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137.
The following appeared in an editorial in the Mason City newspaper.
"At present, Mason City residents seldom use the nearby Mason River for any kind of recreational activity, even though surveys of the region's residents consistently rank water sports (swimming, fishing, and boating) as a favorite form of recreation. Since there have been complaints about the quality of the water in the river, residents must be avoiding the river because they think that it is not clean enough. But that situation is about to change: the agency responsible for rivers in our region has announced plans to clean up Mason River. Therefore, recreational use of the river is likely to increase, so the Mason City council will need to increase its budget for improvements to the publicly owned lands along the Mason River."
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In the argument, the author's claim that the Mason City council will need to increase its budget for improvements to the publicly owned lands along the Mason River is unfounded and cannot be accepted under the close examination and scrutiny. Though the author quotes a surveys and an announced from the agency to substantiate the conclusion. At first glace, it seems reasonable, however, on the second thought, as matter of fact it is not pursuable as it stands.
To begin with, the author's deduction is based on the survey that the residents nearly the river favorite the water sports. But, the argument tells us little about the detail produce of the survey. How about the sample size and sample quality in the survey, and whether chose the sample in randomly, etc. Without these specific data or information, we have good reason to doubt the reliability of the survey. If the survey cannot be accepted, of course, it is hard or impossible for author to convince us the deduction and conclusion.
In addition, the author assumes that the water will be clean up as the agency announced which is responsible for the river. Unfortunately, the author provides no evidence to show the result would happen as the announcement. How about the detail content and procedure of the plan? How about the step or measure of the agency to clean up the river? Does the agency have enough economy ability and power to keep the river water clean? If the author cannot explain all these questions, the conclusion would be weakened seriously.
Moreover, the author fails to convince us that the resident avoiding the river because they think it is not clean enough according to the complaints about the quality of the water. There are various possibilities to result in the resident avoiding the river. Maybe the speed of river water is too fast to fit for the water sports, maybe the river is not broad enough to play, maybe the residents do like to play water sports in the formal water-playing center rather than in a river. There is not any evidence that illustrates the resident do not play water sports in the river just because the water is not clean enough. That is to say, even if the survey is receivable and the water is clean enough, it does not guarantee that the recreational use of the river will increase.
To sum up, based on what discussed and analyzed above, it is clearly that the argument is invalid and misleading, the deduction and conclusion reached in the argument is too presumptuous and hasty to be accepted. In order to make the conclusion more convincing, the author should gather more specific data and provide more evidence to support the conclusion. |
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