argument161 欢迎拍文作文修改小组

Ocean~SprayUID: 2847693

TOPIC: ARGUMENT161 - In a study of reading habits of Leeville citizens conducted by the University of Leeville, most respondents said they preferred literary classics as reading material. However, a follow-up study conducted by the same researchers found that the type of book most frequently checked out of each of the public libraries in Leeville was the mystery novel. Therefore, it can be concluded that the respondents in the first study had misrepresented their reading habits.
WORDS: 420
TIME: 00:30:00
DATE: 2010-7-14 11:47:18

This study concludes that the respondent misrepresented their reading habits in the first study. To support this conclusion, it provides two different survey results. The first study of reading habits of Leeville citizens conducted by the University of Leeville, shows that most respondents conveyed they prefer literary classics as reading material. However, a follow-up study conducted by the same researchers found that the type of book most frequently checked out of each of the public libraries in Leeville was the mystery novel. Overall this argument is flawed in several critical respects.
First of all, the differences between the first and the second study doesn't necessarily indicate that the respondents wrongly represent their reading habits. It is entirely possible that people preferring literary classics tend to value the book thus buying these classics from the bookstore, and that mystery novels are fast to read as a result they would more likely to borrow them from the public libraries. Or that the public libraries in Leeville has purchased a new series of mystery novels that appeal the readers while neglect to refresh the bookshelves of literary classics and people have already finished reading
them.
In addition, even if the books in the public library are equally new and attractive, the argument fails to provide sufficient evidence about the validity of the studies. The first study contents that most respondents prefer literary classics,
however, how many respondents are there in total? How about 5 people? If so the results are not representative of the facts. In addition, how can we make sure that the respondents in the two studies are the same group of people? Lacking specific evidence, the argument that the the respondents in the first study misrepresent their reading habits is dubious.
Finally, the argument asserts that people in the first group preferred the literal classics, but it suppplies no comparisons so that the literal classics may be their preferrence, however not their favorite.What if the questions the researchers asked were like “literal classics or academic reports, which do you prefer?” Without ruling out this alternative the conclusion that the respondents in the first misrepresented their reading habits cannot convince me.
To conclude, in order to make the argument sound and persuasive, the arguer still needs to provide evidences about (1) how many people were researched? (2) the people in the first and second study are the same group (3) all types of books people are reading are borrowed from the public libraries without possibility of buying them or other resources.