argument117 [kb 9.11] 第9次作业

goldzincUID: 2378390

题目：ARGUMENT117 - The following is a memo from the business manager of Valu-Mart stores.
"Over 70 percent of the respondents to a recent survey reported that they are required to take more work home with them from the workplace than they were in the past. Since Valu-Mart has not seen impressive sales in its office-supply departments in the past, we should take advantage of this work-at-home trend by increasing at all Valu-Mart stores the stock of home office machines such as printers, small copy machines, paper shredders, and fax machines. We will also increase stock of office supplies such as paper, pens, and staplers. With these changes, our office-supply departments will become the most profitable component of our stores."
字数：423          用时：00:40:00          日期：2007-8-24 下午 05:56:37

In this argument, the author tries to convince that it will be very profitable to increase the stock of office machines and printers with some seemingly adequate reasons. However, a future examination will reveal that the evidence and reasoning in the argument insufficiently lend support to this conclusion.

First of all, the survey does not give a clear indication of such a work-at-home trend, for the arguer provide neither how many people participate the survey nor if the participants are representative. It is entirely possible that the survey is just targeted to a specific group like workers in law firms, and therefore cannot be described as a trend. Moreover, there is a quite long distance between taking more works home and work-at-home: maybe the majority of workers just take some finished work to their house after work instead of staying at home all day to work. Before the arguer can give more clear evidence to show more people work at their house, it is not well-reasoned to say a work-at-home trend exists.

Furthermore, even if there is indeed such a work-at-home trend, the arguer does not shows these work needs office machines and supplies referred in the argument. Perhaps the workers just send emails and edit the files with their computer, or perhaps their workplace has already equipped with such machines and supplies so the worker does not need to buy it personally. Without ruling out these possibilities, the arguer cannot convince that they should increase the stock of office machines and supplies in respect of more people will need them.

Finally, it is too hasty to say that the office-supply department will become the most profitable component. Selling a quantity of things sometimes does not mean making a great profit. Before taking the cost of increasing stokes, and most importantly how much profit will be made by sell a single machine in to account, asserting it will be profitable is not reasonable. Besides, the arguer states that the office-supply department will be the most profitable without concerning the condition of other department. Obviously s/he overlooked the possibility that there may be more profitable department in the store.

In sum, asserting that the office-supply department will make a great profit through increasing of office machines and supplies it too hasty. To future evaluate the conclusion, the arguer must conduct a more comprehensive survey to see whether the trend exists. Moreover, the arguer should inspect what kind of office machine and supply the work-at-home workers need and increase the target stock.

两天没写退化了:mad:

[ 本帖最后由 goldzinc 于 2007-8-27 23:33 编辑 ]

prophetluoUID: 2240098

a future examination wil(似乎是would 虚拟语气呃 )l reveal that the evidence and reasoning in the argument insufficiently lend support to this conclusion.

正文的一段 可以狠狠的打一下 survey 因为它是这个argument rely 的basic的东东 hoho 我觉得哈(权威啊, 地域啊什么的)