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TOPIC: ARGUMENT179 - The following is a memorandum written by the director of personnel to the president of the Cedar Corporation.
"It would be a mistake to rehire the Good-Taste Company to supply the food in our employee cafeteria next year. It is the second most expensive caterer in the city. In addition, its prices have risen in each of the last three years, and it refuses to provide meals for people on special diets. Just last month three employees complained to me that they no longer eat in the cafeteria because they find the experience 'unbearable.' Our company should instead hire Discount Foods. Discount is a family-owned local company and it offers a varied menu of fish and poultry. I recently tasted a sample lunch at one of the many companies that Discount serves and it was delicious-an indication that hiring Discount will lead to improved employee satisfaction."
WORDS: 501 TIME: 0:30:00 DATE: 2007-8-15
In this memo, the author recommends to hire the Discount (D) instead of Good-Taste (G) to serve the cafeteria of his company. However, this recommendation is not acceptable, because this argument suffers from several fallacies. I will discuss them in turn.
To begin with, the author fails to prove that the employees are dissatisfactory with G Company. The mere fact is that three employees complained about the high prices of the food in the cafeteria last month. However, this fact is not sufficient enough to show the dissatisfaction of all employees. The author fails to consider the conditions of the three employees, such as salary standards. It is possible these three persons are of the lowest salary standards in the company, and they are coincidently ordered the comparatively expensive food in this cafe. If so, the opinions of the three employees are not representative to other employees in different salary standards. Furthermore, even they are middle-salaried employees, without knowing the size of the whole employees, we still cannot draw any conclusion. For example, this company has 2000 employees, and then three persons are so small a sample that we cannot apply their opinions to the whole population.
In addition, the statement of the president made from a sample lunch of D cannot prove the employees will be satisfactory with food in D. On one hand, tastes vary from person to person. The personal satisfaction of the president is not representative to the whole employees’ population. It is possible that most of the employees are not like the taste. On the other hand, a sample lunch at one company that D serves cannot assure all the food made by this company is delicious. The author does not mention the taste of other kinds of food and in other companies served by D. Perhaps, food in this lunch is what this company is most excelling in, while other food might be of the unsatisfactory taste. Without providing more samples, we cannot be sure the employees will be satisfactory.
Finally, the author fails to mention other conditions of D. These conditions include prices of the food, the nutrition in the food and so forth. Support that the food made by D are all delicious. Is the food less expensive than that of G? If not, why should the employees change G with D? The only dissatisfaction of employees of G is the prices of the food. If D is not cheaper, or even more expensive, the employees will not satisfactory. Moreover, the author also does not show the nutrition, which does to people's health, in D is better than that in G. Perhaps. G's food does more good to people's health.
In sum, this argument is untenable as it stands. To better support the recommendation, the author should provide more information about other employees' accounts about the prices in G. More food sample in D should also be needed. If the author can offer more details about other conditions of D, this argument would be more persuasive.
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