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smehmood · Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:40 am

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

"Two years ago, City L was listed 14th in an annual survey that ranks cities according to the quality of life that can be enjoyed by those living in them. This information will enable people who are moving to the state in which City L is located to confidently identify one place, at least, where schools are good, housing is affordable, people are friendly, the environment is safe, and the arts flourish."

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.

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The above argument states that the high ranking of City L will provide people information about its schools, housing, people, environment and arts.
The argument assumes that the ranking criteria takes into consideration all the above factors. Since the argument does not provide any information about the criteria used in ranking City L, it is difficult to conclude that ranking will in fact provide information about schools, housing, e.t.c.

Moreover, even if ranking criterea takes into consideration all the above factors listed in the argument it does not provide other useful indicators such as jobs availability, taxes, weather.
For example another City Z ranked 5th in last year ranking, however it does not have enough jobs, taxes are high and it has severe weather. Thus, it ranked high still some people who moved there returned due to the fact that City Z does not have jobs, has high taxes and extreme cold winter.

To conclude, for the argument to be persuasive it should provide the criteria used in ranking City L and should also include other important factors in ranking City L.

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VP_Jim · Wed Aug 20, 2008 10:11 am

You make a couple good points - you just need to write more. Your intro should restate the argument, state that it's poorly reasoned, and quickly list the reasons why. You should then have three body paragraphs (4 or 5 sentences each), each discussing a faulty assumption the author made. Also, remember to show how the author could have strengthened the argument.

Finally, your conclusion should again restate the argument and quickly reiterate the points you made in your body paragraphs.

I'll give you a 3 on this one.

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