The following appeared in a letter to the school board in the town of Centerville.
"All students should be required to take the driver's education course at Centerville High School. In the past two years, several accidents in and around Centerville have involved teenage drivers. Since a number of parents in Centerville have complained that they are too busy to teach their teenagers to drive, some other instruction is necessary to ensure that these teenagers are safe drivers. Although there are two driving schools in Centerville, parents on a tight budget cannot afford to pay for driving instruction. Therefore an effective and mandatory program sponsored by the high school is the only solution to this serious problem."
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.
The author wants the Centerville high school to sponsor an effective and mandatory driving coaching course for its students. In the very first glance, the idea seems logical and noble but a deep insight reveals that the argument is based on many assumptions which may or may not be true and hence can potentially undermine the inference.
Firstly, the argument assumes that the teenage drivers belong to the Centerville High School. It is possible that most of the accused teenage drivers belong to some other school in the same town. No proof, like a survey, has been presented regarding the identity of the teenage drivers who are majorly responsible for the accidents. This assumption, if true, can severely weaken the notion presented by the author.
Secondly, the argument assumes the school to have sufficient funds to incorporate the driving course into their curriculum. Also, the time spent on this course may hamper the academic course which holds higher priority. On contrary to the argument's assumptions, the school might be suffering from a crisis of funding and thus, the driving course would be an additional burden on the school. Even if the school has funds, it can expend those on Yoga classes which would help the students to remain calm and patient which would further help in prevention of road accidents.
Furthermore, it has been assumed that the traffic management is proper in the town. So if this assumption fails to be true, then it could mean that major cause of the accidents is poor traffic management rather than the reckless driving of teenagers. Also, the author mentions several accidents and does not give a worthy comparison study which would be more reliable. Several cannot be assumed as most or a majority of accidents.
Hence, the above mentioned assumptions should be taken care of before reaching to a conclusion. The assumptions, if unwarranted, can lead to wastage of funds, time and other resources of the school.
Comments
Could you please elaborate as
Could you please elaborate as to why my arguments are wrong?
Need to analyze the structure
Need to analyze the structure of the statement and argue accordingly:
condition 1:
In the past two years, several accidents in and around Centerville have involved teenage drivers.
condition 2:
Although there are two driving schools in Centerville, parents on a tight budget cannot afford to pay for driving instruction. Therefore an effective and mandatory program sponsored by the high school is the only solution to this serious problem.
conclusion:
All students should be required to take the driver's education course at Centerville High School.
then here goes the argument:
argument 1:
Maybe teenage drivers are just victims. Other people or factors are the main reasons for several accidents. So it doesn't work even if you take driver's education course. //your argument 3 is very close to the argument
argument 2:
How is the program sponsored by the high school? Is it as good as two driving schools? //in your argument 2, this is correct: 'the argument assumes the school to have sufficient funds to incorporate the driving course into their curriculum.', then other arguments are out of topic.
argument 3:
Maybe some students need the course, not all of them. for example, for those whose parents have time and money don't need the program. //you don't have ideas for this argument
argument 1 -- not OK. how did you get this: the argument assumes that the teenage drivers belong to the Centerville High School.?
argument 2 -- not OK. need to think the school enough fund, then how to argue?
argument 3 -- not OK. it is out of topic.
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Attribute Value Ideal
Score: ? out of 6
Category: Poor Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 16 15
No. of Words: 325 350
No. of Characters: 1597 1500
No. of Different Words: 173 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.246 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.914 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.56 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 120 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 86 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 56 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 38 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.312 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.464 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.812 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.328 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.592 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.074 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5