Argument 9

TOPIC: ARGUMENT9 - The following appeared in a memorandum from a dean at Omega University.
"Fifteen years ago, Omega University implemented a new procedure that encouraged students to evaluate the teaching effectiveness of all their professors. Since that time, Omega professors have begun to assign higher grades in their classes, and overall student grade averages at Omega have risen by thirty percent. Potential employers apparently believe the grades at Omega are inflated; this would explain why Omega graduates have not been as successful at getting jobs as have graduates from nearby Alpha University. To enable its graduates to secure better jobs, Omega University should now terminate student evaluation of professors."
WORDS: 497 TIME: 00:30:00 DATE: 2011/2/12 20:56:43
In the memorandum, the author suggests that Omega University (OU) terminate students evaluation of professors to enable its graduates to secure better jobs. To support his suggestion, the author cites the fact that since the start of students evaluating procedure fifteen years ago, the overall grades of students at OU has increased by 30 percent which, in the author view, enhances the perception for employers that graduates from OU are not well prepared for work, which possible lead to their less successful at getting jobs as their nearby Alpha University. The argument is flawed in its reasoning for several reasons.
First of all, the author unfairly assumes that it is the implementation of the students' evaluation on their professors that results in the increasing grades during the past fifteen years. However, no evidence is provided to prove that such is the case. The author might have overlooked a myriad of other explanations for the increasing grades such as the higher admission standard, the better investigation in enhancing the teaching quality, and the effective teaching methods in helping students critical thinking. For either matter, the assumption that it is the evaluation procedure that enhances the grades would be undermined.
Secondly, the author unsubstantiated builds a causal relationship between the possible grades inflation with their graduates' comparatively unsuccessful procedure in job finding. However, many other possible reasons have been neglected by the author. Perhaps, it is the lack of job counseling, rather than the grades inflation that leads to their low success rate in finding job. It is also possible that the graduates from Alpha University are major in fields that have more
needs in the society in recent years. Without considering and ruling out all these possible explanations, the assumption that it is the grades inflation that results in the difficulties for their graduates in finding jobs would not be convincing.
Thirdly, even if all the foregoing assumptions are true as the author expected, the argument fails to convince me that the suggested measures of terminating student evaluation of professors would suffice to ensure better jobs. Common sense tells us there are many reasons such as the ability to deal with difficulties and the ability to cooperate with workmates that influence a manager to determine whether to hire a graduate besides grades. For that matter, even though the termination of evaluation procedure can enhance the reliability of their scores, their shortcomings in other fields might still be the restriction in their job finding process. Besides, had the procedure been terminated, the benefits result from which might be lost.
To conclude, the argument is poorly presented and fails to convince. To bolster it, the author must provide more grounded evidence to prove that it is the evaluation procedure that results in the increasing grads, thus leading to the low rate of being employment. Besides, more information should be provided to prove that the termination of the evaluation procedure would suffice to ensure the graduates to find better jobs.。