argument140 [0710G ＋U Aug小组]第13次作业

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Argument140

The author concludes that raising salary and promoting for Professor Thomas is the best way to avoid the possibility of his leaving school. To support his point, the author provides the evidences that Professor Thomas's classes are the largest class at the university, and her research brought the money to school at last two years, which is more than her salary. Furthermore, the argument considers that the Professor will leave the University without raising salary and promotion. However, the argument suffers several fallacies, which renders it unacceptable.

To begin with, the author commits a hasty generalization fallacy. There are no other evidences provided by author to prove that Professor Thomas is the most popular teacher in the university. Only mentioning the largest classes at the university is not enough. To suppose, if there are many students in botany department, or even the major possesses the most students in university, thus, it is reasonable that the Professor's classes is the largest class at the university. Even though we assume that the students in Botany major is not the largest number at the university, we still cannot draw a conclusion that Thomas is the most popular teacher in university, for example, maybe only one teacher who is Thomas teaches the botany class, or many students take the professor’s class because they are interesting in the botany, but not the professor.

Secondly, the author considers that the professor brought the money that is exceeded her salary; hence, the university should raise her salary. However, the argument fails to indicate the money brought by the professor is really used by school, or the school is able to raise her salary. We can make an assumption that if the university gives the money to professor as research fund, or the university is in a period of finance deficit, then, raising salary for the professor needs more consideration.

Last but not least, the author fails to prove the professor has enough competence for Department Chairperson. Even though we assume that the professor brought a lot of money to school, and improved the development of the university, we still cannot assure the promotion benefits the school or department as well. To suppose, if the professor is not very good at administration or she is not interesting in administration at all, thus, the promotion will not benefit the school, even interfere with the professor's research.

In sum, the argument is not reasonable as it stands. To strengthen the argument, the author has to prove that the professor is really popular in the university, and her research brings a great profit for school. To better evaluate the argument, the author should demonstrate that the professor possesses the ability and the passion for administration.