Arugument180 [天下无G]第九次作业

jacanaUID: 2292520

TOPIC: 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."
WORDS: 529          TIME: 0:30:00          DATE: 2007-2-14

The recommendation proposed by the director is that Acme company (A) would benefit greatly by requiring all of the employees to take the Easy Read(ER) Course. To justify his claim, the author points out that many other companies have recently stated that sending their employees to take the ER has improved productivity. He also reasons that the costs for ER are very low and A can benefit a lot from taking this course. On the surface, the author's argument appeals to be somewhat tenable, however, close scrutiny would reveal the reasoning is insufficient to support a credible conclusion.

To begin with, a threshold assumption upon which the recommendation relies is that the course can improve productivity. As the author has not provided in the information of the 'many other companies' in detail, such as their business, and the education level about their employees, it is highly possible that their employees are less educated than A's do, and therefore need the extra training in reading. At the same time, people in a may already be skillful readers, thus make the investment unnecessary.

As for the two examples the author cites, one of which can read considerably quickly and another got promoted soon after the course. However, the director fails to substantiate that these phenomena do bear some relationship to the course. For the first man, probably he can read the same amount of words in one hour before taking the course, which means the course had a negative effect. What's more, to read fast does not necessarily means he can be more productive. Maybe he will remember less, or he spends the extra time for personal affairs. In addition, for the latter one, he maybe got promoted owing to his inherent ability. Even if he did not attend the class, the position is still in his hands, or even will get it sooner. Having failed to address these distinct possibilities, the author's reasoning is dubious at best.

Finally, even if the author can substantiate the foregoing assumptions, he overlooks other possibilities link to the profits of A. Firstly; the assumption that the costs are very low is dubious. It is possible that there are less expensive fast reading courses at the same level available, which can cut the cost for the company. Even it is relatively cheap, the costs for so many employees are still a considerable amount, not to speak of the time it taken. These factors all play a crucial role in whether the profits of A can increase. Furthermore, other ways to achieve the same goal should not be ignored, which might be more applicable: cutting down the cost of paper, adjusting the salary of employees, advertising on media, finding sponsors, etc.. Without accounting for these potential factors, we can hardly take the recommendation seriously.

To sum up, the argument is not persuasive as it stands. Accordingly, it is imprudent for the assertion that Acme would benefit greatly by requiring all employees to take the Easy Read Course. To make this argument logically acceptable, the director would have to provide further information on the general level on A's employees' reading ability, and the cases in other companies in detail.