|
|
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.
Customized
for You
Track
Your Progress
Practice
Pays
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
fabricioka
Joined: 18 Jul 2015
Last visit: 10 Dec 2018
Posts: 30
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 33
Location: Brazil
Concentration: General Management, Strategy
Schools: Duke '19 (WL) Tuck '19 (D) Yale '19 (D) Ross '19 (D) Johnson '19 (M) Darden '19 (WL) Kellogg '19 (D)
GMAT 1: 640 Q39 V38
GMAT 2: 700 Q47 V38
Schools: Duke '19 (WL) Tuck '19 (D) Yale '19 (D) Ross '19 (D) Johnson '19 (M) Darden '19 (WL) Kellogg '19 (D)
GMAT 2: 700 Q47 V38
Posts: 30
Kudos:
29
20 Nov 2015, 09:18
Kudos
Bookmarks
Essay Question
The following appeared in the editorial section of a corporate newsletter:
“The common notion that workers are generally apathetic about management issues is false, or at least outdated: a recently published survey indicates that 79 percent of the nearly 1,200 workers who responded to survey questionnaires expressed a high level of interest in the topics of corporate restructuring and redesign of benefits programs.”
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.
ESSAY
Thank you so much!
The following appeared in the editorial section of a corporate newsletter:
“The common notion that workers are generally apathetic about management issues is false, or at least outdated: a recently published survey indicates that 79 percent of the nearly 1,200 workers who responded to survey questionnaires expressed a high level of interest in the topics of corporate restructuring and redesign of benefits programs.”
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.
ESSAY
The argument claims that the common notion of workers are generally apathetic about management issues is a false allegation. The conclusion is based with answers from nearly 1,200 workers who expressed a high level of interest in corporate restructuring and redesign of benefits programs. Stated in this way, the argument conveys a distorted view of the situation and fails to mention several key factors, on the basis of which could be evaluated. The conclusion of the argument relies on assumptions for which there is no clear evidence. Hence, the argument is weak and has two major flaws.
Initially, the author readily assumes that the survey results are sufficient to represent all workers in the industry, which we know nothing about. The statement is problematic because it is not possible to determine if 1,200 workers is a good representation for the survey to be convincing. For example: maybe the number of people surveyed represents only 1% of the workers mentioned to be apathetic about management issues. Clearly, the author fails to provide strong information about the target of the survey. The argument could have been much clearer if it stated more information regarding the workers.
Secondly, the argument claims that corporate restructuring and redesign of benefits programs are topics that express a non-apathetic position from workers about management issues. This is again a very weak and unsupported claim as the argument does not demonstrate why theses specific topics provide such evidence. Maybe there is another topic that shows a non-apathetic position from workers. Why this topic was not mentioned in the argument? If the argument had provided evidence that the topics from the survey are strong to support the conclusion, then the argument would have been more convincing.
Finally, two questions can be raised: First. How do we know if 1,200 workers are a good representation of the workers? Second. How can we know that the topics used in the survey really express a change in apathetic workers?
To conclude, the argument is flawed for the above-mentioned reasons and therefore is unconvincing. In order to have the merits of a certain decision, the argument should have provided us with the information mentioned above, especially about the workers and the topics used in the survey. Without this information the argument remains weak and open to debate.
Initially, the author readily assumes that the survey results are sufficient to represent all workers in the industry, which we know nothing about. The statement is problematic because it is not possible to determine if 1,200 workers is a good representation for the survey to be convincing. For example: maybe the number of people surveyed represents only 1% of the workers mentioned to be apathetic about management issues. Clearly, the author fails to provide strong information about the target of the survey. The argument could have been much clearer if it stated more information regarding the workers.
Secondly, the argument claims that corporate restructuring and redesign of benefits programs are topics that express a non-apathetic position from workers about management issues. This is again a very weak and unsupported claim as the argument does not demonstrate why theses specific topics provide such evidence. Maybe there is another topic that shows a non-apathetic position from workers. Why this topic was not mentioned in the argument? If the argument had provided evidence that the topics from the survey are strong to support the conclusion, then the argument would have been more convincing.
Finally, two questions can be raised: First. How do we know if 1,200 workers are a good representation of the workers? Second. How can we know that the topics used in the survey really express a change in apathetic workers?
To conclude, the argument is flawed for the above-mentioned reasons and therefore is unconvincing. In order to have the merits of a certain decision, the argument should have provided us with the information mentioned above, especially about the workers and the topics used in the survey. Without this information the argument remains weak and open to debate.
Thank you so much!
Moderators:
188 posts
