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 resum¨¦s and interviewing skills."
WORDS: 372
TIME: 00:40:00
DATE: 2010-3-18 23:05:30
In this argument, the author concludes that more courses in business and computer technology should be arranged to Mira Vista's graduates and hire additional job counselors to help students with their resumes and interviewing skills. The statement seems at first glance would be an obvious conclusion, while clearly examining the author's reasoning, we may find that it is unconvincing. The argument contains some facets that are questionable.
First of all, the figures "90 percent and 70 percent" could not illustrate that there are more students at Green Mountain College got job offers than the students at Mira vista's College. We can only get this information from the actual number that the students got the offers in two colleges. Because, for example, there are only 100 students at Green Mountain College and 1000 students at Mira Vista's College, it should be easier to 90 percent of Green Mountain College's graduates to get the job offers.
Secondly, there is no any evidence that students at Mountain College got the job offer attribute to the business courses and also no evidence that Mira Vista's students need the business courses. There is no information the above methods are helpful. And the more important thing is that if the students in Mira Vista College are majoring the fields which are irrelevant to business, such as art, biology and so on,
it is not helpful to them to take the courses in business and computer technology. Nevertheless, it is more benefit to Green Mountain College's students, if they are majoring in related fields. Anyway, the author does not show any information about that.
Thirdly, the function of job counselors is not stated in this argument. Even more it is not because of their poor resumes or lacking interviewing skills that they could not get the job offer at Mira Vista College.
To sum up, the conclusion lacks of credibility. Regardless of the author is, he or she has overlooked or chosen to ignore many aspects of his or her conclusion. I insist that the more information should be provided to make the above conclusion, such as the majors and the number of students in two colleges, the effects of business courses and job counselors and so on.