ARGUMENT161 =August Rush=小组 by KevinSpacey

KevinSpaceyUID：2645771

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.

KevinSpaceyUID：2645771

WORDS: 455
TIME: 00:55:40
DATE: 2009/8/9 13:09:50

The notion that the respondents in the first study had misrepresented their reading habits seems at first glance to be an obvious conclusion. After all, the data of records of public libraries are more convincing than the result of a survey. However, the conclusion may mask other causes of the different results of two studies.

It is mentioned in the argument that in the first study most respondents said they preferred literary classics. Yet, no other details are provided. Without enough information, the researchers of the study cannot convince me on the representativeness of the survey. Many doubts appear in my mind. Like, is the quantity of sample large enough? What kinds of people are chosen as respondents? Among them, what are the proportions of youngsters, college students, mid-aged and older people? If only hundreds of people participated in the survey, the result would be influenced remarkably by the sample selected. If most of the respondents were older people who like to read literary classics, the result could only represent the older people's reading habits.

The researchers assume that the type of book most frequently checked out of the public libraries are people's favorite type of book. This is certainly not the case. It is entirely possible that the mystery books are short and easy for reading whose reading periods are much shorter than those of classics. Thus, the frequently checked out of the mystery books are larger than others. Perhaps people who prefer literary classics are much likely to buy books from stores rather than borrow them from libraries because they may think the classics are worthy collecting. In one word, to make the study more credible, the researchers should provide not only the frequency of books checked out but also the quantity of each kind of books borrowed.

Even if the second study is credible and representative, the conclusion that the first study had misrepresented people's reading habits rests on the questionable assumption that people's reading habits are constant for during the period from the first study to the second study. Yet the researchers provide no evidence to support this assumption. Lacking such evidence it is equally possible that the time between these two study is many years. Years ago, the fashion was literary classics among reading people while several years later the mystery stories are more popular than the classics.

Overall, the results of these two studies all lack credibility because researchers fails to include necessary details of the studies. They also need to do more work rather than just conduct a survey or collect the data of frequency of books checked out. Furthermore, before any final conclusion, the researchers should evaluate the trend of the popular of books during these years.