AWA: Please Give Me a Score
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20 May 2018, 06:30
Guys could you please rank my AWA. Will be of great help. Thanks!
Candidate: Our city's students have suffered long enough. Over the mayor's four years in office, our district's math and science scores have hovered well below the national average, even while our average teacher's salary has increased. Our student-per-class ratio is laughable, yet he has made no progress on building a new school. He simply cannot be trusted with our children's future; if you care about education, I am the only candidate you can support.
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.
As given in the argument, the candidates standing for election is saying that he is a better choice than the other candidate who is also the current mayor because according to him, the city's students have suffered long enough. During the past four years in office, the mayor has done nothing to improve the math and science scores and they remain well below the national average. The average salary of teacher's has increased and yet there is no improvement. He also has stated that the student-to-class ratio is a lot and no new buildings have been constructed. Thus, the current mayor is not a better choice to be elected and he needs to be elected instead.
Firstly, this argument is flawed because the candidate assumes that the students have suffered long enough. As long as the students are happy in what they are doing and not complaining, the candidate, cannot assume such. He says that over the past four years, the math and science scores of the district are well below the national average but the candidate is not specifying the progress made by the students in the past four years in various other fields. It could be so that prior to the term served by the current mayor, the students were forced to study math and science but they wanted to study different subjects. The candidate fails to mention whether the current mayor has encouraged fields such as Music, Arts, Sports etc. and thus the increase in the salary of teachers as he has appointed the best teachers in their respective fields.
Secondly, the candidate mentions that the average student-per-class ratio is laughable and no new buildings are being constructed to accommodate the same. This seems flawed because the current mayor could be doing so to encourage the students to study in their own liking of other fields.
Lastly, the candidate says that the current mayor cannot be trusted with the children's future and thus, he is a better choice for being elected. The candidate fails to put light on what he would do to help build a better and brighter future for the children. All that he has said in his argument is that the current mayor is not a better choice.
In conclusion to the argument, the argument seems flawed and many assumptions have been made by the candidate standing for election against the current mayor. If the candidate could put light on the above assumptions, choosing between the two candidates would be an easier choice.