还有一个星期 argument求拍

雪然UID: 2773876

TOPIC: ARGUMENT197 - The following appeared as part of a recommendation made by a faculty member to the president of a large university.

"Never once in our 150-year history as a university have we clarified our objectives. How, then, can we hope to adapt as an institution to the new challenges facing higher education. As a first step in this evolutionary process, therefore, we should send out questionnaires asking faculty members why they teach, asking students what they want from this university, and asking former students what they gained from their own education here. When the replies come in, we can tabulate them and formulate an official statement of our educational mission. This will surely result in improved programs at our university."
WORDS: 401

TIME: 00:30:00
DATE: 2010-3-18 11:13:21

In this argument, the author recommends that the 150-year history university should adapt to new challenges through making new educational mission rests on a series of questionnaires. To justify this claim, the author notes that, the university never clarified their objectives and it should now clarified it through asking faculty members, students and former students. Careful examination of this claim, however, reveals that none of them lend credible support to the author's recommendation.

In the first place, the argument rests on a dubious assumption that this 150- year history university is not doing well in education. The author tells us that the university should pursue higher education without offering us the current situation of the university. Consider, if the university is a world wide famous school with a extraordinary education system, since the author does not provide us detailed information about the university, it is obviously unnecessary to make any changes. Thus, the author can not solely draw the conclusion that the university needs a immediate reform since he or she fails to inform us the specific situation about the university.

In the second place, even if the university needs a immediate evolutionary process, the author fail to consider other methods to enhance the university's education. Although, sending out questionnaires asking faculty members and students may be a effective way to have a clear profile of the university, it is still insufficient to formulate an official statement merely based on some questionnaires. No to mention that the author does not provide us the further information about the questionnaires such as how many questionnaires are send or who conduct this activities.

In the third place, assuming that the questionnaires are well-conducted, the author's conclusion that it will surely result in improved programs at the university is ground less. The argument does not mention who is in charge of the making of the educational mission and what the mission exactly is. So we have no adequate evidence to prove that the educational mission will absolutely lead to a improvement.

To sum up. this argument, while seems quite reasonable at first glance, ahs several flaws as discussed above, Thus it is not persuasive and unreliable as it stands. To better bolster the argument, the author should provide more details about the clear strategy of the university improvement and the questionnaires. I would also want to know the current situation of the university.