【kaleidoscope】第九次作业 ARGUMENT241 by vina1114

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TOPIC: ARGUMENT241 - The following appeared in a memo at the XYZ company.

"When XYZ lays off employees, it pays Delany Personnel Firm to offer those employees assistance in creating resumés and developing interviewing skills, if they so desire. Laid-off employees have benefited greatly from Delany's services: last year those who used Delany found jobs much more quickly than did those who did not. Recently, it has been proposed that we use the less-expensive Walsh Personnel Firm in place of Delany. This would be a mistake because eight years ago, when XYZ was using Walsh, only half of the workers we laid off at that time found jobs within a year. Moreover, Delany is clearly superior, as evidenced by its bigger staff and larger number of branch offices. After all, last year Delany's clients took an average of six months to find jobs, whereas Walsh's clients took nine."

In this argument, the author makes a conclusion that Delany is better than Walsh in helping employees laid off to find jobs by comparing with the two firms Delany and Walsh. at the first look ,it is a well presented argument .however ,the evidence lend little credible to the assumptions .

First, the author unfairly assumes that Delany's services is very good . in order to support this assumption, the author states that employees laid off in XYZ who seeked help from Delany spent less time on finding employment than those who did not last year.but it is likely that the employees who do not find jobs is unwilling to find jobs instead of without help from the Delany .The main reason for the employees who find employment may be that they try their best and cost much energy in finding jobs rather than the help from the Delany .without clear and convincing evidence, the assumption is unwarranted.

secondly , according to the statistic about Walsh eight years ago ,the author makes a conclusion that it is a mistake to use Walsh instead of Delany .the author ignores that the result of using Walsh was made eight years ago .how can we know how the Walsh is after eight years ? Eight years ago, it may be small firm, but it will become a big firm with the gradually development in eight years. And perhaps eight years ago the economic was in a slump, so it was hard for employees to find jobs .the half of workers found jobs within a year may be a high rate in that special time .so I can not accept the conclusion without ruling out these possibilities .

Thirdly, the author overlooks the difference between the clients in Delany and Walsh. The requirements for the job of the Delany’s clients could be less than that of Walsh’s clients, as a result of that the Delany’s clients will be easier to find jobs. It is also possible that most Walsh’s clients have not received normal education, which makes them more difficulty to be employed. In addition, the author thinks that Delany is superior because it owns a bigger staff and larger number of branch offices. It is unfair to judge a firm only by the number of the staff and branch offices. There many other factors that should be considered, such as administration and the quality of the staff .so the author’s commendation is arguable and unconvincing .

In sum , the author’s conclusion is not well supported as it stands . To bolster it the author should provide more information and evidence about the two firms.