ARGUMENT17 写的最好的一次，大家来拍拍

cane004UID: 2110633

ARGUMENT17 - The following appeared in a letter to the editor of the Walnut Grove town newspaper.

"Walnut Grove's town council has advocated switching from EZ Disposal (which has had the contract for trash collection services in Walnut Grove for the past ten years) to ABC Waste, because EZ recently raised its monthly fee from $2,000 to $2,500 a month, whereas ABC's fee is still $2,000. But the town council is mistaken; we should continue using EZ. EZ collects trash twice a week, while ABC collects only once. Moreover, EZ-which, like ABC, currently has a fleet of 20 trucks-has ordered additional trucks. Finally, EZ provides exceptional service: 80 percent of respondents to last year's town survey agreed that they were 'satisfied' with EZ's performance."
WORDS: 568          TIME: 2:32:09          DATE: 2006-3-1
1.        未考虑影响council决定的其他原因
2.        500的增幅是否合适，增加在哪里
3.        就三点论据进行攻击，推出相反结论
The author, a editor of the Walnut Grove town newspaper, blames that the local council should not switch the trash collection contract from EZ Disposal to ABC Waste for the reason that ABC Waste is $500 cheaper than EZ Disposal monthly. The author believes it is reasonable and valuable for the extra $500 a month to pay for the collection for three aspects: EZ serves one more time a week than ABC; EZ has trucks as same amount as ABC has, and intends to increase some more; And last year’s survey indicates 80% respondents were satisfied with EZ's services. It sounds convincing and well-supported, but a careful scrutiny on his assertion will reflect two fatal flaws discussed as following.

The first and foremost flaw is that the author subjects the changing of contract to the rising fee in haste. Perhaps, EZ Disposal disposes the collected trash by traditional method called deep burying, which wastes lots of available land and may be cause pollution problem. Comparing that ABC Waste may adopt a new process which can recycle the waste and meanwhile protect the environment. In that case the town council will not hesitate to choose the ABC Waste. Not ruling out other alternative possibilities, the author's assertion will be untenable and unwarranted.

The second vital mistake the author commits is that no adequate evidence is presented to support the fee increase,$500 more a month. Just from the evidence provided by the author, we cannot clearly deduct whether EZ only collect trash once a week in the past 10 years, and why EZ inclined to order more trucks. In one hand, if EZ can serve twice a week in the past, frequency of the collection service will not be grounds of the point.  In another hand, if the new trucks are not bought to serve the Walnut Grove's waste disposal or they are just used to instead the old broken trucks, that will not be a support too. Even if the additional trucks will really function in the trash collection, $200 may be a more reasonable increase. In short, if there are no corresponding details about the added $500, the author's assertion will be presumptuous and dubious.

Despite the two considerable falsities, the EZ's merits referred by the author are open to doubt. EZ provide one more service a week to collect trash. Is that necessary? If one time is enough, no reason to carry out another process only making more noise from the trash trucks. And what's more, what other things the additional trucks do, if 20 trucks can finish the collection job well? By the way, how many residents responded in last year's survey, and what would happen if the charge fee is $2,500 late year? Without making clear all those questions, it is equally possible that ABC can serve the town perfectly and get a nice point in the next year's survey.

In conclusion, the author's assertion is ill-convinced and poorly supported. To support his assertion, the author should show evidence to prove the fee increase is the town council's principal reason for the contract switch and EZ's disposal process is better or merely not worse than ABC's. To assess the argument clearly, I need to know the detailed information about why the fee increases, I need to know other related situation of the EZ Disposal's services and also the survey's detail statistics are better to provide.