argument140 METTLE第三次作业 by imagic80

imagic80UID: 2342633

140．
The following appeared in a report of the Committee on Faculty Promotions and Salaries at Elm City University.

"During her seventeen years as a professor of botany, Professor Thomas has proved herself to be well worth her annual salary of $50,000. Her classes are among the largest at the university, demonstrating her popularity among students. Moreover, the money she has brought to the university in research grants has exceeded her salary in each of the last two years. Therefore, in consideration of Professor Thomas' demonstrated teaching and research abilities, we recommend that she receive a $10,000 raise and a promotion to Department Chairperson; without such a raise and promotion, we fear that Professor Thomas will leave Elm City University for another college."


The wish to prevent excellent professors from leaving Elm City University (ECU) is reasonable. But if a salary raise and a promotion is the best way to achieve this purpose? In the above statement, we can not be persuaded by the aruger for several fallacies in his reasoning line.
Firstly, the author falsely depends on gratuitous assumption that without a salary raise and promotion, Professor Tomas will leave ECU. However, the author does not provide facts to support this argument. For example, Professor Tomas has required for a promotion or expressed that she is not content with the present salary and so on. The author fails to present these relavent evidence to justify his assumption. In my opinion, an erudite professor pays little attention to material enjoyment. It is most likely that she cares much about the research environment and implements, not money and promotion. Under that circumstance, improvement of her research condition will be a more attracting way to keep her stay in EUC.
Secondly, there is no necessary relationship between big classes and the popularity of a professor. Many students choosing classes of Professor Tomas maybe not because of the attracting teaching way in her classes, but because of requirement of the university. They have to have botany classes, otherwise they can not get the requiring score. It is equally possible that what attracts students is the subject botany not the professor, the botany classes will also big even teaching by other professors. So the big classes can not demonstrate Professor Tomas’s teaching ability. Moreover, although the research grants she brought to the university is more than her salary in the past two years, it can not be ensured that she still will bring research grants in the future.
Thirdly, another problem is whether an excellent professor is surely to be a excellent department chairperson. Even if my doubt about her teaching and research ability is proved to be unnecessary, perhaps she is still not qualified to be a leader. One reason is that maybe she has no interesting in being a leader, she prefers to be a teacher or researcher more than a leader. Another is that she is not competent enough for the job of a leader. It is very likely that without the exclusion of these possibilities an excellent professor will be lost in the research field and meanwhile a incompetent leader will appear.
In conclusion, this argument is not convincing for the above fallacies. Before making the decision to give a salary raise and promotion to Professor Tomas, a comprehensive investigation should be taken, including having a discussion with Professor Tomas and conducting a survey about her popularity among students.

[ 本帖最后由 imagic80 于 2007-6-17 11:22 编辑 ]

icestarUID: 2209935

The wish to prevent excellent professors from leaving Elm City University (ECU) is reasonable. But if a salary raise and a promotion is the best way to achieve this purpose? In the above statement, we can not be persuaded by the arguer(speaker/ author更柔和些) for several fallacies in his reasoning line.Firstly, the author falsely depends on gratuitous assumption that without a salary raise and promotion, Professor Tomas will leave ECU. However, the author does not provide facts to support this argument. For example, Professor Tomas has required for a promotion or expressed that she is not content with the present salary and so on（salary，and so on）. The author fails to present these(such) relevant evidence(evidence是不可数 ) to justify his assumption. In my opinion(太主观，改成common sense tells me), an erudite professor pays little attention to material enjoyment. It is most likely that she cares much about the research environment and implements, not money and promotion. Under that circumstance, improvement of her research condition will be a more attracting way to keep her stay in EUC. Secondly, there is no necessary relationship between big classes and the popularity of a professor. Many students choosing classes of Professor Tomas maybe not because of the attracting teaching way in her classes, but because of requirement of the university. They have to have botany classes, otherwise they can not get the requiring score. It is equally possible that what attracts students is the subject botany not the professor, the botany classes will also big even teaching by other professors. So the big classes can not demonstrate Professor Tomas’s teaching ability. Moreover, although the research grants she brought to the university is more than her salary in the past two years, it can not be ensured that she still will bring research grants in the future. Thirdly, another problem is whether an excellent professor is surely to be a(an)excellent department chairperson. Even if my doubt about her teaching and research ability is proved to be unnecessary, perhaps she is still not qualified to be a leader. One reason is that maybe she has no interesting(interest) in being a leader, she prefers to be a teacher or researcher more than a leader. Another is that she is not competent enough for the job of a leader. It is very likely that without the exclusion of these possibilities an excellent professor will be lost in the research field and meanwhile a incompetent leader will appear.In conclusion, this argument is not convincing for the above fallacies. Before making the decision to give a salary raise and promotion to Professor Tomas, a comprehensive investigation should be taken, including having a discussion with Professor Tomas and conducting a survey about her popularity among students.

没什么意见，写的不错的说