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makingsense
- Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2012 6:07 pm
The following appeared as part of a campaign to sell advertising time on a local radio station to local businesses:
"The Cumquat Café began advertising on our local radio station this year and was delighted to see its business increase by 10 percent over last year's totals. Their success shows you how you can use radio advertising to make your business more profitable."
Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.
The given argument appeared as part of campaign to sell advertising time on the local radio station to local business. According to the advertisement the Cumquat Café began advertising on their radio station this year and saw an increase of their business by 10% over the last year. Therefore the author believes that the radio advertisement makes the business more profitable. Though the claim seems to have merit, the author present a poorly reasoned argument based on questionable assumption and based solely on the evidence that he provides we cannot accept the conclusion to be valid.
First the argument assumes the radio advertisement was the only cause for the increase in business of the Café. Whereas along with the advertisement the Café could have gone through internal restructuring from last year with completely changed café interior, changed menu, changed Café management or even could be providing some kind of offer to their customers. Any one of these could be the reason for the Café's increased business. People go to the Café for its good menu or for its specialty rather than just by listening to some radio advertisement. It is also possible that the management was changed this year and the new management has considered many factors that were ignored by previous management and this could have increased their business. Hence if the author really wants to get the listener convinced he needs to provide evidence that would clarify that radio advertisement is the only case in increasing the business. He should make it clear that everything about the café was the same and no steps other than radio advertisement were taken by management to increase their business.
Second the author assumes that radio advertisement would make the business more profitable but the evidence provided by the author to support his assumption is not acceptable. Even if we consider that radio advertisement increased the business of the café we are in no position to be sure that the same would happen for other business. Probably the localities going to a restaurant listen to the radio to know about the restaurants but they might look at newspaper advertisement when they want to know about the local retail store. If the local retail store gives advertisement in the radio his business might not increase as he could have from newspaper advertisement. Hence the author should explicate that the radio advertisement works for all the business houses by providing evidence of increased business of some more business. If the author succeeds to provide evidence of increased business from business of different sector, the argument would be strong.
In sum, the author presents an illogical argument based on unsupportive assumption and lacks legitimate evidentiary support which renders the conclusion invalid. The author needs to show that advertisement works for all business and clarify that only advertisement has caused the increase in business. If the author really intends to convince his listeners he needs to largely restructure his argument, explicate his assumptions and provide supportive evidence. In failing to do so the author is likely to convince very few listeners.
"The Cumquat Café began advertising on our local radio station this year and was delighted to see its business increase by 10 percent over last year's totals. Their success shows you how you can use radio advertising to make your business more profitable."
Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.
The given argument appeared as part of campaign to sell advertising time on the local radio station to local business. According to the advertisement the Cumquat Café began advertising on their radio station this year and saw an increase of their business by 10% over the last year. Therefore the author believes that the radio advertisement makes the business more profitable. Though the claim seems to have merit, the author present a poorly reasoned argument based on questionable assumption and based solely on the evidence that he provides we cannot accept the conclusion to be valid.
First the argument assumes the radio advertisement was the only cause for the increase in business of the Café. Whereas along with the advertisement the Café could have gone through internal restructuring from last year with completely changed café interior, changed menu, changed Café management or even could be providing some kind of offer to their customers. Any one of these could be the reason for the Café's increased business. People go to the Café for its good menu or for its specialty rather than just by listening to some radio advertisement. It is also possible that the management was changed this year and the new management has considered many factors that were ignored by previous management and this could have increased their business. Hence if the author really wants to get the listener convinced he needs to provide evidence that would clarify that radio advertisement is the only case in increasing the business. He should make it clear that everything about the café was the same and no steps other than radio advertisement were taken by management to increase their business.
Second the author assumes that radio advertisement would make the business more profitable but the evidence provided by the author to support his assumption is not acceptable. Even if we consider that radio advertisement increased the business of the café we are in no position to be sure that the same would happen for other business. Probably the localities going to a restaurant listen to the radio to know about the restaurants but they might look at newspaper advertisement when they want to know about the local retail store. If the local retail store gives advertisement in the radio his business might not increase as he could have from newspaper advertisement. Hence the author should explicate that the radio advertisement works for all the business houses by providing evidence of increased business of some more business. If the author succeeds to provide evidence of increased business from business of different sector, the argument would be strong.
In sum, the author presents an illogical argument based on unsupportive assumption and lacks legitimate evidentiary support which renders the conclusion invalid. The author needs to show that advertisement works for all business and clarify that only advertisement has caused the increase in business. If the author really intends to convince his listeners he needs to largely restructure his argument, explicate his assumptions and provide supportive evidence. In failing to do so the author is likely to convince very few listeners.
