argument153 写得很郁闷！！！

PrudenceUID: 2286952

TOPIC: ARGUMENT153 - The following is from an editorial in the Midvale Observer, a local newspaper.

"Ever since the 1950's, when television sets began to appear in the average home, the rate of crimes committed by teenagers in the country of Alta has steadily increased. This increase in teenage crime parallels the increase in violence shown on television. According to several national studies, even very young children who watch a great number of television shows featuring violent scenes display more violent behavior within their home environment than do children who do not watch violent shows. Furthermore, in a survey conducted by the Observer, over 90 percent of the respondents were parents who indicated that prime-time television-programs that are shown between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.-should show less violence. Therefore, in order to lower the rate of teenage crime in Alta, television viewers should demand that television programmers reduce the amount of violence shown during prime time."
WORDS: 361          TIME: 0:35:10          DATE: 2007-4-5

In this argument, the author assumes a correlation amounts to a causal relationship. Besides, the author cites dubious national studies and a specious survey.  I will discuss each of these flaws in turn.

In the first place, it is presumptuous for the author to assert that it is the increase in violence shown that leads to the steady increase of teenage crime. However, no evidence show that these teenagers who commit crime have seen violence shown. Even if they have done so, no evidence shows they commit violent crime, maybe others styles of crimes. Thus, without ruling out these scenarios, the author fails to make the argument convincing.

In the second place, the national studies cannot prove that violence shows can result in violent crime. First, the studies were national. It is entirely possible that other places' higher violence crime is attributable to the results of these studies. Thus, they lend little support to the situation of Alta. Even if the situation of Alta is similar with the situation of the nation, however, it is children not teenagers that were studied. We all know that out of nature children like to mimic others' deeds, including what people do in television. Also even though they display violent behavior now, when they grow up, it is completely possible that they do not commit any crime including violent crime. Accordingly, these studies are specious, and fail to lend any support to this argument.

In the third place, the survey conducted by the Observer is unpersuasive. First, I wonder how many parents were studied, and how many parents answered. If the former is 500, and the latter is less than 50, this survey is totally failing to prove anything. Even if most parents give their answers, it is completely possible that it is these parents that want to watch other programs such as foal opera, which has nothing to do with their children watching violent shows. In that case, the author cites an irrelevant survey to substantiate the assertion, therefore renders it unconvincing.

In conclusion, although this argument is well-presented, it suffers from several flaws as I mentioned above, which lead this argument to arguable.

[ 本帖最后由 Prudence 于 2007-4-5 23:41 编辑 ]

PrudenceUID: 2286952

怎么贴上去变成这样了？
唉！
可怜我改了还多边，
还这样，
不好意思了
将就点看吧！

ILOVEISSUEUID: 2300195

把错误找对在写吧
不知道你有没有，虽然精华区有，先上传一份再说

PrudenceUID: 2286952

感谢你！
太感动了，
流泪了...