nutan606 Posted October 27, 2004 Share Posted October 27, 2004 The following appeared as an editorial in a wildlife journal, "Arctic deer live on islands in CAnada's arctic region. They search for food by moving over ice from island to island during the course of a year. Their habitat is limited to areas warm enough to sustain the plants on which they feed, and cold enough, at least some of the year, for the ice to cover the sea separating the islands, allowing the deer to travel over it. Unfortunately, according to reports from local hunteres, the deer populations are declining. Since these reports concide with recent global warming trends that have caused the sea ice to melt, we can conclude that the declind in arctic deer populations is the result of deer being unable to follow their age old migration patterns across the frozen sea." --------------- The editorial concludes that the Arctic deer population is declining and the decline is the result of the global warming. Though the conclusions of the editor might be right the argument by itself does not warrant such conclusions and that for good reasons. Firstly, the very idea that the deer population is decreasing is not substantiated. Editor has based his conclusion on the local hunters of which nothing additional has been indicated in the argument. Were they two hunters that a local agency gathered in a news conference so that parliament would sanction a budget for wild life conversation for that locality? If yes, then it is no point believing on it. Even if not so, probably the hunters said so because they saw less of the deers which might have deserted the region in which hunters hunted and probably they are growing in number in new location. Moreover, the fact that the temperature has risen suggests to the contrary as the increased global temperature would result in more plants which would in turn result increased population. Secondly, the author has ascribed the decrease in the deer population, even if we assume that it has actually decrease, to the global warming because the decline in the deer population coincides with the global warming without any evidence. Is global warming the only possible reason for the decline in the deer population? Probably not. Probably it is the result of over hunting. The pollution is increasing and the pollution has caused many plant species to be extinct and the growth of many has been found to slow down. It might be that the grass on which the deer fed has been severely affected by the pollutants leaving less of food for the deers. Thus the editorial suffers from two serous problems which make it unconvincing. To make the argument more forceful the author needs to provide evidence that the number of deers has actually decreased by citing some reliable authority or some recent reliable study of the deers. Similarly, he should also provide evidences or reasons that eliminate other probable reasons behind the declining number of the deers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jyoti Posted October 27, 2004 Share Posted October 27, 2004 Dear Nutan. inYour argument analysis you have mentioned two hunters but the author does not mention that. It would be wrong to mention things on our own. "Were they two hunters that a local agency gathered in a news conference so that parliament would sanction a budget for wild life conversation for that locality? If yes, then it is no point believing on it" try to elaborate a bit. here is my attempt on the same topic please give your comments The author has based his decision upon certain assumptions which may sound true initially, but after detailed analysis of the authors arguments it becomes very clear that his decision is based on fallacious assumptions. The author is trying to say that Arctic deer population is declining because they are unable to follow their age old migration pattern across the frozen arctic in search of food and conducive environment . Authors decision is based on the assumption that the dwindling of deers population coincides with the report which mentions global warming trends that have caused the sea ice to melt therefore, deer population is not able to migrate to different islands Firstly, authors says that local hunters have reported that population of deers is decreasing. It is very much possible that deerss can now discern the presence of hunters and protect themselves by hiding at different places therefore, this contention of author weakens the statement. It is quite possible that have become resistant to much colder temperature as compared to earlier time and have fled to those regions of arctic. Secondly, It is possible that deers have migrated to some other region where they can find suitable climate and plants for food. The author no where mentions if those deers who have migrated to the other regions returned to the arctic region. Thirdly, The author has mentioned about the presence of hunters in that area. Hunters can be one of the reasons of reduction in deer population merely coinciding of the global warming report and dwindling of deer population cannot confirm the reason of decline of deer population. It is possible that the effect of global warming is very minimal in arctic region and it did not cause the ice to melt. Therefore the decline of deer population cannot be attributed to melting of sea ice. Therefore, The deer population may not have actually decreased as assumed by the author. The statement that local hunter have reported decrease in deer population is fallacious. There should be proper data about the number of deer population in that area. IT is possible that the deer population may have decreased due to presence of hunters. So authors contention that mere coincidence of global warming report can be the cause decrease in deer population weakens the authors arguments. In order to prove his contention author needs to provide authentic data and search about decrease in deer population should be done by some research group instead of local hunters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nutan606 Posted October 27, 2004 Author Share Posted October 27, 2004 Hi Jyoti, Thank you for the commnet. Yes, the statement is not clear. I wanted to suggest that the hunters alluded in the argument were few and they were made to give such report by some people who perceived some benefit from the report. What about my grammar and sentence structure? I fear them the most. Regarding your essay: You missed a few possessive signs. The body paragraphs seem to miss thesis statement. I think it will be better to include them because I could not discern the contrast between the first two body paragraphs (population might have not decreased) and the last body pragraph (there may be other reasons for the decline) until I reached the conclusion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jyoti Posted October 28, 2004 Share Posted October 28, 2004 Hi nutan as far as your sentences are concerned. I think you should save enough time to read your essay after writing your essay. Coz at times with flow of thoughts we make grammaticak mistakes. in order to avoid this we need to reread the essay and reframe the sentences. Your essay did not have major grammatical mistakes . when is your exam im taking on 15 th nov how are you studying verbal and quant? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nutan606 Posted November 2, 2004 Author Share Posted November 2, 2004 Hi Jyoti, sorry I could not reply you earlier for i seem to have abandoned preparing for the argument section after posting this essay. for the exam, i had it today. for preparation, the usual way: memorized Barron's word lists, procrastinated every other thing until the end and on the exam day paniced. now, i am not going to choose the universities but the gre score is. what a tragedy! however, I wish you the best for your upcoming exam. nutan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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