【kaleidoscope】小组第九次作业argument241 byAtticus

atticuswangUID: 2663189

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."
WORDS: 487
TIME: 00:40:00
DATE: 2009-8-18 9:46:34

The author claims that it is a mistake to use Walsh Personnel Firm(WPF) in place of Delany to offer laid-off employees assistance of finding new job. To support this claim, the author cites the fact that those who used Delany found a job more quickly last year. He also reasons that only a half people who use WPF found jobs within a year and the Delany's clients took less time to get a job on average than Walsh's. The author's reason seems plausible at the first sight, yet after careful examination I find there are several flaws as discussed below.

To start with, the author assumes that laid off employs have benefited a lot from Delany's service in finding a job, but fails to provide any solid evidence to substantiate this. The author must offer details about Delany's services and to illustrate clearly how it has help people to get a job. Otherwise it is entirely possible that some other factors attribute to this fact. For instance, those who used Delany were more experienced and easier to get a job. Without ruling out this possibility, the author's assumption is unconvincing.

And also, the author unfairly attributes the fact that only half of the laid-off workers found jobs within a year to Walsh's less effectiveness, which I take leave to doubt. It is highly possible that the job market was very glooming as a result of economic crisis and it was even harder for one to get a position than before. Maybe half of the laid-off workers appeared to be a large number. Or maybe if they had used Delany's service, things would be even worse. In addition, this happened 8 years ago and perhaps Walson's service is becoming better and better all the time.
Without considering the circumstance and comparing with Delany, the author can not hasty concludes that XYZ's using Walsh was a mistake.

Moreover, it is presumptuous for the author to judge that Delany is superior according to its bigger staff and larger number of branch office. Common sense tells us that there is no causal relationship between bigger staff, larger office and better service. Perhaps it is just the opposite because Walsh's staff was more experienced and responsible.


In addition, even providing the fact that last year Delany's clients spent less time on average finding a job than Walsh's, this lends scant support to assume Delany's service is better. It entirely possible that Delany's clients find a less satisfying job compared with Walsh's thereby taking less time. Or perhaps Delany had much less clients than Walsh so that the average time was shorter only if very few of Walsh's clients took long to find a job. Without considering all these possibilities, the author's conclusion is unreliable.


In all, the author's claim is not warranted as it stands. To better evaluate this argument, we need more comparative information and data between Delany and Walsh.

wdassfmUID: 2542447

:loveliness:鼓励一下，好强大，都限时了，看来我也要加紧努力啦~~