argument 238 求好心人拍砖，想听听别人的建议，谢谢

manfred_huiUID: 2689901

TOPIC: ARGUMENT238 - The following appeared in a memorandum from the president of Mira
Vista
College to the college's board of trustees.

"At nearby Green
Mountain
College, which has more business courses and more job counselors than does Mira
Vista
College, 90 percent of last year's graduating seniors had job offers from prospective employers. But at Mira
Vista
College last year, only 70 percent of the seniors who informed the placement office that they would be seeking employment had found full-time jobs within three months after graduation, and only half of these graduates were employed in their major field of study. To help Mira Vista's graduates find employment, we must offer more courses in business and computer technology and hire additional job counselors to help students with their resumés and interviewing skills."
WORDS: 478
TIME: 00:30:00
DATE: 2009-8-30 10:16:51

前面有事都没怎么看，16号就考了，开始闭关了。

但这两天写了一些，却觉得没什么进步，哎，不知道该怎么办。

The arguer claims that more courses in business and computer technology and additional job counselors should be provided to students in Green Mountain College (GMC) to improve their resumes and interviewing skills. To support the conclusion, the author cites that there are more graduating students from Mira Vista College (MVC) who got offers than students from GMC. Plausible as it seems, careful examination reveals that the argument is based on several unwarranted assumptions, which undermine the validity of reasoning.

First of all, the study result does not necessarily show that the total number of students getting job offers since it lacks the information of the total number of graduates of the two colleges. It is entirely possible that GMC has much more students than MVC has. If this is the case, 70 percent of seniors from GMC may actually be more people than 90 percent of students from MVC. Then employers may prefer students of GMC instead of ones of MVC. Moreover, as presented by the author, the number, 70 percent, is calculated base on the students who provide their job information. It is possible that some students didn’t provide this information to the placement office. Additional, these students got jobs within 3 months after graduation. Then what about those who found jobs after 3 months? Did MVC take this kind of graduating students into account? Thus, if the author does not provide this information, the basic assumption of the conclusion is itself unwarranted let alone the final suggestion.

Another problematic assumption is that the high employment rate of MVC is attributed to the business courses and job counselors. Admittedly, these measures will give more information of the job market to the graduates; however, other factors including the students' practical and academic performance, teaching quality and reputation of the school are usually of more importance according to our common sense. Thus, if the author does not rule out all the other possibilities resulting in the high employment rate, it is hasty to draw the conclusion that more business courses and job counselors led to the high employment rate of students in MVC.

Given that business courses and job counselors are the key factor, it is not convincible to extend the success in MVC to GMC, condition of which may be greatly different. As mentioned by the author that half of the graduates from GMC who got offers were not employed in their major field. As a result, we can infer that it is quite likely that students in GMC do not perform well in their academic study. If other condition remains unchanged except for the more business courses and job counselors, we have no reason to believe that the overall ability of students, which is the most treasured by employers, will be improved.

Last, the conclusion that business and computer technology and additional job counselors will help the students with their resumes and interviewing skills is also unwarranted. The author provides little evidence to support this conclusion. Moreover, as discussed above, no information shows that the low employment rate of GMC is due to students' lack of resumes and interviewing skills. As a result, it is imprudent for the president to suggest the measurement to the board.

In sum, the argument is not convincible as it stands. To bolster it, the author should provide more information about the study, figure out the main factor which causes the low employment rate of graduates from GMC and scrutinize the condition between the two colleges carefully.