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Analysis of Argument: The following was used as part of an internet advertising company\'s appeal to businesses: Furniture Depot employed our internet advertising company to help. Since then its sales increased by 10% over last year\'s totals. Furniture Depot\'s success demonstrates how using our internet services can increase your profitability. My Answer: While it maybe true Furniture Depot sales have increased over last year but the author's argument does not make a cogent case for usage of internet services as reason for growth in markets. While furniture depot did employ internet advertising company to help , it is not indicated by the author how many customer of furniture depot did actually used these services for their own benefit. Also if these services were used by customers, a feedback should have been taken from customer to backup the argument but clearly that's not the case here. Sales might have increased for furniture depot as compared to last year's totals, but not necessarily due to these services. Employer Furniture depot might have also used other ways for their advertisements such as billboards and newspaper ads, which might have resulted in increment of furniture sale, as the targeted audience here might not be technologically advanced to use internet. The argument could have been better if author would have mentioned some statistical data to support, as here he has only mentioned the increased percentage over last year totals, instead author could have provided the data of past few years and overall increment of same. Also to support the argument, author could have shown the feedback from various customer. Kindly grade this and provide your feedback. Thank You :)

Hi All, My GRE is scheduled on 16 Sep. For a month now, I have been working on Quants and Verbal, parking writing for the end. I started practicing my essays today and this is my first one. Would be grateful for critique and feedback. Thanks in advance! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Teachers' salaries should be based on their students' academic performance. Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Teacher remuneration has been the subject of great debate in recent years. While teaching has often been romanticized as a noble profession that creates individuals for the society, one cannot ignore the fact that teachers do not operate in vacuum – they are also constrained by the forces of the economy and they too have bills to pay. Low Levels of remunerations has also discouraged people from taking up teaching as a profession, leading to an acute shortage of faculty across all levels of education. Of the many proposals to reform the system of remuneration for teachers, one school of thought champions basing the remuneration of teachers on the academic performance of their students. Linking teachers’ salaries to the academic performance of their students will disincentivize the education system as a whole. For starters, teaching as a profession would be reduced to a commercial transaction motivated by monetary benefits. A relationship that ought to foster intellectual exchanges, cultivate scholarly aptitude and create well rounded individuals will now become a profit seeking activity. Teachers would seek to ensure the academic performance of the entire class rather than forge personal relationships and take an active interest in the overall development of their students. A second issue with this claim is the problem in measuring academic performance. We have not yet developed systems of assessment that can gauge the ability of students holistically. Standardized testing is woefully inadequate in being the yardstick of a student’s academic performance. For instance, a student who could be great at art and music may fare poorly in a standardised test and be labelled an underperformer whereas a student who aces the test may just be academically brilliant, but holistically lacking. Given this, how are we going to measure academic performance? What constitutes success is not watertight and it could be perilous for teachers to pursue such myopic and insufficient parameters in expectation of remuneration. A third problem with this proposal is that it creates a systemic incentive to commit fraud. Since a large part of the assessment process in under the control of a teacher, nothing would prevent them from resorting to unfair means to maximize their remuneration. In the light of recent cases where teachers have been caught tampering with standardised testing papers and leaking it to their students beforehand, student performance linked teachers’ pay only worsens the situation. Those who agree with the statement would argue that linking teachers’ pay to the students’ academic performance could motivate the teachers to perform better. It would also hold them accountable and fix responsibility. And such a system would also ensure equity – those who are undeserving, would be unrewarded. While the force of these arguments is strong and valid, one must keep in mind that the purpose of assessment is to identify the ability of a student to comprehend and apply concepts learned in classrooms. Converting that into a source of revenue for the teachers would only ensue in a multitude of systemic problems.