Argument Essay 1 : The following appeared in a memorandum from a dean at Omega University.

"Fifteen years ago, Omega University implemented a new procedure that encouraged students to evaluate the teaching effectiveness of all their professors. Since that time, Omega professors have begun to assign higher grades in their classes, and overall student grade averages at Omega have risen by thirty percent. Potential employers apparently believe the grades at Omega are inflated; this would explain why Omega graduates have not been as successful at getting jobs as have graduates from nearby Alpha University. To enable its graduates to secure better jobs, Omega University should now terminate student evaluation of professors." Argument Analysis: 50 minutes taken of a maximum of 30. The given argument states some factors that may have caused Omega University's grading system to be deemed unreliable by interested observers such as potential employers. It utilizes arguments such as the "inflated" grading system that, over the last fifteen years, seems to have become the norm for graduates from Omega. This change in grading consistency is attributed to a teacher evaluation scheme (with the students as the jurors), and the argument then draws a rather abrupt and rigid conclusion that the reason for this change in Omega's reputation is completely due to the negative effect of this teacher evaluation program, and that its consequent removal will solve all the problems that Omega now has. The first event that strikes the observer is the finality of the conclusion of the argument - that Omega University should immediately "terminate student evaluation of professors". The two main problems with the abruptness of this statement are that primarily, the argument does not state at any point that this evaluation process is DIRECTLY the cause, and the ONLY cause, of this drop in Omega's overall performance. Secondarily, the argument tends to ignore all possible positive aspects, however remote, that may have helped improve other issues in the University. The stated premises of the argument can now be analysed directly. The author, in the first line of the given statement, refers to the "new procedure" that Omega University implemented 15 years ago to evaluate student performance. The immediate assumption made is that this commitment was not entered into thoughtlessly, but was a wellcalculated attempt at initiating reforms in the institution. This leads us to a conclusion that the "powers that be" at Omega University had, even at that point, realised that there were some inherent flaws in the system that needed to be addressed; and that one way of addressing these flaws was to initiate new quality analysis and control procedures such as the teacher evaluation program stated.

There are then some premises stated directly in the argument that seem to indicate improvement in the College due to implementation of these processes. One such premise states that Omega professors have begun assigning higher grades to their students. This ambiguous statement can lead to two radically different conclusions; one negative, and the other positive. The negative conclusion is that teachers started grading students higher to curry favor that would reflect in positive teacher evaluation reports - a sort of reversal of teacher-student relationships. The positive conclusion that one would be happier believing is that these reports caused lethargic and unimpressive teachers in the University to improve their performances for fear of losing their jobs, thus leading to an overall improvement in student performance, and consequently student grades. The grandiloquent statement that potential employers "apparently" believe grades to be inflated, can be rejected outright as fallacy, or at the very best, as an uninformed opinion stated by the author. No value can be assigned to a statement that has no basis in fact; and consequently, comparisions of Omega University and Alpha University based on this unjustified statement cannot be analysed objectively. It could be a simple case of Alpha University being a better college in all respects - some of them being the quality of their students and faculty, the environment provided, and even perhaps some issue as trivial as a better scenic view from Alpha! The justification provided for proposing such a strong solution to Omega University's supposed problems has no relevance to any part of the argument the author has used to justify his or her stand. Thus the conclusion seems to the average reader to be completely unjustified and not well reasoned from any point of view. Argument Essay 2 The following appeared in a memo from the vice president of a company that builds shopping malls throughout the country. "The surface of a section of Route 101, paved two years ago by McAdam Road Builders, is now badly cracked and marred by dangerous potholes. In another part of the state, a section of Route 66, paved by Appian Roadways more than four years ago, is still in good condition. Appian Roadways has recently purchased state-of-the-art paving machinery, and it has hired a new quality-control manager. Because of its superior work and commitment to quality, we should contract with Appian Roadways rather than McAdam Road Builders to construct the access roads for all our new shopping malls." Analyzed in 40 minutes, and it included some points jotted down this time. The extract given is targeted at a vice president of a company whose primary role is the construction of shopping malls across the country. The role of the vice president is to choose which company to subcontract for the paving of access roads to their shopping malls. Prima facie, the memo seems to use a few brief arguments to suggest strongly to the vice president that one competing company (Appian Roadways)

should be contracted at the expense of its rival (McAdam Road Builders). The first impression that one receives on analysis of this argument is that the example given contains information that is insufficiently comprehensive for any concrete judgements to be made. The first conclusion that the author makes about the relative positions of the two competing companies are that Appian performs "superior work" when compared to McAdam. The example given is a relatively minute sample of two roads - Routes 66 and 101. The author of the memo summarily concludes, based on this one comparitive example, that Appian seems a better road paver than McAdam. A few problems with this sort of reasoning immediately come to mind. The simplest of counter-examples could be used to dismiss the example described above - namely that it is very possible that Route 101 is a very much more important roadway than Route 66. A simple statement like "Route 101 handles three times as much traffic as Route 66", would mean that McAdam Road Builders probably paved Route 101 at least as well as Route 66 was paved by Appian. Of course, there are other factors that the memo does not describe, or even consider, about Route 101 and Route 66. It is possible that the terrain that Route 101 is on is a much more unstable and rocky terrain compared to Route 66, and that the lifetime of roads on unstable terrain is smaller. It is also possible that Route 101 was deliberately paved less well than Route 66 was by Appian, because the authorities four years ago were on a cost-cutting initiative which involved paving of inferior quality roads so that the total cost would remain low. The memo also states that Appian's "commitment to quality" should be a deciding factor in its choice over McAdam Road Builders. This leads to the immediate, and probably incorrect, assumption that McAdam probably does NOT have this commitment to quality. In the middle of the memo, as a point of issue, the author indicates abruptly that Appian has recently bought new machinery and has also hired a quality control manager. This statement is placed before the statement indicating Appian's commitment to quality, and leads the nondiscerning reader to assume that this buying and hiring are examples of Appian's commitment to quality. A more rational analysis, though, would be that an employee of Appian had resigned his job and they were looking to fill his position with someone appropriate. There are infinitely many assumptions that one can make about McAdam Road Builders' appropriateness for the job, given the lack of concrete information on the company in the given memo. It is very possible that McAdam has also hired new personnel and bought new equipment; it is also possible that McAdam already has a well-established and experienced quality control team that would probably make McAdam's "commitment to quality" more sincere than Appian's.

Clearly, the flimsy evidence given in the memo cannot be used to make a sweeping statement declaring Appian Roadways to be a better road paving company - many clear flaws in the reasoning, some of which are described above, come in the way. The conclusion that one is forced to make is that the memo does not constitute a reasonable enough argument for awarding Appian Roadways with the shopping mall contract. -----------The following appeared in a corporate planning memo at ABC Cereal Company, the makers of Better Bran cereal. "Sales of Better Bran have declined in recent years, for reasons that management has now identified. First, Better Bran is a cereal with high sugar content, and recent research studies have found that most consumers say they are concerned about the amount of sugar added to their breakfast cereal. Second, the price of Better Bran has increased by 5 percent in each of the last three years. Therefore, to increase our company's profits we need to reduce the amount of sugar in Better Bran and lower Better Bran's price." Comment: This time, I stuck to the time limit of 30 minutes - this is definitely the worst of the three essays I've written to date. Answer: The given argument has to do with a internal review of ABC Cereal Company, a company that manufactures Better Bran cereals. Over the last few years, the net sales of Better Bran have been falling, and the authors of the given corporate planning memo state some factors that they believe have caused this trend. The decision reached by the authors of the memo for this decline is that ABC Cereal Company needs to both reduce sugar content and prices of its Better Bran cereal brand if it wishes to increase sales. On prima facie analysis, the argument, as a whole, does not come across as sufficiently well-reasoned, mainly because the given argument seems a little too brief; conciseness is sometimes a positive factor, but in this case, the memo seems hindered by its lack of enough justification for its conclusion. The decision reached by the authors of the memo is that ABC Cereal Company needs to both reduce sugar content and prices of its Better Bran cereal brand if it wishes to increase sales. To make this claim, the authors have necessarily have had to make a few assumptions - one such glaring assumption being that they do not consider any factors other than price and sugar content as having anything to do with the drop in sales. The memo states as known the "fact" that Better Bran has *high* sugar content. At this point, it is unclear whether it is Better Bran alone that has a high sugar content, or whether it is a characteristic feature of all cereals of this type, including cereals manufactured by competing companies. This ambiguity stands out; it could be easily resolved by the memo stating how it stands with respect to competitors in every field. At the same time, we can very easily envision a rival company (say Company X) where sales have also declined - they may

state in *their* memo that "sales have declined due to its low sugar content compared to competing brands such as ABC's Better Bran." This example is a measure of the subjectivity of a phrase like "high sugar content" - what is too high for one "consumer" can very conceivably be too low for another. A statement is also made about consumers being worried about the sugar content of their breakfast cereals. The fear of a disease such as diabetes, coupled with the natural tendencies of hypochondria probably have led to this being an issue. The argument overly emphasizes what should really be a relatively neglible factor when compared to other issues like taste, marketing strategy, etc. The argument thus does not satisfactorily address the issue of declining sales of Better Bran - mainly due to its concentration on trivial issues and ignoring other, possibly more relevant ones. ------------The following appeared in a memorandum written by the vice president of Nature's Way, a chain of stores selling health food and other health-related products. "Previous experience has shown that our stores are most profitable in areas where residents are highly concerned with leading healthy lives. We should therefore build our next new store in Plainsville, which has many such residents. Plainsville merchants report that sales of running shoes and exercise clothing are at all-time highs. The local health club, which nearly closed five years ago due to lack of business, has more members than ever, and the weight training and aerobics classes are always full. We can even anticipate a new generation of customers: Plainsville's schoolchildren are required to participate in a 'fitness for life' program, which emphasizes the benefits of regular exercise at an early age." The given argument is a part of a memorandum written by the vice president of Nature's Way, a chain of stores selling health-related products. The aim of the memorandum is to identify a feasible market that will sustain a new Nature's Way store. The vice president specifically refers to the town of Plainsville, and indicates a few pointers that he believes makes Plainsville a suitable target for a new store within its environs. On prima facie examination, the one glaring problem seems to be the irrelevance of many of the points that the vice president raises. She refers to a local health club and its variation in business, and also talks about a health program that is being practised in the schools of Plainsville. The problem, though, is that there appears no valid relation between these two factors and the feasibility of a store selling health products. The arguments do not seem to strengthen or refute the possibility of a new store in Plainsville being a success -

they add no information that can be utilized to make a decision either way.

A health club's variations in fortunes has no direct bearing on the marketability of health products in an area - the market for both could differ significantly. A health club may have people in the age range of 20-30 trying to stay trim and fit, as its primary attendees. A health store, on the other hand, probably would rely on an age group more in the 40-80 years region, because this age group of people would suffer from problems such as diabetes, hypertension, etc. which are diseases that are primarily controlled by good eating habits and regular exercise, rather than a heavy regimen of fitness training.

The health club's details are very vague. Sufficient information has not been provided as to why the health club's fortunes had dipped half a decade ago; no information has been provided as to why its fortunes have improved either. It is very possible that rather than a change in the mindset of the residents of Plainsville, it could have been a change in the health club's policies such as pricing, or even a change in its management, that could have resulted in its sudden performance increase.

A hasty generalization is made in the extract - the vice president states baselessly in the memorandum that Plainsville has "many such" residents, referring to residents who are highly concerned with leading healthy lives. This presupposes that there exist many areas where the residents are *not* concerned with leading healthy lives. It is a verity that everybody is concerned with their health; the only question is whether or not anybody takes any concrete steps about improving it. Being "highly concerned" does not imply that the residents will actively utilize a health store.

A reference to a "new generation" of customers in Plainsville is also made in the memorandum. The example indicated is that of the "fitness for life" regime launched in the schools of Plainsville. It is not know how this scheme is in any way beneficial to the presence of a health store in the area. Also, when the vice-president refers to these children as a potential market, he is being at least a little impractical. The children will not be a part of the potential market of a health store for at least 20 years, on average. It is also debatable as to whether these children will remain in Plainsville in 20 years time, or will migrate to bigger or better places due to circumstance. Also, the 'fitness for life' program may backfire on a Nature's Way store - if the program is very successful, it may

redundate the need for a health store in the area due to the overall good health of all the residents there.

The overall impression of the given section of the vice-president's memorandum is that insufficient information is provided for a valid judgement to be made on the issue of a new store. On this basis, the conclusion made is that the given argument is not sufficiently well reasoned for a concrete decision to be based on it.

Argument Essay 5 The following is from an editorial in the Midvale Observer, a local newspaper. "Ever since the 1950's, when television sets began to appear in the average home, the rate of crimes committed by teenagers in the country of Alta has steadily increased. This increase in teenage crime parallels the increase in violence shown on television. According to several national studies, even very young children who watch a great number of television shows featuring violent scenes display more violent behavior within their home environment than do children who do not watch violent shows. Furthermore, in a survey conducted by the Observer, over 90 percent of the respondents were parents who indicated that prime-time television?programs that are shown between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.?should show less violence. Therefore, in order to lower the rate of teenage crime in Alta, television viewers should demand that television programmers reduce the amount of violence shown during prime time." The content within italics was added after I exceeded the 30 minute time limit.... I took 8 minutes more, which is far too much, in my personal opinion. The given argument is from a local newspaper known as the Midvale Observer. It refers to the supposed increase in teenage crime in the country of Alta, and links it to the increasing pervasiveness of violence on television. The argument uses references to some ambiguous surveys to justify its view that teenage crime in the region can be reduced by reducing the amount of violence shown on primetime television.

The paragraph refers to how the increase in crimes by teenagers in Alta has paralleled the increase in violence on television. At a cursory level, a few flaws in such a stance spring to mind. Primarily, the time period refers to the region post-1950. Let us consider a hypothetical, but reasonable situation at this point. Two distinct events could have occurred after 1950 - one is the increase of the number of televisions in the average household, and the other could

have been an increase in advertising (that is, a growth in the capitalist market in Alta) which accompanied a downturn in the economic status of the population. This would have led to a lot of jealousy and covetuosness among the most susceptible group, teenagers; and consequently to an increase in crime as these teenagers would resort to any method, legal or otherwise, to claim what they want.

One of the arguments stated in the given excerpt is a reference to "several national studies" that showed that "even" young children became more violent if they watched violent shows . The explanation of these surveys is so insufficient that very many pertinent questions can be raised here. Firstly, how can the change in behavioral patterns of admittedly young children, be extrapolated to include teenagers? It is commonly known that teenagers are unique in their behaviors, due to various reasons; they cannot justifiedly be analogized to young children. Secondly, the quality and relevance of these "national studies" can be questioned. Insufficient information has been provided on the credibility of such surveys, and reasonable weight can be given to them only if additional details on these surveys were made available. A generalization is always hasty if its foundations are not strong.

The yardstick for measuring how children became more violent is not indicated, so we cannot be sure of its validity. There is also the question of who the young children became *more* violent than. Children are probably more susceptible to television as they are yet too young to differentiate between fact and fiction, and thus this increased tendency of violence among young children who watched violence acceptable from some point of view. Its relevance to teenage crime, though, again comes into question.

The indigenous survey conducted by the Observer is also quoted in the editorial as a supporting argument about the cause of teenage crime in Alta. The survey raises many inconsistencies. It states that over 90 percent of the respondents were parents who wanted less violence shown. It does not state who the survey was for. It could be very possible that the survey was designed in such a way that only parents interested in voicing such an opinion bothered to register an opinion - the rest of the parents could have been uninterested in doing so, thus leading to a biased survey group. Also, the age of these parents' children is not indicated - it would really be relevant only if all these parents had teenaged children. The question as to *why* these parents want less violence, is also not answered. It is very possible that these parents want less violence as a personal preference that has nothing to do with their status as mothers and fathers! There is, lastly, the obvious question - of the parents surveyed by the

Observer, how many of their children actually watch primetime television? If any significant percentage of their children do not, it would mean that the violence shown on primetime television would have almost no relevance on the issue of teenage crime The excerpt provides insufficient information to a conclusion like the one provided in its last lines. Furthermore, the ambiguity of the entire excerpt and the irrelevance of the arguments to the conclusion reached, tend to make the whole argument give the impression of having been very badly constructed. Consequently, no definite conclusions can be made from the given paragraphs. Argument Essay 6 The following appeared as a letter to the editor of a local newspaper. "Five years ago, we residents of Morganton voted to keep the publicly owned piece of land known as Scott Woods in a natural, undeveloped state. Our thinking was that, if no shopping centers or houses were built there, Scott Woods would continue to benefit our community as a natural parkland. But now that our town planning committee wants to purchase the land and build a school there, we should reconsider this issue. If the land becomes a school site, no shopping centers or houses can be built there, and substantial acreage would probably be devoted to athletic fields. There would be no better use of land in our community than this, since a large majority of our children participate in sports, and Scott Woods would continue to benefit our community as a natural parkland." The given argument is an extract of a letter by a resident of Morganton to the editor of a local newspaper, where the writer espouses the cause of building a new school on a publicly owned natural parkland known as Scott Woods. The writer indicates a few reasons which would, in her opinion, justify replacing the natural parkland with a school. At first glance, there seem some issues with her reasoning, such as when she ignores alternative locations completely for the school, and when she takes the moral high ground while stating that a proposed school should cause the residents of Morganton to "reconsider". An early claim that the writer makes in her letter is that since "only" a school needs to be built, there will be no shopping centers or houses that will deface the natural landscape of Scott Woods. This seems a case of viewing the world through rose-tinted glasses. If anything, a planned set of houses would be more eco-friendly and pleasant than a concrete block of structures that would be required for a school. The assumption that a school is necessarily a better option than houses, is unjustified, or at best, completely unsubstantiated. Later in her letter, the writer states that the issue of replacing Scott Woods with a school is a special case that requires

reconsideration by the residents of Morgantown. All the writer seems to be doing to justify this is that a school is morally a good thing and should thus be considered specially. Such emotional arguments are almost axiomatically impractical. The writer should pause and consider other factors, and perhaps even other locations, before deciding on sacrificing Scott Woods to the school. A possible location could be a "useless" area, such as a bog or a marsh adjacent to Scott Woods that can be suitably modified for a school. In such a situation, the benefits would be twofold - Scott Woods would improve as its environs would become cleaner, and the students of the school would be able to use Scott Woods to its fullest. The writer, in her letter, refers to how if Scott Woods were used for a school, substantial land would "probably" be devoted to athletic fields. This is ambiguous; a blueprint of the proposed plan for the school, if supplied, would be a better indicator of whether or not such fields would exist. Also, if a school were built, the fact still remains that Scott Woods would be history, as no athletic field can replace a natural parkland. Additionally, the writer states sweepingly that no "better use" for Scott Woods can be found. This is a hasty generalization which does not rely on facts. Even if children would make very good use of the land for sports, that is not very different from what probably already is the case. Also, people of other age groups need to be considered also. Older people would want a place for recreation; families would want a place to picnic on weekends. If a school takes over the land, it will automatically become semi-private with restricted entry into the property, thus making it less enjoyable for people of other age groups than it is already. These are some points that can be made on the the specific flaws in reasoning of the given extract. Issues such as an unjustified statement that houses and shopping centers are worse than school buildings, tend to add to its issues.Thus, on the whole, the given argument is flawed to a very great extent, mainly due to its reliance not on facts but on emotions to put its point across. Argument Essay 7 An extract from an environmental protection group's memo against Smith Corporation's building a small hotel within Youngtown Wildlife Preserve, which has 300 species of birds within it." The given extract of the environmental protection group's petition to the residents of Youngtown has one main agenda. The group does not, under any circumstances, want Smith Corporation to build a hotel in the vicinity of the Youngtown Wildlife Preserve as it will cause, in their opinion, serious environmental damage. On inital assessment, the argument seems very vociferous, and yet, on closer analysis, the claims made seem unjustified. One such claim indicated is that even though the amount of land developed is

admittedly small, it will have ""disastrous consequences for the area"". This statement is a little ambiguous, in that the author of the petition does not indicate the specifics of these ""disastrous consequences"". Such a statement would be more justified if we were given a reason for this belief - for example, if a similar construction activity in a nearby wildlife preserve led to a decline in the fauna of that preserve, we could perhaps extrapolate from that example some relevance to the Youngtown preserve also.

Another issue regards the extent of influence Smith Corporation will actually have on the preserve. The petition itself admits that Smith Corporation is being sold only a small, perhaps negligibly small, percentage of the land in the preserve. It also admits that Smith Corp. has promised to ensure the sanctuary has been preserved. Given these two pieces of information, a conclusion can be made that Smith Corp. is genuinely interested in detachment from the wildlife preserve. It would also be detrimental to them if they harmed the environment, as the purpose of the hotel is to give a place for visitors to enjoy the sights of the preserve.A

This leads to a further question - is all of the sanctuary really essential for the species of birds to thrive, or do they coexist in a limited geographical area? This question is not addressed in the argument. If we were given information on the layout of the wildlife preserve and the proposed relative location of Smith Corp.'s land, we could make educated judgements on how the hotel really would disturb the land. If Smith Corp.'s proposed hotel were located in an area near the Preserve that played absolutely did not affect the birds in the preserve, then the hotel would not be a problem.

In fact, it is very possible that the hotel would be beneficial, rather than a hindrance, to the wildlife preserve. The petition mentions tourists who flock in droves to see the extensive bird population. A well-located hotel would only serve to increase the inflow of such tourists, and would consequently boost the economy of Youngtown as a whole, while still allowing for the clean coexistence of the sanctuary.

Of course, we need to have more data available on the specifics of such a hotel. Resources such as a road, water and electric supply, etc. need to be considered if such a hotel is to be built. Such resources must not interfere with the ecology in any manner whatsoever; only if we were sure of the hotel's extremely minimal noninterference in its environment would its construction be justified.

Argument Essay 8 The following appeared in a memo at the XYZ company. "When XYZ lays off employees, it pays Delany Personnel Firm to offer those employees assistance in creating resums and developing interviewing skills, if they so desire. Laid-off employees have benefited greatly from Delany's services: last year those who used Delany found jobs much more quickly than did those who did not. Recently, it has been proposed that we use the less-expensive Walsh Personnel Firm in place of Delany. This would be a mistake because eight years ago, when XYZ was using Walsh, only half of the workers we laid off at that time found jobs within a year. Moreover, Delany is clearly superior, as evidenced by its bigger staff and larger number of branch offices. After all, last year Delany's clients took an average of six months to find jobs, whereas Walsh's clients took nine." The given extract indicates that Delany Personnel Firm is a better firm to help employees laid off by XYZ company mainly because it has performed better than Walsh Personnel Firm did when in partnership with XYZ a few years ago. However, the arguments used in the memo are not convincing enough to support such a stance, and do not lead to the same conclusion as is made in the memo. Firstly, the memo indicates that employees laid off by XYZ benefitted greatly if they chose to go to Delany, implying that it was Delany that made the difference. The memo plays down the fact that such an option was purely *voluntary* - those who opted to go to Delany would very probably have been those more interested in finding a new job quickly. It is unknown to what extent Delany themselves played a part in these employees finding a job - it could very probably have not made a difference at all to these employees as they would have been actively searching for a new job in any case. The memo gives a multitude of reasons why Walsh Personnel Firm, a rival to Delany, must not replace Delany as XYZ's primary outsourcing firm for their laid off employees. It indicates that eight years ago, when Walsh was in partnership with XYZ, only half the laid off employees found work at that time. A primary problem with such a reason is that the memo does not indicate what percentage of employees who went to Delany, found jobs in the past. It is possible that Delany too maintains approximately the same rate of success - in such a case, this kind of argument would not be valid. More information on the relative success rates of both these firms is required before a decision can be made. The state of the job market eight years ago is also not known. When Walsh was with XYZ, perhaps there was a downturn in the employment market that led to a paucity of jobs. It is possible that such a situation does not exist anymore today, in which case Walsh would definitely perform better.

The memo also indicates that Delany is a better company as it has a larger staff and more branch offices. In fact, this only serves to confirm why Delany is a more expensive company than Walsh, and does not necessarily indicate that it is a better company than Walsh. Delany having more offices and more staff is not relevant to XYZ; what should matter to XYZ is the type of service Delany can provide it. This would only require a branch office close to the operating headquarters of XYZ with a well-equipped and competent staff. The other branches that Delany purportedly has would not come into the equation. The memo indicates that since Delany's clients, on average, took less time to be employed last year than Walsh's clients did, it must be a better firm than Walsh. It does not indicate the numbers of people referred to, and also the type of employees Walsh and Delany specialize in. Perhaps Walsh dealt primarily with clients for whom there was a lack of jobs, and Delany dealt with a speciality having a dearth of jobs at the time. The types of employments made by both the firms, is required before a judgement can be mad. A distinct lack of proper reasoning in the memo, accompanied by lack of sufficient information, makes the memo badly reasoned. Insufficient information on the relative performances of Delany and Walsh in the past few years, as well as their relative merits and demerits, need to have been included. The memo would thus be vastly improved if it were better organized and consisted of more relevant information which could be used to judge whether Delany or Walsh is a better choice for XYZ.

Argument Essay 9 "Six months ago the region of Forestville increased the speed limit for vehicles traveling on the region's highways by ten miles per hour. Since that change took effect, the number of automobile accidents in that region has increased by 15 percent. But the speed limit in Elmsford, a region neighboring Forestville, remained unchanged, and automobile accidents declined slightly during the same six-month period. Therefore, if the citizens of Forestville want to reduce the number of automobile accidents on the region's highways, they should campaign to reduce Forestville's speed limit to what it was before the increase." The given argument is a set of statements that hope to support the idea that a reduction in the speed limit for the vehicles travelling in Forestville's highways will automatically lead to a reduction in the number of automobile accidents in the region. The proposition is supported with information on Forestville's previous laws, and with data on automobile accidents in a neighbouring region, Elmsford. The

argument, though, is not convincing enough mainly due to its reliance on unjustified generalizations, among other factors. A primary claim made to recommend reduced speed limits in Forestville to previous levels, is that since the recent increase in the speed limit, the number of accidents has increased by 15 percent. Information has not been supplied as to why this increase was implemented in the first place. Consider a situation where an automobile manufacturing plant that generates immense economic benefits and employment opportunity to Forestville, has recently begun operations near Forestville. In such a case, the amount of traffic on the highways would increase to facilitate the working of the plant, and thus the increase in speed limit would be beneficial rather than detrimental to Forestville as it would help boost the plant's production and thus generate more revenue for Forestville's municipal authorities. The benefits of the increase in speed limit must thus be weighed before it is categorized as wrong. A 15 percent increase in accidents has been attributed to the increase in speed limit in Forestville. Firstly, a comparitive statistic on the average increase or decrease in accident rates in Forestville over the past few years, has not been included. We thus cannot be sure if a 15 percent increase is significant or not. Another issue is that we do not have an idea of the actual number of vehicles that pass through the region of Forestville. If there were 20 accidents per 10000 vehicles previous to the speed limit increase, and now there are 23 accidents per 10000 vehicles, then the 15 percent increase would be extremely insignificant compared to the benefits caused to commuters due to the speed limit increase - some benefits being reduced commuting time and less traffic on the highways due to faster movement. The argument cites information on how Elmsford did not change its speed limit, and that the number of automobile accidents declined slightly in the same period. There could be many reasons why this is the case - Elmsford could perhaps have roads less condusive to accidents, having wide, straight roads compared to Forestville's looping, narrow highways. Also, commuters in Elmsford could perhaps have preferred to take alternate routes running through Forestville precisely because of Forestville's new speed limits. But primarily, the reasons for the decline in Elmsford's accident rates are not indicated. Like in Forestville's case, there is no information provided linking a change (or lack of change) in speed limits having anything to do with the change in the number of accidents. The cause does not lead to the effect - the maintenance of speed limits in Elmsford could have nothing to do with the marginal decrease in the number of accidents there. The final conclusion made highways need to decrease, levels to achieve this. It occured purely as a result is that if accidents on Forestville's the speed limit must be lowered to previous does not indicate how many accidents of an increase in speed limits - it is very

possible the accidents referred to occurred with no relation to speeds; a great majority of the accidents could have occured due to driver error, and perhaps even at speeds far below the previous speed limit. Given such information, the increase in accidents definitely cannot be attributed solely to the increase in speed limits. The argument does not give sufficient concrete information on how the increase in speed limit, but instead relies purely on weak and subjective comparisions to stress its point that the increase in speed limit is the primary cause for the increase in accidents. Thus, the argument is not sufficiently well reasoned if taken in its entireity, and would be far more convincing if more information on the actual relation between the speed limit increase and the accidents that occurred due to it, were made available.