Argument74怪题求拍

elephantograph · 发表于 2013-3-15 23:34:21

Argument74
27:48
The president of Grove College has recommended that the college abandon its century-old tradition of all-female education and begin admitting men. Pointing to other all-female colleges that experienced an increase in applications after adopting coeducation, the president argues that coeducation would lead to asignificant increase in applications and enrollment. However, the director of the alumnae association opposes the plan. Arguing that all-female education is essential to the very identity of the college, the director cites annual surveys of incoming students in which these students say that the school's all-female status was the primary reason they selected Grove. The director also points to a survey of Grove alumnae in which a majority of respondents strongly favored keeping the college all female.

Write aresponse in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation 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 recommendation.
In this article the president of Grove Collegerecommends that its all-female education should be transformed into coeducationin order to experience an increase in applications and enrollment. To justifythe recommendation the president points out that other all-female collegesexperienced an increase in applications after adopting coeducation. However,the director opposed such transformation by citing surveys showing thatall-female education is essential to them. Both of their arguments suffer fromseveral critical flaws, as discussed below, and are therefore unconvincing.

To begin with, the president commits a fallacy of“Ergo hoc, post propter hoc” in assuming that the adoption of coeducation isthe very cause of the increase in application in other colleges to which theargument refers. Yet this is not necessarily the case. Did the regions wherethose colleges locate experience a great increase in youngsters ready forcollege? Did those colleges improve their equipment or recruit superior facultybefore adopting coeducation while lowered their tuition fee? If the answer toeither these two question is positive, this increase amounts to scant evidencethat the president’s recommendation will suffice at all.

Next, the president commits a false analogy inassuming that by the same means Grove College can experience similar increasein applications. Are those all-female colleges to which the president referssimilar to Grove College in ways relevant to the argument? Yet the presidentfails to provide any information about the colleges cited. It is entirelypossible that those colleges locate in regions where local family favorcoeducation to all-female education while the local community around Grove Collegedisplay an opposite preference; such scenario, if true, will seriouslyundermine the president’s recommendation. Lacking such information I simplycannot be convinced that the president’s recommendation is needed.

However, the director’s argument is problematicin several aspects as well. First, the director unfairly assumes that thesurveys cited are accurate and representative. This is not necessarily thecase. How many incoming students and alumnae were surveyed? Or what percentageof the total incoming students and alumnae was surveyed? The director providesno information about this statistics at all. The smaller the portion is, themore likely that this survey cannot reflect the general attitude. Perhaps therewere only a small portion of the students and alumnae were surveyed, renderingthe results meaningless at all. Similarly, what portion of the students andalumnae surveyed did not respond? The larger this portion is, the less reliablethe survey results are. Without ruling out these and other possibilities, thedirector’s argument based upon it is dubious at best.

In sum, the arguments of both the president andthe director are unpersuasive as it stands. To strengthen them, the presidentshould provide clear evidence that coeducation-rather than other phenomenon-isthe very cause of the increase observed in other colleges cited and that theyare similar to Grove College in ways that will render the same result happenedshould Grove College adopted the coeducation while the director must show thatthe survey cited is accurate and representative.

普渡哥 · 发表于 2013-3-16 11:01:57

To strengthen them, the president should provide clear evidence that coeducation-rather than other phenomenon-isthe very cause of the increase observed in other colleges cited and that they are similar to Grove College in ways that will render the same result happened should Grove College adopted the coeducation while the director must show that the survey cited is accurate and representative.

我不认为这个长句会加分，太长了，关键不是个好的长句，分析下句式结构，主谓宾定状补。

elephantograph · 发表于 2013-3-16 12:44:23

To strengthen them, the president should provide clear evidence not only that coeducation-rather than other phenomenon-is the very cause of the increase observed in other colleges cited but also that they are similar to Grove College in ways relevant to the argument while the director must show that the survey cited is accurate and representative.

小改一点可否?

edisonjk · 发表于 2013-8-8 22:56:53

如果是我写的话我会 president 写一段就是false analogy, director提供了两个surveys，so分两段写，第一个survey主要问题是反对赞成的比例模糊，incoming students的gender是男or女，年龄构成等等的flaw，survey是谁conduct的；第二个survey主要问题是alumnae本身就是本校毕业的，他们自然会喜欢本校的all-female status, 涉及被调查者的客观性，survey的具体问题，没有提及反对意见。the majority of ..比例模糊。调查者的观点立场以及客观性。

Argument74怪题求拍

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