Argument161【Triple Week】第8次练习by ahng

ahngUID: 2605383

TOPIC: ARGUMENT161 - In a study of reading habits of Leeville citizens conducted by the University of Leeville, most respondents said they preferred literary classics as reading material. However, a follow-up study conducted by the same researchers found that the type of book most frequently checked out of each of the public libraries in Leeville was the mystery novel. Therefore, it can be concluded that the respondents in the first study had misrepresented their reading habits.
WORDS: 453          TIME: 00:30:00          DATE: 2009-7-27 9:59:37

Merely gounded on the fact that most respondents said they preferred literary classics in the first research while the mystery novel was most frequently checked out of the public libraries in Leeville, the arguer concludes that the respondents in the first study had misreprented their reading habits. However, with close scrutiny, the argument suffers from several fallacies, rendering itself unconving.

To begin with, the respondents' ideas do not necessarily indicate the reading habits of all the citizens in Leeville, since the author fails to inform us of what percentage of the whole population the respondents are. Supposing the survey is conducted in the Internet, the respondents then tends out to be netizens. Perhaps, these netizens have more preference to literary classics, which can lead the following survey mentioned in the argument unrelated with the conclusion. Moreover, the author also fails to mention what questions are asked in the study. Maybe the citizens are asked to response their favourate book in a series of options, which unfortunately excludes the mystery novel. In this case, the reason why some of the citizens do not response can be probably that they find no option of book their favorite. In short, the first study can be misleading in representativeness of the respondents and the suitability of the questions asked.

Secondly, the author unfairly assumes that the citizens in Leeville always read books via the public libraries. As we know, to read books there are various ways. For example, one can read and even buy books in a book store, one can buy books in the net bookstore, and also one can read some books in their laptop which are the electronical editions. Thus, the mere study in the situations in public libraries can not accurately instruct the reading interests of all the citizens. Futhermore, the mystery novel is actually not incompatible with the literary classics. Common sense tells us that there exists a lot of mystery novels which is at the same time literary classics in our minds, such as "A Journey to the West".

Last but not least, the conclusion that the respondents in the first study had misrepresented their reading habits is unwarranted. Even if the first and the second study are both conducted in a proper way, the author still provides no evidence to show that the statistics of the book conditions in the second survey is accurate. Perhaps some mistakes are taken as a result of the error of the book systems in the above libraries.

To sum up, the author makes a ridiculous conclusion based on some problematic assumptions. In order to bolster the idea, the data of the 2 studies should be presented more clear and more accurate by the arguer.

david36355UID: 2603992

呃…………问题不大……
上传到附件里了……