Argument 233

TOPIC: ARGUMENT233 - The following appeared in a memo from the vice president of a company that builds shopping malls throughout the country.
"The surface of a section of Route 101, paved two years ago by McAdam Road Builders, is now badly cracked and marred by dangerous potholes. In another part of the state, a section of Route 66, paved by Appian Roadways more than four years ago, is still in good condition. Appian Roadways has recently purchased state-of-the-art paving machinery, and it has hired a new quality-control manager. Because of its superior work and commitment to quality, we should contract with Appian Roadways rather than McAdam Road Builders to construct the access roads for all our new shopping malls."

WORDS: 421 TIME: 00:30:00 DATE: 2008-4-3 19:42:45

In this argument, the verdict is that Appian Roadways should be hired to construct the access roads for all new shopping malls, instead of McAdam Road. To support this conclusion, the speaker compares a section of Route 101 which is now severely damaged and paved by McAdam with a section of Route 66 which is still in good condition and paved by Appian Roadways. Besides, the fact that Appian has employed a new quality-control manager, which is considered as a great effort to guarantee quality, by the arguer. However, close scrutiny of evidence unveils that this statement actually suffers from several critical blemishes, as discussed below.

To begin with, albeit road built two years ago by McAdam is worse than the condition of Route 66 built by Appian more than four years ago, it does not imply McAdam's work is worse than Appian's. Since the speaker fails to mention how heavy the traffic in these two roads, it is quite probable that a myriad of people, bicycles, automobiles use Route 101 while nearly no one go on Route 66. Therefore, it is the heavy traffic that causes the bad situation of Route 11 rather than a low level of quality.

Secondly, whether the new paving machinery purchased by Roadways will be used in next engineer is unknown. Maybe this action just ironically demonstrates that current paving machinery owned by Roadways is out of date. Moreover, no evidence is given by the speaker to prove that staffers in Roadways are already skilled in operating this new machinery. Their workers may need a large amount of time to master utilizing the new machinery, which may decrease the efficiency of Roadways.

Thirdly, the reason why Roadways signs with a new quality-control manager is also left untended in this statement. In any event, it is quite possible that the former manager was not competent in his or her position, and had constructed some roads that turned out to be bad works. Therefore, the quality constructed by McAdam Road Builders can not satisfy the needs of clientele in effect.

In summary, this statement indeed suffers from a few vital fallacies as discussed above. To solidify the ultimateness, the speaker would have to manifest that traffic on Route 101 and on Route 66 is the same, and prove that the new machinery and the new quality-control manager will undoubtedly contribute to roads which can withstand extraordinary heavy automobiles. Without considering and ruling out the factors aforementioned, the speaker is too cursory to arrive at his or her conclusion.