Argument9--有拍必回拍

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9.The following appeared in a memorandum from a dean at Omega University.

"Fifteen years ago, Omega University implemented a new procedure that
encouraged students to evaluate the teaching effectiveness of all their
professors. Since that time, Omega professors have begun to assign higher
grades in their classes, and overall student grade averages at Omega have
risen by thirty percent. Potential employers apparently believe the grades
at Omega are inflated; this would explain why Omega graduates have not
been as successful at getting jobs as have graduates from nearby Alpha
University. To enable its graduates to secure better jobs, Omega
University should now terminate student evaluation of professors."

15年前，Omega大学实施了一项新措施，鼓励学生对所有教授的教学效果进行评价。从那以后，

Omega的教授开始给予学生更高的分数，Omega的学生成绩总平均上升了30％。未来的雇主显然认

为Omega的分数贬值了；这可以解释为什么Omega的毕业生找工作时没有邻近的Alpha大学毕业生成

功。为使Omega毕业生找到好工作，我们应立即停止学生对教授的评价。

新措施-->教授给予学生更高的分数,学生的成绩总平均上升了30%-->雇主认为学生分数贬值-->导

致学生找工作没有临近大学找工作好找
结论：为使学生好找工作，应该停止新措施

In this argument, the arguer recommend that, to make graduates find a better job, Omega university should cancel the procedure about students evaluation the teaching effectiveness of all the professors, because since the procedure was implemented, the student average grades has been risen 30% and the employments of graduates is not as good as nearby Alpha university. This recommendation seems reasonable at first glance, however, the argument suffers from several critical fallacies.

Firstly, it is unfair for both students and professors to assert that it is the procedure that makes professors at Omega University give their students higher grades. For one thing, it is possibly that processors have pay much more efforts to improve their teaching effectiveness, or Omega have hired some new professors who have advanced teaching method, both of which may make instruction more effectively, and make it reasonble to assign higher grades in professors' classes. For another, the situation of students also should be considered. Assuming that in order to succeed in the more-and-more-rival society, it is normal that students work more and more hard to augment their ability. Therefore it is not correct to keep the grades as before, by which it will cut down the passion of students to study hard. Another possibility is that, during the fifteen years, the quality of accepted students of Omega may be better and better, who can learn knowledge easier than their seniority, so it is unaware for professors to give them higher grades than what given their seniority.

Secondly, it is subjectively to make the assertion that potential employers believe Omega's inflated degrades unless the arguer provide some specific evidences, such as a reliable investigation with a sufficiently representative sample. It is possibly that the employment doesn't depend on the degree of graduates' grades, but depend on the real ability of them, because some employers know that there are different normativenesses between different universities, and the normativeness may be not fir for their ideas. So they may believe that is unwise to select talents by their grades.

What's more, even if we concede that the potential employers believe Omega's inflated degrades, some alternative explanation should be account for the less successful employment than nearby Alpha universities. For example, in different periods, the most popular major is different. Perhaps, during this time, literature is less popular than engineering for employers, and Omega is good at literature, while Alpha is good at engineering. So it is acceptable that the employment of Omega's graduates is less successful than that of Alpha's. Furthermore the gap between the two universities' employment is a big problem. If the gap is too large, we should not expect that Omega can catch up with Alpha in fifteen years and neglect progress made by the procedure.

All in all, it is not proper to make the decision to terminate student evaluation of professors unless providing some evidences that what the procedure gained is less than its drawbacks.