My "Argument" Essay, NO.7

TOPIC: ARGUMENT238 - The following appeared in a memorandum from the president of Mira Vista College to the college's board of trustees.

"At nearby Green Mountain College, which has more business courses and more job counselors than does Mira Vista College, 90 percent of last year's graduating seniors had job offers from prospective employers. But at Mira Vista College last year, only 70 percent of the seniors who informed the placement office that they would be seeking employment had found full-time jobs within three months after graduation, and only half of these graduates were employed in their major field of study. To help Mira Vista's graduates find employment, we must offer more courses in business and computer technology and hire additional job counselors to help students with their resumés and interviewing skills."
WORDS: 470 TIME: 00:30:00 DATE: 2008-10-13 19:29:15

The author of this argument claims that Mira Vista College should also take the similar methods in Green Mountain College, which can help Mira Vista's graduates to find a job. To justify this claim the arguer cites a survey in graduates of Mira Vista that only 70 percents find jobs in their major. A careless analyzer may consider this excerpt convincing and plausible; nevertheless, I find it contains several logical flaws in critical respects.

To begin with, the author's conclusion is based on the research of the seniors who informed the college. Without informing how many students informed, the arguer is hasty to draw the conclusion that Mira Vista's graduates cannot find jobs as good as those in Green Mountain College. Moreover, half of the graduates did not find jobs relative to their majors in college did not necessarily indicate that their job is disappointing. In a society which developed as fast as ours, it is very common that graduates take jobs other than their major. Thus, in face of such limited evidence, it is fallacious for the speaker to generalize any claim at all, let alone a persuasive statement.

Additionally, even I concede that Mira Vista's graduates cannot find decent jobs like their counterparts do; the logic of this argument- which seems to be sound- is still open is doubt. The argument relies on the unwarranted assumption that good jobs of Green Mountain College's graduates were attributable to business courses and job counselors. It is equally possible that other factors were instead reasons for finding a good job. Perhaps students in Green Mountain College got higher average grades so that their employees consider that they are more equipped with basic knowledge. Without ruling out such possibilities, the author cannot justify the claim that

Finally, even if Green Mountain College graduates really benefited from the business courses and job counselors, it is necessary to point out another flaw that undermines the argument. The analogy between Mira Vista College and Green Mountain College is highly suspicious because the author failed to account for possible differences between these two colleges. Perhaps Green Mountain College's main majors are economics, business management, finance, etc. Students can take advantage of relative courses and job counselors. Meanwhile, students in Mira Vista learn theoretical disciplines such as mathematics, physics, and statistics. As a result, the mere method to offer business courses and job counselors can help little.

To sum up, the author's conclusion about how to improve students' finding jobs is not well reasoned. To bolster his or her argument, the speaker is expected to provide more information which can show that Mira Vista College really suffered from an employing problem. Furthermore, to make it logically acceptable, the arguer should also demonstrate that the method in Green Mountain College can be applied to Mira Vista as well.