This past winter, 200 students from Waymarsh State College traveled to the state capitol building to protest proposed cuts in funding for various state college programs. The other 12,000 Waymarsh students evidently weren't so concermed about their education:they either stayed on campus of left for winter break. Since the group who did not protest is far more numerous, it is more representative of the state's college students than are the protesters. Therefore the state legislature need not heed the appeals of the protesting students.
The author of this argument claims that the state legislature need not have to pay attention to the protesting students. The basis of this reasoning is that only 200 students of Waymarsh State College went to the state capitol building to protest against proposed decrease in funding for various state college programs. The author further recommends that the group who did not protest is more representative of the state's college students because the group is far more numerous. At first glance, the author's argument appears to be somewhat convincing, but close scrutiny reveals that the evidence cited in the analysis does not lend strong support to what the arguer maintains.
In the first place, we must clarify the meaning of the nebulous concept "unconcern about education". If the term is synonymous with just staying on campus or leaving for holiday, then the statistics cited in the analysis would strongly support the argument. But, normally, we define the concept "unconcern about education" as at least including a large group of phenomena. For example, students do not go to school; students pay more attention on other subjects such as economy, politics and science; students know little about the education level of the rural area, etc. Thus, for the speaker the term "unconcern about education" must essentially carry the meaning as just staying on campus or leaving for holiday when something about education happens in their country.
In the second place, the author provides no evidence to support the claim that the college students of Waymarsh state as a whole are unconcerned about their education. The example cited, while suggestive of these trends, is insufficient to warrant their truth because there is no reason to believe the 1,200 students in the example are representative of the entire state college students. For example, if a large part, say a half, of the 1,200 students of the college have other important things to do so that they can not spare time to travel to express their concern about education, they would clearly be unrepresentative. The reason for this is obvious. If half of the 1,200 students could have been able to go for the protest, there would have been more students protesting cuts in funding for various state college programs.
In conclusion, the author fails to substantiate his claim that the state legislature need not have to pay attention to the protesting students because he commits the above mentioned logical mistakes and fails to consider the whole situations comprehesively. To strengthen the argument, the author must convince us that the term "unconcern about education" essentially carry the meaning as just staying on campus or leaving for holiday. Finally, to better evaluate the author's claim we would need more information about the number of students who are unconcerned about their education.
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