My first essay... Experts, kindly review

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My first essay... Experts, kindly review

by eitijan » Sun Apr 24, 2016 5:56 am
This is my first essay. Experts, kindly review my essay and give me the feedback.


Read the statement(s) and the instructions that follow, and then make any notes that will help you plan your response. Begin typing your response in the box at the bottom of the screen.
The following appeared in the personal finance section of a popular magazine:

"The average price of an acre of land in the United States is now 50 times what it was in 1970, and nearly 200 times what it was in 1920. The nation's population is projected to keep increasing, even as the amount of land remains constant. Therefore, people who are approaching retirement should invest heavily in real estate in order to ensure their financial security."

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.



Real estate has become a hot and attractive platform for investment in US as of late. There are those who debate real-estate investments and those who affirm it, those who assert that increase in population is the reason for rocketing of land prices, and those who believe that population rise is barely fuelling the land prices to reach sky. In the preceding statement, the author claims that land prices are increasing at an exponential rate from past several years, so people should invest in lands and properties heavily so as to reap the benefits after retirement and be financially secure. This alone does not constitute a logical argument in favour of the investment in real estate for future. Though 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 author offers, we cannot accept his argument as valid. The author's argument that investing in real estate will make people financially secure omits some important concerns that must be addressed to substantiate the argument.

The primary issue with the author's reasoning lies in his unsubstantiated premise. In the argument, the author states the trend of exponential increase in land prices in past 80 years and the projection of population increase, so the continuation of increase in land prices in future. But he has not stated that this projection is true for how many coming years. It is possible that this projection is for next five or ten years after which population may become constant and so the land prices. People investing with long term plans will not get the intended benefits in that case. Also author has not stated about the reliability of the source who made this projection and so one can doubt on its veracity i.e. if population of the state doesn't increase as per the projection. In that case, we are not sure if prices of land will increase with such a high rate and so investing in real estate with a view of long term plan doesn't seems a good idea.
In addition, the author makes several assumptions that remain unproven. In the argument author has assumed the population increase as the sole reason of hike in land prices. There could be many other reasons for the boom in real estate such as development and growth that took place at a great pace in past 80 years in US which lead to the increase in demand for land. It is possible that after few years US may reach to its development stagnation and so the demand for land may decrease and so the prices. Also, he has assumed that for the coming years, the increase rate of population will be same as past 80 years. As there is no support for this assumption, so it is possible that the population increases at a lower rate, so the demand for lands will decrease and so investors investing in the land prices will not get as high returns as shown in the argument for financial security.

While the author does have several key issues in his argument's premises and assumptions, that is not to say that the entire argument is without base. To strengthen the reasoning, author can substantiate the projection of population increase in more definite terms. Furthermore, to prove the argument as valid and strong, author can provide evidences to nullify all the other factors as the reason of land prices hike and prove population increase as the only factor for real estate prices rise. Though 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 readers' minds on the issue, he would have to largely restructure his argument, fix the flaws in his logic, clearly explicate his assumptions, and provide evidentiary support. Without these things, his poorly reasoned argument will likely convince few people.

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by eitijan » Mon Apr 25, 2016 11:18 pm
Thank you. :)