Argument Evaluation

gmatrant · Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 3:37 am Post subject: Argument Evaluation

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."

The author of the article that was published in a magazine on lifestyles ascertains that city L which was ranked 14th in an annual survey. The citires were ranked based on the quality of life that can be enjoyed by those living in them. Thought the argument looks appealing at first on closer scrutiny the argument falls apart on many fronts.

Though the survey ranks city L as 14th among all the cities surveyed, the ranking can be misleading as no information has been given about the survey process. If the survey had a criteria of choosing only the best city from each state on the basis of quality of life, then other good citites in each state , which might offer a better quality of life than city L, would be ignored leading to a mockery of the ranking order.City L which is ranked 14th in actuality might not have deserved such a ranking at all.

The author also assumes that ranking a city on the basis of quality of life would mean that the city offers affordable housing, good schooling,an environment that is safe,people who are friendly and where art tends to flourish. The survey does not state any of these as necessary conditions for evaluating a city for quailty of life and whether these parameter have been taken into consideration for eavalueation.The survey also does not specify whether people from different economic strata for each city have been taken into account.

The author also does not specify how the ranking has been undertaken.The reader of the the magazine could have ranked the states, and this could be detrimental to the whole survey process as there could be more readers who enjoy a better quality of life in city L and this could have implied a better ranking for city L. The author specifies that this survey was carried out two years ago. Two years is a long time frame for the validity of the survey to hold good. City L which might have provided good quality of life to its residents might no longer be providing the same quailty of life to its residents and hence going by this survey would prove to be a futile attempt.

The author in this article has taken into accound a survey that has not been conducted recently and has used it to promote city L's quality of life. The survey also does not specify the survey process, the sample survey that was considered and the various parameters that were taken into account to evaluate the cities. Hence the argument should be supplemented with the above information for make it more creditable.

Guest · Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2007 1:16 am Post subject:

At LEAST a 5. great work!

showoff16884 · Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 6:57 pm Post subject:

Good work! IMO 5+...also, the number of cities surveyed would help...we don't know how many cities were surveyed...the city could be ranked 14th out of 15.

deshmukhsn123 · Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:00 pm Post subject:

Excellent.. Deserves 5.5 for sure.....
A neat explanation on the survey.
Keep it up.

Regards,

cjiang16 · Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:03 pm Post subject:

Best essay I have ever seen.

netigen · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 2:24 am Post subject:

A strong point that the AWA missed:

1. The argument does not tell us how many cities were surveyed? What if only 14 cities were surveyed?