Argument186 【☆09GRE作文冲刺组】swbai2月15日作文

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题目：ARGUMENT186 - The following is a recommendation from the director of personnel to the president of Professional Printing Company.
"In a recent telephone survey of automobile factory workers, older employees were less likely to report that having a supervisor present increases their productivity. Among workers aged 18 to 29, 27 percent said that they are more productive in the presence of their immediate supervisor, compared to 12 percent for those aged 30 or over, and only 8 percent for those aged 50 or over. Clearly, if our printing company hires mainly older employees, we will increase productivity and save money because of the reduced need for supervisors."


The memo concludes that if the Professional Printing Company hires mainly older employees, the company will increase productivity and save money. To justify this conclusion, the director of personnel points out a telephone survey that older employees in automobile factory workers, and the fact that the old workers tend to not need supervisors. However, close scrutiny of the argument reveals logical problems, which render it unconvincing.

One problem with the argument is that the director might be assigning a false cause to the accuracy of the survey. The author provides no evidence that the result of telephone survey is exactly the same as the face-to-face survey. Without such evidence, it is equally possible that other factors are instead responsible for the results. For instance, perhaps the telephone survey was done on Monday, when most of workers are in the factory and cannot answer the call. Perhaps the sample of the survey is so small that it cannot help to find out the real answer. Or perhaps the survey is investigated in only one factory that cannot represent the workers in other factories. Moreover, the argument assumes that the survey of automobile factory workers also represent the painting company workers.

Another problem with the argument involves the workers' age of the printing company workers. Assuming that the survey is reasonable, the director provides no evidence that the old workers can have the same creativity and efficiency as the young workers in the first place. Perhaps the older workers do not think about promotion but retiring; or perhaps the old worker is proficient about the classic styles but not adaptable to new ones. Moreover, the energy of young worker is much bigger than the old one, which allow them do more job, yet not always concentrate on it. Without accounting for these possibilities, the author cannot rely on the director's advise to conclude that old workers are more efficient than young workers.

Finally, the fact that reducing the supervisor to save money accomplishes nothing toward bolstering the recommendation. As the supervisor is smaller, sending information to the worker is inefficient, and even the old worker will not concentrate on work. Besides, increasing the comparison of workers, and make the salaries related to the work are good ideas to increase productivity. Moreover, the monitor can be introduced to replace the supervisors' job, and it is costless.

In sum, the recommendation relies on certain doubtful assumptions that render it unconvincing as it stands. To bolster the recommendation the director must provide clear evidence--perhaps by way of survey or study about the painting company--that the old worker are as efficient and creative as the young worker, and they don't need the supervisor. To better assess the recommendation, I would need to know why the director think the survey about automobile factory is useful in printing company. I would also need to know the reason why old worker are no more productive in the presence of their supervisor.