In surveys Mason City residents rank water sports (swimming, boating, and fishing) among their favorite recreational activities. The Mason River flowing through the city is rarely used for these pursuits, however, and the city park department devotes litt

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In surveys Mason City residents rank water sports (swimming, boating, and fishing) among their favorite recreational activities. The Mason River flowing through the city is rarely used for these pursuits, however, and the city park department devotes little of its budget to maintaining riverside recreational facilities. For years there have been complaints from residents about the quality of the river's water and the river's smell. In response, the state has recently announced plans to clean up Mason River. Use of the river for water sports is, therefore, sure to increase. The city government should for that reason devote more money in this year's budget to riverside recreational facilities.

Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.

Submitted by asdsa111 on Sat, 08/23/2014 - 02:56

The argument that increases the expenditure in Mason River recreational facilities is not entirely logically convincing, since the argument ignores certain crucial assumptions.

First, the argument assumes that the decrease in the quality of the river’s water is due to the riverside recreational activities. This is a causal assumption, because water sports may not be the only source of polluting the river. The drop in the quality of water may caused by the pollution from factories or whatnot, and stating water sports damage the quality of the river’s water is a not valid assumption. In order to have a better argument, the author should address the fact that water sports are the main polluting source.

Second, the argument assumes that cleaning up Mason River is going to increase the use of the river for water sports. This is an inappropriate assumption. The use of the river for water sports might not depend on the quality of water, since people still use the river for water sports even the quality of water is going down. Cleaning up Mason River may need to close the river for several months, thus the use of the river for water sports is undetermined after cleaning up. To make the argument stronger, the argument should include survey about how people are willing to use the river after cleaning.

Third, the argument assumes all the citizens in Mason City do water sports in Mason River. It is not right to assume all people that like water sports will do water sports in Mason River. Some people in Mason City may do water sports only in some other cities, so it does not matter to them if the spending of the riverside recreational facilities goes up or not. To strengthen the argument, the passage should point out that most residents in Mason City are using Mason River for water sports.

In summary, the argument might have been straightened by addressing the fact that water sports are the main polluting source, including survey about how people are willing to use the river after cleaning, and pointing out that most residents in Mason City are using Mason River for water sports.

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Average: 3 (1 vote)
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Comments

argument 1 -- not OK. where did you get 'the argument assumes that the decrease in the quality of the river’s water is due to the riverside recreational activities.'? look: 'For years there have been complaints from residents about the quality of the river's water and the river's smell.'

argument 2 -- OK

argument 3 -- not OK. you referred something new: 'the argument assumes all the citizens in Mason City do water sports in Mason River.'

Attribute Value Ideal
Score: ? out of 6
Category: ? Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 15 15
No. of Words: 361 350
No. of Characters: 1713 1500
No. of Different Words: 133 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.359 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.745 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.38 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 112 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 74 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 51 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 29 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.067 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.616 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.6 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.492 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.68 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.237 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5

1. The author simply assumes that it is the quality of the water in MasonRiverthat prevents residents from using it for recreational activities. Maybe there are other reasons.

2. A resident complaining of the river's smell does not necessarily mean that he would like to use the river for sporting activities even if it's clean. The residents may be complaining of the environmental effect of polluted water for the sake of thier health and not for recreational reasons. The number of residents who like water sports, as captured in the complaints, maybe grossly lower than the rest of the other residents.

3. Always remember to argue against the conclusion: 'Use of the river for water sports is, therefore, sure to increase. The city government should for that reason devote more money in this year's budget to riverside recreational facilities'. (your argument 2)

No evidence could illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed plan, and how much time would it take for the plan to be effective, thus we cannot ensure that recreational use of the river will automatically increase.