argument238【FF小组】 by duyuan3377 第五次模考

duyuan3377UID: 2415765

TOPIC: ARGUMENT238 - The following appeared in a memorandum from the president of Mira Vista College to the college's board of trustees.

"At nearby Green Mountain College, which has more business courses and more job counselors than does Mira Vista College, 90 percent of last year's graduating seniors had job offers from prospective employers. But at Mira Vista College last year, only 70 percent of the seniors who informed the placement office that they would be seeking employment had found full-time jobs within three months after graduation, and only half of these graduates were employed in their major field of study. To help Mira Vista's graduates find employment, we must offer more courses in business and computer technology and hire additional job counselors to help students with their resumés and interviewing skills."
WORDS: 455          TIME: 00:30:00          DATE: 2008-12-10 9:19:54

In the argument the arguer recommends that Mira Vista College must offer more courses in business and computer technology and hire additional job counselors to help students with their resumes and interviewing skills in order to help Mira Vista's graduates find employment. The arugment is mainly based on a comparison between statistics about job offers of nearby Green Mountain College and that of Mira Vista College. Although the argument sounds reasonable at first thought, yet a series logical flaws may seriously undermine the argument.

First of all, the arguer groundlessly assumes that those who did not inform the placement office that they would be seeking employment would not find job and that those who found job in more than three months do not account in. However, there is no guarantee that this is the case, nor does the arguer provide any evidence to substantiate the assumptions. It is entirely possible that many graduates have found satisfactory jobs but they do not inform the placement office. Ant it is also possible that they might have found full-time jobs three months later. Or perhaps, they might have found several part-time jobs rather than a full time job. Without considering and ruling out these and other possibilities, the arguer cannot convince me to believe that the job-finding situation in Mira Vista is much worse than that in Green Mountain.

In addition, the evidence that only half of these graduates were employed in their field of study does not make any sense. Maybe it is normal to find a job unrelated to major because of the interest or salary. The arguer fails to provide any information concerning the average number of those who were employed in their field of study and the number of Green Mountain College. Without more information about the average statistics, the "only half" makes no sense at all.

Last but not least, the arguer commits a fallacy called "false analogy". The arguer simply assumes that the courses in Green Mountain College are applicable to the students in Mira Vista College, but he does not provide any evidence that these two colleges are indeed comparable. It is highly possible that differences between the two colleges clearly outweigh the similarities. Thus, the arguer cannot rely on this false analogy to support his recommendation. Besides, whether courses about the computer technology are necessarily in need is still questionable.

In sum, the argument lacks credibility because the evidence cited in the analysis does not lend strong support to what the arguer maintains. To solidify the argument, the arguer would have to provide better evidence that it is difficult for Mira Vista's graduates to find satisfactory jobs and that the reason for that is lacking in the courses above mentioned.