求拍求拍arg238

yushuinanrongUID: 2788112

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 resumés and interviewing skills."
WORDS: 516
TIME: 00:30:00
DATE: 2011/3/8 19:08:47



In this argument the president of the Mira Vista College (MV) recommends that in order to help the graduates find employment the MV should open more courses in business and computer technology. He also recommends MV to hire more job counselors. To support his recommendations the arguer points out that the graduating students of the nearby Green Mountain College (GM), who have more job counselors and courses on business, have a better performance on job market than the seniors of MV. However, I find this argument logically unconvincing in several aspects.

First of all, the arguer fails to provide information about the kind of job the graduating students of GM gain. It is entirely possible that the GM's proportion of the full-time job probably be equal to the MV's or even lower. It also possible that most of the GM graduating seniors were also employed in the field they are not majored in the college. Thus, lacking information about the GM's students gained last year the arguer cannot convincing me that graduating seniors in GM performed better than those in MV last year.



In addition, even if the students of GM really do better than those of MV in the job hunting last year, the arguer's assumption that it is the business courses and job counselors that help the GM's students to get an ideal job is unwarranted. He has overlooked many other factors that can result in this difference. Perhaps the tutors and professors in GM are more experienced and devoted, thus the students can learn more from the courses which help them establish a tough basic of the knowledge; Or perhaps the students of GM are originally exceptionally bright or resourceful than those in MV. Any of these scenarios, if true, would cast considerable doubt on the arguer conclusion that additional business courses and job counselors would assist students to gain a good offer.

Finally, the arguer fails to consider other methods that can help the students in the job market. Perhaps a comparable larger investment on the infrastructure and make a better environment for study and research would be a better choice. Besides, employing experienced professors who can improve the teaching standard would also do good to the students. Or raise the threshold of the admission, which could bring better students, would help the MV to improve itself in a short time. Thus, without take other methods that also could help the students to gain jobs into consideration, the arguer’s conclusion is dubious at all.

In sum, this argument is logically flawed and therefore unconvincing as it stands. To bolster it, the arguer must provide more information about the jobs GM’s seniors gained last year. He also must provide more information about the tutors and professors of the GM and other differences between the GM and MV. To better assess the recommendation, I need to know more about the other methods that can help the students to study better and perform better in the job market.