The following appeared in a memo from the director of student housing at Buckingham College.
"To serve the housing needs of our students, Buckingham College should build a number of new dormitories. Buckingham's enrollment is growing and, based on current trends, will double over the next 50 years, thus making existing dormitory space inadequate. Moreover, the average rent for an apartment in our town has risen in recent years. Consequently, students will find it increasingly difficult to afford off-campus housing. Finally, attractive new dormitories would make prospective students more likely to enroll at Buckingham."
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
My Answer
According to the memo, the director argues that it is necessary for Buckingham College to build new dormitories given the growing projected enrollment over the next 5 decades.Also, he claims that new dorms can recruit students considering the rising average rent of an apartment in recent years.
Correct Answer
According to the director, Buckingham College should commit to building new dorms given the projected enrollment over the next 5 decades, the expected shortage of dorm space. He also argues that new dorms can help students who cannot afford off-campus apartments that have become more expensive in average and attract more prospective students to study at Buckingham.
The director argues that more dorms should be built to meet the demand of housing among Buckingham students and to recruit more students to join the college.
A recent study reported that pet owners have longer, healthier lives on average than do people who own no pets. Specifically, dog owners tend to have a lower incidence of heart disease. In light of these findings, Sherwood Hospital should form a partnership with Sherwood Animal Shelter to institute an adopt-a-dog program. The program would encourage dog ownership for patients recovering from heart disease, which should reduce these patients' chance of experiencing continuing heart problems and also reduce their need for ongoing treatment. As a further benefit, the publicity about the program would encourage more people to adopt pets from the shelter. And that will reduce the incidence of heart disease in the general population.
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.