Please rate - Parents, if you need a summer camp for your children
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19 Feb 2017, 05:08
The following appeared as part of an article reviewing summer camps for children.
Parents, if you need a summer camp for your children look no further than Federville Farms. In a recent survey, Federville Farms ranked first in both overall camper satisfaction and in food quality, and second in the variety of outdoor activities. Federville Farms has been family owned and operated for over forty years, so you have nothing to worry about when it comes to your child's safety, and it employs more Red Cross certified lifeguards than any other camp in the state. If you seek the best camp experience for your children, Federville Farms is the best choice you can make.
Discuss how well reasoned ...
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The author of the article on summer camps for children has claimed that parents should choose Federville Farms for their children. However, the author presents a poorly reasoned argument which is based on several questionable assumptions and unsubstantiated premises
First, the argument claims that Federville Farms does well on the parameter of child's safety. In establishing this claim, the author assumes that there is a link between the type of ownership of a summer camp and the safety of children. However, the author does not justify this assumption by presenting any supporting evidence. If the author had cited any studies or researches that support that family owned camps do generally better than other types of camps, then the claim would have been strengthened. The argument also bases its claim about the children's safety on the premise that it has operated for over forty years. But this is a weak premise without any additional information, for instance, the author does not tell us how many incidents related to children's safety have happened in this time frame. If the number of negative incidents are greater than average for the same duration than are in other camps, then the camp would not be doing very well on the parameter of child's safety. Also, it would help to know if there are any other camps who have operated for at least 40 years, who have a better record in terms of children's safety
Second, the argument also uses the fact that the camp employs the most Red Cross certified lifeguards to support that parents should choose this camp over others. But, the argument does not offer any data on how many such lifeguards are actually required in such a camp. If other camps employ enough lifeguards to cater to the number of children that visit them, then any additional lifeguards that the camp employs would not provide it an edge over other camps.
Finally, it is unclear whether the survey that the article mentioned is a good supporting indicator. We have no information on who took the survey, how many participants were part of the survey, etc. Without this information, the survey does little to support the author’s claim.
In summary, the argument is flawed for the aforementioned reasons, and is, therefore, unconvincing. If the author had included the items discussed above, the argument would have been more thorough and sound.