The following appeared as part of advertisement for Adams, who is seeking reelection as governor
"Reelect Adams , and you will be voting for proven leadership in improving the state's economy. Over the past year alone, 70 percent of the state's workers have had increases in their wages , 5000 new jobs have been created, and six corporations have located their headquearters here. Most of the respondents in a recent poll said they believed that the economy is likely to continue to improve if Adams is reelcted. Adams's oponent , Zebulon, would lead our state in the wrong direction, because Zebulon disagrees with many of Adams's economic policies."
Discuss how well reasoned....etc.
My Reply:-
The author concludes that Adams is a good choice for the position of Governor because Adam's policy has contributed to increase in wages of workers and more new jobs created.Since Zebulon disagees with many of Adam's economic policy , he would lead the state in wrong direction. However, the conclusion relies on several assumptions which have no clear evidence.
Firstly, the author assumes that the creation of new jobs, increase in wages are only because of Adams's economic policy. In fact, there could be many other factors which lead to creation of more jobs and increment in wages of workers.Even after this improved situation in state's economy , the question which author fails to answer is : Is this sufficient? It might be possible that the economic conditions were worse in past and it didnt improve much due to Adams's economic policy.The author also didnt say anything about the policy adopted by Zebulon. It's possible that Zebulon's policy would yield better results in the improvement of economic conditions which would have otherwise been limited due to less effective policies adopted by Adams.The augument would be strenghtened if the author provided evidence that Zebulon's economic policy would result in poor advancement as compared to Adams's policy.
In additon, the author assumes that the respondents in a recent poll favoring Adams's reelection are true picture of entire population of the state. In fact the author doesn't mention whether or not the respondents of recent poll are the people who are educated and aware of the economic policies of both Adams and Zebulon. It might be possible that the respondents are Adams's supporters or friends and they are in favor of Adam's reelection because of their own vested interests.The argument would be strenghtened considerably if the author provided evidence that the respondents in survey are the people who are not biased, have state's economic interest as priority and they reflect the true sample of entire state' populations.
Finally, the author assumes that even after reelection Adams would contribute to the improvement of economic condition of state.The author provides no evidence to indiacte that this is the case.As the argument stands its highly possible that the economic condition is at its best at present and Adams's policy which Zebulon is opposing wont be effective in further improvement .Only if the suthor provides evidence that Adams's policy would lead the state to more better advancement - does the argument hold.
Because the argument leaves out several key issue, it is not persuasive.If the author included the argument above , it would have been more convincing.