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The following appeared as part of an article in a business magazine.

"A recent study rating 300 male and female advertising executives according to the average number of hours they sleep per night showed an association between the amount of sleep the executives need and the success of their firms. Of the advertising firms studied, those whose executives reported needing no more than six hours of sleep per night had higher profit margins and faster growth. On the basis of this study, we recommend that businesses hire only people who need less than six hours of sleep per night."

Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.”

On the basis of unwarranted evidence and dubious assumption, the author recommends that businesses hire only people who sleep less than six hours per night. To substantiate the recommendation, the argument relies on a study polling 300 advertising executives , along with the fact that the advertising firms with higher profits and growth have executives needing less than six hours of sleep per night. The supporting evidence, however, reveals logical flaws in several critical respects.

Firstly, the survey is based only on the data from 300 executives of advertising business, not businesses hirers in general. However, the sleeping hours of the polling respondents do not necessarily reflect those of employers in other businesses. In fact, given that the advertising business mainly involves young exuberant executives, it is possible that senior lawyers in large law firms, who are more experienced and respected, need more hours of sleep. A survey that only covers insufficient number of respondents in only one business field lends little founded support to the recommendation.

Secondly, the fact that advertising firms with higher profits and growth have executives needing less than six hours of sleep per night might appear to bolster the author’s claim. Yet this correlation alone is tantamount to invalid evidence of the claimed connection between these two events. Perhaps the higher profit margins and faster growth can be as well caused by other factors. It is entirely possible that several other businesses which need an increasing number of advertisement promotions thrives swiftly in recent years and thus boost the profits and development of these ad firms. Since the argument fails to illustrate this alternative explanation for the greater success of the company, the assumption would lack any merit whatsoever.

Besides,the recommendation depends on the additional unwarranted assumption that hiring people sleeping no more than six hours would cause higher profits and growth of the firm. However, the fact that employers need less than six hours of sleep per night is not sufficient for the prediction that the businesses will operate better. Perhaps insufficient hours of sleep would make executives exhausted and work with lower efficiency. To be specific, some diseases would easily attack these people because of long-time lack of sleep . I cannot accept the recommendation unless the author can evince that scant hours of sleep won’t affect employers’ health and work efficiency.

To sum up, the recommendation fails to render it convincing as it stands on the basis of unfounded assumptions in the editorial. To convince me, the author need to provide clear statistical evidence that cover the entire business fields. To strengthen the proposal the author must either provide more information with regard to the potential reasons resulting the growth and higher profits of the firm and possible impacts that relatively few hours of sleep might bring to the executives.

"A recent national survey found that the majority of workers with access to the Internet at work had used company computers for personal or recreational activities, such as banking or playing games. In an effort to improve our employees' productivity, we should implement electronic monitoring of employees' Internet use from their workstations. Using electronic monitoring software is the best way to reduce the number of hours Climpson employees spend on personal or recreational activities. We predict that installing software to monitor employees' Internet use will allow us to prevent employees from wasting time, thereby increasing productivity and improving overall profits."

Write a response in which you discuss what question would need to be answered in order to decide whether the prediction and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the prediction.

In this argument, the arguer recommends that the company should install monitoring software at workstations to prevent employees from wasting time on personal fairs, for the purpose of promoting productivity and overall profits. To substantiate this suggestion, the arguer bases on a nationwide survey showing that most portion of workers had ever used company computers for personal or recreational activities. The supporting evidence, however, is called into question for logical flaws in several critical respects.

Firstly,the argument rests on the assumption that the nation board of statistics about whether workers have ever taken company computers for personal use is appliable equally to Climpson Industries. However the author provides no credible evidence that this is the case. For that matter, perhaps Climpson employees are in the opposite direction. In other words, this nation board of figure does not warrant a specific conclusion that employees in Climpson Industries have ever wasted time in dealing with individual fairs.

Next, the recommendation bases on the assumption that no alternative means of preventing employees from approaching individual activities through company Internet channel are likely to achieve the same purpose. Yet scant evidence has been offered to substantiate this crucial assumption. Any number of factors besides implementing electronic monitoring software might promote employees’ productivity. For example, perhaps the company’s president could set a rule that people who have accomplished their assignments of the day excellently in advance could leave work earlier, meanwhile enjoying a bonus. This principle would definitely provide workers with internal motives to work harder with higher efficiency. Without ruling out such approaches, the author cannot confidently predict that using monitoring soft ware is the best way to reduce the amount of hours that clerks are distracted by individual activities.

Besides, the vice president relies on additional unwarranted assumptions that installing monitoring devices would cause an increase in productivity and overall profits. However, simply exerting prohibition on employees’ computer use for personal and recreational activities is not sufficient for the prediction of overall profit growth. It’s entirely possible that the company has a poor management, or perhaps the cost associated with the products is too much, and the products may suffer from bad sales. Either scenario would prevent the corporation from earning a higher profit. Since the arguer fails to respond clearly to these concerns, this prediction can be rejected out of hand.

To sum up, this recommendation is based on a broad study of nation with indefensible results at best. To strengthen the argument, the arguer needs to provide specific statistic on a smaller scale, not nationwide. The argument must also reply to the question that why are other approaches of improving employees’ productivity not available. Finally, to better assess the recommendation we need more information with regard to other relevant factors affecting the company’s profits in general.