argument238 kito智恩 谢谢拍砖

智恩UID: 2160717

TOPIC: ARGUMENT 238 - The following appeared in a memorandum from the president of Mira Vista College to the college's board of trustees.

"At nearby Green Mountain College, which has more business courses and more job counselors than does Mira Vista College, 90 percent of last year's graduating seniors had job offers from prospective employers. But at Mira Vista College last year, only 70 percent of the seniors who informed the placement office that they would be seeking employment had found full-time jobs within three months after graduation, and only half of these graduates were employed in their major field of study. To help Mira Vista's graduates find employment, we must offer more courses in business and computer technology and hire additional job counselors to help students with their resumés and interviewing skills."
WORDS: 358          TIME: 上午 12:30:00          DATE: 2006-2-7

This argument simply proposes that it is necessary for Mira Vista College to offer more courses in business and computer technology and hire additional job counselors to help graduates in finding employment. To substantiate this claim, the author provides statistics. However this analysis is deficient in logic and not cogent.

To begin with, the author unfairly compares that the graduating seniors had job offers of last year in two colleges. The author fails to provide the number of students of each college. Without such information, it is subjective to conclude that the Green Mountain College's graduates get more job offers than the Mira Vista College. Perhaps the number of Green Mountain College's graduates is less than Mira Vista College's. If this is case, the 90percent and 70percent could not illustrate the former college's students find more jobs than the latter's. Even if the graduate number is similar in two colleges, the author fails to consider that it is just likely that the graduates in Mira Vista did not go to the company which gave them job offers because of the low salary. Therefore without ruling out such possibilities, it is arbitrary to reach the author's conclusion.

In addition, no evidence is offered to demonstrate that learning much business and computer technology could facilitate finding jobs. It is highly possible that the Green Mountain College is a commerce college and so they have more courses concerning commercial knowledge and computer technology. On the other hand the Mira Vista College maybe is a science college which refers to much mathematics and physics lessons. Even if the latter college needs more commercial and computer courses, no information is provided to substantiate the causal relationship that the business and computer courses make the graduates succeed in finding jobs. Perhaps the graduates of Green Mountain College are more hardworking and cooperative than the Mira Visa's graduates. If so, the more courses on business and computer could not improve the proportion of getting jobs. Absent of more detailed information mentioned above, the author's claim is untenable.

In conclusion, this argument is unconvincing as it stands. The author must do a better job of presenting his case, addressing each point named above.

[ 本帖最后由 智恩 于 2006-2-10 22:35 编辑 ]