14) The following appeared as part of an article in a business magazine. A recent study rating 300 male and female Mentian 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 6 hours of sleep per night had higher profit margins and faster growth. These results suggest that if a business wants to prosper, it should hire only people who need less than 6 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.
In this recommendation, the author asserts that if a business wants to prosper, it should hire only people who need less than 6 hours of sleep per night. to bolster his recommendation the author points out that a recent study rating 300 male and female advertising executives reveals that whoseexecutives reported needing no more than 6 hours of sleep per night had higher profit margins and faster growth. But careful scrutiny of it , it is just flawed in many aspects as I discuss below.
To begin with, the argument fails to point out that the study is representative and statistically reliable. Lacking this information, I just cannot believe any conclusion based on it.
Secondly, the author unfairly reckons that there exist a causation between sleeping hours per night and profits. Perhaps, these executives themselves need less sleep and have nothing to do with profits. Or perhaps, it is just because the high profit margins and faster growth of their company give them pressure and thus they cannot sleep well. Without ruling these possibilities, the argument cannot credibly conclude that hiring people who need less than 6 hours of sleep per night can prosper a business.
Even if I accept that the study is reliable and there is a causation between the sleep hour and profits, the author fails to prove that the conclusion from advertising firms would work in other business and the demands for executives also apply to all employees.
The last but not the least, the argument ignores the negative influence of its recommendation. as we all know, lacking enough sleeping will not only harm people's health but also have bad effect on their work. Thus, it cannot benefit the company to prosper but otherwise may bring lost for it.
In sum, as it stands the recommendation is incredible. To better convince me, the author had better prove that the study typifys overall population of employers and the conclusion from experience in advertising firms also works in other business. And what's more, the author also needs to provide evidence to prove that it is indeed 6 sleeping hours of executives that are due to the prosperity of their firms. Finally, to better support his recommendation, the author should also give a considerable measures to solve the problems accompany with little sleeping hours.
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发表于 2012-5-3 00:06:16
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