argument200

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题目：ARGUMENT 200 - Statistics collected from dentists indicate that three times more men than women faint while visiting the dentist. This evidence suggests that men are more likely to be distressed about having dental work done than women are. Thus, dentists who advertise to attract patients should target the male consumer and emphasize both the effectiveness of their anesthetic techniques and the sensitivity of their staff to nervous or suffering patients.
字数：365          用时：0:30:00          日期：2007-9-3

The author asserts that dentists should target the male consumer and emphasize both the effectiveness of their anesthetic techniques and the sensitivity of their staff to patients. To support this assertion, the author cites statistics collected from dentists. However, this assertion has several flaws, which render it wholly unpersuasive as it stands.

Foremost, the validity of the statistics is open to doubt. The author fails to offer more information on this statistics. However, it is still unknown that how many doctors are involved with this statistics. Perhaps the author infers this conclusion only by anther two dentists, his or her close workmates. Even if it is true that statistics are from a large amount of dentists and therefore convincing, still perhaps many women' tooth condition is better than men in nature and therefore they go to dentist's less, let alone faint. Thus, based on the unreliable statistics, the conclusion that men are three times more than women faint while visiting the dentist is unwarranted.

Even the statistics are reliable and the men more likely faint when visiting the dentists, the author make a further assumption that the faint indicates the patient's distressed emotion, which is substantially unwarranted. It is highly possible the air in the clinic is too stuffy to breathe, which makes the patients feel uncomfortable and finally cause the faint. It is also entirely possible that because these patients do not eat the breakfast and then come to the dentists, which could explain why they faint, too. Without ruling out these two and other possible scenarios, the author cannot convince me that faint indicates distressed emotion.  

Additionally, the author also establishes a unsound correlation between the distress emotion and the anesthetic techniques, and asserts the former is caused by the latter. However, the distressed emotion is not necessarily caused by anesthetic. Maybe what determines this emotion is the patient's own psychological shadow over the dentists. If so, however advanced the anesthetic techniques are, this unstable emotion still remains. Besides, sensitivity might act against the therapy since excessively sensitive care makes the patients more anxious. Thus, either possibility can weaken this assertion that they the effective anesthetic techniques and the sensitivity can attract more patients.   

In sum, this assertion, which seems logical and well-organized at first, has several fatal flaws within it. To better bolster this assertion, the author should substantiate the fact that the statistics are reliable and patient's faint is resulted from his or her distressed emotion. To further improve this assertion, the author also should be certain that the poor anesthetic techniques are the main factor that makes the patients distressed.