Argument200 【Persistence 小组】第二十二次作业

欣馨之火UID: 2183210

200. Statistics collected from dentists indicate that three times more men than women faint while visiting the dentist. This evidence suggests that men are more likely to be distressed about having dental work done than women are. Thus, dentists who advertise to attract patients should target the male consumer and emphasize both the effectiveness of their anesthetic techniques and the sensitivity of their staff to nervous or suffering patients.


In this argument, the author recommends that dentists should target the male consumer and emphasize both the effectiveness of their anesthetic techniques and the sensitivity of their staff to nervous of suffering patients because man are more likely to be distressed about having dental work done than women are. To support his/her recommendation, the author cites statistics collected from dentists and conducted an analysis base on the data. Close scrutiny of these evidence and analysis, however, reveals that none of them lend credible support to the recommendation.

First of all, whether the statistics are representative for the whole potential customers is questionable. The statistics which only came from dentists unnecessarily indicate that men are more likely faint than women in general. Perhaps many women will not to see a dentist because they really fear for faints and being distressed. In that case, the author hastily draws the suggestion that men are more likely to be distressed about having dental work done than women are.

Secondly, the recommendation relies on unsubstantiated assumption that male consumers prefer not to see a dentist even when they have a dental problem. Even if men are more likely to be distressed when they having their dental work done, the author fails to justify that men will not see a dentist when they fall into dental problem. It is entirely possible that men are more likely to see dentists than women despite the suffering they would meet. For that matter, the recommendation that dentists should target the male consumer is doubtful.

Moreover, no evidence justifies that the faint is the result of being nervous or suffering. There is no information about the reasons of the faint. Perhaps the patients have some other diseases which cause them to faint when they see the dentists; perhaps they are worrying about some other thing more than the dental problem. For those matters, reducing the physical suffering by using anesthetic techniques or consoling the patients by the sensitivity to nervous is unnecessary for attracting potential customers. Therefore, the recommendation that the anesthetic techniques and the sensitivity to nervous or suffering patients would attract more consumers is unsubstantiated.

In sum, the argument is unconvincing as it stands. To bolster the recommendation, the author has to give more evidence to support the representability of the statistics and more information about the causes of the faint.

计时30分钟只有253字，分别完成首段、尾段，Secondly那一段，以及其余几段的首句。最终393字。还要努力啊

[ 本帖最后由 欣馨之火 于 2007-2-22 14:08 编辑 ]