ARGUMENT52 by zephyrqq

zephyrqqUID: 2260290

ARGUMENT52 - The following appeared in a memo to the human resources manager at Baobob Inc., a large architectural firm.

"Several well-known, retired architects were interviewed in Architecture Today about changes in the field. Only one had earned a college degree in architecture. All others had come into the field at an early age by serving apprenticeships that required them to work under the direct supervision of an experienced architect. Several of the colleges that we recruit from report that many promising architecture students leave school early in their undergraduate career. Therefore, because finding talented architecture graduates is becoming more difficult, Baobob Inc. should start an aggressive apprenticeship program and hire students who express an interest in architecture directly out of high school rather than wait for them to get out of college."
字数：323          用时：00:35:00   加16分钟       日期：2008-2-29 10:56:41

1.受采访不能代表所有的，退休的不能代表现在的
2.优秀学生很早离开不能说明毕业生没有成就
3.有兴趣的不一定有天赋，此公司不一定有能力提供成功的学徒计划

Before accepting the author's suggestion that Baobab Inc. should start an aggressive apprenticeship program and hire high school graduates who express an interest in architecture, we should make a refection on the reasoning process of the author once more. After doing this, we would find that there are some logical fallacies in this argument which undermine the author's conclusion.

To begin with, the fact that among the architects interviewed in Architecture Today only one had obtained a college degree and others had learn through apprenticeship lends less support to the author's conclusion. First, we do not know whether  these architects' experiences could represent that of all the well-know architects as a whole. It is possible that in nationwide or even local actually majority of well-known architects is those who earned a college degree in architecture . Secondly, these architects are retired and their successful experience only say something about the past several decades. Perhaps, the situation today, nevertheless, have been quite different from the past and few of outstanding architects have not got a college degree. If so, this interview actually could not bolster the conclusion of this argument effectively.

Furthermore, the author assumes that it is difficult to find talent architecture graduates according to the fact that several school report that many promising students leave school early. However, these reports could not be regard as evidence showing graduates are not gifted. The author fails to inform us the portion of this kind of students, and whether they get success or not. We also know nothing about these data of graduates. It is possible that those outstanding students who leave school early finally could not be successful architects, while a larger part of those who go to work after graduating from college make more achievement.

Finally, even assuming that apprenticeship is more valuable than college education for architectural students, it does not necessarily mean that the author's suggestion are advisable. Just as so many people are intersted in music but few of them have the talent to be musician,  students showing an interest in architecture are not certainly those who have a gift on architecture. Moreover, whether the apprenticeship program offered the Baobob Inc. could be effective is open to doubt. Since the author present no evidence to ensure the quality of teaching in this program, and no information show they have ever cultivated any excellent architects through apprenticeship, thereby we have good reason to doubt whether their program could be successful or not.

For all these reasons, this argument is unsubstantial as it stands. To better support it, the author should show that most of prominent architects in this time should own their success to apprenticeship without a college degree. And other evidence which could prove that students with an interest in architecture indeed have gift in it and Baobob Inc. have the ability to turn them into outstanding men of architecture.

[ 本帖最后由 zephyrqq 于 2008-3-6 19:05 编辑 ]