argument200 为我所用小组第十二次作业

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TOPIC: ARGUMENT200 - Statistics collected from dentists indicate that three times more men than women faint while visiting the dentist. This evidence suggests that men are more likely to be distressed about having dental work done than women are. Thus, dentists who advertise to attract patients should target the male consumer and emphasize both the effectiveness of their anesthetic techniques and the sensitivity of their staff to nervous or suffering patients.
WORDS: 490         TIME: 00:28:21          DATE: 2008-4-6 15:26:39

The author recommends that the advertisements of dentists should target male customers and emphasize the effectiveness of anesthetic techniques and the sensitivity of their staff to nervous or suffering patients because male patients faint more when visiting the dentist. However, I find this argument with some logical flaws and thus is unconvincing.
To begin with, the mere fact that men faint three times more than women do when they visit dentist is of little indication that they are more likely to feel distressed about having dental work than women are. It is entirely possible that the total number of men patients is much larger than women patients and thus those who faint while visiting the dentist are much more than women patients. Also, the author overlooks the possibility that men patients may have more serious problems with their teeth, which leads them to faint more than women because they suffer more than more do, not because they are more likely to be distressed. Since the author fails to provide any information about the mentioned possibilities, she cannot convince me that the advertisements should be targeted at male consumer.
Secondly, even if I concede that men consumers are more likely to faint than women are, the author's suggestion that the advertisements should emphasize on the anesthetic techniques remains dubious. Perhaps men patients faint not because they are nervous and afraid of the pain, but due to other reasons such as they feel uncomfortable when under strong lights or they have other diseases that will lead to fainting. If this is the case, then emphasizing on the effectiveness of anesthetic techniques is of no use to attract patients.
Thirdly, the recommendation on the emphasis on the sensitivity of their staff to nervous or suffering patients also seems unconvincing. If patients faint not because nervousness or suffering as mentioned above, then the sensitivity of staff to nervous or suffering patients cannot contribute to attracting consumers. What's more, even if the patients are likely to feel nervous or afraid of suffering, it is not to say that they will be relieved just because the staff pay more attention on them. What is more effective to resolve the problem may be the ability of the dentists to cure patients’ pains, not the staff’s sensitivity. Consequently, the author fails to offer any evidence to support her recommendation on emphasis on the sensitivity of their staff to nervous or suffering patients in advertisements.
In conclusion, the recommendation is unconvincing. To better bolster it, the author should provide more evidence about the total number of men and women patients. Also, she has to substantiate that men patients faint because they are more likely to be distressed when seeing a dentist and she needs to do investigate to have a clear picture whether consumers will be attracted if the advertisement emphasizes both the effectiveness of their anesthetic techniques and the sensitivity of their staff to nervous or suffering patients.