1.28 A140 小组第一次作业，也是第一篇文章啊

doudoumi07UID: 2755418

第一篇作文啊，太烂太臭了。。。狠批吧，我受的了的！！


题目：ARGUMENT140 - The following appeared in a report of the Committee on Faculty Promotions and Salaries at Elm City University.

"During her seventeen years as a professor of botany, Professor Thomas has proved herself to be well worth her annual salary of $50,000. Her classes are among the largest at the university, demonstrating her popularity among students. Moreover, the money she has brought to the university in research grants has exceeded her salary in each of the last two years. Therefore, in consideration of Professor Thomas' demonstrated teaching and research abilities, we recommend that she receive a $10,000 raise and a promotion to Department Chairperson; without such a raise and promotion, we fear that Professor Thomas will leave Elm City University for another college."
字数：510
用时：         日期：2010/1/28 17:07:45


In this argument, the author recommend that Professor Thomas should receive a $10000 raise and a promotion to Department Chairperson from Elmcity University ,to bolster his recommendation, the author point out that Professor Thomas's classes are among the largest at the university and the money Professor Thomas has brought to the university in research grants has exceeded her salary in each of the last two years. Furthermore, the author also reasons that Professor Thomas will leave Elm City University for another college without such a raise and promotion. Although the author's reasoning seem to appealing, close scrutiny of each of these facts, however, the recommendation relies on a series unwarranted assumptions, which render it unpersuasive as it stands. The reasons are stated as follows.

A threshold problem that the recommendation relies on the assumption that
Professor Thomas’s popularity among students
.Yet this assumption overlooks other possible reasons for Professor Thomas’s classes are among the largest at the university. Perhaps Professor Thomas is the only botany teacher in the university, or perhaps the student in the university are in favor of botany, or perhaps the phytology
students account the majority rate in the university . without considering and eliminating these and other possible alternative explanations for Professor Thomas’s popularity among students，the speaker can not convincingly conclude that Professor Thomas is an effective teacher.

Moreover, another flaw that weakness the logic of the argument is that the author unfairly assumes that the money Professor Thomas has attracted to the university in research grants in the last two years reflects her research ability . However, the author fails to provide any evidence to support this assumption. The mere fact that Professor Thomas has attracted to the university in research grants in the last two years does not necessarily indicate that she has the strong research ability. It entirely possible that Professor Thomas has a strong oratorical skills which persuade people sponsor her, or the money other professors attracted to the university more than Professor Thomas’s . Thus, given those possible scenarios, the fact that the money Professor Thomas has attracted to the university in research grants in the last two years prove nothing about Professor Thomas’s research ability.

Last but not least, the argument depends on the hasty assumption that Professor Thomas will leave Elm City University for another college without such a raise and promotion. And the argument unfairly assumes that correlation is tantamount to causation. Even if all the evidence shows that Professor Thomas discontented with the salary and the position ,the author still can not convince me that Professor Thomas will leave Elm City University for another college.

In summary ,the argument is logically flawed and therefore unconvincing as it stands. To support this conclusion, the author should provide more concrete evidence to demonstrate that Professor Thomas's popularity among students and her teaching and researching abilities and she is highly competent as a chairperson. To better evaluate the conclusion, we need more details about Professor Thomas’s teaching and research abilities ,and more information about Professor Thomas’s popularity among students and if she is highly competent as a chairperson.