Argument180 快考了，求砖

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The following is a recommendation from the personnel director to the president of Acme Publishing Company.
'Many other companies have recently stated that having their employees take the Easy Read Speed-Reading Course has greatly improved productivity. One graduate of the course was able to read a five-hundred-page report in only two hours; another graduate rose from an assistant manager to vice president of the company in under a year. Obviously, the faster you can read, the more information you can absorb in a single workday. Moreover, Easy Read costs only $500 per employee—a small price to pay when you consider the benefits to Acme. Included in this fee is a three-week seminar in Spruce City and a lifelong subscription to the Easy Read newsletter. Clearly, Acme would benefit greatly by requiring all of our employees to take the Easy Read course.'

The argument is problematic for several reasons. First, the effectiveness of the course is open to doubt. Second, the author assumes a correlation amounts to a causal relationship. Thirdly, the author commits a fallacy of false analogy. The author also fails to analyses the cost and benefit within the course.

First of all, the author provides no information about the effectiveness of the course. The mere fact that after taking the course one can read an five-hundred-page report is scant evidence that all the people benefit from the course. Since the author fails to provide detailed information about the percentage in the elevation of the different reading speed, it is likely that there is few people that can read with such high speed, and that the majority of people do not improve in their speed. Moreover, the author should provide information about the reading ability of every individual prior to the course. Without such information, it is likely that the effective readers are as competent before such courses and therefore the argument is convincing. .

Secondly, even if the course is effective, the author assumes a causal relationship where a correlation has been indicated. The fact that the graduate gained promotion after entering the course does not necessarily imply that the course is responsible for the promotion. It is likely that the graduate is as competent to gain such promotion and thus the promotion has little to do with the course. For that matter, it is entirely as possible that a variety of other factors lead to the promotion, such as the skills of management and communication. Without ruling out such possibilities, the argument is untenable.

Thirdly, even if the course is responsible for the effective reading and promotion, it is still unjustified to claim that Acme will also benefit from the course due to the foregoing experience from other companies. Since the author provides no information about the similarities of Acme and the other companies, it is likely that Acme will savor less or no benefits form the course. For example, it is possible that Acme is a company need less skills of reading. It is also possible that the skills of the workers of Acme are already high and there is no need to apply such course. Without more information about the likely similarities, the argument can be rejected out of hand.

Finally, the author assumes that because the fee of the course is not high with regard to the likely benefits so Acme should apply the course. Since the author provides no detailed information about the benefits after employing the course, it is premature to claim that the course is worthy. In addition, since the author does not substantiate the need that all of the employees should take the course, it is likely that only certain people will benefit and there is no need to require all the employees to the course.

In sum, the argument is untenable as it stands. To bolster it, the author must provide more information about the sharp increase in reading skills in percentages. To better evaluate the argument, I would need more information about the similarities of the companies. I would also need the cost and benefit analysis to find whether it is worthy to take the course.

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