Dear all,

Would you rate my first attempt of Argument practise?

"When Marion Park first opened, it was the largest, most popular park in town. While it is still the largest park, it is no longer as popular as it once was. Recently collected statistics reveal the park's drop in popularity: About 45 cars per day enter the park. On the other hand, tiny Midtown Park in the center of downtown is visited by more than 125 people on a typical weekday. one obvious difference is that Midtown Park, unlike Marion Park, can utilize parking spaces along Main Street and along various side streets. Therefore, if Marion Park is to regain its popularity, the town council will obviously need to approve funding for additional parking."


Critique the reasoning used in the argument above. You are not being asked to discuss your point of view on the argument. You should identify and analyze the central elements of the argument, the underlying assumptions that are being made, and any supporting information that is given. Your critique can also discuss other information that would strengthen or weaken the argument or make it more logical.

The argument claims that lacking of parking space is the main reason that causes Marion Park loosing its popularity, compared to Midtown Park. However, the survey based on number of cars entering the park and the comparison shown based on assumption of parking spaces available do not provide cogent supports to the argument.

The survey do not provide number of parking lots currently available in Marion Park. It is possible that Marion Park has more parking spaces compare to Midtown Park. In such case, there could be possible another reasons that causes the drop of popularity of Marion Park, such as lack of landscape and facilities maintenance in the park, security incidence etc. No statistics or additional elaboration of such parameters is given other than plain data based on number of cars entering the park per day.

While it is known that Midtown Park is located at the center of downtown, location of Marion Park is unknown. Therefore, we could not assure if there are available land for additional parking around Marion Park. In such case, the geographic location of Marion Park should be provided in order to support for funding request.

Moreover, while it's claimed that parking spaces along Main Street or side streets around Midtown park can be used by visitors, there is no statistics result those parking are used by park visitors. Since Midtown park is in downtown, the parking spaces would most likely being used by visitors to nearby shops, instead of the park. It could be possible that most visitors takes train or bicycle to Midtown park, instead of by car, since it's located in the downtown center. Thus, additional parking may not be a reason that Midtown Park gain popularity over Marion Park.

It seems transportation issue is a focus for local people to access a park. Since midtown is nearer to downtown, it is also possible that citizen visits Midtown park after work during week day. In such case, the claim of lack of parking in Marion Park reduce its visitor is weak.

As a conclusion, more in-depth survey and investigation result is necessary to identify the reason of Marion Park loosing its popularity amongst local communityt . If investigation result shows that parking is the main issue, then additional funding shall be provided by the town council. However, if it is not, the funding should be allocated to resolve the root cause.