TOPIC: ARGUMENT238~大学就业~~求拍砖

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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 resumes and interviewing skills."



In this memorandum, the president of Mira Vista College concludes that for the sake of improving employment rate of their graduates, Mira Vista College should provide more business and computer technology courses and employ additional job counselors to help students develop their job-hunting skills. To support his conclusion, the president provides several facts. At first glance, his/her line of reasoning seems to be reasonable in logic. A careful inspection of the supporting materials, however, reveals that the argument suffers several flaws, which make the president's conclusion groundless.

In the first place, the president unfairly assumes that the graduates from Green Mountain College have better employment prospects than the students from his college. However, there is no more evidence to support his assumption. That 90 percent of the graduates of Green Mountain College got jobs from promising employers does not necessarily mean that they had better jobs, working conditions, and career development opportunities. It is entirely possible that they are hired to work in the fundamental department and do the basic jobs. Also, the 70 percent of the seniors who had got full-time jobs in his college might be employed to achieve the most important works or might have a chance to partake in the significant projects in their companies. More, possibly, the other 30 percent of graduates uninformed the placement office might run their own companies and earn a large number of profits in operation. If so, the president's assumption cannot convince me.

In the next place, the president point out that half of the graduates in his college were not hired in their major field of study. Nevertheless, it is meaningless to justify any assumption. It is just as likely that they are not willing to find the jobs related to their major, which are not popular and helpful to earn a high salary. Moreover, even if I were to concede that they have to accept these treatments, it is still highly doubtful that they have a worse employment condition and more promising future than the graduates in Green Mountain College. Working in one's major cannot prove they are happy with the jobs, let alone about career development.

Thirdly, even assuming that the graduates of Green Mountain College have a better employment condition than the seniors in the president's college, it is highly dubious that the computer technology courses would bring to their graduates more job-hunting opportunities. Even common sense tells me that the computer skills are truly important in our daily work, but it is possible that the students in his college are major in art or literature, in which the computer is little used. Furthermore, no more evidence can substantiate their employment condition is determined by their resumes and interviewing skill, rather than their poor GPA, language skills, or even unprofessional smiles. Without ruling out of these and other possible alternatives, the president cannot persuade me that his conclusion is tenable.

In sum, the president's argument is unsound as it stands. To bolster it, the president should provide more information to support the assumption that the students in Green Mountain College have a better employment situation than those in his college. To better assess the argument, I should need to know why the computer technology is of importance to enhance the condition.



小弟第一篇GTER上的ARGU, 貌似超时了，自己改老是进步缓慢，还是求大虾们拍啊~~大家用力拍~~~

其实，我相信，高手在民间。。。。。。