HarishO

The following appeared in a memo from the director of student housing at Buckingham College. "To serve the housing needs of our students, Buckingham College should build a number of new dormitories. Buckingham's enrollment is growing and, based on current trends, will double over the next 50 years, thus making existing dormitory space inadequate. Moreover, the average rent for an apartment in our town has risen in recent years. Consequently, students will find it increasingly difficult to afford off-campus housing. Finally, attractive new dormitories would make prospective students more likely to enroll at Buckingham." Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument. The argument from the director of student housing concludes that new dormitories are to be built to serve the housing needs of their students. He bases his argument on the following evidence: growth in enrollment and rising rents of the apartments in the town. Though the argument has merit, due to lack of evidence and weak assumptions the argument seems unsubstantiated and fallacious. It has been assumed that based on current trends, enrollment will double over the next 50 years. However, no insights has been provided into the trends that have been considered. Making an assumption on the rise in the number of students over the next 50 years seems a bit premature. For example, there might be a new college with better ameneties that might come up in the neighbourhood. Current economic trends might play a role in more number of people pursuing their education. However, if there is a downfall in the economy, people might go back to their jobs. Hence, more evidence has to be provided, as to how it has been assumed that the enrollment will double over the next fifty years. The director states that there has been an increase in the average rent for an apartment over the recent years. However, he has not stated if there has been an increase in the lodging costs of his own dormitories. Ubiquitous price rise might also result in the increase in the hostel/ dormitory fee. Hence, if the increase in the hostel fee is more than the increase in the rent of the apartments, the argument falls apart. The director has only spoken about the rise in the rents of the apartments, overlooking the fact that there might be other means of housing available in the town. For example, private dormitories and hostels might spring up outside the college, thus providing attractive options for housing. Some students might also prefer staying in the town, irrespective of the rise in the rents. The town center which is bustling with energy and fervor might be a more attractive option for young student as compared to the mellow college campus. Hence, taking all the above paragraphs into consideration, we can observe that the argument of the director seems implausible and more evidence has to be provided in order to support his claims.

Arctic deer live on islands in Canada's arctic regions. They search for food by moving over ice from island to island during the course of the 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 hunters, the deer populations are declining. Since these reports coincide with recent global warming trends that have caused the sea ice to melt, we can conclude that the purported decline in deer populations is the result of the deer's being unable to follow their age-old migration patterns across the frozen sea. Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument. The aforementioned argument reports that the deer population has been decreasing at an alarming rate. This decrease is attributed to the global warming trends that has caused the sea ice to melt. The melting of sea ice has hampered the ability of the deer to migrate from one island to another which has resulted in the dwindling of deer population. Though the argument certainly has some merit, due to lack of evidence and weak assumptions,the argument seems substantially flawed and fallacious. It has been assumed that local hunters can provide an accurate guess of the deer population, however,the author need to be wary of the fact that people can make wrong judegements of numbers. There have been innumerable cases when the exit polls have provided the opposite outcome of the elections. Taking this into account, further evidence has to be provided regarding the dwindling of the deer population. The argument wouldbe strengthened if further evidence is provided regarding the reduction of deer population Once the reduction in the deer population had been stated, it has been assumed that the decline is due to the inability of the deer to migrate from one islands to another, since the ice connecting the two islands has now melted. This assumption seems to be a bit premature as, there could have been a number of reasons that could have caused the decline in the deer population. A calamitous event could have caused a number of deer to die. A tsunami, earthquake, an epidemic or a volcano are some of the events that could have catastrophic consequences and any proof of such events can weaken the argument. Human intervention could be another major reaoson for the decline in the deer population. Relentless hunting, polluting the deer habitat and indiscriminate killing of plants are some of the ways in which humans can contribute to the reduction of deer. Another way in which humans might be indirectly responsible for endangering the deer would be to introduce an animal into the deer's habitat. The animal can be a predator of the deer or an animal that competes with the deer for food. Hence, human intervention can cause the deer population to abate and any such evidence of human intervention can weaken the argument. Hence, the argument makes a number of unstated assumptions that seriously undermine its plausibility. Unless, evidence is provided for these assumptions, the hypothesis stated regarding the dwindling deer population would not hold true.

Hello Rapha, Thnx a lot for your review. Can you please try to grade my other essay? Kind Regards

Topic: The following appeared in an article written by Dr. Karp, an anthropologist "Twenty eyars ago, Dr. Field, a noted anthropologist, visited the island of Tertia and concluded from his observaation that children in Tertia were reared by an entire village rather than by their own boilogical parents. However, my recent interviews with children living in the group of island that includes Tertia show that these children spend much more time talking about theri biological parents than about other adults in the village. this research of mine proves that Dr. field's conclusion about Tertian village culture is invalid and thus that the ovservation--centered approach to studying cultures is invalid as well. the interview-centered method that my team of graduate students is currently using in Tertia will establish a much more accurte understanding of child-rearing traditions there and in other island cultures." Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argyment and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument. The article written by Dr. Karp, an anthropologist, claims that the observation-centered approach of studying cultures is invalid. However, the interview-centered method of his team of graduate students will establish a more accurate understanding of child-rearing traditions there and in other island cultures. He bases his claims, after observing that the children of Tertia when interviewed talk much more about their biological parents than about the other adults in the village. However, from prior observation from Dr. Field, a noted anthropologist, it was concluded that the children in Tertia were reared by an entire village rather than by their own biological parents. Though, the argument made in the passage looks plausible, there are several underlying assumptions being made and there has to be some more evidence, before we can conclude about the veracity of the claims being made. Firstly, Dr. Karp, didn't talk about the number of children being interviewed. We do not know if the number of children being interviewed by Dr. Karp and his team constitute the majority of the children of Tertia, or a very minute group. There should also be evidence provided with respect to the diversity of the group: age, sex and caste of the children could play a major role in their upbringing. For example, children who are younger might spend more time with their families. Likewise, girls might spend more time in their houses with their parents than boys would have to go out and learn activities like hunting and wood-cutting with the people of the village. Furthermore, the ruler caste might rear their children all by themselves than other castes. Hence, evidence has to be provided on the demographics of the children interviewed. Secondly, some information on the questions being asked is also required since particular questions might prompt the children to answer more about their parents than about the other adults in the village. For example, if a question has been asked with respect to what they do after dark, the children might answer that they would go back home and spend time with their families and sleep besides their parents. However, if a question had been asked about what they do in the morning, the children would answer more on how they learn activities like singing or hunting and fighting with other adults, barring their families. Hence, evidence should be provided on the questions asked while interviewing the children. Hence, the evidences mentioned above play a crucial role in verifying the authenticity of the statements made in the article by Dr. Karp.

Issue Topic: The best way to teach is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones. A teacher is someone who imbibes positive values and knowledge in a person. I believe, this can be accomplished only through positive words and demeanor. Hence, i would like to start my passage by saying that positive feedback goes a long way in teaching a person. Firstly, when you say praise a person for his positive actions, you will find that he or she will be more cheerful the whole day, than a person who has been reprimanded for doing something wrong. I can recall from my personal experience that, when i have been praised at my workplace i would start working in a much more positive manner than, when i had been castigated. Additionally, the positive environment that is created when someone is praised rubs of on his or her peers and urges them to do things in a better way. Hence, the spirit of the whole group is lifted. The person who has been praised for doing something good will in turn shower praise on another person and this will create a chain effect and will bring about happiness everywhere. However, a person who has been reprimanded, is more likely to find fault in another person and thus it spreads gloom. Secondly, when a person is praised, there are more likely chances that he will respond more positively towards you, than a person who has his mistakes pointed out continuously. In this regards, i remember an experiment conducted by a botanist on a couple of plants. The botanist gives both plants the same sunlight, water and other resources, but instead continuously says good things to one plant, whereas, he abuses the other. The final result shows that the plant showered with praise is more likely to grow more than the other. The people who receive praise are more receptive towards you. Additionally, when we praise a person for doing something good, it is more likely that we can get him to repeat the same action: the action will more likely get imbibed in his mind. On the other hand, it is often difficult to correct the mistakes committed by someone by just reprimanding him. You can also make a person incorrigible by continuously pointing out his mistakes: he can be lead into thinking that the teacher will reprimand no matter what he does, so why not, just do the wrong thing. However, if we keep on praising a person and never correct any of his mistakes, he will develop a smug attitude. He will be forced into thinking that whatever he does would be right and he can be lead astray. Hence, someone who teaches should carefully balance praising good actions and pointing out the bad one's. The teacher should leer towards praising his or her student but once in a while point out when someone does something egregious.

The Central Plaza shop owner has written a letter to the editor telling him about his grievances. He says that the number of shoppers has been steadily decreasing. He further mentions about the shop owners concern, that the skateboarding fraternity is responsible for the drop in their businesses. Furthermore, he mentions that the amount of litter and vandalism has increased, and he recommends the city to prohibit skateboarding. Before, we look into the plausibility of his statement, we need to ask a few questions that is going to bring more clarity to this issue. Firstly, has there been an increase in the number of shopping malls in the vicinity? If any new shopping malls in the vicinity have sprung up, this is going to result in a lot of previous customers visiting the new malls. Since people are always looking for a change, the might prefer going to the newer shops and malls. Also, the newer shopping malls could have a better ambiance with modern facilities. The newer shopping malls could appeal more to the younger generation which constitutes a major portion of the shoppers. Secondly, the shoppers might have not been satisfied with Central Plaza. Central Plaza store owners might have increased the prices of goods exorbitantly and this may have discouraged shoppers. The quality of the goods might also be a concern with the shoppers. Also, bad behavior from the staff is a major put off to any customer. Hence, a feedback from the old customers of the Central Plaza must be taken. Lastly, the economic conditions in general might be discouraging the public from shopping. Layoffs, inflation and increase in the price of commodities like water, electricity, etc might be some of the reasons why people are not shopping as much as they used to. Hence, keeping all these factors in mind, one cannot accuse the skateboarding fraternity of the reduction in shoppers at Central Plaza.

Hi, your essay is very interesting to read. Your language is good and there are no grammatical mistakes. However, the question states one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument? Shouldn't you be stating explanations that argue for the facts in the argument rather than against them? PS: I also need clarification on how to answer the question. I am not too clear myself. Do check out my response to this question over here http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gre-analysis-argument/148909-rhesus-monkey-evaluation.html

The passage discusses about a recent study regarding the effect of birth order on an individual's levels of stimulation. It claims that first born infant monkeys produce up to twice as much of the hormone cortisol as do their younger siblings. The similar is also the case with firstborn humans. It finally concludes by saying that the first-time mother monkeys also had higher levels of cortisol than those who had given birth to many. An alternative explanation to the above mentioned claim could be that, the presence of elder sibling(s) could provide an alleviating effect to the younger one's. For example, during an encounter with an unfamiliar monkey, a first born monkey would be much more agitated than a monkey with siblings. Similarly, in humans the care and affection shown by elder siblings on the younger one's definitely makes life easier for them. However, all the situations that a firstborn faces, would be devoid of guidance from siblings, hence it has to be much more alert and active during stimulating situations. Another plausible explanation could be that the amount of cortisol present in the mother of the offspring could play a major role in the cortisol levels of the offspring. Furthermore, age of the animal could play a role in the amount of cortisol produced. Hence as the mother grows older, the cortisol levels in its body could drop and this could have a direct impact on the cortisol levels of its offspring. In conclusion, i would like to state that all of the above mentioned theories could support what the passage claims. Hence, more evidence should be provided by the author so as to make the passage foolproof.