Argument026 [0710G-summer小组] 第三次作业

laststrikeUID: 2318203

TOPIC: ARGUMENT26 - The following appeared in a memo from the chairperson of the school board in the town of Saluda.

1. 比赛成功与S无关
2. 设施改善与S无关
3. S是指挥，不能教学。

"For the past five years, Mr. Charles Schade has been the music director at Steel City High School, and during that time the school band from Steel City High has won three regional band competitions. In addition, the quality of the music rehearsal facilities and musical instruments at Steel City High has improved markedly over the past five years. Because of such successes at Steel City High, the Saluda school board should hire Mr. Schade to plan and direct the general music education programs for the entire Saluda school system."
WORDS: 487          TIME: 00:29:25          DATE: 7/20/2007 12:33:05 PM


In the memo the chairperson recommends that Saluda(S) school board should hire Mr. Schade to plan and direct the general music education programs for the entire S school system. To support his claim, he cites the fact that during Mr. Schade's past 5 years in Steel City High(SCH) SCH has won 3 regional band competition. In addition, he reasons that the quality of the music rehearsal facilities and musical instruments at SCH has improved markedly. At the first glance, this argument seems somehow plausible. However, after a clear reflection, it suffers from several logic fallacies.

To begin with, the author falsely concludes that the success of SCH attributed to Mr. Schade's direction. It might be possible that the students of the SCH are inherently superior to the rest of the students of other schools in the same contest. Or perhaps in the past several years before Mr. Schade's term, they had won every competition in the region. Thus, in fact, the influence of the direction of Mr. Schade has nothing or little to do with the success of SCH school band. Without ruling out these possibilities that could undermine the recommendation, the author fails to convince me.

In addition, the author unjustly attributes the improvements in the quality of music rehearsal facilities and musical instruments at SCH to Mr. Schade. The author provides no evidence to support his assumption that Mr. Schade brought donations to these improvements. It would be possible that the entire economy of the region was so strong that directly result in the boom of the school's finance, thus, the entire school facilities and instruments were improved remarkably. Therefore, the improvements and Mr. Schade's term would be a time coincidence rather than a causal correlation. Without more compelling evidence prove that Mr. Schade directly result in the improvements, the author again fails to convince me.

Finally, even assuming that Mr. Schade attributed to the success and improvements of SCH the author falsely suggests that he could pan and direct the general music education programs for the entire S school system. All the evidence provided by the author, if valid, could only prove that Mr. Schade is a distinguished director of music band and by his success could bring donations to the musical facilities and instruments. However, whether the general plan and direct to the music education which includes the education of musical instruments like piano, viola, and violin should be assigned to him is open to doubt since the author provides little evidence to support his educational ability. Thus, the author fails to convince me that Mr. Schade possess enough qualification to pan and direct the entire S school music education programs.

In sum, to better strengthen the argument the author should provide more specific evidence on his qualification, and the causal correlation on the success of SCH and improvements. Without the information, the author can not convince me the feasibility of his recommendation.

[ 本帖最后由 laststrike 于 2007-7-20 16:59 编辑 ]