[a习作temp] =七月流火=小组第3次小组作业 A101(V2) by lghscu [复制链接]

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发表于 2009-8-23 15:47:41 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

TOPIC: ARGUMENT101 - The following appeared in a memo from the president of a company that makes breakfast cereals.

"In a recent study, subjects who ate soybeans at least five times per week had significantly lower cholesterol levels than subjects who ate no soy products. By fortifying our Wheat-O cereal with soy protein, we can increase sales by appealing to additional consumers who are concerned about their health. This new version of Wheat-O should increase company profits and, at the same time, improve the health of our customers."
WORDS: 500
TIME: 00:60:00
DATE: 2009-8-23 11:17:54

The argument presented above for arguing that company would make more money and customers' health would be improved by a new version of Wheat-O, based on the different cholesterol contents absorbed by people in a recent studey, seems plausible. However, the argument contains several flaws as follows.

In the first place, in evaluating the validation of the survey, one must consider several facets. To begin with, the argument must provide information about whether the number of people surveyed is relatively small? If so, the generalizability of the survey results might not applied to most customers. In addition, the argument fails to give information concerning how the objects eating or not eating soybean products were selected. If these people were not selected randomly, the assumption that more soybean results in lower cholesterol determined from the survey would not be sufficiently supported by the evidence in the study. Therefore, when considering the validation of the survey, the author should offer information such as the number of people studied and the way these people were selected.

In the second place, the author fails to consider other possible alternative causes to the decreasing of cholesterol levels. It might be the case that it is other kind of food that causes the cholesterol to be lower rather than soybean. It also might be the case that enviroment in those who have soybeans is different from that in those who do not, consequently, there is a natural difference between the contents of cholesterol. Hence, the cause-and-effect relationship between soybeans and cholesterol would not be as certain as the argument seeems unless the author ruling out such possible alternative explanations.

Last but not least, even if the survey result that soybeans would contribute to decreasing the cholesterol contents is acceptable, the argument’s claim that making new version of Wheat-O would profit the incorporation is not sufficiently supported. On the one hand, a large amount of money would be invested in getting new version. Does the company have budget for developing new products? If not, the shortage of money would impede them from doing so. On the other hand, even though financial problem can be solved, will this new products have a considerable market share? It is possible that only a very few people would buy new version of Wheat-O not only because of other people’s favor of certain type of product welcomed by the populus, but due to the fact that most people actually concerned with their health emphasize on sports not on food, let alone Wheat-O. Therefore, before deciding whether the new product would profitable or not, the author needs to make a more insightful investigation.

Based on the discussion above, the author lends little credible support to the conclusion that a new version of Wheat-O is profitable and does good to customers’ health. Unless the author provides information about the way the survey was conducted, the indeed causal relationship between soybeans and cholesterol, and a prospective profit, the argument above would not be that convincing.

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题目有点难把握，特写了两个版本，下面的链接是第二个版本
=七月流火=小组第3次小组作业 argu101 by 12lghscu