The following appeared in the opinion section of a national newsmagazine:
"To reverse the deterioration of the postal service, the government should raise the price of postage stamps. This solution will no doubt prove effective, since the price increase will generate larger revenues and will also reduce the volume of mail, thereby eliminating the strain on the existing system and contributing to improved morale."
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. (used with permission from mba.com)
The postal service in any country is one of the milestones of the country's independence. For many years, the national postal services were the only available mean of communication between people, and nowadays they present the great tradition to any nation. In the preceding statement, the author claims that raising the price of postage stamps will protect further deterioration of the postal service, and help to improve it. Thought his claim may well have merit, the author presents a poorly reasoned argument, based on several questionable premises and assumptions, and based solely on the evidence the authors offers I can not accept his argument as valid.
The primary issue with the author's reasoning lies in his unsubstantiated premises. He claims that raising the price of postal stamps will result in generating the larger revenues and reduce the volume of mail. The higher prices of postal stamps may cause even further deterioration of the postal service, because customers may stop using this traditional way of communication and turn even more to use of electronic mail and cellular phones. The higher prices might cause smaller revenues, and the government will be force to fire many postal workers. The author's premise, the basic for his argument, lacks any legitimate evidentiary support and renders his conclusion unacceptable.
In addition, the author makes several assumptions that remain unproven. He states that the higher prices will reduce the volume of mail, and in that case, he assumes that postal workers would perform their job better. He does not assume that workers might be poorly trained, and that some additional training would improve their performance significantly. Furthermore, he does not present any valid statistical data about the current revenue of the postal service, and he does not reveal the increase in the price of the postal stamp. The author weakens his argument by making assumptions and failing to provide explication of the links between price increase of the stamps and larger revenue of the postal service.
While the author does have several key faulty issues in his argument's premises and assumptions that is not to say that entire argument is without the base. He should provide some empirical data and examples how other governments address the issue of the failing national postal services in their countries. Thought there are several issues with the author's reasoning at present, with research and clarification he could improve his argument significantly.
In sum, the author's illogical argument is based on unsupported premises and unsubstantiated assumptions that render his conclusion invalid. If the author truly hopes to change his renders' minds on the issue, he would have to largely restructure his argument, fix the flows in his logic, clearly explicate his assumptions and provide evidentiary support. Without these things, his poorly reasoned argument will likely convince few people.
"To reverse the deterioration of the postal service, the government should raise the price of postage stamps. This solution will no doubt prove effective, since the price increase will generate larger revenues and will also reduce the volume of mail, thereby eliminating the strain on the existing system and contributing to improved morale."
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. (used with permission from mba.com)
The postal service in any country is one of the milestones of the country's independence. For many years, the national postal services were the only available mean of communication between people, and nowadays they present the great tradition to any nation. In the preceding statement, the author claims that raising the price of postage stamps will protect further deterioration of the postal service, and help to improve it. Thought his claim may well have merit, the author presents a poorly reasoned argument, based on several questionable premises and assumptions, and based solely on the evidence the authors offers I can not accept his argument as valid.
The primary issue with the author's reasoning lies in his unsubstantiated premises. He claims that raising the price of postal stamps will result in generating the larger revenues and reduce the volume of mail. The higher prices of postal stamps may cause even further deterioration of the postal service, because customers may stop using this traditional way of communication and turn even more to use of electronic mail and cellular phones. The higher prices might cause smaller revenues, and the government will be force to fire many postal workers. The author's premise, the basic for his argument, lacks any legitimate evidentiary support and renders his conclusion unacceptable.
In addition, the author makes several assumptions that remain unproven. He states that the higher prices will reduce the volume of mail, and in that case, he assumes that postal workers would perform their job better. He does not assume that workers might be poorly trained, and that some additional training would improve their performance significantly. Furthermore, he does not present any valid statistical data about the current revenue of the postal service, and he does not reveal the increase in the price of the postal stamp. The author weakens his argument by making assumptions and failing to provide explication of the links between price increase of the stamps and larger revenue of the postal service.
While the author does have several key faulty issues in his argument's premises and assumptions that is not to say that entire argument is without the base. He should provide some empirical data and examples how other governments address the issue of the failing national postal services in their countries. Thought there are several issues with the author's reasoning at present, with research and clarification he could improve his argument significantly.
In sum, the author's illogical argument is based on unsupported premises and unsubstantiated assumptions that render his conclusion invalid. If the author truly hopes to change his renders' minds on the issue, he would have to largely restructure his argument, fix the flows in his logic, clearly explicate his assumptions and provide evidentiary support. Without these things, his poorly reasoned argument will likely convince few people.
