Please rate argument about reading habits of Leeville citizens

[ZionGirl]

The evidence in support of the conclusion, that the respondents in the first study had misrepresented their reading habits, is not cogent enough as it fails to consider some crucial assumptions. The argument is weakened by the lack of information and the vague terminology used. Thus the evidence give has to be analysed from different other angles. The following essay will explain the flaws in the argument.

Since from the first reading one may ask: why the author conclusion is only based on the most frequently checked out book from the library? Did he not consider any other options? Maybe the readers have bought the books or maybe they are reading them online. Maybe there is a shortage of classic literature books in the libraries . Further there is no evidence regarding how well equipped are the libraries and on what sample population did they do the study. Maybe the ones that frequent the library are mostly student among which mystery novels are very popular and the one that prefers classic literature are the one that have the possibility to buy the books. In addition, responded may choose to order the books online and this does not mean that they have misrepresented their reading habits. Fail to clearly identify the real cause creates flaws in the argument.

Furthermore, it can be observed that there are not given any real data such as the size of sample population, their background, age and so on. The author uses just a vague terminology : ‘’most respondents’’ which make the reader confused. Most responded can mean 90 from 100 or can mean 18 from 20. In addition it mention that ‘’a follow up study’’ concluded that the most frequently book is about mystery novels. However, it does not say what kind of study, maybe the study was intended to answer another research question and not the one about reading habits. Thus, the authors should not conclude immediately that respondents have misrepresented their reading habits but maybe researchers did not administered the study well.


In conclusion, it can be clearly seen that without the information mentioned above the argument is not compelling enough.


Thank you!