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 i

In the argument, the author concludes that improvement in the quality of river can led to increase in use of water sports recreational activities in the city of Mason. The author comes to this contention based on the survey conducted for residents of Mason city and the approval of cleaning plans from the state government. While this might be true, the author needs to provide three pieces of additional evidence in order to bolster the assertion’s credibility.

First of all, the author assumes that the survey held for the residents of Mason city is valid, reliable and fully representative of all residents. However this might be not the case. Perhaps the candidate who appeared for survey only likes recreational activities related to water sports – particularly swimming, boating and fishing. In addition, the survey may not be conducted scientifically and may be based on some biasness of the authority who conducted this survey. If it is true that the survey was performed in a non-empirical manner, then the author’s conclusion does not hold water.

Secondly, the author assumes that the number of complaints received from residents regarding the quality of Mason river water and smell are significant. However, this might not be valid. Perhaps if the number of complaints are only few, say 2 or 3, then this argument might not hold water. In addition, this might be a trickery from other water sports authorities in order to degrade the profits of this authority. Thus, if the above examples are valid, then the author’s argument is not overly compelling.

Finally, the author assumes that the plan for cleaning process will be implemented soon enough such that it requires adjustment to this year’s budget. However, it might of possible that it takes plenty amount of time to implement the cleaning process. Perhaps it might take time to approve the plan from various government authority. In addition, all money from the budget doesn’t go to the clean-up process may be due to corruption. Thus, if either scenario above is true, then the author’s contention is significantly weakened.

To conclude, although the central claim of author might hold water that the making the river quality better can attract more people towards the water sports activities and can increase their profits. But the author needs to consider the above three assumptions if he hope to bolster its persuasiveness.