ARGUMENT180 [SHINING SEP作文组]

zeelichUID: 2194744

题目：ARGUMENT180 - 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."
字数：501          用时：0:30:00          日期：2006-8-15

In this argument the arguer recommends that employees in Acme Publishing Company(APC) should take Easy Read Speed-Reading Course(ERSRC) to enhance their reading speeds. To support the recommendation the arguer cites various of evidence. Close scrutiny of the evidence, however, reveals that it could lend little credible support to the arguer's advocation and therefore renders the argument unconvincing as it stands.

To begin with, the arguer provides no evidence to illustrate the representativeness of the statement of "mant other companies" cited in the argument. However on the contrary, it is quite possible that only those companies whose employees enhanced more than average level would make the claim. Or perhaps such claim would actually be the advertisement of ER. Nevertheless, the arguer's assertion is unsubstantiated.

Secondly, the arguer falsely assumes that ERSRC would be effective in fasting the reading speed. The examples of the graduates cited in the argument is too vague to draw any firm conclusions. It is entirely possible that the first graduate had a good foundation in fast reading skills that his progress is inconspicuous compared with his original ability. Besides, the second graduate's example would not be suitable to arrive at any point in that ERSRC might not be the very factor to help him or her to take the vice president position. Hence, under either scenario, the arguer's claim that ERSRC would greatly help the employees is dubious at best.

Thirdly, the arguer unfairly assumes that APC would benefit from ERSRC. To some degree, the arguer provides no clear statistics about the number of the employees in APC. Albeit he or she claims that the $500 fee for ERSRC would be a small price to pay, perhaps ERSRC has a large number of employees that the total charge would be exhibitive. Or perhaps not all of APC's employees, such as printers or salesmen, would need the skill of fast reading that those who do not have the necessarity would waste the money. Thus, the arguer's assertion would be undermined without considering and ruling out these and other possibilities.

Finally, the arguer claims too hasty that APC would "greatly" benefit from ERSRC. As discussed above, perhaps employees in APC have already handled the ability of fast reading that ERSRC would lend little improvement to them. Likewise, the arguer overlooks other feasible ways for APC to enhance its productivity. Perhaps a course related to publishing or managing would be more useful for APC for the reason that APC is a publishing cooperation. Therefore, I would remain doubt about the arguer's recommendation.

In sum, the arguer's advocation is fraught with logical flaws and not well justified. To strengthen it the arguer should provide evidence that the statement of other companies would be representative and authentic, and that the improvement of the two graduate cited in the argument would attribute to ER. More details about the sum costs and the possible enhancement of APC's employees while after they take the ERSRC would be needed to demonstrate the feasibility of the arguer's recommendation.