide them with good payment and facilities.  In short, without ruling out all possible factors that affect this university’s program quality, the author’s recommended solution is unwarranted.

In sum, the argument lacks credibility because the evidences and information cited in the analysis do not lend strong support to what the arguer maintains.  To bolster the argument, the author must provide detailed information about this school, and provides evidence of the necessity of laughing such a large scale of questionnaires.  In addition, the author should concern more potential reasons that set back the improvement of programs, and then make proper solutions.

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