Argument180 【0706G－LOVEAW】 第十八次作业 by iq28

iq28UID: 2152875

最后一次作业 差

TOPIC: ARGUMENT180 - The following is a recommendation from the personnel director to the president of Acme Publishing Company.

"Many other companies have recently stated that having their employees take the Easy Read Speed-Reading Course has greatly improved productivity. One graduate of the course was able to read a five-hundred-page report in only two hours; another graduate rose from an assistant manager to vice president of the company in under a year. Obviously, the faster you can read, the more information you can absorb in a single workday. Moreover, Easy Read costs only $500 per employee-a small price to pay when you consider the benefits to Acme. Included in this fee is a three-week seminar in Spruce City and a lifelong subscription to the Easy Read newsletter. Clearly, Acme would benefit greatly by requiring all of our employees to take the Easy Read course."
WORDS: 453          TIME: 0:27:00          DATE: 2007-3-6

The argument is well-presented, but not thoroughly organized. Merely based on the some insufficient reports, the author' recommendation is obviously questionable. In the following details I will discuss each flaw in the argument.

To begin with, although the author cites that one graduate was able to read five-hundred-page in two hours, it cannot prove that his reading ability has increased, for the reading quality relies not only on speed, but on quality. It is entirely possible that the reader can only finish reading hastily but cannot remember the significant contents of the passages, not to say understand and utilize the information in the report. Therefore, the assertion that the faster you can read, the more information you can absorb is actually specious at best. In such cases, the course is meaningless.

Also, the graduate whose position rose at an amazing speed cannot convince me that it is the contribution of the course. The author provides no evidence that this graduate benefits in his reading ability after finishing the course. Besides the reading ability, the rise in status is a result of many other comprehensive abilities promotion, such as the improving communication ability, or a better analysis power. All these improvements have nothing to do with the course. Even assuming that the rise in status is contributable to the improving reading ability, it may not caused by the course. It is entirely possible that the graduate gained nothing but disappointment after such course and the promotion in reading ability is the result of his long time spent on handling thousands of messages when he was the assistant manager. Therefore, the experience of this graduator still cannot prove the effect of the course.

Granted that the two graduates do benefit from the Speed-Reading Course, only providing a sample of two participants cannot statistically typify the overall effects of the course on its graduate. It is entirely possible that merely the minority of the graduates have shown a significant progress in reading, while others just wasted three weeks on the course but gained nothing. Given that the major part of those participants from other companies have benefited from the course, it does not necessarily mean that the course fits the needs of employees in Acme Publishing Company. Perhaps the employees in other companies who were sent to the course are mostly inexperienced beginners, and the course just provided some basic skills in reading. While the Acme Publishing Company, however, the majority of the employees are adept readers, who may learn little from such course. Therefore, unless the employees in Acme Publishing Company are really fit the course, the author' recommendation is still unacceptable.

In summary, the author's conclusion is merely based on steps of logical confusing inferences which rends the recommendation unsounded.