"为我所用"小组第九次作业argument117

rienziUID: 2402391

TOPIC: ARGUMENT117 - The following is a memo from the business manager of Valu-Mart stores.
"Over 70 percent of the respondents to a recent survey reported that they are required to take more work home with them from the workplace than they were in the past. Since Valu-Mart has not seen impressive sales in its office-supply departments in the past, we should take advantage of this work-at-home trend by increasing at all Valu-Mart stores the stock of home office machines such as printers, small copy machines, paper shredders, and fax machines. We will also increase stock of office supplies such as paper, pens, and staplers. With these changes, our office-supply departments will become the most profitable component of our stores."

WORDS: 409          TIME: 00:30:00          DATE: 2008-4-2 19:26:33



    The arguer presents a specious phenomenon that people are required to do more work home which is taken by them from the workplace. Taking this specious phenomenon and the fact that Valu-Mart has not impressive sales in the past as two reasons, the arguer concludes that both the home office machines and office supplies should be increased in the stock of Valu-Mart to improve profits. From careful scrutiny, it is not difficult to pick out some fatal fallacies from the arguer's discussion.
    First of all, the result of the survey presented by the arguer can not support his conclusion. The data shows us an ambiguity. The survey shows that 70 percent of those people who have responded to the survey take more work home than before, but what about those people who did not respond the survey? If only a very small amount of people responded the survey, we can only concludes that the small amount of wretched people is busier than before but not a majority of all the workers. More details of the survey must be given to help the arguer make a clear result.
    Second, even if the result of the survey which has been discussed in my second paragraph is an proper one, the arguer can not conclude that the increasements of home office machines and  office supplies of the stock can bring the stores more profit. He does not tell us the present amount of storage of these issues in Valu-Mart stores. If the storage of these issues is already high in Valu-Mart stores and it can provide enough needs of works, the increasement will mean nothing. And the cost of these machines and tools is also a problem. If the cost of these issues rise, who can make a conclusion that the increasement can lead to more profit. More thinking should be done of the arguer before he put out his suggestion.
    Third, the last sentence of the passage also can not stand on its ground. There is no evidence which can prove that the changes suggested by the arguer can automatically lead the offic-supply departments to become the most profitable part of their stores. If other parts do better in the future, the last conclusion by the arguer will inevitably fail.
    Given the discussion above, the arguer's passage has many logical fallacies. More work and investigations should be done to make his discussion more reasonable, or make the arguer change his opinion.