Expert's advice on rating for AWA
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21 Aug 2015, 00:20
AWA ESSAYS: Analyze Argument
ESSAY QUESTION:
The following appeared in a newspaper editorial during the holiday shopping season:
"Americans spend far too much of their time buying and consuming non-essential goods. Studies show that, on average Americans spend over a quarter of their leisure time shopping. As such, it is no secret why America is losing its competitive edge relative to other countries. Instead of spending their time productively, Americans are wasting time through frivolous consumption. In order to counteract this trend, Americans should spend more time focused on personal and communal development--by, for example, pursuing educational advancement or participating in volunteer opportunities."
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. Point out flaws in the argument's logic and analyze the argument's underlying assumptions. In addition, evaluate how supporting evidence is used and what evidence might counter the argument's conclusion. You may also discuss what additional evidence could be used to strengthen the argument or what changes would make the argument more logically sound.
YOUR RESPONSE:
The argument claims that Americans are spending too much time shopping non-essential goods and should instead invest more time on personal and communal development so that America, as a country, can maintain a competitive edge relative to other countries. The argument is ill-conceived and do not consider all relevant factors necessary for the conclusion to be sound and established.
First, the argument cites studies which are conducted to show that average Americans are spending over a quarter of their leisure time shopping to support the conclusion that Americans are spending too much time buying and consuming non-essential goods. The argument is flawed as there is no apparent link between shopping and purchasing non-essential goods. Shopping is a form of activity whereby a person purchases goods for her own usage or as a gift to others and includes the purchase of groceries, which is essential for daily intake of food. Therefore, the author's use of the study as an evidence to support the conclusion is weak and illogical. Furthermore, the author did not cite any support to show that one quarter of a person's leisure time is considered as 'too much' as a comparison to citizens of other well developed countries is not drawn.
Secondly, the author fails to draw the correlation between productivity and time spent on a certain activity. For example, an efficient worker can spend half the time in accomplishing a certain task than an inefficient worker and hence, the time spent on a certain task does not necessarily translate to productivity. Therefore, the author makes a sweeping statement that as the average Americans are spending more time on shopping and hence less time on other activities such as activities that enrich their personal and communal development, they are less productive on those activities.
Next, the author fails to draw evidence to support that America is losing competitive edge to other countries as a result of more time spent on shopping instead of other 'productive' activities. If the author is able to produce studies of the other countries' time spent on shopping vis-a-vis their GDP as an indicator of their economy's health index, the argument will be more convincing and less open to debate.
Lastly, it is a far sweeping statement to state that shopping is a frivolous consumption of time. Shopping typically stimulates the economy's growth with more people spending their money and this generally translates to a better GDP and will therefore lead to the creation of more jobs. Hence, while it is true that time should be spent on personal and communal development to enrich oneself and help others, shopping is definitely not an activity that is 'useless' and 'unwanted' as it is symbolic of a country's economic wealth.
In conclusion, the argument posed by the author is flawed and unsubstantiated. The author needs to factor in more evidence to support his viewpoint and provide valid studies or research that will add value to the argument. If the points mentioned above are not addressed, the argument will still be unconvincing and open to debate.