Argument220 [OB小组]_第20次作业_电视与读书

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TOPIC: ARGUMENT220 - The following appeared in an article in a magazine for writers.

"A recent study showed that in describing a typical day's conversation, people make an average of 23 references to watching television and only 1 reference to reading fiction. This result suggests that, compared with the television industry, the publishing and bookselling industries are likely to decline in profitability. Therefore, people who wish to have careers as writers should acquire training and experience in writing for television rather than for print media."
WORDS: 464          TIME: 00:29:59          DATE: 2007-8-1

In this argument, the author concludes that people who wish to be writers should acquire training and experience in writing for television but not for print media. To support this conclusion, the author cites a study in which people make far more references to watching television than reading fiction in a typical day's conversation. The author also points out that the result of the study means that the publishing and bookselling industries are likely to gain less profit. However, this argument suffers from several flaws and is therefore unconvincing as it stands.

First of all, the author unfairly assumes that people do much less reading than watching television. The number of references in conversation does not necessarily indicate how much reading people do or how many hours people watching television. Perhaps the lines in some soap opera are quite humorous and people often refer to them, though people also read many fictions about the ancient stories. Maybe the content in fictions is too old for people to quote in daily lives though they prefer to read these fictions. The author cannot make a justified assumption without accounting for these possibilities.

Secondly, even assuming that people do less reading than watching television, the author additionally assumes that compared with the television industry, publishing and bookselling industries are likely to gain less profit. Profit relates to many factors. Perhaps the prices of fictions are much high while watching television charges nothing. Thus the publishing and bookselling industries can make more profit than television industry does. Or perhaps the costs of book are much cheaper than television programs so that television industry may gain less profit. Without considering these and other factor that affect the profits, the author makes neither a convincing assumption nor a sound conclusion.

Thirdly, even assuming the author can substantiate the foregoing assumptions, the author makes another assumption that people who want to become writers require acquiring training and experience in writing for television. Common sense tells us that there are many differences between writing for television and writing for print media. It is possible that writing for television require writers write only some lines for a story in a quite limited words while writers for media print can write more details to describe the characters and the plot in the story. Thus a person who acquires training and experience in writing for television can learn nothing to help complete a story in print media.

In sum, this argument is unpersuasive as it stands. To bolster this conclusion, the author must provide clear evidence that people do much less reading and that the publishing and bookselling industries would indeed gain less profit. To better assess this conclusion, more information about people's daily conversation and more detail about publishing and bookselling industries are needed.

[ 本帖最后由 ldongxp 于 2007-8-1 17:43 编辑 ]