In condusion, the argument is indefensible as it stands. To strengthen it the professor must
provide specific information about Xanadu’s current reputation, and provide clear evidence
that distance learning would in fact enhance this reputation. The professor must also convince
us that the two courses in the trial project were representative of Xanadu’s other courses--in
terms of the ease with which the faculty could adapt their courses to distance learning. Finally,
to better assess the argument we would need a detailed analysis comparing loss in tuition from
traditional-course enrollment with expected gains in tuition from distance-learning enrollment.
Argument 80
The following is a letter to the editor of the Roseville Gazette.
"Despite opposition from some residents of West Roseville, the arguments in favor of merging
the townships of Roseville and West Roseville are overwhelming. First, residents in both
townships are confused about which authority to contact when they need a service; for
example, the police department in Roseville receives many calls from residents of West
Roseville. This sort of confusion would be eliminated with the merger. Second, the savings in
administrative costs would be enormous, since services would no longer be duplicated: we
would have only one fire chief, one tax department, one mayor, and so on. And no jobs in city
government would be lost---employees could simply be reassigned. Most importantly, the
merger will undoubtedly attract business investments as it did when the townships of Hamden
and North Hamden merged ten years ago."
This editorial recommends the merger of Roseville and West RoseviUe. The author claims
that the merger would (1) eliminate confusion among both townships’ residents about which
authority to call for services; (2) reduce aggregate administrative costs by eliminating
duplicative jobs and services, and (3) attract business investment as did the merger of
Hamden and North Hamden ten years ago. The author claims further that the merger would
result in certain job reassignments but not in the loss of any jobs for current municipal
employees. I find these claims problematic in several respects.First, although a merger might be necessary to eliminate current confusion about which
authority to contact for services, the editorial overlooks the possibility that the merger will not in
itself suffice to eliminate this confusion. Specifically, until the residents of both communities are
apprised of the change and learn how to respond appropriately, confusion will continue--and
perhaps even increase in the short term. Thus some measure of community awareness and
responsiveness might also be required for the elimination of confusion.
Secondly, the editorial seems to make two irreconcilable claims. One is that the merger will
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result in the elimination of certain duplicative jobs; the other is that no current municipal
employee will become unemployed as a result of the merger. The editorial fails to consider that
eliminating duplicative jobs would decrease the aggregate number of current municipal
employees unless enough new jobs are created to offset the decrease, and that new jobs
would in turn add to administrative costs. Thus as it stands the argument is self-contradictory,
and the author must either modify it by choosing between two competing
objectives--preserving current employment levels and cutting costs---or somehow reconcile
these two objectives.
Thirdly, the author’s claim that the merger will attract business investment relies on the hasty
assumption the newly merged Roseville would be similar to Hamden in every way affecting
their attractiveness to business investment. Perhaps Hamden’s business tax rates, labor pool,
or even climate are more attractive than the newly merged Roseville’s would be. If so, then the
proposed merger in itself might accomplish little toward attracting business investment to
RoseviUe. In other words, without evidence that Hamden and the newly merged Roseville
would be equally attractive to business investments I cannot accept the author’s conclusion
that a merger will carry the same result for Roseville as for Hamden.
In sum, the editorial is not only logically unsound but also relies on several doubtful
assumptions. To strengthen the argument the author must modify the recommendation to
account for other measures needed to eliminate the confusion mentioned in the editorial. The
author must also provide a cost-benefit analysis that accounts for the costs of creating new
jobs to offset the elimination of duplicative jobs. FinaUy, the author must show that the new
RoseviUe would be just as attractive to business investment as the new Hamden has been.Argument 81
The Department of Education in the state of Attra recommends that high school students be
assigned homework every day. Yet a recent statewide survey of high school math and science
teachers calls the usefulness of daily homework into question. In the district of Sanlee, 86
percent of the teachers reported assigning homework three to five times a week, whereas in
the district of Marlee, less than 25 percent of the teachers reported assigning homework three
to five times a week. Yet the students in Marlee earn better grades overall and are less likely to
be required to repeat a year of school than are the students in Sanlee. Therefore, all teachers
in our high schools should assign homework no more than twice a week, if at all.
The speaker argues that if the state board of education required that homework be assigned
to high school students no more than twice per week academic performance would improve.
To support this assertion the speaker cites a statewide survey of math and science teachers.
According to the survey, students in the Mafiee district, who are assigned homework no more
than once per week, achieve better grades and are less likely to repeat a school year than
students in the Sanlee district, who are assigned homework every night. Close scrutiny reveals,
however, that this evidence provides little credible support for the speaker’s assertion.
To begin with, the survey appears to suffer from two statistical problems, either of which
renders the survey’s results unreliable. First, the speaker relies on statistics from only two
districts; however, it is entirely possible that these two districts are not representative of the
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state’s school districts overall. Second, the survey involved only math and science teachers.
Yet the speaker draws a broad recommendation for all teachers based on the survey’s results.
In addition, the speaker’s recommendation relies on the assumption that the amount of
homework assigned to students is the only possible reason for the comparative academic
performance between students in the two districts. However, in all likelihood this is simply not
the case. Perhaps Sanlee teachers are stricter graders then Marlee teachers. Or perhaps
Sanlee teachers are less effective than Marlee teachers, and therefore Sanlee students would
perform more poorly regardless of homework schedule. Or perhaps fewer Sanlee students
than Marlee students actually do their assigned homework. In short, in order to properly
conclude that fewer homework assignments results in better academic performance, the
speaker must first rule out all other feasible explanations for the disparity in academic
performance between the two districts.